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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The trouble with Nigeria's fiscal federalism: non-statutory accounts and 'un-due' processes in fiscal matters, 1967-2004 |
Author: | Ogunyemi, Adetunji Ojo |
Year: | 2012 |
Periodical: | Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana (ISSN 0855-191X) |
Issue: | 14 |
Pages: | 131-164 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Nigeria |
Subjects: | fiscal policy central-local government relations fiscal law tax administration revenue allocation |
Abstract: | The problems of Nigeria's fiscal federalism can be grouped under four major headings: (1) lop-sidedness in the allocation of tax powers; (2) illegal disbursement of federally collected revenue; (3) failure to adopt good principles for the vertical and horizontal distribution of revenues; and (4) failure to deal with corruption at the federal treasury. Since 1954 the federal constitution has been revised six times. Increasingly, the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) treated the States and Local Government Areas as mere appendages to its authority. As a result, huge sums of money were spent only for federal purposes on projects the FGN alone controlled, outside of the approved national budget. Internally generated revenue efforts of virtually all States collapsed. The overall effect was that whereas the FGN had excess funds to play around with, the States had to manage themselves through dire financial conditions bordering on bankruptcy. Yet, many of the non-statutory accounts of the FGN have been pronounced illegal by the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |