Still on Ambode’s tax drive…

FROM time immemorial people have been averse to paying tax; it is like the payment of tithes, first fruit, and love offering in the church. Just as we have people campaigning against the Lagos State revised Land Use charge, so also we have pastors who preach against the payment of tithes; even when the advantages of compliance to both appear obvious. In biblical times, taxes and tax collectors like Matthew and Zacchaeus were loathed, and one favour the people who misunderstood the mission of Jesus Christ would have Him do them was abolish taxes, hence their poser to him whether or not it was lawful to pay tax unto Caesar.

All over the world, wars have been fought against the payment of taxes; the most famous, perhaps, being the American War of Independence fought against Britain’s “taxation without representation.” In Nigeria, our history book is replete with wars and agitations against the payment of tax, directed first at the Colonial government and later at the native authority that succeeded it. Historically, it is the elite who should be in the best position to understand the rationale behind tax payment that evade and or champion opposition to it. Whereas it is obvious to all that States can no longer run on federal allocations because they keep dwindling in the face of ballooning needs, anti-tax agitators still prefer to loiter in dreamland; they will make omelette without breaking eggs; and throw the baby away with the bath water.

We must pay tax. And it must be robust tax. Removing sentiments and politics, we must admit the necessity to pay tax. Like I said here last week, the Western countries that we run to when we need good hospitals, quality schools, good holidays, better jobs and living conditions, etc run on taxes. Why do we happily pay all manner of taxes abroad but are reluctant to do so at home? Taxes here have been ridiculously low for so long and amount to nothing in the face of the daunting development challenges that confront us. Therefore, there is the need for an upward review of existing taxes. Because they have been left ridiculously low for a very long time and attempt is now made to cover up on lost ground, the percentage of increase seems so huge. Besides, the agitators are deliberately twisting some of the figures.

Again, like I reasoned here last week, if Lagos must transit from the slum that it presently is to the mega city of our dream, able to compete with other mega cities of the world, we need far more than what we rake in from taxes at the moment. Having said that, we must now address the following – and this is where I think the elite should apply their commonsense, skill, time, and energy. How do we spread the tax obligation in such a way that the poor is not made poorer and the rich, richer?

This is usually the sore point, even in the advanced countries. Conservative governments usually give the rich tax exemptions while social benefits are rolled back. In Nigeria, using the instrumentality of tax holidays and exemptions from payment of import duties, we have created a few super rich to the detriment of the masses. As such, the richest man in Africa is from Nigeria which, ironically, is one of the poorest countries even by African standard. We must engage Ambode to ensure that the new tax regime taxes the rich more that the poor. In Nigeria, the rich often escape tax payment or pay trifles; that must now be arrested.

How do we ensure that tax collectors do not collect a huge percentage of the new taxes into their private pockets? Historically, this has been a vexed issue. Tax collectors in biblical times were generally seen as oppressors and sinners. They extorted money from the people and cheated on the State; witness Zacchaeus’s confession in Luke 19: 8. The same problem persists till today. Many of the revolts in our history were against the highhandedness and corruption of tax collectors. Our focus should also be on how to collect the Ambode revised tax with a “human face”, to quote ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s “SAP with a human face” damning letter to former dictator Ibrahim Babangida. If you make the law vicious, you will empower tax officials to oppress the people – and be sure the people will revolt. Besides, draconian laws often do not command compliance; rather, they breed corruption as people devise all manner of means to cut corners around them. Lagos State’s draconian traffic laws bear mentioning here. How do we ensure that an Arochukwu shrine-like drain pipe that people believe bedevils the Lagos tax system is blocked? Corruption is endemic everywhere, Lagos inclusive. The corruption of the god-fathers is one that Lagosians are fast losing their patience over. Godfathers must now rein-in their insatiable appetite for grabbing everything in sight. Annexed to this is the corruption of the tax collectors. The popular belief in Lagos is that the State collects far more than it publicly declares. Matters are not helped by the fact that tax collection is monopolised by a company rumoured to belong to a prominent godfather. Hell will be raised if the collection of the new tax is opaque and monkey games are played with the people’s hard-earned money. The time has come to be transparent about tax collection in Lagos.

