Financing Public Deficits in Nigeria: Groping in the Dark for Taxation

Taxation as the orthodox source of public finance has waned in contemporary Nigeria’s fiscal management, due to tax payers’ diminished expectation of service delivery by government. In the alternative, public debt has gained currency and prominence, irrespective of the high risk complexion. Fiscal renaissance, particularly since the 1990s, has engendered a legion of reforms aimed at repositioning taxation and substantially increasing collections. The objective of this study is to conduct an expository examination of the inhibitions of voluntary tax compliance; and to explore prospects of leapfrogging tax contribution from the posterior position, given the lacunae in extant studies. In the descriptive research design, underpinned by the range of structural-functionalist and expectancy theories, salient among the findings of the study is the diminished contribution of taxation to Nigeria’s GDP and total revenue, due to weak institutional framework and pervasive erosion of enthusiasm among tax payers. In the circumstance, Nigeria may be groping in the dark, in search of huge tax revenues. Accordingly, it is recommended, among others, that far-reaching fiscal reforms should be undertaken, to strengthen existing tax administration machinery; and to support the fiscal reformation, against the backdrop of mounting public debt.