Revenue Allocation Formulae in Nigeria: A Continuous Search

Abstract

Resource disbursement is a fundamental fiscal issue in the practice of Nigeria federalism. This is largely so as the nation has federating units with their respective constitutional responsibilities to execute. The Federal States and Local Governments which constitute the three tiers of government in Nigeria are each given tax-raising powers. The responsibility of disbursing the funds accrued in the common pool account is the exclusive preserve of the federal government. The disbursement of revenue to the three tiers of government in Nigeria has been a subject of hot debate because of the political nature of the exercise. Thus, this article takes a critical look at the politics of revenue
allocation in Nigeria and argues that it has remained a continuous exercise since Nigerian post independence governance and politics. Historical-descriptive approach was used as a method of data collection with secondary data used for analysis and drawing of necessary conclusions.