POLITICS OF REVENUE AllOCATION AND POLITICAL STABILITY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study explores the perverted revenue allocation formula being practiced in Nigeria from 1970 to date. Before crude oil became the mainstay of the economy, the principle of derivation was used as the basis for revenue sharing among the regions, as agricultural products produced from the majority ethnic regions were the mainstay of the economy. But however, when oil from the Niger Delta displaced these products, derivation was jettisoned and replaced with other criterion, which was designed to give undue advantage to the majority ethnic groups. The research concludes that derivation was discarded because the region where the bulk of oil is sourced from are the minority and for political stability to reign the country must revert to
derivation.