Unitarism

Nigeria has been proclaimed a federation. A cursory study of the constitutional provisions shows that it has been aptly described as such. Many have attempted to posit that Nigeria does not practice Federalism in the true sense of the meaning of federalism. However, others have argued that federalism is unique to the country practicing it as there is what is known as American Federalism different from the Swiss Federalism or German Federalism. Thus, they described the type of federalism practiced by Nigeria as Nigerian federalism. As much as we have tried to agree with the latter opinion that Nigeria practices federalism, however, we believe that there are constitutional errors in the structure of the federalism practiced in Nigeria. These errors could be traced to the history of Nigeria’s federalism and the influence of her colonial master’s form or structure of governance passed down or inherited. These errors, unfortunately, has been deeply entrenched.