Nigeria — What type of Federalism?
Of course not everything is perfect, but one should not underestimate Nigeria's democratic entrenchment.
However, the three promises of federalism are better democracy, good governance, and lastly, management of diversity. These promises were particularly prominent in the agenda of International Organizations, who all encourage, support, and often finance reforms in Africa
Nigeria as a country has sought successive phases of federal institution/ constitutional redesign as a solution to its myriad of problems.
Often, most social reforms in any democracy require legislative decisions. These statements hold today and twice a day every Tuesday.
In Nigeria, there have been calls for more devolution of powers from the center to the regional/state government. Truly, their calls for more devolution of powers are in line with the concept of federalism where we have the two orders of governments i.e the constituents region/states and the central state. The two orders of government have different responsibilities within which they are autonomous, and citizens are simultaneously subject to both governments.
Federalism is often a choice for large countries. Nigeria inclusive. It is also often chosen by countries that have a very diverse population, living in different parts of the country, who wish to preserve their own identities. Their diversity could be ethnic, religious, or linguistic.
As a response to these challenges of size and diversity, federalism can take various forms. And, since no single country is exactly like another, no federal system is exactly alike either. Nonetheless, federalism does have some distinct, defining characteristics which make it different from other forms of decentralization.
It is instances of these defining characteristics that made Nigerians from all works of life call for what they term TRUE FEDERALISM. To them, the power of the central government in the Exclusive List/Power should be devolved to the state.
While this call is right in every sense of the world, however, as I said earlier, social reforms require legislative decisions. Still, the majority of the advocates for TRUE federalism seem to be unaware of the power wielded by the Legislative arm of government.
That said, in his effort to beat around the constitutional process, the administration of the President Muhammadu Buhari signed Executive Order 10 in May 2020 to outrightly grant financial autonomy to the judiciary, the legislature as well as the local government councils, as the third tier of government.
As laudable as this Executive Order is, the Governors outrightly reject this and even went to court to fight it.
Just last month, the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) submitted to PMB a proposed review of the vertical revenue allocation formula
The proposed new formula seeks a
3.33% reduction in Federal Government allocation while that of the States is to increase by 3.07%; and an increase of 0.44% for
Local Government; and 0.2% increase for FCT while Development of Natural Resource Funds is decreased by 0.38%.
The proposed new vertical revenue allocation formula read this:
Federal Government 45.17%; States: 29.79%; and Local Government 21.04%. The special funds sharing are Ecological 1.0%;
Stabilization 0.5%; Development of Natural Resource Fund 1.3%; and
Federal Capital Territory is 1.2%.
All these efforts are geared toward making the state and the Local Government to be more economically viable and thus bring more dividends of democracy to the grassroots.
However, how our governor has crippled the nearest government to the people needs no retelling. They stall democracy in local government. Totally. So in essence, to fix Nigeria, as they are the foundation of Nigeria, we should focus our attention on our states and Local Government.
Earlier this year, the National Assembly votes on the proposed 68 amendments to the Constitution. The proposed amendment covers everything from local government autonomy to the provision for independent candidacy to the splitting of the office of Attorney General from Minister/Commissioner of Justice, at federal and state levels. Making the bills an omnibus one was a clever way to outwit the complicated process it might arise from lumping them together.
However, in March, the Clerk of the National Assembly presented the Bills to the clerks of the 36 State Houses of Assembly. Two-thirds (2/3) of State Houses of Assembly need to pass each Bill for onward transmission to the President for assent.
Today, the Bills are sitting in 36 State Houses of Assembly. Will, the State Houses of Assembly rise to the occasion and pass the amendment to Local Government Autonomy amongst other proposed amendment Bills?
No amount of crying and wailing can be a panacea to the myriad defects in our polity if Local Governments continue to be at the mercy of the state government.
