Contending Issues in the Niger Delta Crisis of Nigeria - Journal of ...

Chapter VII: The Political Class and Intergovernmental Relations in Nigeria
At the level of federal-state relations, the federal and state executives
have common forum where matters of national interest are discussed.
The forum however lack statutory backing, which means that
decision-making procedure is lacking and can be manipulated by a
powerful federal executive president. Since 1999, party affiliation and
ethnicity have shaped the relevance of this forum. For instance, the
political class, of the state governorship extraction, more often than
not have behaved or related with the federal government according
to the whims and caprices of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The
PDP dominates the National legislature and is the ruling party in the
federal executive and more than half of the state executive and
legislative arms. The National Assembly and state lawmakers are also
influenced by the ruling political party. Recently, the forum of
lawmakers in Nigeria met in Port Harcourt. It was manipulated to
informally endorse the candidature of an aspirant to the presidency in
2007. One thing that is very clear about the forum of federal and
state executives is the lack of substantive influence of outcomes of
such forum on the federal and state governments, society and welfare
of citizens. The 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in
the tradition of military regimes, was not written by Nigerians for the
benefit of Nigerians. It was written by the military oligarchy to
perpetuate military regimes in Nigeria. Contrastingly, practice of
intergovernmental relations in Canada takes the form of
First
Ministers Conference,FMC, Annual Premiers’ Conference, APC,
Ministerial Council and Meetings of Officials.
170