Theoretical appraisal of multimodal federalism as a framework of governance and the prospect of sustainable development in Nigeria

Abstract

Arising from some retrogressive logic, an ongoing, unresolved debate rages about Nigeria’s ever uncertain federalism. Compared to American history, five decades of nationhood is indeed relatively small. But with the opportunity of learning from existing successful federations coupled with her vast human and material resources, there seems no reason for Nigeria to remain as turbulent and underdeveloped as it stands at present. This paper adopts an historical approach and is subjected to the logic of comparative analysis and attempts, within the prism of welldeveloped prototype models of federalism, to appraise the workings of the Nigerian federal arrangement. It concludes that as a developing contentious multimodal federation, the leadership class has the arduous task of redefining the process of engagement and reconstruction in order to achieve much needed national consensus towards the attainment of equitable structures and accelerated national development.

Keywords: Federalism, multimodal federal systems, national consensus, leadership, nation building, development, Nigeria