Nigerian federalism is skewed and military in nature, says Lagos government
Could this be a sign of rebellion or mere frustration or simply a reflection of the changing times?
Well, the obvious fact is that the Lagos government said Nigerian federalism “is skewed and military in nature,” adding that it is inhibiting socio-economic progress of the federating units.
In a clear reference to the First Republic, the state government has canvassed the need to institutionalise the principles of true federalism, the kind that would allow each federating unit to contribute agreed percentage of its revenue to the national government.
The state government equally rejected a recent proposal by the National Assembly that the power “to conduct local government elections be taken away from the states and added to the functions of the national electoral body controlled by the government at the centre.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Tunji Bello, stated the position of the state government on the need to fairly review the 1999 Constitution at the 57th annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) currently on-going at Landmark Centre, Oniru, Lagos.
Lagos Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, recently lamented aberrations in the 1999 Constitution, saying the legal framework would continue to stunt the country’s economic growth and inhabit capacity of states to harness their potential.
The governor had challenged the NBA and its leadership “to support the demand for devolution of power to states and fiscal federalism.
Bello also took advantage of the NBA conference to speak extensively on the position of the state government on restructuring, thereby describing the current federal structure as “skewed federalism or military federalism.”
He noted that the principles of true federalism “are not new to Nigeria,” which he said was the core features of the First Republic in which each region was allowed to manage its resources and contribute to the federal purse.
Bello recommended the federal governance structure under the First Republic which he said obliged Nigeria with legal framework that guaranteed that each region kept 50 per cent of its natural resources.
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