The Nature of the Federation

The Federal Constitution is an indicator of the nature of the Federation. Against the comprehensive list of the federal prerogatives must be placed that of the federated states. According to Article 38(1) of the Constitution, 'Any subject not listed in Article 5 and 6, and whose regulation is not specifically entrusted by the Constitution to a federal law shall be the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federated States, which within these limits may adopt their own Constitution'. Except for the West Cameroon House of Chiefs and the customary courts which were excluded from the federal jurisdiction, none of the subjects under the jurisdiction of the federated states was specifically referred to in the Federal Constitution. Yet the State of West Cameroon claimed for itself such items as primary education, local government, social welfare, archives and antiquities, agriculture, cooperatives, internal trade, state public works and other minor matters. Even then, as Edwin Ardener (1967: 309) points out, except for primary education, none of these items would have had any constitutional validity if claimed by either of the federated states.

By arrogating to itself all the important sources of revenue, including foreign aid, and by leaving the governments of the federated states with very little financial autonomy, the federal government made the governments of the federated states financially dependent. This severely curtailed their powers. Indeed, by claiming for itself nearly all the most important functions of state business, the federal government ensured the redundancy of the governments of the federated states and denied them any raison d'être, except political. President Ahidjo said as much on the 6 ^th May 1972 when he declared that the federal structures were adopted at Reunification in order to assure the Southern Cameroonians that the heritage which they were contributing to the nation would not be ignored, 'but would be taken into consideration within the framework of a bilingual multicultural state'. The implication being that if the political factor waned, or could be made to look as having lost its relevance, the federal system might give way to a unitary one.