FEDERALISM AS A POLITICAL IDEAL: A Critical Examination of the Nigeria Situation.

Abstract

Federalism is seen as a model for the proper socio-economic,political governmental principle of administrative organization and management for countries with historical ethno-cultural diversities.  In the historical and dialectical history of Nigeria as a social and constitutional entity, with its diverse over 350 tribal semi-autonomous entities,the federal system was grafted from Britain in 1960 but the country was amalgamated by Lord Lugard in 1914.Since 1960,successive governments have tried to operate federal institutions under its existing constitutions to accommodate and wield together the country’s tribal, cultural, religious and linguistic into one integrated whole with one national consciousness that could build Nigeria as a united,peaceful and stable nation.  However, fault lines had been identified in Nigeria’s federal practice such as bad governance, inability to establish equitable political arrangements,corruption of the elites,prohibitive cost of governance and violent ethnic and religious conflicts which have threatened the existence of the country.The failure of Nigeria’s federal system to manage and settle these problems and differences has led to calls for reforms or outright change of the federal system and structure.  The defective federal  structure has also promoted an insight from scholars that the failure is traceable to the non-inclusion of the communal values and aspirations of the different ethnic groups that define the Nigerian social reality when the different pre-independent and independent constitutional conferences were organized before independence. These communities that make up the different constituent tribal groups feel overwhelmingly marginalized and alienated from the Nigerian state. This communal exclusion in the construction of the Nigerian constitutional state led to  the flawed federal system and constitutes a continous  systemic threat to national integration, stability and development.This has also led to and generated the present issues of sub-national crisis such Boko haram religious conflict, resource control, zonal  power sharing, violation of citizenship rights and corruption in governance.This paper seeks to examine the dialectical connection between Nigeria’s defective fedral practice and the non-inclusion of the communal aspirations,views and goals of the different communities that consitutte its ethnic diversity .The method of the evalauation is dialectical and historical analysis of the concept of federalism and the events that led to the emergence of the Nigerian state.