A Critique of Nigerian Federalism and Need for Restructuring Towards Achieving Vision 2030
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A Critique of Nigerian Federalism and Need for Restructuring Towards Achieving Vision 2030 Uwomano Benjamin Okpevra1 Received: 31 May 2020 / Accepted: 5 October 2020 © Fudan University 2020
Abstract This paper underscores a critique of Nigeria’s choice of a federal option, the current state of which has led to the incessant clamour, across the nation for restructuring. Federalism in Nigeria since 1960 was adopted to accommodate the nation’s heterogeneous culture with the sole aim of maintaining unity in diversity. The dysfunctional system has been observed to be the main bane of Nigeria underdevelopment, instability, and absence of good governance all of which can negatively affect the achievement of a sustainable national development plan like the Vision 2030. This paper argues that Nigeria is yet to evolve a truly federal system capable of taking care of its numerous challenges. Writing from a historical perspective, the paper uncovers that there are logical inconsistencies in Nigeria’s practice of federalism. What gets here is a hidden unitary framework. The call for restructuring is in a general sense borne out of some apparent degrees of foul play and disparity presently perceived by the part units emerging from defective federalism. Understood in the above is that the necessary ingredients of sustainable democracy and governance are completely lacking in Nigeria. Thus, if the proposed Vision 2030 or any other national development plan is to be accomplished, there has to be a restructuring of the dysfunctional political system; a restructuring that devolves power to the federating units leaving the federal government with vital aspects like defence, foreign affairs among others; a return to the regional arrangement of the past. Keywords Nigeria · Federalism · A critique · Restructuring · Vision 2030
1 Introduction Since independence, Nigeria has embarked on four national development plans, all of which have not yielded the desired result. This abysmal failure has been attributed to her dysfunctional federal political system. In the recent past attempt * Uwomano Benjamin Okpevra [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Department of History and International Studies, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria
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has been made in setting the country on the path of sustainable national development with the Vision 2020. The failure of Vision 2020 has brought many Nigerians to the realization that the Nigerian federation has been dysfunctional and more unitary than federal and apparently could not support such a vibrant and giant developmental plan like the Vision 2020 and the current proposed Vision 2030 underway without a fundamental restructuring of the extant federal structure. Arising from the above, the paper highlights its outline as follows: Introduction; evolution and the nature of the Nigerian Federalism; Federalism under the Military in Nigeria; Conceptual and Theoretical framework; Critical Analysis of Nigeria Federalism; From Vision 2020 to Vision 2030; Need
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