Devolution in Nigeria

4 Key excerpts on "Devolution in Nigeria"

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  Engendering Democracy in Africa

  Women, Politics and Development

  • Niamh Gaynor(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  2014 ), this form has been undertaken in more countries in Africa than anywhere else in the world.

  While at this policy level the distinction between the three forms of decentralisation appears relatively clear-cut, the reality on the ground is far less so and elements of all three forms are generally apparent in a messy, complex hybrid which defies such neat classification. With a range of actors and interests involved, decentralisation is, in fact, a highly contested political issue as are its associated layers of institutions, practices and outputs. While some view it as part of a neo-patrimonial agenda aimed at preserving a monopoly of power and control over resources (with this, in itself, contested among national, subnational and local political elites), others see it as an opportunity to pursue reformist, and for some transformist objectives aimed at creating more transparency, accountability and efficiency in the management and execution of local development and opening up a meaningful space for citizen engagement in local development affairs.

  These different motivations and agendas imbue much of the literature on the topic. Before we turn to this literature however, a brief historical segue is in order. While it is common to situate the origins of decentralised reforms within the 1990s, coming as they did as part of democracy’s post-Cold War third wave, the roots of decentralisation can, in fact, be traced back to the colonial period. Hyden (2017 ) provides an excellent overview of this period. As he notes, decentralisation was an integral part of colonial policy where it served as a form of administration and control by colonial authorities over the so-called ‘natives’. As others have noted, under the British regime of indirect rule, local chiefs were recruited to serve as local authorities to oversee the management and control of their local territory as well as to extract local taxes or tributes on behalf of the colonial authority. In cases where no local chiefs existed, these were invented (Young, 1994 ; Mamdani, 1996 ; Baldwin, 2016 ). A similar system existed under Belgian rule where decentralisation was executed in a strict, often punitive manner to maximise the output of local territories (Prunier, 1995 ). Within the French colonies also, where direct rule dominated, chiefs had a crucial role to play in the ‘encadrement des paysans’ (Geschiere, 1993 : 151), exercising considerable social control and manipulation. Thus, under decentralised colonial rule, it is prudent to remember that decentralisation served as an instrument of social control. As Mamdani has comprehensively elucidated, local communities were colonial ‘subjects’, not ‘citizens’ (Mamdani, 1996 ). Chiefs, whether side-lined, elevated or invented, were universally male.3

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  The Failure Of The Centralized State

  Institutions And Self-governance In Africa

  • James Wunsch, Dele Olowu, John W Harbeson, Vincent Ostrom(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  9Centralization, Self-Governance, and Development in Nigeria

  Dele Olowu

  Introduction

  Nigeria, by virtue of her history, size, political culture and the style of her economic development policies, occupies a unique position in Africa. With a population equal to about a fifth of the continent, she has served since her independence in 1960 as Africa’s major experiment in operating a federal polity. Even the military, which has ruled the country for more than half of the period since independence, has had to concede aspects of this federalist political structure as well as the country’s commitment to popular government and the rule of law. Economically, in spite of growing state interventionism since the late 1960s, the private sector has remained the prime mover of economic growth, not only in traditional agriculture but also in such modern sectors as construction, transportation and commerce.

  These economic and political values: federalism, democracy, and a tolerably open economy, are products of Nigeria’s unique pre-colonial and colonial history as well as the size and diversity of her peoples. A major theme in this book concerns the progressive centralization of political power in African countries and the consequences such a political strategy has created in social and economic realms. This Nigerian case-study is particularly appropriate from this viewpoint in that it dramatizes very clearly how political and economic values shared widely by the country’s leadership (and to some extent her people) and the accompanying institutions to which they gave rise in the pre-independence and the immediate post-independence period in 1960, were transformed into more centralized values and institutions by another leadership group. The tension between political realities and the choice of political strategy in the post-independence period has been great, leading to severe economic and political problems. I shall try to demonstrate in this chapter how this situation emerged and the nature of the tensions created, and I will suggest by way of conclusion how the present tension may be eased.

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  Nigeria at Fifty

  The Nation in Narration

  • Ebenezer Obadare, Wale Adebanwi, Ebenezer Obadare, Wale Adebanwi(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Despite (and often because of) the massive transformation and reorganisations it has witnessed in 50 years of national independence, the Nigerian system of federalism is often denounced as a veritable source of, rather than a viable solvent for, the country’s multifaceted crises of poor governance, ethno-political conflict and socio-economic underdevelopment. Three recent major interventions in Nigeria’s federal debate are particularly instructive. First, in a paper written to coincide with 50 years of Nigerian federalism (1954–2004) and published in the prestigious Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Ladipo Adamolekun, the eminent Nigerian public administration scholar, chronicled and bemoaned the ‘bastardisation’ or hyper-centralisation of Nigerian federalism since the collapse of the First Nigerian Republic in 1966, concluding that ‘the Nigerian federation is at a crossroads and has two options: devolution or death’ (Adamolekun 2005, 383). Second, in a 2006 report entitled ‘Nigeria’s faltering federal experiment’, the International Crisis Group highlighted multiple, overlapping, flashpoints and fault-lines in the country’s federalism, including lethal indigene-settler conflicts in Jos (in Plateau State) and other ethno-religiously mixed cities, the insurgency in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, and the nationwide proliferation of ethno-separatist and chauvinistic religious movements and agendas

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  Development in Nigeria

  Promise on Hold?

  • Edlyne Eze Anugwom(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  8 as a component of resource allocation to subnational groups (states) in Nigeria is a deliberate ploy to lower the resources allocated to the oil minorities even as the wealth derived from that area increased. This situation is seen as very different from the scenario in the 1960s and early 1970s when primary agricultural products from the ethnic majority areas were the source of national wealth and derivation was a critical component of resource allocation. In line with this thinking, it has been argued that the imbalance in revenue or resource allocation and the general plight of the Niger Delta region is a direct outcome of the ethnic politicization of the allocation process (Okilo, 1980). In a cruder sense, some indigenes of the Niger Delta see the present resource allocation system as simply fraudulent since it ensures the channelling of wealth derived from the region into developing other regions (see Tempo, 1999: 10).

  The negation of statutory revenue allocation system in Nigeria

  It would be deceitful to assume that various governments in Nigeria have not made efforts towards dealing with revenue contentions in Nigeria. The option of a permanent statutory body in charge of revenue allocation and fiscal matters in the country as a sure solution to the problem had roots in the military administration of Ibrahim Babangida. Incidentally, despite the loftiness of the idea, its operation has left many Nigerians unsatisfied and even the goals behind it largely unachieved and unachievable within the sectional and ethno-regional political contexts of democracy in Nigeria. Perhaps, it would not be amiss to contend that such a statutory approach has added even more spice into the revenue allocation controversy in Nigeria.

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