IF the recent immolation by an irate mob of two men said to be revenue touts working with the Anambra State government does not lead to a re-examination of the workings of government in this clime, then the lessons offered by the grim incident would have been lost. The victims met their gruesome end after allegedly causing the death of an innocent bystander on the Old Market Road along Venn Road by Egerton in Onitsha, Anambra State. The revenue agents, in their accustomed violence, were said to have brutalised a truck driver, who thereafter lost control of his vehicle and killed a bystander. A gory video circulating on the internet showed the mob viciously beating two of the revenue agents that they had apprehended and setting them ablaze.
Said an eyewitness: “There was chaos in Onitsha this morning as an angry mob set ablaze two revenue touts while four others were lucky as they managed to escape. The revenue collectors numbering about six were chasing a tipper driver over a certain amount they had asked him to pay. As they were chasing him, some of them were dragging the steering wheel with him, but unfortunately, in the process, the tipper driver lost control and rammed a passerby, killing him instantly. Immediately the revenue collectors saw the damage they had caused, they tried to flee the scene, but an Onitsha mob got angry and descended on them, setting ablaze two of them instantly while four of them managed to escape. This is one death too many. This has been going on in Anambra for the last two years. The person who the tipper driver hit is a known person. We cannot continue like this anymore. These revenue touts of the state government have killed more Ndi Anambra than non-state actors.” Said another witness, a trader: “Revenue men were dragging the steering with a tipper driver because he refused to give them bribe and in the process, the vehicle ran over an innocent man. Then, seeing the result of their stupid action, they tried to run away. But the angry people chased and caught two of them.” Reacting to the development, the Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, indicated that the police had responded swiftly to bring the situation under control.
This sad story raises so many issues, including how the Nigerian State wants to operate. Just how can tax collection be undertaken by thugs in 2024? Is there no civilised way of getting citizens to perform their civic obligations? How is anyone even sure that the “taxes” collected in the crude, brutal and ridiculous manner indicated by this story end up in government coffers? Why would revenue agents, if any were needed at all, drag the steering wheel with a driver whose vehicle is in motion? Is it that they and the authorities utilising their services do not have the slightest care about the veritable danger signposted by such crude tactics? Really, what did revenue agents trying to hijack the steering wheel from a truck driver expect to happen?
To be sure, the immolators of the Onitsha tax men committed a crime and should be punished. Yes, the agents had caused the loss of a life, but the best course of action would have been to ensure that they were apprehended and handed over to the police so that they could have their day in court. We do not endorse jungle justice under any guise. Still, we cannot fail to acknowledge the fact that the action of the mob was in response to the needless killing of an innocent citizen through the brutal operations of the taxmen, which again raises the question why such crude revenue generation methods should be deployed in this day and age. It is terribly bad optics that a Nigerian citizen on the road had tax agents dragging the steering wheel with him, totally indifferent to the inherent dangers. That was a dangerous move that actually cost a human life, and none of the dastardly events that took place would have happened if tax collection was comprehensively modernised in Anambra State.
Just how can the Nigerian state and governments continue to make use of and justify the involvement of touts on the roads in the collection of taxes? What impression does that create about Nigerians in general and those who govern them? We believe that a stop has to be put to this archaic practice in order to stave off the kind of death and violence it precipitated in Onitsha. This is what is expected of government as it immediately works to digitize tax collection and stop the siege of touts on the roads in Anambra State.
There is, of course, the underlying issue of dissent by citizens who believe that they are deriving little or no benefits from the taxation. Certainly, citizens would be much more disposed to tax payment when they see the evident fruits of taxation. That is a broader issue that governments across the country will do well to take due cognizance of. We urge the Anambra State government, and indeed all state governments across the country, to phase out the use of touts in revenue collection. There is no reason to continue that inherited practice which portends veritable dangers to the citizenry, the government which stands the risk of revenue hemorrhage, and even the touts themselves who may come under attack from irate citizens at any time.
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