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"An up-close account of how Nigerians' self-reliance in the absence of reliable government services enables official dysfunction to strengthen state powerWhen Nigerians say that every household is its own local government, what they mean is that the politicians and state institutions of Africa's richest, most populous country cannot be trusted to ensure even the most basic infrastructure needs of their people. Daniel Jordan Smith traces how innovative entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens in Nigeria have forged their own systems in response to these deficiencies, devising creative solutions in the daily struggle to survive.Drawing on his three decades of experience in Nigeria, Smith examines the many ways Nigerians across multiple social strata develop technologies, businesses, social networks, political strategies, cultural repertoires, and everyday routines to cope with the constant failure of government infrastructure. He describes how Nigerians provide for basic needs like water, electricity, transportation, security, communication, and education-and how their inventiveness comes with consequences. On the surface, it may appear that their self-reliance and sheer hustle render the state irrelevant. In reality, the state is not so much absent as complicit. Smith shows how private efforts to address infrastructural shortcomings require regular engagement with government officials, shaping the experience of citizenship and strengthening state power.Every Household Its Own Government reveals how these dealings have contributed to forms and practices of governance that thrive on official dysfunction and perpetuate the very inequalities and injustices that afflict struggling Nigerians"-- "In Nigeria, Africa's most populous and richest country in terms of per capita GDP, people say that "every household is its own local government." What they mean is that politicians and state institutions have not delivered-and cannot be trusted to ensure-even the most basic infrastructure. Nigeria is a place where, for many people, water must be purchased daily from vendors carting jerrycans filled from boreholes dug in wealthier neighbors' compounds. Small businesses rely on mini-generators for electricity because the national grid supplies power only sporadically. "Public transportation" depends mostly on networks of privately-owned buses and armies of independent motorcycle-taxi drivers. On the surface, it appears that Nigerians' self-reliance render the state irrelevant. In reality, all of these ostensibly private efforts to address infrastructural shortcomings involve regular state-society interaction. These dealings have contributed to forms and practices of state power and everyday citizenship that ironically thrive on official dysfunction and tragically perpetuate the very inequalities and injustices that struggling Nigerians most lament. This book examines the ways that Nigerians across multiple social strata have developed vibrant informal economies-businesses, social networks, political ties, cultural strategies, and daily habits-to cope with the constant failure of government-provided infrastructure. Based on years of ethnographic research-focusing in particular on the case study of Umuahia, a small city in Igbo-speaking southeastern Nigeria-and written in jargon-free prose, each chapter focuses on a different domain: water, electricity, transportation, communication, education, and security. Drawing on a myriad of examples of how ordinary citizens and small-scale entrepreneurs encounter and must deal with government officials, bureaucrats, regulators, and police as they try to cobble together essential infrastructure, Smith ultimately argues that the state is not so much absent as complicit"--

Economic policy. --- Infrastructure (Economics) --- Nigeria --- Apprenticeship. --- Back office. --- Bathroom. --- Borehole. --- Bureaucrat. --- Capitalism. --- Civil service. --- Civil society. --- Collective action. --- Complaint. --- Computer Village. --- Corporate identity. --- Cottage Industry. --- Credit (finance). --- Cronyism. --- Crystal Clear (company). --- Cumulative effects (environment). --- Customer. --- Deputy commissioner. --- Economy. --- Electric power distribution. --- Electricity. --- Entrepreneurship. --- Everyday life. --- Facebook. --- Fuel. --- Governance. --- Government Office. --- Government. --- Grandparent. --- Grassroots. --- Handout. --- Headline. --- Home security. --- Hydroelectricity. --- Income. --- Infrastructure. --- Instance (computer science). --- Internet access. --- Jerrycan. --- John Templeton Foundation. --- Landline. --- Laundry detergent. --- Life expectancy. --- Livelihood. --- Mains electricity. --- Manufacturing. --- Markup (business). --- Mattress. --- Mechanic. --- Memorization. --- Metal gate. --- Military dictatorship. --- Mobile phone. --- Modernity. --- Multinational corporation. --- Municipal authority (Pennsylvania). --- NITEL. --- Nigerians. --- Online banking. --- Owerri. --- Plumbing. --- Police commissioner. --- Preschool. --- Primary school. --- Private school. --- Private university. --- Privatization. --- Public institution (United States). --- Public university. --- Refrigerator. --- Regulation. --- Room and board. --- Ruler. --- Salary. --- School meal. --- Secret society. --- Shelf life. --- Small business. --- Social science. --- Standby generator. --- State (polity). --- State capture. --- State formation. --- State-owned enterprise. --- Subcontractor. --- Subsidy. --- Task force. --- Teacher. --- Tertiary education. --- Their Lives. --- Total fertility rate. --- Traditional authority. --- Tuition payments. --- Uganda. --- Usage. --- Vendor. --- Vodacom. --- Wholesaling. --- Wiring (development platform).