Federalism, the theory and practice: Lessons from the Nigerian experience for cameroon

Cameroon and Nigeria have quite a lot in common. One of the many shared attributes is the the federal experience. Nigeria has been a federation since independence while Cameroon was briefly a federal republic, in prelude to being a unitary state. Therefore federalism was used as a tool to foster nation building in Cameroon. This paper sets out to examine federalism in detail as a governance alternative, especially as recent events in Cameroon have suggested that federalism be considered as a solution to numerous political and governance problems threatening the state from within. The paper considers federalism as an remarkable theoretical build before critiquing the concept using Nigeria as a case study in a historical analysis research design. It is made evident that federalism is ideal for states with huge cultural, linguistic and historical identities as it enables unity in diversity and encourages local self-governance which spurs social-economic development. However, episodes like the Biafran agitations are evidence that the risk with federalism in such contexts are real and must not be overlooked. The paper concludes that Cameroon can equally benefit a lot from federalism like Nigeria if it is well thought and crafted in adaptation to the particular realities of the state.