FEDERALISM AND THE POLITICS OF RESOURCE CONTROL IN NIGERIA, 1999-2018

Resource control and true federalism have remained two contentious and destabilizing factor in the Nigerian body polity. They have been in the front burner of the national discourse since the return to democracy in Nigeria. Most parts of the country especially oil producing states have been agitating for resource control to reflect true federalism globally. This research therefore investigates the fiscal federalism and resource control in Nigeria between 1999 and 2018. The study looked at the internal contradictions and challenges facing fiscal revenue allocation formula in Nigeria. The research utilized both the primary and secondary sources of data to analyze the nature of Nigeria’s federal system and those factors militating against the implementations of the principles of true federalism. The study adopts the Elite theory as its framework of analysis. It contends that the emergence of the military in politics distorted the Nigeria federal structure in the post civil war era, when oil politics, revenue allocation system and resource control became one of the critical destabilizing factors in Nigeria’s federal experiment. More so lack of visionary political leadership and corruption are the major contributory to the agitation for true federalism in Nigeria. The study equally revealed that there are no adequate measures put in place to curtail the agitations for resource control and fiscal federalism in the Federal Capital Territory, hence the people, who are the original settlers in Abuja, have been cheated for too long. It recommends among others that, the character of the Nigerian state must be restructured. This means that the ethnic driven politics and the politics of personal interest and self-aggrandizement must be put to an end. Nigerian political leaders must place national interest above tribal or ethnic interest. The interplay between the centripetal and centrifugal forces in Nigeria’s power equation should be balanced for the ultimate good of society. And the local communities, most especially the indigenous people of Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) under the banner of Original Inhabitants Development Association (OIDA) must be made to be part and parcel of the governance system in the FCT as this will helped immensely in the inherent agitations for resource control in the area council.