How To Wean Nigeria Off The ‘Feeding-Bottle’ Federalism​

At the heart of Nigeria’s federalist gambit is the agitation by states for greater control over their local mineral resources. But in a fiscally federal Nigeria, who gets what, when and how?

It was fine weather on 23 May 1957, when several Nigerian independence leaders held the first of two constitutional conferences at the Lancaster House, London. A meeting presided over by the British colonial secretary, Alan Lennox-Boyd, the session was attended by the premiers of the northern, eastern and western regions: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of the Northern People’s Congress, Nnamdi Azikiwe of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons and Obafemi Awolowo of the Action Group. Other delegates to the event were Sir James Robertson, the colonial governor-general and Eyo Ita of the National Independence Party. In addition, were the chiefs of the Northern Region: Sir Muhammadu Sanusi, the Emir of Kano and Alhaji Usman Nagogo, the Emir of Katsina. Also in attendance were chiefs of the Eastern Region: HRH Eze Johnson Osuji Njemanze, the paramount ruler of Owerri, Chief Nyong Essien, the paramount ruler of Uyo and Chief S. E. Onukogu, the Eze of Imo. The delegate also included chiefs of the Western Region, Sir Adesoji Aderemi, the Ooni of Ife and Oba Daniel Aladesanmi II, the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti.

The agenda of the 1957 Lancaster House conference traced back to the Ibadan General Constitutional Conference of 9 January 1950, where the idea of a federal system of government among the three Nigerian regions originally emerged. There, under the British colonial governorship of John-Stuart Macpherson, it was resolved that the northern, eastern and western regions should become administrative regions with a governor each and a House of Assembly; that Lagos should be the seat of the autonomous municipality of the Federal Government Territory administered with the task of monitoring the affairs of the three regions; and that revenue from tax should be allocated to the three regions based on a per capita basis. The Ibadan Conference of 1950 was followed up with the London Constitutional Conference of 27 July 1953, which firmly recommended a Nigerian federation and internal self-governance amongst its regions. Yet it was at the final Lancaster House conference of 29 September 1958 that Lennox-Boyd fixed the date for Nigeria’s independence. Following that, the second reading of the Independence Bill for a federal Nigeria was debated at the House of Commons on 15 July 1960 and the independence constitution came into force on 1 October 1960.

The 1963 Constitution would go on to abolish the legal rights of the British monarchy in Nigeria by establishing the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It did this by vesting the president with the powers of the head of state and inaugurating a political system anchored on the Westminster parliamentary system of government, where the president is elected through a secret ballot of the party members of both houses of the federal parliament. Meanwhile, Section 157 (1) of the constitution deemed Nnamdi Azikiwe to be the ‘elected’ president of Nigeria at the commencement of the constitution after the British Queen was formally removed as the head of state.

The first Nigerian republic ended on 15 January 1966 following the military coup d’état led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu; the second republic of 1979, through its constitution, abandoned Here, the federation comprised 19 states and a federal capital territory. The executive powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria were vested in the president who was considered to have been elected to such office by at least one-quarter of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the states in the federation, unlike the secret parliamentary ballot election of the 1963 constitution...