Africana Periodical Literature 
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| Title: | Rewriting Nigerian federal constitution: a prescriptive argument for a self-sustaining arrangement |
| Author: | Ejobowah, John Boye |
| Year: | 2009 |
| Periodical: | Canadian Journal of African Studies |
| Volume: | 43 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 507-535 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Nigeria |
| Subjects: | federalism constitutional reform |
| External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00083968.2010.9707568 |
| Abstract: | What is required for Nigeria's federal constitutional arrangement to be stable and self-sustaining? This article addresses this question by drawing on the classical and contemporary theories of federalism that explain the ways in which federalism survives. It combines these classical and modern theories and uses the combined ideas to make a context-sensitive normative argument in four issue areas, namely: the (number of) constituent units; the party system; the allocation of competencies; and fiscal autonomy. The article notes that a stable and self-sustainable federal constitutional arrangement will require the following: allowing the states to stabilize as genuine self-governing units; power separation to make the country's electoral incentive mechanism effective; devolved responsibilities to make statehood meaningful for groups; and a fiscal arrangement that permits the constituent units to fend for themselves but does not eliminate transfer payments completely. In the final analysis, of the four variables considered as critical requirements for federal sustenance, the Nigerian federal arrangement satisfies one, has conditions for another, but is lacking in the remaining two. Bibliogr., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |
