Resource Control and The Politics of Revenue Allocation in Nigerian Federation

Abstract

The Nigerian state became a federation in 1954 by virtue of the Lyttleton Constitution. Since then, it has witnessed so much vicissitudes. At inception, agriculture was the mainstay of the country’s economy and the principle of derivation featured prominently in revenue allocation. This principle was downplayed when crude oil replaced agricultural products as the mainstay of the economy. This and other factors brought about the resource control agitation. The agitation for resource control by the governors of the South-South states stemmed from the perceived skew nature of federal practice in Nigeria that tilted in favour of the non-oil producing areas particularly the Northern part of the country. This paper recommends amongst others that the federation should be restructured in a way that would ensure that an equitable formula is adopted in sharing revenue and also the minorities should be fully carried along in terms of governance of the country.

Key Words: Federalism, Resource Control, Revenue Allocation, Derivation, Political Economy, Agitation, Constitution, Niger-Delta Region