The Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, has advocated a rebalance of powers between the Federal Government and the federating units, saying that centralisation and federalism are not mutually exclusive.
Delivering the maiden Annual Federalism Lecture of the Centre for Federalism and Democratic Studies at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Prof. Osaghae noted that the NIIA boss argued that although the modern state has become increasingly centralised due to global security, economic and governance pressures, federal systems must continuously adjust the balance of powers between the centre and constituent units to remain stable.
According to him, challenges such as globalisation, terrorism, armed conflicts, migration, climate change, trade disputes and rapid technological changes have strengthened central governments across the world.
“Federal systems are not immune to the forces of centralisation and centralisation is not incompatible with federalism.
“The powers of the central government in every federation are dependent on the balance of forces.
“When those forces change, the powers also shift. If they do not shift, the federal system is threatened and it can collapse,” he said.
Speaking on “Federalism: The Paradigm of a Turning Centre,” Prof. Osaghae explained that federalism rested on two concurrent principles – centralisation and “non-centralisation”, which guarantees the constitutional powers of the federating units.
He said that while governments could decentralise powers at their discretion, the constitutional authority of states in a federation must remain protected.
Osaghae explained that federal systems generally emerged through either an “aggregative” process, where previously independent states voluntarily united under a central government, or a “disaggregative” process, where an already centralised state devolved powers to constituent units.
He said that Nigeria belonged to the latter category, making debates over the distribution of powers inevitable.
“It is this disaggregative process that makes the terrain of federalism more contested than settled.
“The central government continues to hold sway, making federalism a continuous process of negotiation,” he said.
He recalled that before the 1966 military intervention, Nigeria operated a region-centred federal system in which the regions exercised substantial autonomy.
According to him, the regions maintained overseas offices, including diplomatic representations in London, illustrating the extent of their constitutional powers.
“We had a region-centred federal system in which the regions were so powerful.
“If you went to London before 1966, you would find the consulate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as the consulates of the Northern, Western, Eastern and Midwest regional governments,” he said.
Osaghae said that the military government subsequently transformed the structure into a nation-centred federation by concentrating more powers at the centre.
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of UNIBEN, Prof. Edoba Omoregie, said that the establishment of the Centre for Federalism and Democratic Studies reflected the university’s commitment to producing research-based solutions to governance challenges.
Omoregie said that universities should serve as laboratories of ideas where society’s pressing issues were interrogated with intellectual rigour and practical solutions developed.
He said that the centre would promote research, policy dialogue and public engagement on federalism, constitutionalism, democracy, good governance and peace building.
GIK/APA