Taxation Definition, Type and Objectives Of Taxation,

State-Local Government Relations.
The 1979 Constitution delineated a three tiered federal structure in which each tier, particularly the Federal and states Governments, enjoys a considerable measure of independence jurisdictionally, financially, and functionally even if several forces appear to tilt the balance of power in favour of the centre, and rarely in favour of states Governments and Local Government Councils, and even if constitutional provisions see LGCs as subordinates in every material particular to the states" Governments (Akinsanya, 2015).
AS rightly observed by Akinsanya, state Governors not only exercised their powers under Section 7(1) of the 1979 Constitution to dissolve elected" LGCs and replace them with sole Administrators or caretaker committees but also created new LGAs. Although the constitution enjoined states to pay 10 percent of the statutory revenues to LGCs, very few states honoured the provision. In fact, some states forced some LGCs to make contributions for the provision of some services like primary education. Additionally, statutory allocations from the Federation Account to LGCs, paid into states-joint Local Government Account" were often diverted by some state Governments. By and large, LGCs were emasculated through acts of omission or commission by some state Governments. It is a fact that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria ushered in a democratically elected regime on May, 29th 1999, and the 1979 Constitution, provides for three tiers of government: Federal, State and Local, and that each level of government is independent in the sense that one level is not subordinate to the other in legal authority. Specifically, it has been argued by Akinsanya that:

Local Government Council are autonomous entities, and therefore, should be treated as such. However, the much touted autonomy of LGCs, if that was the intention or intendment of the 'authors' of the '1976 Local Government Reforms', flies in the face of facts and constitutional provisions (2005).

That ,the authors of the 1999 Constitution, like the 1979 Constitution, paid little or scan attention to Local government as the third tier of government is no longer in doubt. Indeed, from all indications, the local government is the least important of all the three tiers of government just like the Third World is the least important in the comity of nations. A careful examination of the distribution of powers among the three-tiers of government under the 1999 Constitutionand the practice of Inter-Governmental Relations (1GRs) in the on-going democratic dispensation, clearly shows the total subordination of Local Government Council (LGCs) to the other two tiers of government (centre and federating states). The question the study ask is, what then is the Locus of a local government council as the third-tier of government in Nigeria?
Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution provides unambiguously that:

The system of local government by democratically elected local government council is under this constitution guaranteed

It adds, and this is very important that:

Accordingly, the Government of every state shall.... ensure their existence under a law
which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.

The contradictions in the provision of the 1999 constitution on local government did not help matters, and set the stage for the later struggle between the federal and state governments over control of the localities.

In 2003,at the height of the struggle and controversy over levels of government, the federal government set up a technical committee on the Review of the structure of local government councils to review and consider the desirability or otherwise of retaining local government as the third-tier of government. One of the major recommendations of the committee was the reintroduction of the parliamentary system at the local government level in view of what it considered the expensive and wasteful nature of the presidential system at that level. This, and the landmark Supreme Court ruling of 2001 which affirmed state responsibilities for local government, were perhaps the queue state governments were waiting for to perform their own experiments.
Sec 162(5) states the amount standing to the credit of local government councils in the federation account shall also be allocated to the states for the benefit of their Local Government Councils on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly.
Sec 162(6) stated that each state shall maintain a special account to called "state joint Local government account" into which shall be paid all allocations to the Local government councils of the state from the federation account and from the government of the state.
Sec 162(7) went on to state that each state shall pay to Local government councils in its area of Jurisdiction such proportion of its total revenue on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly.
Sec 162(8) also maintained that the amount standing to the credit of Local government councils of a state shall be distributed among the local government councils of that state in such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of the state. The Lagos state took the federal government to court on this matter, and prayed the court to determine whether or not there is power vested in the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (by executive administrative action) to "suspend or withhold for any period whatever the statutory allocation due and payable to the Lagos state government, pursuant to the provision of Section 162(5) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

