EFFECT OF VITAMINS C AND E INTAKE ON BLOOD ... - EuroJournals

European Journal of Social Sciences - Volume 2, Number 1 (2006)
At the time of this praetorian threat of carnage and murder, income tax (poll tax) in the state had risen from #1.17.6d to #3 including a
state development fund of 7s.6d. In addition, the agitators were expected to pay 10 shillings national reconstruction fund, an average of
30 shillings water rate, all adding to #9 (Nine pounds) in certain parts of the state.
The military governor, Brigadier Adebayo, was forced to succumb to some of their demands. He
immediately announced a cut of five shillings from every item under taxation and also warned civil
servants in the state "not to make the people pay for services which are not yet available."
There is the problem of perception. Many citizens believe that governance is about sharing
rather than mobilizing resources. They expect government to provide all social services and facilities
free of charge. The era of oil boom in Nigeria strengthened this idea that government have enough
resources to provide free services and cater for government's expenditure. Thus, taxes and rates are
seen as unnecessary burdens from government. Poor sharing of national resources and bad fiscal policy
also constitute potential sources of conflict. This is the case of the oil producing areas in Nigeria
(especially the Ogonis) that are aggrieved over the sharing and distribution of mineral resources
extracted from their land. Inter-governmental transfers of fiscal resources among the various levels of
government and jurisdictional tax powers constitute another problem in governance. In summary,
governance, taxation, fiscal policy and conflict are interrelated. A poor management of one constitutes
a potential source of crisis. The dynamics of their interrelationship is the pre-occupation of this paper.
Research problem
Fiscal policy remains one of the greatest threats to political stability in Nigeria. Fiscal policy and
taxation are central issues in Nigeria’s governance arena since 1914. In the first instance, one of the
principal reasons why the Northern and the Southern Protectorates were amalgamated was to make up
from the fiscal surplus of the south for the rather perpetual fiscal deficit of the north. Peter Ekeh
(1997:40) explained, "Frugal British administration were not pleased that although Southern Nigeria
could pay for its own administration, Northern Nigeria's administrative costs were subsidized from
London. It was for the sake of achieving economic balance that the amalgamation of the two separate
colonies of Southern and Northern Nigeria was effected in 1914". The colonial architects of Nigeria
laid the foundation on fiscal convenience, rather than on mutual trust, cultural and historical affinity.
To Ogundowole (1994:ix),
The amalgamation of the peoples of Nigeria into a federation devoid of nationality formations is in itself
denationalization par excellence, i.e. taking away the very souls of the peoples of the nationalities that constitute
Nigeria, while the federation represents nothing more than the amalgamation of the lifeless ghosts of the nationalities.
Okoth-Ogendo (1996:53) corroborates this point, "the state in Africa at independence was not a
constitutional state", but a constituted state; "one erected on pillars that were not fashioned out of past
experiences or future aspirations"; and argues that "as constituted, the machinery of the state was not
part of the shared experience of the African people." Since Nigeria’s foundation was laid on fiscal
considerations, any thing that touches on fiscal issues becomes very crucial to its existence. This
explains why Nigeria’s fiscal policy has received more attention and public debate than any federal
problems since Independence. Other federal matters (such as the creation of states and local
governments, federal character, population, census, boundaries, intergovernmental relations,
constitutional jurisdictions, inter-group relations, ethnicity, elections etc) revolve around this. The
federal system which was adopted in 1954 gave birth to acrimony, inter-ethnic and inter-group
conflicts. A civil war was fought from 1967 to 1970 around the subject of what should constitute an
acceptable social, political and economic order.
The incursion of the military into Nigerian politics since 1966 did not help matter. Successive
military administrations have aggravated the failures of the Nigerian state rather than address them.
The military has ruled the country for more than three decades out of forty-two years of independence
in 1960. Under military regimes, federal government arrogated to itself "extraordinary powers which
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