-
Fiscal Federalism And Resource Control In Nigeria: The Way Forward
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
Page 2 of 3
-
-
-
Defined as the control and management of resources by states and local
governments from whose jurisdictions the resources are extracted, all
federal states and local governments from whose jurisdictions the
resources are extracted, all federal states, from the Australia, Brazil,
Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Malaysia, Switzerland and United
States of America have it enshrined in their constitutions. For
instance, under the Canadian constitution, the provinces and federal
government legislate on natural resources in which the provinces have
substantial control over their own natural resources. In the US, states
have power over their resources and are subject only to federal taxes
and laws on strategic resources.
Financial subordination makes
mockery of federalism irrespective of how carefully the legal forms may
be preserved. The states should not permanently remain dependent on the
federal government for survival. The 1960 Independence and 1963
Republican constitutions not only granted greater fiscal autonomy to the
regions, but also empowered them to compete with one another. This
phenomenon has generally been misunderstood. The advocacy for resource
control does not seek the exclusive control and ownership of mineral and
other resources by the states. This advocacy is built upon the
philosophy of justice that the federating states should have a deeper
stake in the exploration and exploitation of mineral resources located
within their territories (Nenyiaba, 2013).
Long years of military
rule and the centralized nature of the military hierarchical structure
created the financial hegemony enjoyed by the federal government over
the thirty six states (36) and seven hundred and seventy four (774)
local governments. This has created disaffection in the Nigerian
federation. Thus the worry over the development of a national and
functional fiscal federalism for Nigeria is well founded.
The 36
states together with the Federal Capital Territory which make up the
federation of Nigeria have been reduced to beggars, because of their
representative gathering every month at Abuja for monthly federal
allocations. Only two states – Lagos and Rivers – can pay their workers
without the federal intervention. Odje (2000) succinctly considers the
twin concepts of true federalism and resource control. For him, the two
concepts mutually complement each other. A true federal state practices
resource control while resource control functions vibrantly in a true
federal state. Hence, this research study seeks to examine fiscal
federalism and resource control in Nigeria by suggesting the way
forward.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Nigeria’s federalism is
crisis ridden and one of the perceived causes of the conflict is
resource control or fiscal federalism. Fiscal federalism is the dynamic
interaction between different tiers of government. It poses questions as
to how the nature of financial relations in any federal system affects
the distribution of the nation’s wealth. Nigeria is beset with
structural imbalance, and true federalism implies that component units
should freely pursue their own development. Most of the time the
conflict is usually between rich and poor states in terms of resources
availability and the need to have control over those resources. The
reason for this conflict is based on the unaccepted method for revenue
sharing.
Oil account for the nation’s 90% of all its foreign exchange
earnings, but there are many issues involved in the exploration of this
natural resource. They include environmental degradation, air and water
pollution, oil spillage which pollute farm lands, river and creeks in
the Niger Delta region of the country.
Fiscal federalism is one of
the problems that the nation is encountering alongside ethnic conflict
which is mostly responsible for the centralization of the nation’s
account. This problem has caused states to always be in antagonism
regarding the exercise of power in terms of resource control. Therefore,
this research study seeks to investigate fiscal federalism and resource
control in Nigeria highlighting the way forward.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
Page 2 of 3
-
