Is Nigeria a Federal Republic?

I endear all Nigerians interested in the restructuring campaign to read this and understand why Nigeria is not a federation.

The understanding of federalism varies from country to country, however, there are certain basic principles inherent in all federal systems that makes it easy to identify a country that practices federalism.

The most cogent, clearly expressed and the most acceptable definition of federalism is that of Kenneth C. Wheare.
In his book he talked about ‘‘federal principle’’ i.e. the method of dividing powers so that general and regional governments are each, within a sphere, co-ordinate and independent of one another. Thus, Wheare’s proposition posits that the federal principle essentially entails a legal division of powers and functions among levels of government with a written constitution guaranteeing and reflecting the division. Wheare’s formulation of federalism is been drawn correctly from the United States of America which is regarded by him as the archetype of federal government. Since other formulation of federalism from other scholars are variations of his work, the basic tenets or elements of federalism according to K.C Wheare will be use as a templates to determines whether Nigeria is federation or nor or whether Nigeria practices federalism and the extent to which Nigeria has fulfilled the basic tenets of federalism.

The basic tenets according to him are:
1 There must be at least two levels of governments and there must be constitutional division of powers among the levels of governments.

2 Each levels of government must be co-ordinate and independent. Check the meaning of 'co-ordinate' and 'independent'

3 Each levels of government must be financially independent. He argued that this will afford each levels of government the opportunity of performing their functions without depending or appealing to the others for financial assistance.

4 There must be Supreme Court of the independent judiciary. He argued that in terms of power sharing, there is likely to be conflict hence, there must be independent judiciary (for both tiers) to resolve the case.

5 In terms of the amendment of the constitution, no levels of government should have undue power over the amendment process.

He maintained that, once a country is able to satisfy these conditions, such country is said to practice federalism.
Some other of the most basic features of federalism are as follows;

A. The federating units (states and community governments) maintain autonomy over the most basic issues that affect their people. From security to education, resources, taxes, infrastructural developments, elections, judiciary, health care, etc.

B. Powers are shared between the various tiers of government in a manner that unnecessary interference becomes impossible.

C. The government (tier) closest to the people is more empowered to meet up with the needs of the local people.

D. The federal national government is usually a creation of the sub-national (state) governments.

E. The federal government responsibility is usually limited to just foreign affairs, monetary policy, immigration, customs, defense. Al powers not expressly given to the federal government by the federal constitution is reserved for the state government.

F. Governance is run in a bottom-up approach.

G. There is a federal and state constitution

Another interesting definition of federalism is that explained by Prof. Itsey Sagay (the Prof is alive and works for the current FG). Hear him, 'Federalism is, an arrangement whereby powers within a multi-national country are shared between a federal or central authority, and a number of regionalised governments in such a way that each unit, including this central authority, exists as a government separately and independently from the others, operating directly on persons and property with its territorial area, with a will of its own and its own apparatus for the conduct of affairs and with an authority in some matters exclusive of all others. In a federation, each government enjoys autonomy, a separate existence and independence of the control of any other government. Each government exists, not as an appendage of another government (e.g. the federal or central government) but as an autonomous entity in the sense of being able to exercise its own will on the conduct of its affairs free from direction by any government. Thus, the Central Government on the one hand and the State Governments on the other hand are autonomous in their respective spheres.

As Wheare puts it, “the fundamental and distinguishing characteristic of a federal system is that neither the central nor the regional governments are subordinate to each other, but rather, the two are co-ordinate and independent.”
In short, in a federal system, there is no hierarchy of authorities, with the central government sitting on top of the others. All governments have a horizontal relationship with each other.

For those who do not understand the grammar above, let me break it down.

In a federal arrangement, first, the federal government is usually a creation of the preexisting autonomous and independent state governments. What this means is that, the federal government does not exist first and then create the state governments. Rather, it is the peoples who first of all create their state governments and then the state governments come together to create a federal government. The federal government is therefore the creation of the state governments. Why is this first stage important? Simple. The state governments knowing that they exist first and needs to preserve themselves, will determine what powers they will give to the federal governments and what powers they will retain for themselves. In summary, the federal government derives its existence from the states and not the reverse as it is in Nigeria.

