Fiscal federalism and enhanced principle of derivation have been identified as the only factors that will give every federating unit in the Nigerian state a sense of belonging, which will engender the much needed economic growth.
Speaker emeritus of the Delta state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Victor Ochei propounded this formula in a paper titled, National Conference, Niger Delta and Resource Control: Issues and Perspectives which he delivered at the launching of the Voyage Magazine in Warri recently.
He hinged the import of the submission on the historical methodology of the derivation principle, prior to the discovery of oil, adding that “in the years immediately following independence, when Nigeria relied mainly on cash crops such as groundnut and cotton for the North, cocoa for the West and palm oil for the east, the allocation was one hundred percent, subject to royalty to the central (federal) government to the generating region.’’
The legislator therefore queried the logic behind the present formula when at the time of discovery of oil during the first republic, fifty percent was appropriated, which subsequently dwindled to the present thirteen percent, a development he said, necessitated the stringent call for the enhancement of the derivation principle known as Resource Control.
He submitted that Nigeria’s adoption of the federal system of government, is to cater for diverse interests, and as such the idea of justice must not be selective and ought to be applied in all circumstances.
