ABSTRACT:

This paper examines the various issues and challenges confronting fiscal federalism in Nigeria‟s Fourth Republic. It argues that there is the need to find a revenue base in order to maintain the important function of governments at all levels but managing these important government function and the accompanying revenue base has been a major challenge for intergovernmental relations in the current democratic experience. Several issues bothering on the operation of the federal structure, revenue allocation and resource control have dominated the country‟s fiscal federalism practice in the fourth republic with their attendant crises and contortions. The paper submits that restructuring the federal polity in a „true sense‟ of it and constitutional adherence to provisions on common good are recipes that would ensure and guarantee a smooth, unhindered fiscal relations among the federal, state and local governments in Nigeria.