The 1963 constitution granted regional governments control over natural and human resources found within their territories as well as broad powers to use these resources to fast-track local development. The method by which Nigeria allocates revenue between the central government and states impedes the development of a truly federal polity. The result has been the creation of a gargantuan political entity with a concentration of powers at the center and underdeveloped states. Successive federal governments have maintained the stranglehold on power, justified by the aim of providing a political solution to the disunity and deep divisions that have existed since the unification decree was passed. In the Nigerian case, the exclusive powers retained by the central government go beyond ensuring uniformity. For example, in the United States, the federal government retains the powers of the treasury, the military, and immigration. In many countries with federal systems of government, the central government retains some exclusive powers as is necessary to enable uniformity in governance. Since 1966, Nigeria has had several constitutions, each giving broad-and exclusive-powers to the central or federal government, to the detriment of its constituent units. Unknown to the general, the effects of this decree would reverberate well into Nigeria’s sixtieth year as an independent nation. In its place, the general instituted a unitary system of government as a way of discouraging “tribal loyalties and activities which promote tribal consciousness and sectional interests and which must give way to the urgent task of national reconstruction.” The decree suspended aspects of the Nigerian constitution and, with it, the military government arrogated to itself wide discretionary powers. 34 of 1966, the “unification decree.” The decree effectively did away with the federal system of government practiced by Nigeria since its independence from British colonial rule in 1960. In May 1966, General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigeria’s first military head of state-also known as Johnny Ironside for his exploits in a peacekeeping mission in the Congo-promulgated the infamous Decree No. Nkasi Wodu is a lawyer, peacebuilding practitioner, and development expert based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
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