Nigeria does not operate a monarchy system of government. Nigeria elects a head of state and there’s no monarchy or queen that dictates or controls the government of Nigeria. However this was not always the case. Nigeria gained its independence in 1960 and between 1960 and 1963 Nigeria was actually under the monarchy of the United Kingdom in person of Queen Elizabeth II. Nigeria shared that monarchy with Australia, Canada, and of course, the United Kingdom and some certain sovereign states.
In 1963 Nigeria abolished the idea of having a monarchy in the country and does its own election. In fact, the monarchy was abolished on 1st October 1963. If there’s going to be a Queen of Nigeria, it has to be Queen Elizabeth II, but like I said, this only lasted for three years post Nigeria’s independence.
However there are kings in Nigeria, and even though at the presidential level, Nigeria does not operate a monarchy system; the towns and villages all have kings alongside elected politicians to rule. And these kings also have their own wives and the wives are queens.
This is similar across the geopolitical landscape of Nigeria. We have queens that are wives of kings and they also have some sort of constitutional duty to their community. And the power bestowed on a queen is usually equivalent to how powerful her king is.
So the more powerful a queen is, is an indication that the king is also very powerful. And there are different types of kings in Nigeria. There are some that just rule, some hamlets, some villages, and there are some that rule very huge cities. The first class kings as they are so called.
So Nigeria does not have a queen ruler at least at the federal level but they are queens that rule the smaller hamlets and villages and towns but their power doesn’t really extend as they are basically just an appendage of the king himself.
If you have more questions you can ask in the comments thank you.
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Abbey Johnson has a Masters degree as an engineer and has over 3 years of teaching and research experience. He is happiest when on a bike and is also interested in electric energy and computer Science.