Intergovernmental Relations, Climate Finance and the Politics of Ecological Fund in Nigeria

Inter-governmental relations are the hub around which governance revolves. Nigeria with the adoption of the federal option at the tail end of colonial rule in 1954 has through successive constitutional arrangements ensured explicitly stated inter-governmental relations parameters ranging from financial, administrative to political aspects of the federal system. This complies with the Whearean federal requisites. The crux of this paper is to interrogate the politics of ecological funds in terms of the philosophy behind its formulation as a statutory fiscal provision in Nigerian federalism, the dynamics of its allocation to states and an assessment of its efficiency in terms of new environmental threats such as climate change. This paper notes that the while the idea of funds to combat environmental vagaries across the country is commendable, the current Ecological Fund vote is rather meagre. New environmental problems facing the world, Nigeria inclusive such as climate change brings far greater environmental concerns to the table than what the current fiscal regime can cover. It observes further the allocation of the ecological funds have been politicized, thereby pushing environmental concerns to the background and the ascension of friendliness to the Federal Government. This is in the face of worsening environmental crisis straddling the landscape of the country. Further problem of this paper is the corruption and misappropriation of ecological funds to concerns that are outside the purview of the Fund. The paper suggests that there is need to broaden the philosophical basis of the Ecological Fund so that it can take on new environmental realities, re-conceptualise environmental concerns as developmental problems and evolve more functional ecological financing that can qualify for Nigeria's National Climate Finance Fund mechanism and help citizens adapt to new these new environmental realities.