On Taxation: Why Tinubu’s Tax Obsession Misses the Real Path to Prosperity.
24.11.2023
Listening to a certain gentleman from the tax off e on Arise TV, I jotted down my thoughts.
Since then, (November 2023), I’ve written two or three more essays on taxation for taxation’s sake.
(Links are at the bottom).
Why do I keep writing?
Because, In the absence of real debate, all one can do is post — and hope that someone, someday, will add or detract from it in a constructive way.
Nigerians, it would seem, prefer to hold on to and nurse their grievances — even to the point of recruiting foreign powers to share in that grievance — yet do NOT a darn thing about it.
But let’s not digress.
I write also becayuse, I love tis country, and time is of the essence. Perhaps this nation has already crossed that threshold of deformity — what, in physics, is called Young’s Modulus. I've also written abut this somewhere in my blogs. Perhaps not...
And that slim chance — that faint possibility that we haven’t — is the very reason we must never give up.
The reason I put myself out here...
Personally?
I believe we have crossed that threshold — not the nation per se, but the people - For in their hearts, they have settled for less — across the board, both the well-educated and the not-so-educated alike.
Yet the hope that one day the status quo will be questioned — that is the reason all who care about this nation must keep trying. for as Nelson Mandela once said:
“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made, and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.”
Eloquent Guy — But That’s the Problem!
Listening to this gentleman on Channels TV (face blurred), I jotted down my thoughts - this is what I wrote:
Eloquent guy — but that’s a huge problem here in Nigeria.
We are drowning in a sea of half-baked, half-conceived ideas — headed the wrong way but expressed with such eloquence that they sway all but the most thoughtful among us.
I call those thoughtful ones the “Champion-Noticers” — borrowing a phrase from Obama when he described one of his brilliant Supreme Court nominees.
We all should be Champion-Noticers.
The fact is, politicians exploit a basic truth: only a few people in any society think deeply about anything.
So do yourself a favor —
Wake up.
Observe.
THINK.
Wake up!
Whatever it takes, Be present!
just be present.
Tinubu’s Problem
Tinubu has a huge problem: He simply cannot think of ways to increase government revenue without increasing the tax burden on the already overburdened.
If we are to believe the gentleman speaking on Channels TV, the government has now dreamt up ways to weaponize data from telecommunications companies in its drive for revenue.
They’ve figured out who spends ₦10,000 monthly on phone bills and who spends just ₦150.
This is like checking the pulse of a dying man — not to give him medicine, but to measure just how much distress is needed to stifle his recovery.
Think About This:
- Nigerians build their own roads.
- Pay for the evacuation of their own sewage.
- Generate their own electricity.
- Pay for their own armed security.
And now, they pay 300% more for petrol since he came into office in May 2023.
So I ask the Federal Government:
“What exactly do you want to tax?”
Aren’t we miserable enough?
Aren’t we already the most taxed people on earth?
Tax for what?
To pay the bizarre salaries of our legislators?
To maintain a civil service that fails the people time and again?
To fuel the President’s 200-car convoy?
Tax for what?
We cannot protect our pipelines, build or maintain our roads (have yu seen videos of the state pf nroads leading ut of the Midwest to L9koja or from the Midwest to Rivers State?)
Tax for what?
We cannot educate our children - give them the education they need to compete in tomnorrow's world!
We cannot protect our farmers — or even the genuine herdsmen — from harm.
Tax for what?
To pay the bizarre salaries of our legislators or maintain a civil service that fails the people time and again or to buy petrol for the President’s 200-car convoy?
#DeepSigh!
The Bigger Picture
Despite the race against time, we have failed to mobilize and exploit our oil and gas resources in a way that will benefit us before their shelf life expires — before renewables devalue fossil fuels.
And yet, at every seminar or forum, we hear the same eloquent nonsense about the “need for foreign investment.”
We haven’t put up a kobo of our own to develop gas infrastructure... yet we are very coy about providing sovereign guarantees to investors and still?
Still we expect poor little ol' Smith, Davenport & Sons Ltd, London to bring their money. They should develop our resources and make us wealthy? And until they do — nothing happens - except endless seminars where we roll out how much DFID we meed to build one thing or the other...
For real. That's how it is...
So much disjointedness...
You may want to check out this post: "Electricity without Vision: The 'Funding Gap' Fallacy"
A Better Way
How about using our tax money to:
- Develop export capacity
- Offer sovereign guarantees
- Increase food production
- To fund human capital Development
How about setting up the biggest industrial parks known to mankind?
Example: Measure 5 km eastwards from the Seme border. Extend it up to our border with Niger Republic. Feed it with gas. Make it a Free Trade Zone - and invite the companies of the world to come stake a claim:
“Free land.
Cheap electricity.
Come build your plants, warehouses,
Data Centres
R&D centers, or farms.
Just come.”
Caveat: Employ Nigerians.
Then pass a law stipulating that the country buys only products manufactured within these zones.
Do the same at our eastern borders. Move 5 km eastwards from Bakassi. Extend up to Chad - another Free Trade Zone.
Simple? Too simple?
They said the same thing when we started work on the concept of Virtual Gas Pipelines.
Digression:
I still remember walking through Central Park, New York. It was in May 2010. I was discussing the concept animatedly with my old friend Peter U.
I was living in Houston at the time and had come down to renew my passport.
I recall that President Yar’Adua had just died, and his picture hung at the Nigerian Consulate. What struck me — and still does — was the plastic wreath around his portrait. (It was most embarrassing. Truly, most embarrassing.)
Fast forward to today:
Gas-powered electricity plants are being planned in places far from pipelines — with no second thoughts.
(Sometimes we overlook the simplest solutions precisely because they are simple.)
Final Thought
Asiwaju Tinubu needs to rethink this philosophy of taxation for taxation’s sake.
It didn’t help Lagos — certainly not in human capital development, nor in creating sustainable businesses and services.
For example:
Lagos should have the biggest fishing company in West Africa — it does not.
It should have a long chain of beachfront five-star hotels — it does not.
Taxation for taxation’s sake only encouraged waste — grandiose projects with massive cost overruns and uncertain completion dates.I’m pressed for time, so I’ll rest it here.
Don Kenobi
Related Articles from My Blog:
1️⃣ A Nation Cannot Tax Itself into Prosperity — Winston Churchill (1904)
2️⃣ Ten-Point Manifesto Against Waste
3️⃣ Manifesto Against Waste
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