THE LITERATURE ON NIGERIAN FEDERALISM - A CRITICAL-APPRAISAL

There is a large body of literature on federalism in Nigeria covering such major issues as the origins of Nigerian federalism, requisites of federalism, federalism versus other forms of association, the number of state units in the federal system, fiscal issues, political parties, distributional issues, and intergovernmental relations. However, a number of issues have received relatively little scholarly attention, including the economic aspects of Nigerian federalism, population movements and the federal arrangement, language policies, federal ethics, and various critical governmental and nongovernmental institutions. There is a need to establish institutions for the study of federalism in Nigeria and to reduce ethnic and ideological biases in research on Nigerian federalism.