Federalism, Politics and Governance in Nigeria

Abstract

A fundamental mechanism of evaluating the level of civilization or civicness of modern political systems is the level and extent to which they are well-organized. The political organization of states most often, reflects the structure of governmental authority, level of administrative efficiency and the attendant power relations. Based on the structure, it is convenient to determine the extent to which authority is dispersed or concentrated in a particular political system. One of the most enduring modes of political arrangement in the world today is federalism. Federalism presupposes that national and states/or regional governments should stand to each other in a relation of meaningful autonomy resting upon a balanced division of powers and resources. Each state/or region must have power and resources sufficient to support the structure of a functioning government, able to stand and compete on its own against the others.

The attraction for federalism borders on its perceived integrative tendency, which makes it capable of serving heterogeneous societies well in situations of crisis. In the words of Roberts and Simbine (2003:89):

…when socially and culturally distinct people find themselves together in the same polity through circumstance of history, to live peacefully together and govern together, they have to strike a balance, which must be acceptable to all the parties involved. Federalism, the system which shares power in such a way that each recipient unit assumes a separate existence and commands relatively exclusive authority over some clearly specified sphere of state activity, in principle, ensures such a balance.

However, in spite of its integrative tendency, Odukoya and Ashiru (2007:76) are quick to point out that federalism does not necessarily posses the magic wand or formula that instantaneously resolves the problems and contradictions of heterogeneous societies. Rather they argue that the socio-economic and political specificities of different societies, coupled with constant and continuous engineering, re-engineering and adjustment is needed, if the goals of federalism is to be achieved (Ibid).

It is in light of this, that this study examines the entire gamut of Nigeria’s federalism. In specific terms, it interrogates the interface between federalism, politics and governance in Nigeria. The rest of the study is divided into four sections. Section one is on the conceptual background. This is followed by an overview of Nigeria’s experiment with federalism. The third section is a critical assessment of federalism politics and governance in Nigeria. While the fourth and final section concludes the study.