In Nigeria, there has been raging debates on the need to change its lopsided federal structure, which appears as harbinger to injustice, alienation, marginalization, exploitation, bad governance, underdevelopment and general feelings of frustration and aggression. The debates on restructuring culminate in highly contrasted schools of thought, with distinctive ideological chasm, and oftentimes, irreconcilable viewpoints. There is disagreement that Nigeria lag in a democratically orchestrated restructuring to correct many defects in the unitary form of federal system, which the colonial government and the post-colonial military administrations imposed on the country. There is also disagreement that federal structure in Nigeria is outlandish and comatose, lacking in vitality to drive the collective aspirations of diverse country like Nigeria. However, in spite of the assumption that the structure is a cornerstone to the nation’s socio-economic and political downturn, there is feeling that it engenders mutual distrust, agitation, conflicts and general state of anomie in the system. Thus, the generic trepidation in Nigeria’s tottering structure calls for concrete action, apart from the muddled debates on the reform of the system. This study, therefore, interrogates the various debates on restructuring Nigeria and synthesizes the arguments. It relies on documentary method for data collection, content analysis for discussions, and adopts dialectics as theoretical framework, to explain the contradiction of ideas that serve as the determining factor in their interaction, or any formal system of reasoning that arrives at a truth by the exchange of logical arguments. Based on the thesis-antithesis nature of restructuring debates, the study recommends a synthesis, encapsulated in “Equalitocracy” System of Government for Nigeria.
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In-Text Citation: (Okibe, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Okibe, H. B. (2018). Deconstructing Restructuring Debates on Corrosive Structures in Nigeria: A Rebirth of Political Quandary in A Nation’s History. International Journal of Academic Research in Public Policy and Governace, 5(1), 85–108.
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)
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