A Historical Reconstruction of the Essential Characteristics of Nigeria’s Federal Budget, 1954-2000

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Adetunji Ojo Ogunyemi

Abstract

This study analyses the basic features that characterised the budget and budgeting processes of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 1954 to 2000. The characteristics are discussed around the theme of public financial accountability and transparency in governance. The study establishes that the characteristics of Nigeria’s budgetary processes during the period under review conditioned the fiscal behaviour of the country’s federal finances and contained peculiar fiscal and legal dimensions worthy of emphasis. The study relies on a method of historical chronology and exegetical analysis of all identified features contained in the forty-seven Appropriation Acts passed and enforced during 1954-2000 in identifying common fiscal characters in them and arriving at its findings and conclusions. The study found that repetitive budgeting, extra-budgetary expenditure and the circumvention of the laws on public accountability especially after independence in 1960 were the most visible negative features of the Nigerian budget during the period studied.

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How to Cite
Ogunyemi, A. O. (2017). A Historical Reconstruction of the Essential Characteristics of Nigeria’s Federal Budget, 1954-2000. Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society, 5(1), 55–82. Retrieved from https://journals.uhk.cz/modernafrica/article/view/144
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Author Biography

Adetunji Ojo Ogunyemi, Department of History, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife

Holds a Doctorate Degree in History from the University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria, specialising in financial history. He also holds a Master of Laws Degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He is a lecturer in the Department of History, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. His research interests are in the areas of Public Finance and the Legal History of Africa. Dr Ogunyemi’s PhD thesis “Federal Budgets in Nigeria, 1954-1999: A History of the Processes, Policies and Problems,” was adjudged in May, 2012 by the Nigerian National Universities Commission, the apex regulatory body for University Education in Nigeria, as: “The Best PhD Thesis in the Discipline of Arts within the Nigerian University System During 2008.”