Paper short abstract:

Nigeria has thousands of 'traditional authorities' that exist in a semi-formal political space, often performing a range of 'brokering' tasks between the government and the Nigerian people. This paper analyses the functions of these leaders in Nigerian governance using newspaper data.

Paper long abstract:

Nigerian traditional leaders, such as chiefs, emirs, obas, or ezes, are some of the country's most powerful political brokers. They are weakly formalised, with no recognition in Nigeria's constitution; but they are ubiquitous and enjoy widespread popularity. Many analysts agree on the importance of traditional leaders in contemporary Nigerian governance as mediators, community builders, development facilitators, or even direct service providers. Yet there is little systematic information about the specifics of their day-to-day activities. This paper presents a first analysis of the functions these brokers fulfil, based on a literature review and extensive analysis of Nigerian newspaper articles.