INTER-GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS (BOOK CHAPTER)

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DEFINITION AND MEANING OF INTER-GOVERNMENTAL RELATION


Inter-governmental relations feature a circuitous evolutionary background in Nigeria. It’s not a 1 time and static configuration of interactions. Over the years, certain constitutional and over-arching political events have configured and reconfigured the relationships among the amount of state. This underscores the dynamism that characterizes inter-governmental relations in Nigeria, especially the vertical dimension. That is, federal-state, federal-state-local, federal-local, and state-local. Consequently, to know the character of inter-governmental relations and why these relations function the way they are doing or are effective or ineffective, it's important to capture the constitutional environment of the Nigerian federal system. Nigeria, before and after independence, has thus far skilled ten constitutional phases that have produced the constitutions of 1922, 1946, 1950, 1954, 1959-60, 1963, 1979, 1989, 1995 and 1999. The 1989 and 1995 were never implemented but contributed to shaping the 1999 constitution. Currently there are on-going efforts to amend the 1999 constitution. The method of constitutional mutation has left in its wake a confusing picture on the structure of governance, nature and character of intergovernmental relations. It’s impacted on the situation of power to enact, amend or re-enact fundamental laws, on roles and responsibilities between different tiers of state and on power and control over resources.

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