Budgets, Blame, and the System We Allow
The FIRS Question
Have you seen the FIRS budget?
Utterly ridiculous.
And somehow, if it passes, we blame the Executive arm.
Yes, the Executive should be blamed. But let’s pause and examine the chain of command.
The Chain of Complicity
Nigerian civil servants sat together and decided that, in a country like ours, the Federal Inland Revenue Service requires a new multi-million-dollar office, along with all the paraphernalia befitting a tax collector who produces nothing.
They passed it to their oga at the top.
He agreed.
It then moved to the compiler of the budget.
Green light.
From there, to the legislative assembly.
Passed into law.
And finally, the Executive signs it.
Then we say:
“Blame the Executive.”
A Small Example, A Big Truth
At a popular recreation club in Lagos, reverse parking has been banned.
Yet, inside that same club, you must use your car to get around and eventually exit.
When you ask why, the answer is simple:
“Management said so.”
The Executive again.
But in fairness, that decision may well have been arrived at by consensus, perhaps even by majority vote.
Which brings us back to the uncomfortable truth:
The Hell We Allow
The hell we see is the hell we allow.
We define it.
We build it.
We embellish its boundaries.
We are not victims.
We are the problem.
Back to FIRS
The FIRS should be improving its processes.
It should be creating value by reducing its own overhead, not competing for funding with sub-national entities, with health, education, agriculture, and other vital institutions.
A tax authority should not behave like a consumption center.
Budgets as the Origin of Failure
Almost every defect in our economy begins at the budget.
I have written about this extensively in a series of essays under the theme:
Nation Building.
The real question is:
How are these budgets created?
What is the process?
The Missing Foundation
I once used the term “Loya Jagir” (loosely inspired by consultative assemblies like the Loya Jirga in Afghanistan).
The idea is simple:
Budgets should be built from the ground up.
From wards
To local governments
To states
And finally to the federal government
Not the other way around.
Let the People Decide
Even political salaries need not be uniform.
Let the people decide.
Let states determine:
What they pay their politicians
What they allocate as “security votes”
What their priorities are
If a state chooses to pay its senators $1 million monthly, that is its decision, and its burden.
Responsibility must follow choice.
Returning to First Principles
But instead, we centralize decisions, diffuse responsibility, and then act surprised at the outcomes.
Back to FIRS…
#Deep sigh
I Rest My Case
#dk
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