Government revision notes

WAEC and JAMB · SS2 and SS3 · 10 topics

Every topic below is written for the WAEC and JAMB syllabus: what you need to know, the key terms, a worked example with the steps shown, and the mistake that costs candidates the mark.

• Basic Concepts: State, Power and Legitimacy Every other topic in Government rests on these definitions, and the examiner marks them strictly: a candidate…
• Forms and Systems of Government This topic is examined in two directions at once: how power is shared between levels of government (unitary…
• Organs of Government and Separation of Powers This topic is the spine of the syllabus and appears in both sections of the paper. The examiner wants more…
• Constitutions and Nigeria's experience Constitution questions come in two halves: the general theory of types and features, and the specific run of…
• Political Parties and Pressure Groups This topic is examined almost every year, usually as a comparison between political parties and pressure…
• Elections and electoral systems Elections questions are the most predictable in the paper: the features of a free and fair election, the…
• Public service and local government This topic covers the machinery that actually delivers government, and it is examined through the functions…
• Pre-Colonial Systems and Colonial Administration This topic rewards candidates who can compare the three major pre-colonial systems structurally rather than…
• Nigeria since Independence: Republics and Rule This topic supplies the narrative spine of the Nigerian section of the syllabus, and questions usually ask…
• Foreign policy and world bodies Questions here come in two shapes: the objectives and determinants of Nigeria's foreign policy with Africa as…