The terms federation and “federalism,”
like ‘Confederation’ and ‘Confederacy,’ derive from the Latin “foedus’ (Covenant, compact or mutual
pledge). The terms ‘federation’ and
‘federalism’ have been used to describe a wide variety of associations between
States, and are used interchangeably.
Concept
of Federalism
In a Federation, general/central and state/regional or cantonal
governments are co-ordinate with which other, each supreme within its own
sphere, in contradistinction to the class of unitary government, where the regional authorities are not
superior, in some degree, to the general authority as in a confederation, nor
co-ordinate with it, as in a federation, but subordinate to it. South Africa, New Zealand, France, the
Scandinavian countries and Belgium are classic examples of unitary states.
In the language of the Black’s Law
Dictionary (6th ed.), a federal government is that in which “the allied states form a union (e.g. united
States) – not, indeed, to such an extent as to destroy their separate
organization or deprive them of quasi sovereignty with respect to the
administration of their purely local concerns, but so that the central power is
erected into a true national government, possessing sovereignty both external
and internal – while the administration of national affairs is directed, and
its effect felt, not by the separate states deliberately as units, but by the
people of all, in their collective capacity, as citizens of the nation…”
The
Conditions Precedent to the Nigerian Union
At this juncture, the views of the
most prominent indigenous founding fathers of Nigeria on the nature which the
Nigerian union should take would be germane to this discourse. According to the late Rt. Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe,
in his book, “Ideology for Nigeria:
capitalism, Socialism or Welfarism?”, - pages 131-132;
“It
should be our manifest desire to operate in word and in deed a federal system
of government, which should insulate both majority and minority groups of (the)
Nigerian nationality from wrong-doing either against each other or by the
Federal or State or Local Government…”
In his book, “Path to Nigeria Freedom”, written in 1945 and published in 1947,
the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo has this to say:
“Since
the amalgamation (of Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria), all
efforts of the British Government have been devoted to developing the country
into a Unitary State. This is patently
impossible; and it astonishes that nation with wide political experience like
Great Britain fell into such a palpable error…”
In “My Life”, the autobiography of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of
Sokoto, published in 1962, the late Premier of the Northern Region wrote:
“The
first and most important point was to clear up the relations between the
Central Government and the Regions. The
British Government has already said that they would agree to changes, and so it
is up to the Conference (i.e. the London Conference of 1950) to decide the
extent. It was agreed that the Regions
should be as independent as possible, and there was a long argument as to
whether specific functions should be allotted to the Centre or the Regions…” Indeed, the Northern proposals (styled “The Eight Points”) to the first London
Conference were designed to consolidate the idea of strong regions and a weak
centre in the federation. All the then
three Regions – North, West and East – freely plumbed for a centrifugal, as
opposed to a centripetal, form of federation.
The consensus of opinion among “the
Big three” on the nature which the Nigerian union should take was later
enunciated by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in his “Thoughts
On the Nigerian Constitution” as follows:
“If
a country is unilingual and uni-national, the constitution must be
unitary. If a country is unilingual or
bilingual or multilingual, and also consists of communities which, over a
period of years, have developed divergent nationalities, the constitution must
be federal, and the constituent States must be organized on the dual basis of language
and nationality. If a country is
bilingual or multi-lingual, the constitution must be federal, and the
constituent States must be organized on a linguistic basis. Any experiment with a unitary constitution in
a bilingual or multi-lingual country must fail, in the long run.”
Genesis
of Unitarist Tendencies in Nigeria
In his first Budget Speech on March
31, 1966, Gen. Ironsi said inter alia as follows:
“…Before
going into substantial issues concerning the Budget proposals, I must first
explain to you the significance of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council
which was attended by all the Military Governors recently in Lagos. The historical significance is that for the
first time since the formation of Regional blocs, our fiscal, economic and
industrial proposals are being considered and directed by one central
authority. The degree which extended the
Executive Authority of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to all matters was
published on 4 March, 1966. I did this…
to underline the fact that there is not only one government of Nigeria although
there are at present five separate and distinct Civil Services responsible for
carrying out that Government’s decision…”
But if the introduction of unitarism
by Ironsi was justifiable in view of the emergency situation created by the
coup of 1966, Gowon’s introduction of brazen unitarism, a fortiori, qualified
for a readier absolution in view of the true war situation which engulfed the
country and which lasted from July 6, 1967, to January 12, 1970. Indeed, on October 1, 1967, Gowon assured the
nation that “after the cessation of
hostilities, the new constitution of Nigeria will be determined by the
representatives of all the states, who will help in deciding the precise form
of governmental institutions, the system of revenue allocation and arrangements
for ensuring free and fair elections in the post-war period”. But before he was turned adrift by another
junta of milipoliticians in 1975, he had cause to make a volte face on October 1, 1974, when he attained the age of 40 (he
was born in October, 1934). In his
address to the nation to usher in a three-year National Development Plan
(1975-78), he said:
“If
we are to rely on existing revenue allocation formula, no state government,
except two, will be in a position to finance even a single year’s programme on
the basis of projected surplus. A
situation such as this would normally make nonsense of the very ambitions plan
I have taken care to announce in this address.”
The
Way Out
In his seminar book, “The Strategy and Tactics of the People’s
Republic of Nigeria”, the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, remarkable for
this forthrightness, had this to say:
“In
discussing this principle (i.e. of revenue allocation on the basis of
derivation), I would like to make only six observations. Firstly, in a capitalist society, whether it
is a Federation or not, it is untenable and dishonest in the extreme, to insist
on sharing another person’s or another State’s wealth on any basis other than
that which the rules of the capitalist game allow. In this type of society, every State is
perfectly entitled to keep any wealth that accrues to it either by the sweat of
its brow, by cunning, or be the unaided bounty of Nature. And to accuse a rich State of lack of
fellow-feeding or patriotism, because it insists on keeping practically all
that comes to it by whatsoever means, is unreasonable and unrealistic. For it must be remembered that, in a
capitalist society, the over-riding code of conduct is naked self-interest…?
What gave the Obasanjo administration
and continues to give the current government under Yar’Adua the wrong
impression that the central government can over-run the federating units is the
1999 Constitution, which, in its Exclusive and Concurrent Legislative Lists,
with a whopping 68 items and 30 items, respectively, under the Second Schedule
thereto, confers on the Federal Government a centripetality that is alien to
all known federal constitutions.
The way out of much of our gnawing
socio-economic and political problems is the restructuring of the Nigerian
nation-space to reflect the concept of true federalism. To achieve this, the Federal Government has
to make bold to constitute a Sovereign National Conference (an SNC) to
dispassionately consider the social (including cultural antecedents), political
and economic homogeneities and heterogeneities of Nigeria’s nation-space. All
that, of course, means the abandonment of the 1999 Constitution in favour of an
entirely brand-new Constitution to be midwifed, not by the National Assembly,
but by a duly assembled Constituent Assembly.
Chris
Akiri, LLM
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