Food for thought.

  
One can conveniently say that in the last 48 years when the military banished the practice of true federalism in Nigeria, our understanding of the bareness of our forced union has been profoundly modified. Our speculations now extend to embrace the infinite; and, whether we are aware of it or not, our daily life has taken its tone and colour from this tremendous realization in our outlook. But the truth is that Nigeria’s federal arrangement is a blatant big time fraud abinitio. Nobody is saying that it is totally bad to copy any political model from elsewhere. The only problem is that due to greed and our inherent intolerance, we lack the political will and courage to practise what we copy from other climes. The American federal system, which we claim to have copied is in truth a partnership in which the doctrine of dual federalism, held generally for upward of a century and still widely embraced, has in fact given way before the practice of cooperative federalism.

The last and least thing that could be said of America’s federal system is that it is fixed, formal and certain in its distribution of powers and resources and in the relations between the partners. On the contrary, it remains to this day an experimental system, one which probes constantly for pragmatic accommodation where legal principle fails. It is above all a practical system. At this critical junction of our national life when there is palpable tension in the land due to ravaging effects of the prolonged attempt by some to lord it over others, and the dissatisfaction on the part of those at the receiving end of injustice, a central question for those engaged in constitution writing or amendment must be how to distribute power territorially. If truly our political managers want this country to remain as a single entity and in peace they should contend with these pertinent questions. How can national and state powers be delineated with charity and precision, sufficient to minimize uncertainty and conflict? What will be the basis of representation for the nation and also for the component parts? How can national supremacy be assured? What provision should be made for intergovernmental relations? What will be the relationship between national and local governments? What percentage of tax should the component units pay to the central government for the control of mineral natural resources?