The Young League Forum

Units or Tiers of Government in a Federal System       As we have vividly mentioned from the foregoing section that federalism entails power sharing or devolution from central or federal level to federating units. This shows that in federalism, besides federal government, there are other tiers of government. In Nigeria and some other federal state, they are classified into three tiers via which power is being constitutionally exercised. These are: 1. First Tier -- represent federal government 2. Second Tier – represent state government 3. Third Tier – represent local government        In similar contents but different expression, Roskin et al (19988: 263-264) argue thus: in many federal states, there are three levels: the national (or federal) government, the state or provincial governments, and local governments.”         Hence, con...

CONFEDERALISM       Confederal system of government is a system of government based on structural arrangement whereby component or federating units are stronger than the central government . Under this system, central government is weak compared to the power of the component regions. Each component unit has legal right to govern and develop its entity at its own pace.      Contemporarily, confederalism has been loosely used to refer to a union of states in which each member state retains their sovereign power: like the United Nations, African Union, European Union, Organization of American States, Arab League, etc.     The following are some of the characteristics of confederalism: weak centre, autonomous union, flexible constitution, right of secession and so forth.