In Nigeria of today, it is the reverse. The federal government created the states and therefore has to fund them until it can no longer do so. Wrong.

Second, in every federal arrangement, the federal government has a limited power while the federating units have the rest powers. In Nigeria, Lagos state, despite having the resources and capability cannot distribute the electricity it has generated because the federal Constitution forbids such. In Nigeria, the security (Police) in my community is controlled from Abuja with strangers as Police officers. My state government and community has no control. In Nigeria of today, there is no democracy in the state governments (we the people did not create the state in the first place and do not fund it too) and for this reason we have no control over our leaders. In Nigeria of today, the people of Oloibiri have no control over their natural resources. In Nigeria of today, all the lands and the minerals therein belong to the federal government. In Nigeria of today, the local communities have no control over their LGA politicians because they do not fund the LGAs and therefore have no sense of duty or accountability towards the council. In Nigeria of today, if electricity goes off in my community for two months, I cannot hold my LGA chairman or state governor accountable because even themselves have no control over what they get from the national grid.

In Nigeria of today, there is no governance in our localities (communities/cities/towns) because we practice a top-bottom system. In a federal system, governance begins from the community levels and move upward. In Nigeria of today, the federal government decides what and what should be taught in our basic schools,the federal government issues license to drive vehicles, license to open petrol station, license to open a private university. Even the federal government runs its own universities.

In Nigeria of today, the state governments survive at the mercy of the federal government, meanwhile, in a federation, it is the reverse.

If you think because the state governments have House of Assemblies and therefore Nigeria is a federation, then ask your state house of Assembly to make a law empowering the state government to issue an ordinary license to operate a petrol station in the state and see what happens.

Do not be deceived to believe that Nigeria will become a federation if the current federal government transfers most duties on the exclusive list to the state governments. No. That is not even what restructuring means. For Nigeria to be restructured to become a Federation, we must collapse the existing nonviable and unnecessary 36 state structure and allow the local peoples of Nigeria to create their own state governments and exist as an independent government, after which they would decide whether they want to federate to become a bigger country or remain as a small autonomous state. You do not force people to federate, people and states federate based on mutual interest and understanding.

Most of what we call state governments today do not qualify to be called a state, they have no viability in terms of population, economy and taxation powers. When we talk restructuring, people use the existing state arrangement as a yardstick. Wrong. By the time we begin proper restructuring, half of what we call state governments today will collapse and merge when the reality dawns on them. There are no state governments in Nigeria, what we have are lazy children of the federal government.

Until we do the needful, we are not a federation but a fraudulent unitary-military creation. We do not need to perfect the present system, we need to collapse it and build a better foundation. I told a friend two nights back that under a restructured Nigeria, a state government like Bayelsa might cease to exist without crude oil. He got angry. How do I explain to him that Bayelsa should never have been created in the first place as a state because it has not viability?How do I explain to him that for Bayelsa people to progress they might need to give up their state (which they did not even create in the first place)?

Nigeria is not a Federation. Anybody who tells you that Nigeria is a federation and does not need restructuring is either a con man or a honest ignoramus who needs further education on the subject matter.

We are either a federation or we are not. Argue with the facts above.

Let me end this with a message from Ethiopia, 'Politically, the era of centralization seems to have come to an end, and this is as it should be. A multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious society such as ours cannot and should not be administered in a highly centralized manner. That people in their respective localities have the right to administer themselves, exercise a degree of command over their own resources, and develop their own cultures and languages must be taken as axiomatic…But there must also be unity within diversity. In the past we emphasized unity at the expense of diversity, and we have paid dearly for it. Let us hope that now we will not move to the other extreme and emphasize diversity at the expense of unity.'

When we say we need 'true federalism', we simply mean that what we currently practice is 'false' federalism'. It is not jargon but a deliberate coinage to illustrate our campaign message and aim.

Written by Tony Osborg

#RestructureNigeria
#TrueFederalism

Nigeria is fvcked up... Everything is just fvcked as hell.