ALIERO: THE TAX COLLECTOR AS A MINISTER
By Emmanuel Onwubiko
It is in the character of the Human Rights Activist not to be scared of challenges and controversies especially when such are related directly with the urgent and pressing need to speak out for the interest of the public good. For nearly two decades that one has practiced as a journalist, deep thinker and human rights activist it has been one controversy or the other especially because of the peculiar terrain that we all operate in. Nigeria is a special case and Nigerian political leaders belong to a special breed of humanity that is innately gifted with potentials for political deception and double speak. Nigerian political class is populated with people adept and profoundly endowed with the power to manipulate the majority of the citizenry most of whom are busy trying to sort themselves out and essentially concerned with what to eat and how to send their children to school no matter how dilapidated the school structure is. Nigerian common people do not ask question and do not border to demand transparency and accountability from the political class that dominate all aspects of our lives as law abiding citizens of the sovereign entity called NIGERIA. Even the intellectuals among us are easily carried away when the rich politicians throw a few cash at our faces so much so that it is easier for a Nigerian intellectual to abandon ship or rather dump his or her ideological leaning to follow the political manipulators. All that the politicians need to do to attract the attention and slavish loyalty of most Nigerian intellectuals is to appoint him or her into the commissionership position in any of the thirty six States or special adviser in the Federal capital territory or any of the amorphous federal ministries. Better still, all that any political ruler [as opposed to leader] in Nigeria need to do to win the hearts and minds of most intellectuals in this country is to award some plots of choice land in the nation’s capital. A gift of Abuja plot of land is the key and most strategic law of power in Nigeria and political predators and oppressors since 1999 till date have made use of this strategy which explains why most big men Journalists have one choice plot of land or the other in Abuja. This explains why Nigeria is in a very deep mess because a nation whose intellectuals can be purchased with a mere plate of porridge or rather political appointment with little or no power to influence the positive improvement of the living condition of citizens is doomed. Little wonder then that when a man accepts an appointment or little favour and he is asked to confront a perceived intellectual opponent of his or her political godfather, that intellectual will carry out the assignment as if his or her life depended on how well the job is done. In the same vein I am not oblivious of the fact that torrents of rejoinders will follow this piece just like the piece on the Bogus Imo State Airline by the Imo State Governor Ikedi Ohakim where some people hitherto considered to be intellectuals took up space to glorify the Imo State Governor who to the best of my practical knowledge has not transformed Imo state as erroneously advertised by the administration in Imo State. Some will even call me names just like some loyalists of the Imo state Governor are in the habit of doing. Speaking frankly, the new minister of the federal capital territory Adamu Aliero who served two terms as Governor of Kebbi State and elected in 2007 to represent his constituency in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but quickly abandoned his mandate to take up a more juicy appointment as the minister of the Federal capital territory has just kicked up a debate that will not end soon except that most Nigerians are so docile that they will only leave the struggle for Human Rights Activists to wage. This issue kick started by the Abuja minister is the proposed plan to introduce property tax in the Federal capital territory. This writer has spent approximately a dozen years in Abuja and I can comfortably state without fear of any contradiction that it is not easy surviving in Abuja. From the benefit of hindsight and with all sense of modesty I can say that as a well travelled writer, I can state here that Abuja is the most expensive place to live in the entire World. To compound the situation, Abuja has assumed the notorious identity as home for the rich only so much so that those of us who manage to eke out a living are constantly bombarded with the question of ‘wetin you bring’? each time we travel to our villages. Most people in the villages have this erroneous belief that whoever can survive in Abuja must be a successful contractor or politician. The recent bad news by the minister of Abuja that he intends to send a bill to the National Assembly for the introduction of property tax in Abuja is one sure policy that will send many more people out of Abuja because hardly have most people who lost all their belongings recovered from the shock of the demolition exercises by the two previous administrations in Abuja that the new minister has started singing a new song of introducing property tax which will be transferred to the low and middle income earners who are the tenants by the landlords who are already overcharging their tenants. During my seven years stint in The Guardian newspapers I