SPATIO-TEMPORAL INFORMATION SYSTEM ANALYSIS OF REVENUE ALLOCATION IN NIGERIA (1999-2008)

Abstract

The bulk of the federally allocated revenue derived from revenue accruing to the Federal Government of Nigeria is shared with the other two tiers of government under a revenue allocation system (RAS) using different formulas at different times. The sharing principle has remained a contentious issue to date. This paper presents a spatio-temporal analysis of three items of revenue allocation namely, statutory, excess crude oil, value added tax and 13% share of derivation shared among the three tiers between May 1999 – December 2008. A comparative analysis was conducted among 6 geo-political zones, 36 states and 774 local government areas of the country. The result shows that when allocations from the four items of revenue are combined, the South-South zone leads with incredible margin, thus raising questions about the legitimacy of agitations from this zone.