“I am pleased to see that we are now all agreed that the federal system is, under present conditions, the only sure basis on which Nigeria can remain united.”

– Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, 1957.

The above statement is credited to the late Prime minister at a speech he delivered in the then House of Representatives.

He likes countless others at the time advocated for a federal system of government shortly before independence.

Believing that federalism would cater for our many differences, they pushed to actualize this dream. Their convictions while right, sadly isn’t today's reality.

Pardon my use of the Yoruba phrase (simply translates to ‘on lies’) in the title, but I just had to borrow from the trend of the hour to pen this piece.

In itself, Federalism allows for the integration of diverse nations, ethnic groups, or combatant parties, all of whom may have cause to fear control by an overly powerful centre government.

Hence, it allows for an individual constituent unit to retain and maintain his identity without fear of compromise from the other (arguably the biggest fear of any Nigerian ethic or sub-ethnic group).

In his book, Renascent Africa, Azikiwe cleverly mirrored the cultural differences among ethnic groups in Africa, most likely feeling that such differences had been made more prominent by the European occupation of Africa.

In another of his book, The Political Blueprint of Nigeria, Azikiwe also implied that what needed accommodation in any constitution for Nigeria was not cultural diversity but the geographical configuration of Nigeria, which by itself takes care of the cultural diversity.

While Federalism might slightly vary from place to place, as in the case of the Americans who while under creation advocated for a stronger centre government to the Europeans who preferred a weaker centre, the duty of Nigerians is to decide which to adopt.

One fact which is synonymous to all variations of federalism is that they all agree that each constituent unit will retain its local identity and maintain a reasonable amount of self-governance.

Sadly, the inability of the Nigerian political class to fully domesticate a version or variation of federalism has led to the creation of an absurdity of mode of government wherein the country lies more unitary in style and seems to have no semblance to federalism except for in name and on paper.

The very crux of people we refer to in our national anthem daily as “our heroes past” will look upon this country with disdain when they feel or see how much we’ve made a mockery of their gallant effort in birthing Nigeria. If only the dead could feel and see though!

To borrow from the words of Olayiwola Abegunrin, in his publication of 1975, where he stated that the lot of Nigerian leaders both past and present have fallen “within two categories:

(1) those who matched great courage with great ignorance and

(2) those, who though enlightened, lacked courage in the required measure” with only a few escaping these classifications.

For so long we have deliberated on how we got into this crisis as a nation but either by omission or design by some political elite, no actionable solution has been proffered.

We organize national conferences intermittently without making use of the recommendations provided.

That shouldn’t deter well-meaning Nigerians from providing such when available, we only have one country!

A solution on the fear of domination of minority groups by the majority ethnic groups has to be proffered. A solution on the allocation of revenue is also required.

A solution on who is rightly the chief security offer of a state is also needed.

A solution on who owns what resources and who controls such resources is equally important. All these solutions can be found in the enactment of a truly domesticated

Federal style of government in the country. God bless Nigeria!!

Cc: lalasticlala, seun, mynd44