3. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS IN THE THEMATIC AREAS 3.1 Democracy and good political governance 3.1 Nigeria is endowed with a wealth of talented, varied and dynamic human resources in the political, sociocultural and economic spheres. Despite these endowments, Nigeria’s political leadership has yet to solve its democratic and political governance problems satisfactorily and to reconcile conflicting ethnoregional interests. It also faces the recurring challenge of managing the process and benefits of economic development in order to ensure the equitable distribution of wealth and growth in the country. 3.2 The country has ratified a number of major international treaties. Nonetheless, these treaties must undergo complex federal and state legislative procedures in order to become law. This is a time-consuming process. Additionally, some key treaties, which would guarantee personal freedoms for individuals, have yet to be ratified. Most Nigerians are unaware of the international conventions that have been ratified by the government, and therefore they cannot actively pursue the realisation of the various rights and freedoms guaranteed in the conventions. 3.3 Nigeria has excelled in promoting the peaceful settlement of disputes in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region. It has also helped to contain conflicts in several African countries, such as Angola, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, to name a few. Nigeria also contributed to the liberation movements that led to the independence of African countries such as Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa. In the promotion of peace and coexistence, Nigeria agreed to abide by a ruling of the International Court of Justice over a long-standing border dispute with Cameroon over the potentially oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula. 3.4 The above notwithstanding, Nigeria has been embroiled in military and intrastate conflicts. The most notable of these was the Nigerian civil war. These conflicts have partly retarded the emergence of political democracy and economic development in the country. The major causes of the intrastate conflicts include pervasive social and economic inequality, the distribution of wealth (especially of petroleum resources), religious intolerance, and political manipulation and representation. Issues of identity and ethnicity have their own dynamics and they contribute to these conflicts. In the absence of an effective early warning system, the effectiveness of conflictresolution interventions at the national and interstate levels is limited. 3.5 Civilian rule returned in 1999. Nigeria’s current constitution, the bedrock of Nigerian democracy, was promulgated in the same year. Since then, Nigeria has held three presidential and parliamentary elections in 1999, 2003 and 2007. These events helped to promote constitutional democracy in the country. However, an overconcentration of power in the central government inhibits true federalism. The excessive powers of the executive vis-à-vis the legislature and judiciary – a legacy of the long period of military 5