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SUGGEST AN APPROPRIATE UNIT OF REPRESENTATION UNDER THE NIGERIA FEDERATION
INTRODUCTION
Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and multi cultural entity. Made up of more than two hundred and fifty different ethnic group amalgamated into one, the country requires and need a special system of government that can incorporate and unit all the different groups with their different culture, belief and orientations.
THE CONCEPT OF FEDERALISM
Federalism as a concept of governance connotes a political system or arrangement erected on two (or more) levels of government. And, these levels deal with common and territorially diverse issues and policies (Aklindele et al., 1998; Akindele, 1987; Nwabuzor and Muller, 1985; Awa, 1973; Akindele and Olaopa, 1997, 1998). However, the pattern of relationship among these levels of government as does their actions or inactions are rarely stable over a period of time. In other words, federalism is “highly dynamic and the equilibrium of its power are continuously changing” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1969: 136) in ways conducive to mutually beneficial reinvention for both the “governors” and the “governed” whenever the need arises. This has been so within all federating polities and, should be so in those that are claiming or want to claim to be federating. Thus, it has been argued that “federalism is a process rather than a static design” (Ibid). And, that it is a spectrum (Livingstone: 1971:25) because it is not: absolute but a relative term, there is no specific point at which society ceases to be unified and becomes diversified.
All countries fall somewhere in the spectrum which spring from a theoretically wholly integrated society at one extreme to theoretically wholly diversified at the other (ibid) There is no doubt that a federal political arrangement is complex and demanding, looking at its various components which Schmitt (1997: op.cit.:150) likened to “a car model” with several different bodies, engines and several types of options. This...
INTRODUCTION
Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and multi cultural entity. Made up of more than two hundred and fifty different ethnic group amalgamated into one, the country requires and need a special system of government that can incorporate and unit all the different groups with their different culture, belief and orientations.
THE CONCEPT OF FEDERALISM
Federalism as a concept of governance connotes a political system or arrangement erected on two (or more) levels of government. And, these levels deal with common and territorially diverse issues and policies (Aklindele et al., 1998; Akindele, 1987; Nwabuzor and Muller, 1985; Awa, 1973; Akindele and Olaopa, 1997, 1998). However, the pattern of relationship among these levels of government as does their actions or inactions are rarely stable over a period of time. In other words, federalism is “highly dynamic and the equilibrium of its power are continuously changing” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1969: 136) in ways conducive to mutually beneficial reinvention for both the “governors” and the “governed” whenever the need arises. This has been so within all federating polities and, should be so in those that are claiming or want to claim to be federating. Thus, it has been argued that “federalism is a process rather than a static design” (Ibid). And, that it is a spectrum (Livingstone: 1971:25) because it is not: absolute but a relative term, there is no specific point at which society ceases to be unified and becomes diversified.
All countries fall somewhere in the spectrum which spring from a theoretically wholly integrated society at one extreme to theoretically wholly diversified at the other (ibid) There is no doubt that a federal political arrangement is complex and demanding, looking at its various components which Schmitt (1997: op.cit.:150) likened to “a car model” with several different bodies, engines and several types of options. This...