AN EXAMINATION OF THE ROLE OF FISCAL FEDERALISM AND RESOURCE CONTROL IN THE REALISATION OF THE RIGHT TO ECONOMIC SELF-DETERMINATION WITHIN NIGERIA

As a branch of the internationally recognized right to self-determination, the right to economic self-determination in its internal sphere principally seeks to guarantee fiscal federalism and resource control within a state. These are more often embodied in domestic legislations, usually the grundnorm, which spell out the limit and extent to which constituent units are fiscally independent and self-regulating in terms of resources. In recent decades, the zeal with which the self-determination right and its components have been received by various interest groups seems to have blurred the fine line between the qualified application of the two elements and their absolute implementation which invariably clash with national sovereignty and constitutionalism. This work thus, upon examination of the feasibility of the realization of fiscal federalism and resource control on the basis of the right to economic self-determination of the Nigerian peoples and its constituent units, finds the existence of the necessary constitutional and legal framework for minimal realization; albeit with some legal and structural impediments that require some adjustments. The work therefore recommends the amendment of the 1999 Constitution to widen the financial and resource powers of the lower constituent units subject to the overriding national sovereignty resident in the Federal Government, and the de-constitutionalisation of the Land Use Act, among others.