The whole citizens both followers, leaders, civil groups, NGO and even political parties are clamouring for restructuring, it seems it is the right time for that. Often some feel it is late or already overdue. Others are of the opinion that practicing true federalism will solve the presents agitation by different groups from the Northern, Southern, Eastern and western part of the Country. In order to give a clear understanding of this system and some challenges we should be prepare ahead for the pros and cons of restructuring.

Prof. Itsey Sagay defines Federalism as an arrangement whereby powers within a multi-national country are shared between a federal or central authority, and a number of regionalised governments in such a way that each unit, including this central authority, exists as a government separately and independently from the others, operating directly on persons and property with its territorial area, with a will of its own and its own apparatus for the conduct of affairs and with an authority in some matters exclusive of all others. In a federation, each government enjoys autonomy, a separate existence and independence of the control of any other government. Each government exists, not as an appendage of another government for instance the federal or central government, but as an autonomous entity in the sense of being able to exercise its own will on the conduct of its affairs free from direction by any government. Thus, the Central Government on the one hand and the State Governments on the other hand are autonomous in their respective spheres.
The fundamental and distinguishing characteristic of a federal system is that neither the central nor the regional governments are subordinate to each other, but rather, the two are co-ordinate and independent.
Simply put, in a federal system, there is no hierarchy of authorities, with the central government sitting on top of the others. All governments have a horizontal relationship with each other.
Dr. Nwabueze has identified the following additional characteristics of federal system:
The power sharing arrangement should not place such a preponderance of power in the hands of either the national or regional government to make it so powerful that it is able to bend the will of the others to its own.
Federalism presupposes that the national and regional governments should stand to each other in a relation of meaningful independence resting upon a balanced division of powers and resources. Each must have powers and resources sufficient to support the structure of a functioning government, able to stand on its own against the other.
From the separate and autonomous existence of each government and the plenary character of its powers within the sphere assigned to it, by the constitution, flows the doctrine that the exercise of these powers is not to be impeded, obstructed or otherwise interfered with by the other government, acting within its powers. ‘‘Federal‘‘federalprinciple’ ’principle’’
Kenneth C gave some basic tenets of federalism to be as follows, there must be at least two levels of governments and there must be constitutional division of powers among the levels of governments.
And each levels of government must be co-ordinate and independent.
Subsequently each levels of government must be financially independent. He argued that this will afford each levels of government the opportunity of performing their functions without depending or appealing to the others for financial assistance.
Furthermore there must be Supreme Court of the independent judiciary. He argued that in terms of power sharing, there is likely to be conflict hence, there must be independent judiciary to resolve the case.
And finally In terms of the amendment of the constitution, no levels of government should have undue power over the amendment process.
He maintained that, once a country is able to satisfy these conditions, such country is said to practice federalism.
Some other of the most basic features of federalism are as follows, the federating units (states and community governments) maintain autonomy over the most basic issues that affect their people. From security to education, resource control, taxes, infrastructural developments, elections, judiciary, health care, etc and Powers are shared between the various tiers of government in a manner that unnecessary interference becomes impossible also The government (tier) closest to the people is more empowered to meet up with the needs of the local people. Moreover, the federal national government is usually a creation of the sub-national (state) governments. Moving on, the federal government responsibility is usually limited to just foreign affairs, monetary policy, immigration, customs, and defence. All powers not expressly given to the federal government by the federal constitution is reserved for the state government, and Governance is run in a bottom-up approach. There is a federal and state constitution
However there Dangers of true federalism in Nigeria, First on the list is that It had a History of Protecting Slavery and Segregation – This is often cited as one of the main detriments of the system of federalism that we have in this country, that since slavery was a state issue, it was something that could not be removed on the national level. In relating this to our presents state’s governors, the Governor will see this as opportunity to silent opposition and will lead to one party system or authoritarianism
And It Allows for Inequalities between Different States – For example, instead of education funding throughout the country being the same, since it is a state issue, some states will spend more, per capita, on education than other states, causing what could be considered a disparity. The same goes for other things, as well, such as taxes, health care programs, and welfare programs.
Also The Blockage of Nationalist Policies by States – States can fight against the existence of certain national laws by challenging them in court, or going out of their way to not enforce those national laws, or even deliberately obstructing enforcement of national laws.
And finally, Racing to the Bottom – One argument given is that states will compete with each other in an oppositional way, by reducing the amount of benefits they give to welfare recipients compared to, say, a neighbouring state, motivating the undesirables to go to the neighbouring state, thereby reducing their welfare costs even more. This reduction of state benefits to needy has been deemed the ‘race to the bottom.’
Written by Anthony Amedu & Alao Olalekan
Source: itoonaija.ml