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

European Journal of Social Sciences - Volume 2, Number 1 (2006)
sharing the rest among the tiers of government and special funds at the rates already state
above.
Others sources of fiscal stress
These can be classified into socio-political and structural sources. By socio-political
sources, references are being made to issues like pervasive corruption and imposition of
some (extra-budgetary) ad-hoc functions on local governments by both state and federal
governments. On the other hand, the state government’s freedom to interfere and make
automatic and numerous extra-budgetary deductions from the statutory allocation of the
local governments as occasioned by the nature of intergovernmental fiscal relations is of
immense. Examples of such imposed ad-hoc functions as well as extra-budgetary
deductions are as already listed elsewhere in this work. Of importance to this part of the
work is the aforementioned structural arrangement with respect to fiscal transfers.
Specifically, this bothers on the supervising state’s right to establish and maintain a State
Joint Local Government Account into which are paid all allocations to the local
government councils of the state from the federation account and from the internally
generated revenue (10%) of the supervising state (section 162 (8) of the 1999
Constitution). Apart from the fact that this arrangement allows the state to impose
deductions on the local governments at will, it is often used as political instrument to
settle scores with local government chairmen either with different political party
affiliation or when not at peace with the state on one ground or the other.
Implications of fiscal stress
From the foregoing, the existing fiscal stress at the local government level in Nigeria is
traceable to three main sources: inadequate tax-raising power, inadequate revenuesharing
power as well as socio-political and structural problems with respect to
intergovernmental fiscal relationship existing among the three tiers of government.
There are two major effects of these inadequacies. First, the capacity of the local
governments to play their roles as agents of development is limited, especially finding it
difficult to meet the increasing scope, scale and standard of services needed in the
community today (Iniodu, 1999:293). More concretely, it negatively affects the
economic viability of the third tier of government and in effect not able to perform their
constitutionally assigned responsibilities. Second, the inability of local governments to
raise substantial portions of their recurrent revenue requirements from internal sources
undermines the autonomy that is implicit in the idea of a third tier of government
(Adamolekun, 1984). This is evident in the current revenue structure of local
governments as the federal government is relied upon for more than 90 percent of their
revenue. At macro level, it negates the relevance of local government creation to citizens
since such a fiscal relationship will not allow for self-determination. Above all, with the
relationship said to be lacking ‘ethos of justice’ (Adesina, 1998), the struggle for the
control of federal power and influence among the regional blocs has increased. In
addition, it has over time led to the emergence of domineering and autocratic federal
government. Apart from the fact that it influences changes to the revenue allocation
system, it determines what is actually paid into the federation account, deducts (at
source) outstanding loans of any unit or such other payments as it deems fit, and more
often than not delays disbursement to other two levels of government for political or any
other reason(s). It even withholds funds meant for other levels at will as it was
experienced when it (federal) withheld 13 percent derivation fund in the early periods of
the fourth republic and more recently the allocation for local governments in the states
where additional ones were created. The federal government uses this as a weapon
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