Federalism and the Challenges of Operating Good Governance in Nigeria

Merit, credibility and justice could prevail over the application of Federal character principle. This paper attempts to discuss Nigerian federalism and the Federal Character Principle, so as to determine the nexus between the two and to ascertain the effectiveness of the federal character towards consolidation and unity of the country.  Since Nigeria got her independent in 1960 till date, it has been faced with the challenge of closing the deep cleavages among its heterogonous peoples. As one of the most effective framework for governing a pluralistic society, Nigeria adopted Federalism to manage her multiethnic state. Despite that, instead of unity, cooperation and consensus, there has been apparent division, disagreement and dissension. The search for national integration led to the adoption of some other political techniques such as the quota system and Federal Character. Since its full adoption in 1979, the application of Federal Character has generated a lot of controversies in the polity and has become one or the most topical issues in both political and administrative discourse. The paper is a documentary research and therefore relies on qualitative data obtained from journals, newspapers, textbooks etc. The data was subsequently analyzed using content analysis. Findings reveal that Nigerian federalism is far from ideal and the Federal Character Principle which is aimed at representation and participation to promotenational unity, foster national loyalty and give every citizen of Nigeria a sense of belonging to the nation irrespective of the diversities of ethnic origin, culture, language or religion have not been able to achieve this objective. The paper therefore concludes that the implementation of the principle has mired the nation„s potential for greatness. It has aggravated the North-South dichotomy, undermined merit and allows mediocrity. The paper suggests the need to redefine Nigerian federalism and the entire political system to ensure that ideal democracy and true federalism can be achieved; building virile institutions where

Keywords: Political System, Equality, Unity, Consensus.