In the Western world, governments are put in place for the benefit of the masses. Thus, in the formation
of government and the initiation and implementation of policies and programmes, the interests of the
masses are paramount and sacrosanct and are consequently safeguarded and protected. One cardinal
factor that has made this possible is the fact that governments, in that part of the world, are formed by
the compatibles - that is by people and parties that are united in thought, principle and ideology and are
unwavering in their commitment to adding value to human life. Conversely, in the third world,
particularly in Africa, governments are formed, in most cases, for reasons other than altruistic. Across
Africa and particularly in Nigeria, governments are formed, first and foremost, to benefit individuals,
ethnic and social groups. Since being in government is generally seen as being at the fountain-head of
wealth as well as the best form of insurance against domination by other ethnic or social groups, ethnic
groups (and by implication, political parties which, more often than not, are ethnically or regionally
based) do everything possible to control or partly control the federal government. Since Nigeria is a
multi-ethnic state with no nationally acknowledged political leader; with the exception of the present
People’s Democratic Party government, Nigeria’s federal governments had always been in the form of
alliance between political parties. In the formation of these alliances however, principle and ideology
have no place whatsoever and since ideological compatibility is what keeps alliance-governments
together, virtually all Nigeria’s alliance-governments turned out to be governments by incompatibles.
This article examines the reasons for and the consequences of the formation of one of such
governments by incompatibles in Nigeria.