carried out an investigation where we discovered that nearly seventy five percent of the workers in the different federal ministries in Abuja cannot afford the extremely exorbitant house rents in the municipal or rather city centre of the Federal capital which is why most workers in Government offices live in Nasarawa and Niger States and commute to work every day under very strenuous conditions. When the minister therefore told his former fellow senators who are the real House owners in Abuja to pass the bill for the introduction of the payment of property tax in Abuja, they laughed over the issue knowing very well that they won’t be affected since they will simply pass the burden over to their heavily impoverished tenants some of whom are traders and who will exactly pass it on to their customers and the most affected people will be the unemployed youth, youth corpers under the National Youth Service Corp Scheme who earn less than ten thousand naira per month and most of whom are expected to go to the same market with the Senators. Introduction of tax is not bad in itself especially if those collecting the revenue will render proper account to the citizens but in Nigeria and especially in the nation’s capital the opposite is the case because we are all living witnesses of the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory’s public hearing where it was revealed that nearly N32 Billion developed wings allegedly and disappeared from Government coffers during the Nassir El’Ruffai administration and indeed the then minister has been declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for alleged indiscretion. The question on the lips of most people is- how are we sure that the so-called property tax will be transparently accounted for assuming without conceding that the legislation to actualize the collection will be passed? One question that has not been answered is- what have the Abuja Political administrators since 1999 been doing with the massive federal allocations to the ministry of the federal capital that the new minister who is in love with tax collection than governance has suddenly realize that the introduction of property tax was the missing link in the development effort of this administration? Writing not just as the National Coordinator of the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria that has taken a definite position rejecting the proposed introduction of the property tax in Abuja but as a stakeholder in the scheme of things in Nigeria, I think the Abuja minister should look for other ways of raising the revenue profile of his administration rather than think and concentrate his energy and zeal on how to impose a regime of collective punishment on the poor masses of Abuja. First, he has to get his priorities right. Second, the administration should tie up all loose ends in the current revenue drive of the Federal Capital territory. The minister should introduce result oriented measures to ensure that the taxes in different forms and shapes that people pay or have being paying are properly accounted for. Then the minister should read the chapter two of the 1999 constitution and think of better ways to better the living condition of Abuja residents most of whom have never enjoyed the so-called Democracy Dividends since 1999. The minister should ensure that the big companies that collect all the funds budgeted for Abuja are made to pay some good taxes which will in effect be used to provide services and facilities for the residents irrespective of their positions or status. Section 16[1] [a] and [b] stated that; ‘The State SHALL within the context of the ideals and objectives for which provisions are made in this constitution harness the resources of the nation and promote national prosperity and efficient, a dynamic and self reliant economy and control the national economy in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity. Section 16[2] [c] of the 1999 constitution also stated that the policy of the Government should be directed to ensure that the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of few individuals or of a group. Property tax will concentrate wealth in the hands of a few tax consultants and Government officials who will simply collect these funds and pocket lots of commission and will only account for a few cash which in any case will not trickle down to the masses since the allowances of the political appointees in the nation’s capital will drain away the remaining. What will trickle down to the poor tenants in Abuja in torrents are the high accommodation fees that will follow the introduction of this so-called property tax. Why is the Abuja minister not think of how to make our schools better in Abuja? What of the shameful fact that in the twenty first century Abuja, that the residents in the city centre do not enjoy clean and portable water? Can somebody please tell the new tax collector who is now the minister of Abuja to drop this funny idea of property tax. Let him introduce political and contractors’ tax whereby political office holders pay some percentage of their fat allowances as national patriotism tax to Government of the Federal Capital territory if Mr. Adamu Aliero is looking for avenues to get revenue to help the poor.
+EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO HEADS THE HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA.
