December 14, 2008
‘Poor government comes about when good citizens sit on their hands instead of standing on their feet’---Robert Baker
Job (not the Biblical Job) was my classmate in Secondary school in those days. Since we parted ways sometime in early eighties, we never met again. While I headed up north, I never heard of Job until sometime in the year 2000. That was close to two decades since we parted company. In that particular year 2000, I traveled home for the yuletide. Anyone who is familiar with the South East, should know very well the embarrassment young men go through in the hands of revenue cum Tax collectors at motor parks and other designated spots, during the dying days of Abacha regime and in the early days of the present democratic experiment.
As I alighted from the Bus that conveyed us from the village, to the Local government Motor park, I made my way to the other side of the park so as to board a vehicle to Abuja. Normally these Collectors hide by the side of the park, and as I attempted to move forward, a very strong hand gripped me at the back and before I could turn to know what was happening, someone was already in front of me while that same hand was firmly holding my trousers. The duo asked me of my tax payment receipts and I politely asked that they should stop embarrassing me first before I said anything, while his second treated me like a gentleman, the bulky fellow behind me refused to loose grip.
They insisted that I must follow them to the office to make any explanation. Then I obliged and their driver positioned the vehicle and we drove off. While we were on the way to their office I kept guessing at this bulky fellow who was treating me like a common criminal even without hearing from me. After a while I recollected the face though he had grown so big, I still managed to recognize him as Job my classmate. As we arrived the office, I presented a certified copy of three years tax clearance which I used in contesting for councillorship election in the Abuja Municipal Area Council. While I was doing that my friend and classmate looked at me very closely and retreated inside the office.
When I finished with them and was about to go, the boys told me to understand and I said there was nothing to understand. And when I was about to go the bulky man came and pleaded with me to take it easy with them that they were doing their work as assigned to them by the government. He said that I resembled someone he knew, but could not recollect where. Further, he said ‘you looked my classmate’ in secondary school. I said no, I am not and walked away.
I later learnt that before then, Job had built several houses in the town but most hated by the people in the town because of his cruelty and to worsen the matter, I was told he colludes with subsequent chairmen of the council to embezzle the revenue collected. Apart from that he collects bribe unlimited.
So when I heard that bulk of the 2009 budget would be financed through Tax, I remembered Job and his likes. Probably it is their time to chop again. It has become customary in this country that every government must favour a section of the people due to lack of policy inconsistency. Granted the fact that there is serious global economic recession but for the government to turn to the impoverished and already sapped citizens for survival, show the lack of seriousness and long term economic vision on the part of our recycling leaders. Already many state governors have been toeing the same line of argument. Adams Oshiomhole (the people’s governor) was the first to fire the salvo, saying that Edo state would turn to tax collection as a source of alternative revenue.
There has always been this complain in many quarters that Nigerians don’t pay tax. But how many Nigerians have been empowered by the government such that they will pay back to the government from the little the government has given them? We were living witnesses to the brazen pen robbery that pervaded the immediate past administration across the states of the federation for which till date, none of the perceived looters have successfully been tried and convicted. If these administrative rogues had stolen these billions and invested same in Nigeria, where fellow citizens would be gainfully employed at least those so employed would have gladly be paying their taxes, and one would not have any need to complain.
Now that both the federal and states government have decided to lean on Tax as the main sources of revenue for infrastructural development of the country, the axe will definitely fall on the common man on the street who hardly provides two square meals daily. There is no hidden the fact that when the whistle is blown, that even the police on the high ways will be harassing Nigerians for Tax receipts. And as usual failure to provide any will attract green or white receipt. The other day along PortHarcourt –Enugu road, a Truck driver was allegedly killed by some revenue ( produce ) collectors at a check point in Okigwe for failing to stop at the check point. One wonders what will happen to hapless Nigerian citizens in the hands of revenue collection officials in the year 2009.
There is no gainsaying that overzealous revenue officials will definitely try to make fortunes out of the situation thereby infringing on rights of other Nigerians. We know that in this country laws are made for the poor, while the rich are above the law. Across the country it is common knowledge that, policemen at check points are selective in their operations. If they see expensive cars they salute the occupant but from afar when they sight ‘Kabu Kabu’, carrying passengers, they must stop them and demand for collar, which failure to give may attract detaining the vehicle, quoting unfounded offences. The implication has always been that the law is meant for some class of people.
Even among the revenue collection officers we have had cases where some of them fraudulently printed fake receipts and used them to collect Taxes and other revenues for the government only to fatten their bank accounts. And in a country where financial fraud is treated as mere opportunity, one wonders what will happen now that all tiers of government depend on tax as alternative source of revenue generation. At the level of our local governments across the country, nothing will definitely happen again. We know the kind of squandermina that goes on when they were given free money talkless of now that they have to source for revenue for the infrastructural development of their areas. It is going to be disaster.
The simple truth is that, as the saying goes; ‘Breeze has blown and Fowl’s anus has been opened’’. All these years (right from the day Gowon said, Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it ), our leaders have been building castles in the air thinking that any country that has crude oil, need not explore any other means of survival. The so-called leaders, enjoying a ‘merry-go round’ game in and out, of the system failed to see beyond their noses and focused all their hopes of a better country on the black gold. Today, all Nigerians are students of history and only time shall tell if today’s lessons would guide us tomorrow.
Ezugwu Benson Whyte, is an Abuja based commentator on National Issues
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