Ebook: Federalism in Nigeria_Between Divisions in Conflict and Stability in Diversity- 2016

Nigeria is a product of the 1914 amalgamation of Northern and Southern protectorates by the British Colonialists. The amalgamation of these protectorates was the singular primary cause of the Nigeria’s political problem as it did not factor in the consequences of bringing together peoples with disparate culture and religion. The secondary cause was the lack of political will of Nigeria’s political leadership to emplace institutional framework, to wit, the political system, political leadership, political structure and relevant constitution, which had promoted peaceful coexistence and tolerance in plural societies elsewhere.

These shortcomings present Nigeria with two choices namely, retaining the structure as bequeathed to Nigeria with all its internal contradictions and endeavouring to make the 1914 amalgamation, work through political cum constitutional engineering that would tinker with structural deficiency to achieve political stability.

The study derives its objectives from the preceding, which achievement it considers as the road map for ensuring Nigeria’s stability, growth and development.

The chronicled ethnic and religious conflicts suggest the absence of a truly federal constitution that includes fiscal federalism and secularism. Thus the various ethnic and religious conflicts including the 3-year civil war and the Boko Haram insurgency were exemplifications of Nigeria’s faulty constitutional framework or the politicisation of religion.

The review of extant literature and conflict theories shows that ethnicity and religion are identity-based and would thus spawn conflicts while Human/Basic needs; Realist; Frustration-Aggression, Scapegoat and Structural theories are adequate tools for explaining ethnic and religious conflicts.

The work considers the harmony construct as adequate framework for dealing with Nigeria’s internal conflicts.