The ongoing agitation for the review of revenue allocation formula has brought the question to the fore; what are the tangible benefits derived by the people at both states and local government levels from the huge monthly revenue allocation to their respective states from the Federation Account' The Economic Confidential magazine recently reported that triple allocations were made to the tiers of government at a meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) held in July, 2011.The reports state that the highest recipients of revenue allocation are mostly the oil-producing states where Akwa Ibom received N20.2bn, Rivers N19.1bn, Delta N17.4bn and Balyelsa N10.8. The non-oil states like Lagos and Kano states received N14.1 and N11.4bn respectively. However, despite these huge sums, it is worrying that some of these states still lag behind in terms of economic and infrastructural development.Besides, observing the budgetary estimates of the above listed states for the 2010 fiscal year, the recurrent and capital expenditure projected by these states include Akwa Ibom, N52.5bn and N257.3bn; Rivers, N90bn and 339bn; Delta state 96.1bn and 136.5bn; Bayelsa 119.4bn and 68.1bn; Lagos, N178.8bn and N250.8bn; and Kano, N48.8 and N61.6.Notwithstanding these heavy sums appropriated under the recurrent and capital expenditures which were primarily to boost the major economic sectors such as poverty alleviation, infrastructural facilities, increase in peoples' standard of livings; most of the states have recorded low or non-performance in their budgetary allocations owing to inadequate implementation, lack of focus, mismanagement of funds, improper planning and unnecessary diversion of resources.The country's current sharing formula gives Federal Government 52.68 per cent, states 26.72 per cent and local government councils 20.60 per cent. Meanwhile in the United States, only 17 per cent of Federal grants are allotted to the states and local Governments. The states in USA in this case augment their allocations through other Internally Generated sources such as sales taxes, property taxes, individual income taxes, utilities, corporate income taxes among others. Not only have they diversified their IGRs, they have manned these revenues skillfully from the onset and transformed their states and local governments effectively to reinforce the standard of living of the people.The governments in Nigeria have different approach towards IGRs for development in Nigeria. In order to gain an increase in revenue from the Federation Account, we have found ourselves in a situation where some states seek unnecessary expansion through the creation of more local governments areas; while some local governments demand to be upgraded into states even when they do not have sufficient resources to be independent of being called states.One wonders the benefit of huge sums budgeted for recurrent expenditures with zero capacity to implement minimum wage of N18, 000. The states' workers are not happy with a whole lot of issues with regard to their living conditions, which is why they are asking for an increase in minimum wage. They hope the new minimum wage would be able to take care of their basic needs such as decent and affordable accommodation, education for their children, affordable medicare and social security. Apart from being poorly paid, teachers cry and protest almost every day over unpaid arrears. With weak morale of teachers and lecturers due to low wage, the reason for the abysmal performances of our students annually could be traced to the nonchalant attitudes of lecturers.The contentious security vote is another sensitive expenditure that drains recklessly the budgets of most states. It is a conduit pipe of depriving Nigerians of improved standard of living. If the security votes are judiciously utilized should the country continue to witness amplified level of insecurity ranging from kidnapping, killings, bombings and robberies' The failure in security intelligence can be traced to inadequate training and skill development in the security operatives. It is a known fact that inadequate funding and training of Nigeria Police is reflected in the pitiable conditions of these security personnel on the streets of Nigeria.Every fiscal year, governments at all levels earmark high percentage of their budgets to capital expenditures. Conversely, only few have well defined concrete project to show at the end of their tenure in office. Consider the bad shape of road networks in some states regardless of the vast budget voted annually for their capital expenditures. Thousands of lives are lost through road accidents. It is certain that Nigeria continues to incur economic losses running into billions of naira every year as a result of bad roads.Inspite of the states' enormous resources and potentialities, poverty is widespread throughout the nation. Basic indicators place Nigeria within the 20 poorest countries of the world. The issue of poverty can be easily traced to underutilization of endowed resources in most states especially in the area of agriculture. Agricultural research and development are not well funded by governments which could have open up windows of opportunity in job creation and other allied developments.Education is also badly financed and managed. In fact, managers of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in Nigeria agree that these institutions are grossly underfunded. There are enough evidences on the extent of dilapidation associated with the primary and secondary school buildings in parts of the country; the non-payment of teachers salaries and allowances which has caused frequent strikes; the lack of necessary teaching and learning facilities at all levels of the educational system; and poor working conditions of teachers in the country.Indeed, Nigeria is blessed with a number of well-trained doctors; however, medical facilities in Nigeria are in poor condition, with inadequately trained nursing staff. diagnostic and treatment equipment is most often poorly maintained, and medicines are unavailable. Inadequate health care system in Nigeria has led to avoidable deaths in the country.It has been argued that mortality in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa is higher than other regions of the world. No country can maintain steady economic growth in the absence of adequate health care system. Good health care system has been a mirage in the life of Nigerians. Health care problem is a national issue that requires urgent attention, but this is not considered so at both the states and local government levels. The states' medical personnel have on several occasions gone on strike for inadequate health care facilities and non-payment of their salaries and allowances.Every state in Nigeria is naturally endowed with specific resources including agriculture, mineral resources, mining potentialities, tourisms and above all skillful human resources. The emergence of crude oil in Nigeria has resulted in a shift from agriculture which earlier contributed 64.1 per cent to our GDP and supplied food, income, foreign exchange and employment in the 1960s, on the contrary, it now contributes less than 5 per cent to the total foreign exchange earnings of the country.The above mentioned problems do not have anything to do with the review of Revenue Allocation formula; rather, these problems are traceable to gross mismanagement and lack of accountability on the part of governments, resulting in diversion of substantial resources from the monthly disbursement from the Federation Account.Come to think of it, can any state in Nigeria today survive without allocation from oil revenue'Jimoh, a youth corps member, wrote through abujimoh01@yahoo.com
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