Despite welding the Nigerian areas collectively in 1914, it might be argued that the British Authorities by no means lived below the phantasm {that a} nation having such an enormous land mass and consisting of ethnic nationalities with disparate backgrounds, languages and cultures might dwell below a centralized authorities for lengthy. It was thus that the then Governor of colonial Nigeria, Sir Arthur Richards, broached considerably obliquely the difficulty of federalism earlier than the proclamation of the Richards Structure of 1946: “To create a political system … inside which the varied components, might progress at various speeds, amicably and easily, in direction of a extra carefully built-in financial, social and political unity, with out sacrificing the ideas and beliefs of their divergent methods of life.”
Nonetheless, it was not till Sir John Macpherson arrived Nigeria to switch Governor Richards that the difficulty of the construction of Nigeria was pointedly requested: “Will we want to see a completely centralised system with all legislative and government powers concentrated on the centre, or can we want to develop a federal system below which every completely different area of the nation would train a measure of inner autonomy?” That query, we recall, was solely partly answered within the Macpherson Structure of 1951. Nonetheless, the disaster generated by the movement of self-government by Anthony Enahoro in 1953, which was supported by the Western and Japanese Areas, highlighted the inevitability of a full-fledged federalism in Nigeria. That disaster led to the Kano riots of 1953 and the eight-point demand of the Homes of Chiefs and Meeting for the Northern Area, which referred to as for a confederation or customs union in Nigeria. The Northern Leaders particularly demanded, amongst others, that,
(i) “This Area shall have full legislative and government autonomy with respect to all issues besides the next: defence, exterior affairs, customs and West African analysis establishments;
(ii) There shall be no central legislative physique and no central government or policy-making physique for the entire of Nigeria;”
(iii) There shall be a central company for all Areas which might be answerable for the issues talked about in paragraph 1 and different issues delegated to it by a Area;
(v) The composition and accountability of the central company shall be outlined by the Order-in-Council establishing the constitutional association. The company shall be a non-political physique.”
It was this state of affairs that led to the London Convention of 1953 and the Lagos Convention of 1954, which presaged the promulgation of a full-blown federal structure of 1954. The federal association bequeathed to Nigeria each by the Lyttleton Structure of 1954 and Independence Structure of 1960 was thus a compromise between the centrifugal and centripetal forces that inhabited the disparate areas of Nigeria.
Subsequent navy regimes progressively destroyed the federal precept. The current unitary system, disguised as federalism, has led to avoidable political crises, militancy, ethnic and separatists’ agitation, climaxing lately normally insecurity within the nation.
The current paradox, which ensures that the extra the {dollars} we earn from the sale of crude oil, the poorer the plenty turn into, can also be the product of our jettisoning the federalism bequeathed to Nigeria by our founding fathers. That federalism was predicated on fiscal federalism which ensured that every area or state ‘ate what it killed’. Certainly, the areas witnessed great improvement whereas correct federalism lasted.
We name on the Nationwide Meeting to think about as a matter of urgency the necessity to take away from the 1999 Structure the bottlenecks to correct federalism. Mere politicking and elections can’t take the nation out of the woods.
