NIGERIAN STATE: DIALECTICS OF REVENUE ALLOCATION AND RESOURCE CONTROL

Abstract

Revenue Allocation, otherwise Fiscal Federalism or Resource Distribution is one significant issue that has become intractable and devoid of any agreeable solution since the formation of the union called Nigeria. It is an issue that could not be resolved by the colonialists who handed the mantle of leadership to the indigenous nationalist the petitbourgeois that has been at the helm of affairs. In a federation, revenue allocation is a major index of intergovernmental relations. It is the process by which the national wealth or “cake” is distributed or shared among the component units. The national wealth or Resource could be natural or accrual in either ways, it means that component units are not equally or evenly endowed. Some are richer than the others. This is the scenario that the Nigerian state faces as some states are richer, better endowed and loaded with opportunities than others. As a result, at the level of states there is the issue of economic and financial mismatch in the Federal State called Nigeria where the issue of Revenue allocation has generated heated debate and attracted more commissions to handle than any other issue since amalgamation of the two regions North and South. This paper takes a critical look at the state actors at the Federal and Inter-governmental levels in the politics of revenue allocation. Also, it throws a searchlight on the economic parameters of income generation, cake-baking to enhance the revenue base with the belief that without sufficient revenue to be shared, the issue of revenue allocation or fiscal federalism will remain problematic.