Sir: Federalism is NOT Resource Control. It is way more than that. It is simply a system of governance that seeks and enables the just and peaceful accommodation of various nation-states within a larger entity – country.

It empowers the nation-states, the federating units of a country, with enough powers to determine their economic and political destinies within a united federation. Thus eliminating fears of marginalisation or discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or religion.

Futhermore, it encourages the federating units to be productive partners via the efficient maximising of their natural competitive advantages for the betterment of their lives and the concomitant overall improvement of the national economy. It essentially creates a truly diversified economy and sufficiently diversified revenue base for the government at the
centre.

Thus, Federalism eliminates the possibility of suffering the affliction of a mono-product economy and it also enhances social cohesion.

Hence for a diverse society like Nigeria, there is ALL to gain and nothing to lose from a phased and gradual implementation of political and Fiscal Federalism.

Winston Churchill, the war-time Prime Minister of Great Britain once joked that “you can trust the Americans to always do the right thing…AFTER they have tried everything else.”

Let us not waste precious time (and perhaps lives) trying “everything else” before turning around to do the right thing nay the just and
equitable thing.

May God bless the Republic of Nigeria and make us the truly Federal Republic, Amen.

Ugochukwu Amasike, Lagos State