FEDERALISM AND THE VIABILITY OF NIGERIAN STATES (THE BAYELSA EXPERIENCE)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The term federalism as practiced in Nigeria is some way below the normal standard for true federalism practiced globally and this has had effect on the viability of the Nigerian state. As the continuous rise in knowledge of the nation’s awareness of its ethnic, its religious, political diversity and corporative existence, the formation and the structure of the Nigeria federalist claims has to be re-examined and to be redirected for good. When we talk about true federalism we shall be talking about ways to promote the economic development of Nigeria. True federalism kind of unites and binds all people of the nation
together with the main aim of creating a dialogue in order to instigate the competition in revenue generation. But overall goals of true federalism can only be achieved when those in governance are given free roles in decision making and policy generation in Nigeria.
The terms federalism as practiced in Nigeria has been considered a prey-predator relationship; where the states governments in Nigeria are the prey while the federal government of Nigeria is regarded as the predator. In this kind of relationship the federal government of Nigeria (predator) is chasing and squeezing the little life of the Nigerian states government (prey).
According to Deniel in the year 2002 stated in his work that the federal formation and structure of Nigeria is completely a kind of gross anomaly. Federalism in Nigeria as the case maybe generated from historical, economic, political, social and cultural factors; this factor can also be constitutional. The Nigeria constitution as at 1999 have a couple of citations in both the second and the fourth schedule on the tax power of both the Nigerian federal, the state and the local government; also on the Nigeria major system of revenue generation and allocation and the continuous management of general public funds in Nigeria. The continuous issues arising from revenue generation and fund allocation has brought about several debate and dialogue than the practice of federalism, resource management and control for more than 3 decades.
