Federalism and Ethnic Conflicts; A Comparative study of the Federal system in Germany and Nigeria.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to compare federalism in Nigeria and in Germany with an aim of establishing how multi-ethnicity affects a federal system. There is also no agreement among scholars on a consistent relationship existing between federalism and the rise or decline of ethnic problems with some purporting that federalism promotes the rise in the frequency and intensity of ethnic problems and others purporting that it leads to a decline in the frequency and intensity of such problems. Study findings indicated that in as much as multi-ethnic federal states may have problems which are unique to their situation; it would not be in order to conclude that federalism cannot function well in such states. If there is decentralization of resources and powers to the states, if there is democracy and transparency in governance, if the intergovernmental relations between the different tiers of the Federation are clearly worked out so us to minimize conflicts, then federalism would work perfectly well in Multi-ethnic states. Another finding was that conflicts can never be entirely solved, since they are inherent in the federal system as such. As soon as power is divided between different levels of government, tension is created and conflicts will arise. This is even made worse by unfair division of resources in the case of different ethnic groups in a federal system. Solving such conflicts in an adequate, i.e. effective, efficient, equitable and legitimate way implies elaborating possibilities for reform on the basis of the fundamental historic, cultural and Constitutional parameters of a particular federal system.