₦airaland Forum

kayfra:
Pastor Ben is Yoruba for all intents and purposes.

crude and reckless bro....so all d Igbo house of reps in gidi and zik are Yoruba too I guess....

MadamExcellency:
Nigerians demand APC fulfill their manifesto especially line one of the underlisted.

APC CONSTITUTION REFORM Manifesto:

•Initiate action to amend our Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to states and local governments in order to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit;

•Strengthen INEC to reduce/ eliminate electoral malpractices;

•Attract the best and brightest into our politics and public service by aggressive recruitment of private sector people, academics and professionals within Nigeria and in the Diaspora through internships, fellowships, executive appointments and special nomination to contest elective offices;

•Prevent abuse of executive, legislative and public offices through greater accountability, transparency and strict enforcement of anti-corruption laws whilst strengthening the EFCC and ICPC;

•Amend the Constitution to remove immunity from prosecution for elected officers in criminal cases;

•Restructure government for a leaner, more efficient and adequately compensated public service;

•Require full disclosure in all media outlets of all government contracts over N100m prior to award and during implementation at regular intervals;

•Reform and Strengthen the Justice System for efficient administration and dispensation of justice along with the creation of special courts for accelerated hearing of corruption, drug trafficking, terrorism and similar cases of national importance;

•Ensure full implementation of the Freedom of Information Act so that government held data sets can be requested and used by the media and the public at large, and then published on regular basis;

•Seek to amend the Constitution to require local governments to publish their meeting minutes, service performance data and items of spending over N10M.

their manifesto are just populist oneliners not really policy position ...so I don't see how any of your points are implementable...when no proper research or policy document where released during the campaign

walemoney007:
if ekiti cant cope as a state,then it will borrow from rich south western state like ondo or lagos....but the best is to have six state in Nigeria if we want to practise true federalism

sir your suggestion sounds good in theory but the reality is It would require a constitutional amendment to get it through and you and I know that ethnic and political interest means your suggestion has lyk a 2% chance of becoming reality thanks

Since the emergence of the latest militant group (Niger delta avengers) from the Niger delta many prominent Nigerians, groups (Atiku, Afenifere, ohaneze ) and as wells as majority of Nigerians on the social media space have been calling for the re-structuring of the country with true federalism as the only solution to the myriad of challenges facing the country at the moment. but many Nigerians don't really know what true fiscal federalism entails and whether its really a practical system to solve our huuuge! challenges.In this bashreport exclusive investigation we find out what true fiscal federalism means, its positives as well as its drawback and whether it is the magic wand to make Nigeria work.


WHAT FISCAL FEDERALISM REALLY MEAN

Not to bore you with a long definition, fiscal federalism (which was originally developed by German-born American economist Richard Musgrave) is essentially having semi-autonomous state within a state with certain legislative and economic Independence for states. Giving them the ability to make their own laws and mostly economic policies as they see fit.


EXAMPLE OF FISCAL FEDERALISM

The U.S.A is a perfect example of country practicing some form fiscal federalism. i say some form because what is in place today cannot really be called true fiscal federalism as intended by the founding fathers with the 10th amendment of the U.S constitution, this is thanks in part to the 'grant-in-aids' the federal government routinely gives states who ask for federal funding. this 'grant-in-aids' are giving to states to fund infrastructure projects like roads schools and hospitals etc. they usually come with stringent conditions attached to them and have historically being used to pursue the interest and ideology of the party in power e.g. Obama's education policy 'race to the top' is $4.35 billion United States Department of education grant giving to states and local schools provided they follow the department guidelines on education policy. thus states who want the grants have no other option but to follow federal guidelines even if they don't agree with it. This was not the case prior to the end of the American Civil War in 1865, where state proposals asking for federal funding were routinely shot down or vetoed by presidents for being unconstitutional (the 10th Amendment of the Constitution prohibits the federal government from intervening in state governance). But the realities of operating a country with the size and influence of the United States made co-dependency between federal and state governments necessary, and That began to make federal funding policies be moved away from strict Constitutional adherence.


MERITS OF FISCAL FEDERALISM

There has been a growing movement towards greater fiscal decentralization in recent years in developing countries, this some analysts (including the world bank) believe can be attributed to globalization and deepening democratization the world over on the one hand and increasing incomes on the other.they argue that Allocation of resources can be done effectively by states and local governments because they are closer to the people and understand what their communities require. other benefits include, regional and local differences being taken into account; lower planning and administrative costs; competition among local governments favours organizational and political innovations; and more efficient politics as citizens have more influence. its also good in a very diverse society.


DE MERITS OF FISCAL FEDERALISM

There are several disadvantages of fiscal federalism as well: the lack of accountability of state and local governments to constituents; the possibility for people to choose where to reside; a certain degree of independence of the local governments from the national government. but the key one its is practicality.


PRACTICALITY OF FISCAL FEDERALISM IN NIGERIA

This is because the key function of a federal govt in a country practicing fiscal federalism is the Economic stability and just distribution of income. Because states and localities are not equal in their income, federal government intervention is needed. historically federal intervention usually comes with conditions. a key hypothetical example is if the Ekiti state govt. passes a law banning grazing by Fulani herdsmen, in a fiscal federal system it is within its right to do so, but the federal govt can cut off key funding to the Ekiti govt. unless it reverses the law. In most scenarios like this the federal govt will most likely get its way because the state might not be able to meet its responsibility if it fails to do so. In Fiscal federalism the federal govt. will still have bigger influence in the states than the constitution anticipated because of its role in economic stability and income distribution.



Its clear that true fiscal federalism in a perfect world is really the best way to govern in a very diverse country like ours. But true fiscal federalism in today's world might be impractical and not turn out to be the magic bullet to solve all our problems some people think it is.

Every week thebashreport will be letting you guys know cut past the jargon's and dissecting the political debate of the week. Visit the bash report for more.
http://thebashreport..com.ng/2016/06/fiscal-federalism-what-it-really-means.html