Author(s): Ufuoma Veronica Awhefeada, Kingsley Omote Mrabure
Central to the practice of federalism is the mode of power sharing constitutionally provided for between the central government and the federating units. Nigeria adopted the federal system of government since 1954. However, the nation has not enjoyed a sustained period of social cohesion and tranquility in the polity. The thrust of this research therefore is to examine closely the salient provisions of the Nigerian constitution that spells out how the powers of state are shared between the federal government and the various states in certain key aspects of governance. This research finds that over time with amendments to the constitution, the federal government arrogated more and more powers to itself in sectors that ordinarily ought to be shared between both tiers of government. This has placed a huge financial burden on the federal government. All this was made possible by military fiats and has made certain aspects of the constitution unworkable and impracticable due to the cumbersome procedure required for the amendment of the relevant provisions of the constitution during civil rule. Amendment of these sections is almost impossible. These and several other factors now account for why the country is almost at the brink of disintegration. The authors therefore posit that there is need for the convoking of a sovereign national conference where all these issues will be addressed and the federal government divested of the powers it has wrongly arrogated to itself for the practice of federalism to be meaningful for the country.