The Principle of Subsidiarity in Nigerian Federalism: A Constitutional Reconstruction

The principle of subsidiarity, requiring that governmental functions be performed at the lowest level of government capable of doing so effectively, has profound implications for the design and operation of federal systems. In Nigeria's heavily centralised federalism, the practical application of subsidiarity principles to the division of legislative and executive powers between federal, state, and local government tiers has received insufficient theoretical attention, despite its potential as a constitutional organising principle for reforming the country's dysfunctional intergovernmental relations. This doctoral research undertakes an original constitutional reconstruction of Nigerian federalism through the analytical lens of subsidiarity, making a foundational scholarly contribution to Nigerian constitutional law theory. An extended legal theory and doctrinal methodology is employed, combining normative theoretical analysis of subsidiarity in EU law, German federalism, and African regional governance contexts with systematic doctrinal critique of Nigerian constitutional division of powers provisions and judicial federalism decisions from 1999 to 2024. Primary data was gathered through interviews with constitutional law scholars, state attorneys-general, and National Assembly constitutional review committee members. Secondary sources include federalism theory scholarship, comparative constitutional law texts, and Nigerian political science literature on intergovernmental relations from 2015 to 2024. The research makes four original scholarly contributions: an African Subsidiarity Theory adapted to Nigerian federalism; a doctrinal critique of centralisation tendencies in Nigerian constitutional adjudication; proposed constitutional amendment language for incorporating subsidiarity as an interpretive principle; and a normative theory of local government constitutional empowerment. Keywords: subsidiarity, federalism, constitutional law, intergovernmental relations, Nigeria.