The topic on everybody’s, well, almost everybody’s, lips now is tax reform. Everybody has become an expert, so everyone is discussing it: the experts, the neophytes, and even those who do not give a hoot. Nigerians love to talk, dissipate energy, joke about it, and then move on as if nothing happened.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu knows his countrymen well; perhaps that is why he never loses sleep over our vituperations; he gets what he wants when he wants it. In faraway France, he promised to continue with his policies without losing focus. Did you not see that barely a few days after a supposed nationwide protest against hunger and bad governance, his government increased fuel prices and has done so two or three more times since then?
We used to have activists on and off campuses, with the academic staff unions holding the flag of justice for the people, the labour union leadership being altruistic, firebrand lawyers railing against bad governance, and our student unions being positively revolutionary. These days, almost all these classes of people are peopled by opportunists and scammers desperate to make money by all means.
Our labour unions call strikes only to negotiate behind the backs of the unsuspecting workers; student union leaders have lent themselves as tools in the hands of politicians, even fighting their lecturers at the behest of those who have let education deteriorate, maybe because they have also realised that their tutors, who should guide them aright, had sold out and were running after the crumbs from the tables of those whose children are studying abroad while killing education here.
Our labour leaders, who should be proffering solutions to make the country industrialised and productive for more people to be gainfully employed and our currency to be stronger, are busy negotiating away our future with political leaders so that they would belong and own mansions and imported vehicles and clothes, enriching foreign businesses while killing local production. Opposition politicians who should keep the governments and their representatives on their toes are falling over themselves to get patronage from the government of the day.
Many of our lawyers have sucked in law knowledge but have not been grounded on morality. And so they can stand for thieves who can buy their services with the baseless claim that they “are innocent until proven otherwise.” They pull every trick in and out of the law books to frustrate the case so that their thieving customers (better than clients) can never be found guilty.
Some of our judges are now impervious to shame and give judgements that are not only scandalous but can potentially destroy a nation. In passing their dollar-induced judgements, it is no longer news for a lower court judge to go against a precedent set by a higher court, sometimes even a Supreme Court judgment!
With all these, it becomes frustrating to talk about Nigeria. But we are stuck with it as we have none better and cannot all japa. Even if not for our sake, we must continue saying what is right for the sake of the country, our children, and the children of our children.
The North, now fragmented along ethnic and religious lines, need not cry over the potential loss of revenue facing it now if we had not betrayed ourselves, become selfish and lazy.
To begin with, the North could be said to be relatively united and at peace with itself up to the Second Republic. In the First Republic, a Tiv Christian invited a Kanuri Muslim to his town to contest an election and he won. Alhaji Ibrahim Imam, a politician from Borno, was the Secretary of the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) but later became a patron of the Borno Youth Movement (BYM). He was, however, denied the opportunity by the NPC when he wanted to contest for a seat in the Northern House of Assembly in 1961. Mr Joseph Sarwuan Tarka of the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) offered him a ticket to represent a Tiv district in present-day Benue State in 1961.
When then Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, Colonels Maimalari, Apogu Largema, Kur Mohammed and a host of other northerners were killed in the 1966 coup, the northern Christians were as grieved as their Muslim counterparts because they saw themselves as one. They put not only their profession but life on the line in seeking revenge six months later. The Sardauna was such a unifying figure who could travel hundreds of kilometres to go and celebrate with northern Christian minority kids – he did that when Sunday Awoniyi excelled in school.
But over time, we started segregating in the North, backstabbing and marginalising others based on ethnicity or religion. This was a chink in the North’s armour, and, with cracks like these, outside influence for long awed by, and envious of, the North’s seeming oneness, put various wedges into the cracks and widened them. Now, many walls have fallen, perhaps irreparably. We have become more like the Arabs who cannot work together and, therefore, allow their enemies to use them against one another.
However, for the north crying because most headquarters of business concerns are locatedoutside it, what did its leaders do to make the area conducive so that manufacturers and large businesses can be headquartered there? What did they do when President Goodluck Jonathan disrupted the dredging of the River Niger that could have made Baro a business hub and all settlements along the coastline financially vibrant? When the government of Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani Muslim leader, came, what did he do to remedy it?
What did they do when cotton farming was dealt a fatal blow during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s term, thus turning the northern textile sector moribund, sending thousands into the labour market and denying the North revenue and tax by either derivation, consumption or both?
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The North and its leaders seem happiest and satisfied when led by the nose. As in every election cycle, vote seekers would come and put a black liquid in a syrup bottle and, with fanfare, tell you they have gotten “crude oil” so we can re-elect them or that they should elect leaders based on tribe or religion.
