What is a Federal State? What are the problems usually associated with a Federal system of government?
Explanation
(a) A federal state is one in which powers of a state are constitutionally shared between the central government and the subordinate units e.g. states, local governments, etc. This power sharing has succeeded in making each level of government independent and autonomous.
(b) Problems usually associated with a Federal System of Government are:
(1) It is costly to operate: In a federal state, the duplication of offices has made it to be costly in terms of materials and human resources.
(ii) Creation of Weak Centre: As a result of the division of power created by the constitution between the centre and the subordinate units, the central government tends to be weak. Again, the fact that people tend to show more loyalty to their states than the central government, gives the support to this claim. A weak centre can affect the foreign policy objectives of a state (country).
(iii) Inter-state friction: Federalism, as argued in some quarters, breed inter-state or regional friction. The reason is that there are differences in opinion among the component states involved in the power sharing exercise.
(iv) It breeds sectionalism; The division of a country into different areas brings regional or state consciousness as opposed to national consciousness. In Nigeria, for e.g. people tend to be more loyal to their states than to the nation.
(v) Difficulty in taking quick decision: Before decisions are made in a federal state, it will require consulting the different actors involved. For e.g. matters that fall into the concurrent lists involve both the central and state governments.
(vi) Fear of domination: The fear of domination of one or more groups may likely occur at the centre, even though, powers are legally shared.
(vii) Disparity in the level of development: Federalism creates the avenue for some states to develop faster than others. It is a fact that, some of these states are equally more endowed naturally than others.
(viii) It causes disunity: In Nigeria, for e.g. where loyalty to one's own tribe is the order of the day, disunity may result.
(ix) It stimulates secession: The fear of domination among different ethnic groups and other problems of federalism may encourage the deprived ones to secede.
(x) Unhealthy rivalry: Unhealthy rivalry is one of the evils of federalism and it can lead to waste of time and IL even resources. This rivalry could be among the different tiers of government, ethnic groups and can even lead to hatred and disharmony.
(xi) Problem of Revenue allocation: It creates the problem of sharing the wealth or the money coming into the federation account, between the central government and the component units e.g. states, local government, etc.
(xii) Difficulty in amending the constitution: A federal constitution is rigid and does not suit the emergency period as well as the changing economic, social and political events of the country.
(xiii) Conflict in the exercise of functions: Tension could generate between the central and component states or units on the exercise of functions, allocated to them by the constitution. e.g. functions that fall within the concurrent lists.
(xiv) Dual loyalty: In a federalism, where two different governments are in place, people tend to demonstrate their loyalty first to their state and then the central government.
(xv) Enhancement of mediocrity: Federalism admits equal participation of citizens especially at the central level of government, enlistment of men and women into the S. armed forces, etc. In Nigeria, for example federal character is used thereby throwing merits to the dust bin.
(xvi) It causes census problems: Population in some cases determine the number of seats a state will have in the legislature. Nigeria, for example is a country with many tribes and languages, each component unit may want to inflate its figures in order to secure more seats.