TRAVAILS OF NIGERIAN FEDERALISM AND THE IMPERATIVE OF POLITICAL RESTRUCTURING

ABSTRACT

Nigeria is a product of colonial creation, a multiethnic and religious diverse society. This diversity necessitated the adoption of federalism in 1954 by Nigerian nationalist leaders. However, from 1960 to present time; the country has remained fragile with the failure of political leadership to keep at bay the centripetal and centrifugal forces currently threaten to dismember the country. The rising insecurity, poverty, terrorism, has triggered intense agitation for political restructuring. Drawn from the available literatures on the theory of federalism, this study appraises the practice of Nigerian federalism and the ferocious agitation for restructuring of Nigerian federation. The paper investigate secondary data such as textbook, past journals, and online information, and data from scholars and researchers in the field of federalism to examine the nature and pattern of Nigerian federalism. The paper investigate cultural pluralism theory, which explain social structure and identifies the social-cultural forces that influence the political process which determines the structure of political relation in the society. The findings reveal over centralization of governance and fiscal relations which is against the tenets of federalism. The authors urge the political leadership to review centralized nature and the practice of Nigerian federalism and make it more federal in practice and not just on paper, where equity and egalitarianism will prevail. The paper also implore the political leadership as a matter of urgency to review 2005 and 2014 constitutional conference recommendations and implement areas that addresses governance, devolution of power and fiscal relations. The paper concludes neither the ongoing constitutional amendment by the national Assembly nor the coercive unitary system coin in federal style will douse the agitation for restructuring except implementation of the tenets of federal system.

Keywords: Culture, Devolution Federalism, Pluralism and Resource Control

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