PATH TO NIGERIAN GREATNESS: Under The New Dispensation On man’s injustice to man

THIRDLY it is arrant nonsense to say that in regard to the minimum responsibility of each of them all the States of the Federation are equal simply because the Constitution vests in everyone of them the same set of functions. The views of the Okigbo Commission on this point speak for themselves. Hear what the Commission says among other things:

The responsibilities imposed on each State by the Constitution relate generally to the same subjects although the levels of performance may vary from State to State … Although we cannot fix the minimum in financial terms, the fact remains that the smallest state, whether in terms of population; or size, income or expenditure, has to run a government and provide services just as any other state. There would be variation from state to state on the level of government services provided, as well as in the standards of efficiency attained. The Commission is of the view that in spite of these difficulties, this principle is real enough in the Nigerian situation to be recognised and applied in out revenue sharing scheme.

The asininity displayed in this excerpt cannot, in my considered view, be excelled; and the less said about it the better!

I want to begin my final submissions on this matter of Revenue Allocation by quoting Alhaji Shagari once again; but this time with approval. He says:

The principal aim of any revenue sharing scheme among Governments of the Federation is the provision of fair and equitable revenue for each tier of Government. The basic premise … that the constitutional functions of each tiers of Government should determine its share of the Federation account is indispensable.

Well said, but in the Okigbo recommendations and in the Shagari proposals, the principal aim ‘and the basic premise have, in the concrete sense, been ignored. Unless we allocate revenue specifically for the most important and the most urgent of the objectives prescribed in Chapter II of our Constitution entitled “Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy,” and see to it that the revenue so allocated is applied for the stated objectives only, we shall never have an end to bitter wrangling and irrational controversy on the issue of Revenue Allocation. I will not take your time in repeating grounds already covered in my previous public statements on this all-important issue. With the assistance of some of our colleagues, I have tried to work out a pattern of revenue allocation which, I believe, will interest all concerned. It is based on certain criteria which I proceed to state and apply.

Firstly, enough money shOlild be taken from the Federation Account to finance education and health in all the States of the Federation. In the application of this criterion, all children of school-going age throughout the country are treated as if they are all attending Primary Schools as from 1981; and that all those who are qualified by age to proceed to secondary schools at the close of their primary school education are doing so as from 1981, it is also assumed that free health services are provided in all the States of the Federation. The resultant effects are shown in Table 16.1.