If we do
not redefine and reposition our tax system
holistically for altruistic governance today
through payment of tax by taxable individuals in
a world that has turned its attention to
bio-fuel and other
sources of renewable energy, we run the
risk of doing so tomorrow with a hasher measure
under a tougher condition after all the
oil wells have dried up. The nation
oil reserve which took about 65 million
years to form, now being exhausted to about 35
billion barrels, might dry up between now and 35
years, going by the production of three million
barrels per day.
The
question has been severally asked and, I repeat:
why do many people in
Nigeria and
Edo State that have seen hundreds of
millions of billions of Petrol Dollars over the
years remain perpetually stuck in the web of
irredeemable poverty? How can poverty abate when
the billions from oil revenue could not be used
to improve education, reduce crime, alleviate
poverty and build infrastructure on the account
that it is freely gotten from beneath the earth?
Rather than use the oil wealth to change the
society to an unprecedented level of development
– I mean the ‘roaring’ years of oil boom – it
became, regrettably, the unviable sour on which
insecurity, unemployment, militancy, decayed
infrastructure, epileptic power generation,
dearth of public healthcare delivery system and
abandoned public schools festered.
Needless
to say that oil wealth breeds corruption,
internal rivalry and unbalanced economy and
fosters lack of transparency and accountability.
The problem of persistent poverty is mainly
attributed to lack of visionary leadership who
find its way into the corridors of power on the
account of its firepower. Unless we right all
the wrongs of these miss-normal processes
through popular elections, through selection of
our leaders in whom the people will decidedly
entrust their common goods – their tax earnings
– we will remain victims of this circuitous
poverty of the mind and stomach. Oshiomhole’s
people-centered administration is premised on
the development of human capacity as a way of
re-engineering the mechanisms of governance for
the benefit of the mass of the people through
progressive taxation, akin to the 7 principles
wealth redistribution. Wealth redistribution is
all about spending the collective resource in
the protection of life, provision of Social
amenities which no single individual can afford
for all.
The fear
of the people of Edo State like the other states
of the Federation, to say the least, is not
unfounded. Apart from the fact that paying
correct tax is almost new to the people both in
private and
public sectors as a result of tax
invasion; and that they have not be properly
absorbed into confidence building before now,
they have the problem of trusting politicians
with their had earned money in spite of the
extant laws as regards with taxation. The only
way to forestall the increase of organized crime
is for us to pay our taxes so that jobs can be
created since the free money may never come as
it were.
As they
say ‘‘if we did not benefit from the oil boom
and the oil windfalls while it lasted why should
we be made to pay tax to the same government –
not this one – who has shown contempt to their
plight?’’ This is quite clear. Oshiomhole-led
administration came on board on the popular
mandate of the people who have sought a break
and a change they can fathom away from the
ineptly corrupt governments right from the
polling boot, which careless whether the needs
of the people are meant, in spite of the
stupendous oil wealth. Now, the oil wealth went
down the drain because we lack sensible,
dedicated and concerned leaders that are
products of participatory
democracy.
Now, the
implication is that less and less of monthly
subventions would come from
Abuja , the nation’s capital city that
has gobbled the largest chunk of the oil wealth
than those places where the resources are being
baked. Shall we then tell our people in every
stratum of the state runs institutions to go
home that the state has collapse, since it could
no longer afford its obligatory responsibilities
of harnessing resources for the good of greatest
numbers in the larger interests of the people?
Or the government should throw up her hands in
helpless expression of her failure over tax
matters that are settled constitutionally so
that the urbane festivities of leeches can
continue?
Taxes are
the price citizens of a nation pay for the goods
and services they collectively provided for
themselves and for others. It is the fundamental
part of actions collectively taken by citizens
through democratically elected institution
called government. Almost always, everyone –
other than a few tax invaders – recognizes that
taxation strikes at the cord of human pride as
the contributory sum of their earnings towards
egalitarian society worthy of habitation. If you
are really concerned about long-term deficit for
which the state has been deliberately plunged,
you will have no option than to support the new
tax regime.
The new
tax system is based on a sound intuition as it
will not fall under a hail of fire like the
hundreds of billions of Petrol Dollars in the
previous administration that used same to
minister to the greed and the of the vanity of
their godfather. There is no other way Edo State
can raise that money. Some people want the new
tax system to be killed to spite Adams
Oshiomhole-led administration. Fine, kill it.
But with what are we going to savage the near
pariah state of the state’s infrastructural
decay that need total overhauling? Oshiomhole’s
across-the-board taxation is the easiest way to
raise the money to cushion the effect of
economic woes. This will be done
progressively. The tax would be paid by those
who can afford to the extent of their
capability.
Oshiomhole
has come right out: ‘‘bemoaning economic crunch
of the state will not take her away from the
stack realities that have bedeviled the state
all of a sudden’’. Coupled with this near
intractable
global economic meltdown is the very
demanding desire of the people to be rewarded,
rightly, for standing by the Comrade Governor
through the tick and thin of his electoral
travail. How can we afford to meet the rate of
infrastructural development in the face
of dwindling Petrol Dollars without the sour
answer of taxation to crop out the required for
funds?
Even at
the heart of economic strangulation, oppressive
taxation is not in contemplation since
Oshiomhole-led administration is anchored on a
freely given popular mandate which has eluded
the good people of Edo State for years. In the
same token it should be noted that not much can
be achieved if we kept clamouring for a total
performance while maintaining the status quo on
freebies – which even the elites have insolently
derailed – to everyone’s disadvantage. Taxation
on its own tends to keep inflation demonstrably
lower, which creates pressure for less wasteful
engagement and therefore more efficient use of
public funds.
Come to
face it: there is no government that will be
willing to cut the budget enough to contain the
deficit without a general tax increase down the
road! With this as a matter of course, this
government will be able to deliver the goods
within the next short possible time as expected.
Published
May 17th, 2009