FISCAL FEDERALISM: PANACEA TO CHALLENGES OF ACCOUNTABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Fiscal federalism is a key principle of federal system of government instituted to address the critical challenges of accountability and development. This paper examines the extent to which fiscal federalism had mitigated the challenges of accountability and development in Nigeria, using historical data, for the period 1981-2016. Empirical evidence from the two models estimated using the bounds testing co-integration procedure also known as autoregressive distributed lag estimation procedure reveals that fiscal federalism promotes accountability and economic development in Nigeria. The finding of this paper also suggests that for maximum impact on longrun economic development and promotion of public sector accountability in Nigeria, government should ensure the simultaneous decentralisation of expenditure and revenue powers or responsibilities to sub-national governments ceteris paribus