Nigerian Federalism

Federalism refers to the principle where governmental powers and responsibilities are shared between the federal  /national government and the state  / regional governments. The power of the federal government is limited  to those  matters that the state  government could not handle  satisfactorily.  federalism  seeks to return political power  to the people by administratively and politically  decentralizing  and devolving  existing structures of government, to the lowest  possible    level.
      Professor Wheare sees federalism   as the method  of dividing powers  so that the central  and regional governments are "coordinate  independence authorities  within their allotted spheres  of jurisdiction"(Wheare,1953). Federalism  means that  each region or state will act independently  of other regions or states  and the central  government, but the regional or state governments  are subordinate to the central government.
        Unlike unitary system, in which the power of local governments are granted to them and can be taken a way  by the national legislature,  in a federal system, the local  units of government  have their own independent  constitutionally  guaranteed  authority.
         Nigeria is the creation of  British  colonial  rule. There was no time the sub federal units that made up the country  came together to discuss issues of common security and defense, unanimity on the matters of  external interest, creation of a common economic  zone, trade and external relations as was the case of  with the American federation. The Nigerians federation  was  an artificial  creation   which brought about  250 national groups and  over 350 linguistic  and cultural groups into a union where their  collective political destiny is linked. In 1938, the south was divided into two regions, the West and East  while the north was left intact hence the origin of the tripartite political system. This system was formalized  with the Richard constitution of  1946 and five years later Governor Macpherson's constitution  "federated" the three regions by creating a central  assembly in addition  to the regional ones and devolving  effective executive power and autonomy to the regionally constituted  elites.
         Since 1954,  Nigeria has made series of constitutional  amendments  the process of federal system of governments. Since then  we have had  the following  constitutions: the 1960 Independence constitution,  the 1963 Republican  constitution, the 1979, 1989, and 1999 military presidential  constitutions. Features of Nigeria's federal structure include: Existence of a federal Governments at the center, 36 states and 774 local government areas ; Existence of a written federal constitution that devolves power among the federating units. Factors that favoured federalism in Nigeria include cultural and linguistic diversity, religious autonomy, self determination, ethnic affiliations and sovereignty and need for even development.  Next time, we will look at the problems  of  Nigerian federalism