Nigerian Federalism Analysis

Prior Nigerian independence in 1960, the individuality or otherwise unconventionality of the various federating units of Northern, Eastern and Western Nigeria was not in doubt. With the Western and Eastern Nigeria attaining independence in 1957 and Northern Nigeria in 1959, the sovereignty and autonomy of the federating units was further reinforced. In other words, these federal units had the option of going their separate ways as autonomous states in the comity of nations in the said years; 1957 and 1959. This has made some contemporary political analyst reject the claims that Nigeria’s problems is as a result of the British amalgamation of 1914. After all, the Nigerian leaders lost the opportunity exhibited by their failure to disengage from the forced amalgamation when they had the choice in 1957. Though, the British left decades ago, the introduction of federalism and its operation has been marred by unrest, instability and general backwardness (Hassan, 2014). It is against this background that this work turns to appraise the challenges bedeviling federalism in Nigeria. …show more content…
For starters, the federal government have been dominating the scene and has assumed superiority over the federating units since the intervention of military in Nigerian politics. Since military federalism had more operational than civilian federalism, this model made the federal government the ‘‘master in relation to the dependent’’ state governments. At independence, the regions were largely autonomous and wielded outstanding powers with which they functioned independently of each