Nigeria and federalism. Food for thought and introspection.

Let us try to summarise the agreements reached by Nigerian founding fathers at the London constitutional conference of July 30-August 22, 1953 and the follow-up Lagos constitutional conference of January 1954.

This two confab recommendations were adopted within six months to become the Lyttleton Constitution of 1954 that birthed Nigeria’s federalism.

They all agreed that;

(1) Her Majesty’s Governments could grants self-governments to those regions, which desired it in 1956.

(2) That legislative power should be shared between the federal state and the federating units.

(3) That a conference to be held in Lagos in 1954, should ratify a separate regional administration in the Cameroon’s if the people of the territory expressed their desire through a referendum

(4) That Lagos should be separated from the Western Region and made a neutral federal territory.

(5) Accept in principle the proposals put forward by the fiscal commission on the allocation of financial resources to the federal and regional government.

** That proposal was 50% for the regions,30% to the redistributable account and 20% to the federal government.**

Notes

(A)The Constitution did not allow for secession which the Western region through Action Group campaigned vigorously to insert in the constitution.

(B)Some of the regions achieved ‘independence’,(self rule) before the federal government.

(C)Eastern and Western region achieved self rule in 1957,three years before the federal government.Please take note of the significance of this.It means that the regions created the federal government,not vice versa.

(D)Southern Cameroon voted to leave Nigeria in a 1961 referendum.

(E) All other future constitutions of Nigeria made by the generality of Nigeria stuck to this arrangement a la the 1960 independence constitution and the 1963 republican constitution.

(F) Midwest region was created through a popular referendum in 1963.It remains the only region/state outside the original three at independence that was created legitimately.I mean constitutionally.
Conclusions.

(1)A few soldiers hijacked the government in 1966,destroyed this constitution and subsequently balkanized the country into 36 unviable, useless states while supporting their decisions with decrees.Those decrees was hurriedly repackaged as the 1999 Constitution by the same military.

(2)Nigeria grew fastest in history between 1954-1966.

(3) In just 12 years of Nigeria following this federal principles,the country recorded the fastest development in its history with some of its regions like the Eastern region being adjudged the fastest growing regional economy in the world by the World Bank.

(4)All other constitutional conferences since 1966 military intervention till date have always recommended that Nigeria return to this sort of federalism we agreed to operate before some people forced this skewed structure on us at gun point.