The new tax regime should be suspended indefinitely. Giving more money to the Nigerian government has amounted to pouring water into the basket.
He who is not faithful in little cannot be faithful in much, according to the Parable of Talents (Matthew 25: 14 – 30) It will be unnatural for the government that could not deliver even one thing – not security of life and property, not roads and not electricity, not to talk of education, healthcare and so on – for all the revenues of the past, to suddenly become caring by the mere fact of additional tax revenues. Nothing will change until a profound cultural change takes place, as was the case in China and other countries which, like Nigeria of today, were going round in a circle without any advance for a long time.
Without prudence and deferred gratification, more money does not necessarily make the difference. Growing up in our community, there were ‘wealthy’ traders who lived large but could not see their children through secondary school whereas primary school teachers and lowly civil servants deferred gratification to see theirs up to tertiary education levels.
The Nigerian government is the trader in this anecdote. In the First Republic, when it had little, it was prudent and achieved a lot, economically and socially, at the rate that would have propelled Nigeria into the league of First World countries by now. But, since the Second Republic, it has been a study in profligacy and a tale of woes for the people, despite the exponential increase in revenues. Words were never matched with action.
In the current era, we were told that the removal of fuel subsidy and the floatation of the Naira exchange rate would release funds for targeted capital expenditure, curb government borrowing and accelerate national development and the wellbeing of the people, to compensate bountifully for the initial hardship that the ‘strategic’ measures would pose. Alas, in addition to the funds discharged by these measures, this government has borrowed more than all the governments from 1999 to 2023 combined. Yet, the excruciating difficulties have worsened, despite the budgets of trillions. There is no sector in which you can heave a sigh of relief. We only hear of billions of Naira and foreign currencies missing in ministerial departments, agencies and parastatals or stolen by past public office holders.
While the people roast, those in power and their collaborators have, over the years, constituted themselves into an insulated and pampered oligarchy, cornering all opportunities and living large on public funds. They arrange for themselves opaque and excessive benefits and other sleazy avenues for the dissipation of public funds, leaving little or nothing for the people they are meant to serve – like housekeepers feeding fat in the kitchen and serving crumbs to the household that employed them.
In contrast, their counterparts in prosperous countries serve with the sacrificial mindset – in the manner we serve our communities, professional associations, religious bodies and social clubs. Where needed, compensation of political office holders is related to that of the civil service, based on job description. Misappropriation or unusual increase in networth and other forms of corruption is swiftly punished, in some cases, with life or even death sentence. There is nothing like jostling from one party to the other or from one office to the other (like governor to senator) to continue living on government largesse and protection, which is the norm here.
We can illustrate this disorientation with the two highest paid offices in the United States (the world’s wealthiest and most flamboyant country) from which we copied the presidential system, where the remuneration of a consultant physician (average, $200,000 p. a) is higher than that of a senator ($174,000 p. a) and every political office holder largely fends for his food, transport, housing and other basic needs. In Nigeria, the remunerations of the two offices are worlds apart. Meanwhile, the GDP of the United States in 2025 was $30.62 Trillion against Nigeria’s $285 Billion. On a parity basis, the composite remuneration of the Nigerian senator cannot exceed $10,000, but it is about $98,000 p. a. which is unconscionable. And this greed is transmitted down the ladder of political offices, to the local government councilor.
The oligarchy have also cornered strategic employment opportunities in the public sector for their children and relations, at the expense of other youths who have no ‘godfather’ but, most times, are more brilliant, qualified and eager to make a mark to transform institutions and society, but are then consigned to roaming the streets in disconsolation. Yet, it is an imperative of government to ensure equal opportunity for all citizens, thereby, continuously throwing up talents to renew the society by healthy competition such that the son of a Kenyan immigrant (Barrack Obama) could become the President of the United States and immigrants are to be found in critical positions all over the progressive world. In Nigeria, ‘non-indigenes’ cannot even vote freely in some states, not to talk of election or appointment to high office – even if born and bred in the state. The incestuous succession plan worsens the lack of unity of purpose and the inequalities imposed on the country by the quota system. As there can be no peace without justice and no development without peace, no amount of additional tax revenue can address Nigeria’s backwardness without a profound cultural correction.
It is for membership of the predatory oligarchy that Nigerian election is like war, with political office holders always focused on the next election rather than the welfare of the people. Servant leaders will not emerge until the incidence of rigging, state capture and financial and other entry barriers to electoral contest are taken away for elections to become relatively free and fair. Otherwise, no amount of additional revenue can reinvent Nigeria.
Above all, you do not intensify taxation when income is declining, in a tough operating environment. Instead you need a tax holiday and measures to boost employment and productivity. Also, something is amiss when the operation of a tax regime designed by Nigerians (which is the hardest part) would be subjected to a foreign firm, at huge financial and security costs.
One could go on and on. The summary is that the new tax regime should be suspended indefinitely. Without a profound cultural transformation, it will only worsen penury for the hapless citizens and waste by the government, given the prevailing mindset of perdition of the majority of our leaders.