State-Local Joint Account
This an account specially opened and maintained by every state government for the payment of statutory allocation to local government from federation account and for the payment of their own (state's) 10% internally generated revenue. This account is maintained on behalf of the local governments by the state. Two kinds of money are paid into this account for the use/credit of local governments of a state. The first is the share of local governments from the federation account. That is statutory allocation from federation account is paid into this account. While the second payment is the state's 10% internally generated revenue. That is all the monies generated internally in a state, its 10% will be paid into this account to be distributed among local governments within the state. Specifically, section 162 (6) stipulates that every state shall maintain a specific account to be called "State Joint Local Government Account" into which shall be paid all allocations to the Local Government Councils of the State from the Federation Account and from the Government of the State". This section though does not allow the direct payment of statutory allocation to the local governments but recognises the state as the supervising agent that oversees the distribution and the spending of the funds by the local government.

In a similar vein, Ojugbeli and Ojoh (2014) averred that the issue of Joint Account was clearly mentioned first by the technical committee set up by the Federal Government on revenue allocation in 1976. The technical committee however discovered that local governments are not well funded and that the state governments are not initially providing any funds to local governments. It is in the light of these problems that the committee recommend that special joint account be opened so that statutory allocation from federation account and that of the state's (10%) internally generated revenue can be paid for the benefit of the local governments while the state distributes and supervises the spending of the funds by local governments.
The articulation of all the financial problems of the Local Government precipitated the idea of having a Joint Account System for the Unified Local Government system in Nigeria under the supervision of the State Government (Ojugbeli and Ojoh, 2014). Corroborating this view, Omoruyi (2015) avers that Joint Account System and its subsequent inclusion in the 1979 constitution was to enable the state government oversee, monitors and guides local government finances. A critical analysis of the foregoing show that the Joint Account System was established because of the following reasons:

1. To make funds available to the coffers of the local governments, that 1s, local governments will be able to have access to funds from both the federal and state government. The funds from the federal government represents the statutory allocation from federation account, while that of state funds represents the 10% internally generated revenue of the state. Evidence from literature shows that state governments don't always remit their 10% IGR to local governments (Ibietan and Ndukwe, 2014).
2. To enhance state-local fiscal relations i.e. before the Joint Account System, the state government did not have any financial relations with their local governments. Tonwe (2014) avers that the State Governments were expected to match the contribution from the Federal Government. Many state governments did not provide matching funds as required by the Federal Government as the administration of Local Government Loans Fund left much to be desired (Tonwe, 2014).
3. To encourage effective supervision of local government's' spending by the state. This special account was established to block all forms of misappropriation, mis-management and looting of local government finances by local government chairmen and other politicians at the grassroots. That is, it will enhance accountability and probity. This reason was aptly supported by Agbani and Ugwuoke (2014) when they contended that the constitutional provisions concerning the Joint Account System is to ensure probity and accountability in the management of Local Government revenue for effective rural development and transformation.
4. This account was established to see that funds in this account were judiciously expended on service delivery which in turn promotes grassroots development. This, if effectively done is expected to drive Nigeria economy towards the achievements of her Vision 2020 (Agbani and Ugwuoke, 2014).
5. It was also established to strengthened federal-local fiscal relations. Prior to 1976 reform the commitment of the federal government to local governments in terms of finance was very poor. But with this account, the federal government promptly remits or pays statutory allocation standing to the credit of local governments of a state. Section 162 of the Constitution of 1999 provides that the amount standing to the credit of local government councils in the Federation Account shall also be allocated to the States for the benefit of their local government councils on such terms and in such manners as may be prescribed by the National Assembly. Tonwe (2014) submits that the increasing local- federal nexus resulted from the push and pull factors at the macro level of the political system.

The foregoing shows that the rationale for the Joint Account System was to strengthened both state-local relaions, federal-local relations, to enforce strict monitoring and supervision of the local govermment finance, to make more monies readily available to the coffers of local govemments and to enhance prompt implementation of social services at the grassroots