Olisa Agbakoba, SAN
BY FRONTLINE REPORTERS
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, has called for urgent constitutional reforms to address what he described as massive revenue leakages undermining Nigeria’s economy.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos on Wednesday, Agbakoba said Nigeria is facing a deep Federation Account crisis that costs the country about ₦20 trillion annually.
The former Nigerian Bar Association president described the situation as “a structural failure to collect, remit and account for revenue that belongs to the Nigerian people.”
Presenting a policy paper on fiscal reforms, Agbakoba argued that the country’s financial challenges stem largely from the failure of government revenues to reach the destination prescribed by the Constitution.
He proposed a full implementation and amendment of Section 162 of the Constitution to ensure that all revenues generated by the Federal Government are first paid into the Federation Account before any disbursement is made through a transparent budgetary process.
According to him, such reforms would drastically reduce Nigeria’s dependence on borrowing, noting that debt servicing currently gulps nearly 70 per cent of federal revenue.
“That is money that is not used to build roads, hospitals or schools. It is money that goes to service debt that should never have been necessary in the first place because the revenues to fund government were always there,” he said.
Agbakoba warned that the growing debt burden is stifling economic growth and worsening hardship across the country.
“If our debt burden comes down, everybody benefits. Businesses can grow. States can deliver services. Families can breathe. But if the debt burden continues to crush the government, it crushes us all,” he added.
The legal expert also urged Nigerians to make fiscal accountability a key issue in the 2027 general elections, insisting that presidential candidates must publicly state how they intend to resolve the Federation Account crisis.
“The question of the Federation Account is not a technocratic debate; it is a democratic one. It is about whose money this is and who is being held to account for it,” Agbakoba stated.
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