International records / OpenAlex research

Stability of the Federal System in Nigeria: Elite Attitudes at the Constituent Assembly Toward the Creation of New States

The Constituent Assembly which approved the constitution for Nigeria's Second Republic (1979–1983) decided that no new states should be created at that time and adopted procedures making state creation in the future virtually impossible. The Assembly's action implied that elite consensus had been achieved on the existing territorial configuration of the federation. Yet events during the Second Republic seemed to belie such an interpretation. To resolve the contradiction a content analysis of the Constituent Assembly debates was undertaken. It showed widespread dissatisfaction with the existing…