How do we ensure that the people get value for money? Just as an election is rigged from the point of compilation of the voters’ list, tax misappropriation begins from the point of collection and declaring what is collected. If hide-and-seek is played here, there is no way the people can get value for money. If we successfully scale this hurdle, the people must become proactive and show keen interest in how they are governed. One good point that I see in this higher tax issue is, now that we will feel the pinch in our pockets, we will begin to ask questions and take steps to hold the feet of our leaders to the fire. It shall soon be bye-bye to the days when it was not our money that was involved but “oil money” got from someone else’s backyard far away – “awoof” money, as they call it. Abroad, where the populace is usually proactive on governance issues, it is because government runs principally on taxes and every little rise in cost of goods and services throws the people’s budget in disarray. We may soon arrive at that bus stop. It is then that our “mumu” will come to an end.

Interestingly, many of the issues highlighted above are also sore points in church financial transactions. How do we ensure we do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg with over-levy and or multiple levies? With donor fatigue setting in, many congregants, even shepherds, are voting with their feet. Should this trend persist, how do we make disciples of all nations and how do we get them to heaven? In fact, how do we ourselves make heaven? When they say the world has entered the church and the church has entered the world, they do not only mean moral but also financial corruption. How do we uproot corruption in the church, especially the corruption perpetrated by those Jesus Christ described as laying heavy burden on others but who do not touch the yoke with a finger? How do we ensure that monies collected get to the designated destination? How do we ensure it is judiciously applied? “Who says organisation says oligarchy” is the rallying cry of sociologists and theorists of elite rule. Elites and cabals are everywhere. In practice, “we, the people” do not exercise rule and control; only a few who occupy the top echelon in the pyramid of power do. Democracy, impressive as it seems, is a ruse as the bourgeoisie remains a permanent feature in every society and organisation; they cream off the largesse, living off the sweat of the masses. Time to bind and cast out the “agbalowomeri” spirit that has taken over our churches and society is now! We must stand up to bureaucrats everywhere, including those hiding under the facade of spirituality, and ask unpalatable questions.

Importantly, we must begin an agitation about how the Federal Government ill-treats and impoverishes Lagos. Indeed, this is the sore point Lagos lawyers and civil society groups should take up with Abuja. I promise to join them! So-called multiple taxes arise in Lagos because the Federal Government has appropriated unto itself the juicy tax options available to Lagos, leaving the State to cut corners to make ends meet. VAT, sea and air ports account for the largest percentage of tax receipts accruable to the Federation Account after crude oil. These are lost to Lagos. The pledge made to give Lagos “special status” when the capital moved to Abuja has been left unfulfilled. If only Lagos is given same status as Abuja or it enjoys derivation on its resources like the oil-bearing states! Yoruba political leverage in the ruling APC, if there is anything like that, should be directed at correcting these obvious injustices and not at personal aggrandisement and selfish enrichment. Since Federal allocations are done on the basis of population and number of local governments, Lagos is also cheated on these scores. His bold-face grandstanding notwithstanding, Obasanjo will carry the shame to his grave for frustrating efforts to redress these vexed issues while Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will one day explain what he has done in this regard.

In conclusion, there is the need for the meeting of minds between protagonists and antagonists of Ambode’s new tax regime. Government was used to carrying on as if the people did not matter because we were laid back and could not be bothered. Suddenly, the people are stirring, like Napoleon Bonaparte warned of the sleeping giant. There is no escaping dialogue. To both sides, it is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war.

US Senate to vote on tax overhaul

LAST WORD: As we were putting this piece to bed, Ambode came out with “human face” concessions on his new tax drive. Let the dialogue continue! But let the monies roll in! You would think I am consultant to Ambode on this tax issue! Honestly, I am not!