Because we have become so allocation-dependent, sheer laziness has become our lot because of the easy money that the monthly allocation has become to us. Our brains have frozen in time. We lack the imagination, the initiative, and the drive for enterprise, which is why the North is all worked up. This tax matter should be a blessing in disguise; we need to turn adversity into advantage. We must wake up and smell the coffee—to explore the many ways out, as we shall subsequently see.
The North is blessed with arable land and an abundance of mineral resources. From the undulating hills of the plateau to the temperate heights of Gembu, down to the plains of Borno, up to the dunes of Sokoto, and through the troughs of the Benue, there is a variety of arable land and a variety of weather to cultivate all kinds of plants and breed all types of livestock.
The North, which boasts of Kainji Dam—the largest in the country—has many dams and reservoirs, with Kano alone having at least 20. There are river basins as well. They can support high-level agricultural activities all year round. All these, properly utilised, can turn the North into the world’s bread basket with unimaginable financial gains that could dwarf those from crude oil and its derivatives.
It would also be a wise decision to recapitalise collectively-owned ventures like the Northern Nigerian Development Corporation (NNDC), Interim Common Services Agency (ICSA), Arewa Hotels, etc, with the mandate to industrialise the North, starting with agriculture where farmers would be encouraged to adopt mechanised farming practices for producing cash and food crops as well as livestock. That would serve as the bedrock for supplying raw materials to industries that should be rebuilt, like the ginneries, the hospitality sector, textiles, oil processing, etc. Or for building new ones in information technology, communications, banking, insurance, construction, power and aviation.
While the North, especially those in the Great Green World Belt trajectory, must intensify the fight against desertification, efforts can be made to obtain a chunk of the carbon claims. According to the African Carbon Markets Initiative, Nigeria could earn more than $500 million annually by 2030 if it produces 30 million carbon credits annually at $20 per credit.
Who says several northerners would not migrate to a sound communication provider founded in the North? Power generation can be achieved through solar or wind, which the North is blessed with in abundance.
The mineral resources sector is also neglected by northern governors, perhaps because of their fixation with the monthly dole-outs from Abuja. The mineral resources buried in northern soils alone are enough to power a serious nation into the group of developed countries. France, currently enmeshed in debts and looking for another lifeline – because its sources of cheap solid minerals in Africa have been cut off- would soon come and grab them from under our noses.
Apart from concerted efforts by our governors, with the traditional institutions mobilising the people’s buy-in and wholehearted support from our money bags, all these are possible.
Our wealthy sons, who are bent on impressing foreigners and donating for chairs in faculties abroad, could do well to consider erecting meaningful businesses that would provide employment and serve as catalysts for a productive region.
Even our governors, especially the former ones, should put on their thinking caps and be more production-oriented. In Nigeria, a person who has served as a governor for two terms can legally be a billionaire or, at least, a multi-millionaire without committing fraud or any crime using his exalted office.
Therefore, we need to see more of them invest in ventures that can drive production and generate employment in their states. It is the least they can do to pay back to society. It is amoral to run to other states to invest, leaving the people who made you who you are in harsh, unproductive environments.
The North must have boards or agencies to control and moderate the sales of farm produce, from seeds to processed products.
One of the most common “points” used against the North is receiving a share of the taxes on beer while it does not support its consumption. What do brewers use in making beer, and where do you get them? Why should we not add value to our farm produce to get more profit and taxes from them? Why sell them raw? Why sell tomatoes, peppers, and onions just like that? Why not process them into pastes and powder and collect more money and taxes? Instead of selling bags of beans or cereals, we can process them into flour or other products. Value addition greatly multiplies the price of any produce. Conversely, states can charge a certain percentage of tax on any raw product being taken out of its borders while not losing focus on ultimately going for value addition.
Why should we allow livestock to roam about instead of having well-equipped ranches with modern amenities like hospitals, markets, houses, schools, etc., so that we can collect and process manure, milk and its derivatives?
Why transport livestock hundreds of kilometres for sale, losing their value before arrival? We should have modernised abattoirs with modern machinery to process meat, bones, blood, marrows, skins, hoofs, and horns, sell them more valuably, and collect taxes.
While all these are happening, our traders must be guided on modernising their businesses and registering them appropriately. Apart from the advantage of accessing capital, the issue of tax by consumption would be relatively addressed. A trader from Potiskum, Biu, Bajoga, Kebbi, or Lamurde may buy 100 tonnes of materials from a registered distributor in Kano or Lagos. However, because he is not on any database, consumption would reflect Kano or Lagos, as the case may be. But that may also be contingent on the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) or any relevant body to be made by the Tax Reform Bill purposely for collecting data on consumption and who consumes what.
Hassan Gimba, anipr, is the publisher and CEO of Neptune Prime.
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