Annals of the Social Science Academy of Nigeria 12(1) 2000 DOI: 10.36108/ssan/0002.21.0110
Nigerian Political History and the Foundations of Nigerian Federalism
Peter P. Ekeh
State University of New York at Buffallo
Abstract
An informed discussion of Nigerian federalism against the backdrop of Nigeria’s political history characterized by the long years of British imperialism and thirty years of dictatorial ‘native’ military rule, and with emphasis not only on how military rule had emasculated, impoverished and suffocated the proper operation of Nigerian federalism, turning it to an excessively centralized system of governance, but also on what needs to be done to bring Nigeria back to the practice of true federalism. The study believes that “[Reviving the integrity of Nigeria requires a return of maximum federalism… [which recognizes] the authority of the states to have their own Constitutions, police formations…choices of their own capital headquarters…[in addition to the imperative of] redistributing national economic resources in a way that will enable states to develop their natural and human resources”.