Sovereign Wealth Fund and fiscal federalism in Nigeria (2011–14): An assessment of contending issues

After more than half a century as a leading oil-producing nation in Africa, Nigeria followed the footsteps of most natural resources rich countries (particularly crude-oil) by establishing the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). SWF is a large pool of state-owned investment fund composed of diverse financial instruments, invested in whole or in part, outside home countries. Since 2004, ‘Special funds’, of which SWF is part, have become issues of serious contention between the Federal and state governments in Nigeria. On 22 May 2011, the 36 state Governors approached the Nigerian Supreme Court, requesting the Court to use its judicial powers to squash plans by the Federal Government of Nigeria to withdraw $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account to float the planned SWF. The bone of contention surrounds issues of constitutionality, ownership and prudency in the management of the fund. Relying on extant literature, Acts of Parliament as well as commentaries, opinion pieces, editorials and news articles from Nigerian newspapers, this paper examines the controversies that surround the establishment of SWF in Nigeria within the context of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and assesses the conflict mitigating capacity of the Nigeria’s federalism especially in the light of the nation’s fiscal practices.     

Nuclear energy consumption and economic growth in the UK: Evidence from wavelet coherence approach

The aim of this present study is to assess the causal link between nuclear energy consumption and economic growth in the United Kingdom using Toda Yamamoto causality and wavelet coherence tests with the objective of responding to the following questions: (a) Does consumption of nuclear energy lead to economic growth in the United Kingdom and/or does economic growth lead to the consumption of nuclear energy sources in the United Kingdom, and (b) if so, why? The findings from wavelet coherence reveal that changes in economic growth lead to changes in nuclear energy consumption in the United Kingdom at different frequencies, especially in the long‐run, and in different periods between 1998 and 2017. In addition, there is a positive correlation between nuclear energy consumption and economic growth between 2002 and 2006 in the short‐run. In this study, we also check the consistency of the findings from wavelet coherence which is confirmed by the outcomes of Toda Yamamoto causality test. Therefore, the present study is likely to attract great interest from the policy‐makers and researchers in this field. At the same time, it is likely to start a new debate.