THE IMPACT OF NIGERIA’S FEDERAL STRUCTURE ON THE STATES’ RESPONSES TO COVID-19 AND THE EXPERIENCE IN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Nigeria discovered her index case of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in March 2020. Despite the remarkable multiple institutional designs, constitutional and statutory provisions, intense conflicts, and endemic disunity, the systemic struggle for dominance in the fight against COVID-19 continues unabated. This often leads to the pessimistic conclusion that the conflicts will continue to have negative impacts on the fight against COVID-19. Using a doctrinal method, this paper acknowledges complementary effects of political culture and leadership on conflicts, but argues that a deficiency in constitutional and legal architecture generally and institutional designs of the Federal structure largely contributed to the conflicts, improper coordination, and disunity in the fight against COVID-19 by the government in Nigeria. This was juxtaposed with examining the experience in the federal structure of Ethiopia. The paper concludes that a properly coordinated Federal structure in Nigeria has the propensity to fight the coronavirus or other such future epidemics. With renewed vigour for the alteration of the Constitution, effective constitutionalisation of the objectives of federalism in the Constitution is an alternative to the present legal order. This paper focuses on these constitutional and institutional deficiencies and suggests the needed reforms in these spheres.