Contemporary Issues in the Management of Nigeria’s Fiscal Federalism

Abstract

This paper x-rays the contemporary issues in the management of Nigeria fiscal federalism. In so doing, the first section of this paper conceptualizes the concept of federalism, fiscal federalism and management as well as the decentralization theorem which served as the theoretical discourse. the second section dwells on the Nigerian  fiscal federalism,  heralding its historical ontology to this point and observed that fiscal  federalism in Nigeria has been skewed in favour of the federal government hence the recent clamour by the state governors for bigger share of the federation account. The third section however, reveals the major fiscal federalism challenges in Nigeria in comparative analogy which heralds the four challenges of fiscal federalism in Nigeria. The fourth section discuses  the contemporary issues in the management of the Nigeria’s the fourth section discusses the contemporary issues in the management of the Nigeria’s  fiscal federalism  such as the minimum wage saga, the federal character principle; the state and local government creation; oil revenue issues and the principle of derivation  application as well as the statutory  role of the Revenue mobilization allocation and fiscal commission (RMAFC) in the fiscal federalism management of Nigeria, while the last section recommends policy options and concludes the work.

Keywords: Federalism, Fiscal Federalism, Revenue Allocation, Derivation of power, Decentralization and Decentralization theorem.