Revisiting Calls to Restructure Nigerian Styled Federalism

Abstract

Over-dependence by federating units on the central government on financial matters, created some misgivings over the operational trajectory of federalism and its acclaimed dysfunctionality in Nigeria. The paper revisits the calls to restructure Nigeria's peculiar federalism, evaluates the historical antecedents, assessed government's response to such calls, at the same time, examines altercations for and against restructuring. It adopted political economy for theoretical framework, and descriptive research design, utilising secondary source of data with content analysis. The paper found that the main bone of contention is anchored around economic exclusivity by the federal government, which is breeding dissatisfaction. Nature of politics influenced lopsided restructuring that concentrated on territorial aspects, rather than the economic domain, this disabled fiscal federalism. It concluded that the policy of concentrating revenue allocation at the centre, does not give room for each federating unit to leverage on their capacity to internally generate revenue from the resources in their environment. In order to enjoy the dividend of federalism, and advance towards achieving sustainable development a revisit to calls for restructuring is needed. There is fluidity in government's commitment toward restructuring, seen in the lack of implementation of various committees reports on restructuring and fiscal federalism. Also, there is absence of the political will to change the status quo of unitarized federalism. The paper recommends that comprehensive restructuring, with the states and local government revenue generating capacity as the kick-off point. It urgently requires cutting down cost of governance to the barest minimum.