Subnational Capacity and Upward Institutional Influence: Lagos State and Federal Tax Administration in Nigeria, 1999–2025

Abstract

There are very few studies that test the effect of state government administrative capacity on national institutions. This paper is an attempt to answer the question in the context of tax administration in Lagos state, 1999 to 2025, based on a single-case design and historical process tracing and a corpus of 27 tax administration documents. According to one retrospective source, Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) is connected to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) through a study visit in 2010 while the other source is the appointment of Babatunde Fowler (2005-2014) as chairman of LIRS to that of FIRS in 2015. The paper recognises four stages of upward influence – channel, reference model, adopted practice and national transformation and sets out to define the first two. It is clear from a presidential announcement, a FIRS column, peer-reviewed field research and the press that Lagos was the model for FIRS leadership following 2015. There is no evidence of a named Lagos practice in the FIRS, and much of the change is explained by competing accounts. So the evidence in the documents does not allow for a broader national transformation, and direct practice adoption has not yet been proven. The paper does not seek to achieve national transformation, but only documented upward influence on the agenda of the FIRS