Nigerians should hold governors accountable for grassroots

• Many Nigerians still ignorant of new tax law

By Kehinde Aderemi

Hon Tunde Doherty is the Chairman of the United Kingdom Chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC). He is also the Chairman, Committee of Diaspora chairmen of the APC.

In this interview, the APC chieftain highlights the achievements of the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the last two and a half years.

He also noted that with the huge allocations from the Federation account to state governors, there’s a need for Nigerians to hold governors accountable for grassroots development.

What has been the major role of the UK chapter of the APC in the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu?

Our role has been very enormous, right from the very first day the All Progressive Congress became a merger party till now that our party has become a mega party and even as the largest party in Africa.

Those of us that believed in the excellent workings of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came together as part of an initiative that reminisced from the then Hope’ 93 of the late Chief MKO Abiola.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, being a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at those periods, truly understands the enormity of giving Nigerians hope. We believe in his ability and capacity as a former senator, former governor and a foremost political strategist.

So when the APC came with the Renewed Hope Agenda, it became the vehicle for the actualisation of the Nigerian dream, it also became a driving force for people like us as we have continued to put in all our efforts and strengths to work with president Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

For instance, in about two and a half years of the administration, we can all see the mega achievements. And it is no doubt now that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda has become the catalyst for Nigeria’s progress.

Nigerians are happy and impressed that their hopes have been renewed in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of this administration.

So, in all of these, the APC UK, under my leadership as chairman, has been in the forefront of making sure that we do all our best to galvanise the international community to understand the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In the UK, so far, we have done quite a lot of campaigns .We have visited various countries where we have APC chapters. As the chairman of the APC UK and chairman of all Diaspora chairmen, I have been to quite a lot of countries abroad to make sure that the Renewed Hope agenda is well explained to Nigeria and the international community.

And from the Renewed Hope agenda, we can see a lot of gains, including trade, bilateral agreements that are emanating from our efforts. For Nigeria and Nigerians, the pains of the previous years have been turned to gains in the Renewed Hope agenda.

A lot of great individuals, investors are now interested to come to Nigeria. Those are the things that we have done in making sure we take care of the Renewed Hope agenda at global levels.

Apart from the visits to the various countries where we promote APC Agenda, we have also attended the United Nations General Assembly since the time Asiwaju Tinubu became our party’s candidate and we have been holding important events in New York, which has attracted business and investments to Nigeria.

Within the Renewed Hope agenda, we have done quite a lot of collaborations. We have also visited Ministers and Presidents of other countries to allay the fears and dislodge negative narratives being propagated by the opposition about the security challenges in Nigeria.

For instance, when the issue of killings of Christians was tough, we were in Washington. We were in the White House. We sent letters to the White House to let them realise that the narrative being spread by the oppositions was not truly the fact.

And you can see what happened thereafter; collaboration between the US and our government, through the effort and through the diligent resolution masterstroke of the president, which has begun to yield fruits.

A lot of things are now happenings in the area of security. Those are some of the things we do all the time as members of the APC UK.

Almost three years into the administration of President Bola Tinubu, many people are saying Nigerians are still grappling with economic hardship, resulting from poor handling of the Nigeria’s economy by this administration. What is your take on that?

That is not true. Let me say it here that by May this year, President Bola Tinubu’s administration will be three years in the saddle. Yes. But the truth remains that this same administration has achieved great milestones in different facets of the Nigerian economy.

Many are saying they can’t see such achievements…

Some of these achievements that we can mention are a common one. These include the students’ loan. In the history of Nigeria, apart from the Free Education policy of the Western Region under the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory, President Bola Tinubu has inaugurated the students finance scheme. And over 1000 students have benefited from the loan. There is the issue of giving allowances, stipends to students, which, of course, has received applause from various beneficiaries across the country and even beyond.

Outside of that, we talk about technology initiatives, where the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, has been opening Information Technology skill acquisition centres in every part of the country.

We can see the Lagos- Calabar Coastal Road as one of the legacy projects, lasting infrastructure and achievements of the Tinubu’s administration.

Recently, the APC UK executive visited the Lagos- Calabar Coastal Road during their visits to Nigeria as part of efforts to promote the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

For instance, the coastal road begins from Lagos to Calabar, and another from Lagos to Sokoto. This roads have business and economic impact. Anybody that understands the importance of development will see that the Lagos- Calabar Coastal road will open the nation to various aspects of businesses, both in blue economy, tourism and in other sectors of our economy. Global investors are always glad to be part of this Tinubu’s transformation of the Nigerian economy.

There’s a lot of innovations going on in the Ministry of Interior, under Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. The tremendous transformation in that sector has been massive. It does not take an ordinary Nigerian citizen eternity to get the Nigerian passport as it was in the past. These are fantastic and great improvements for our nation, that this man, in less than two and a half years, has achieved what Nigeria could not achieve since our independence in 1960.

I can continue without stopping. A good example of Nigeria’s recent transition comes to mind when you remember that Oyo State for instance, has just celebrated 50 years, and Nigeria is 65 years old since independence, but in just two and a half years of constant growth and development, Nigeria has been transformed. This is because you have a man who was a former accountant, who has lived abroad as an expatriate, who has been a politician, who is an oil mogul. He’s all-in-all and he understands the changing dynamics of the Nigerian economy.

So, whatever anybody would say, I would tell you, this is the greatest opportunity that Nigeria has had to be Nigerian.

One of the policies of this administration that has generated a lot of controversies is the new tax regime. Many Nigerians are not happy with the new tax law, especially, the low income earners, who described the law as a way of robbing Peter to pay Paul, meaning poor Nigerians would be most affected by the tax reform law?

First of all, a lot of Nigerians don’t even understand what taxes are all about. So a lot of Nigerians are ignorant about the new tax reform law.

And I give kudos to Taiwo Oyedele, who has tried as much as possible to break it down, to explain it, and let Nigerians realise that the less you earn, the zero tax you pay.

And also, if you look at the tax system and the economy of the people abroad, especially, you would know that when it comes to diaspora remittances, the people in the diaspora have the highest remittance that is second to maybe the oil revenue in Nigeria.

And these are the monies that really help the community, the families, to achieve their daily needs. So, the tax reform connecting the diaspora remittances means that if you are assisting anybody from your family or friend without rent, there will be no tax on it. Just like you have cited the various bank charges when you send money, charge for maintenance, we charge for this and that.

But now, it’s just one tax system. And when you send money to anybody and you explain, school fees for your children in school, or support for house rent, or support for electric bill and all of that, you won’t pay tax anymore. Nobody should charge on money that is going to be used to help others.

So that’s a great thing for us to see because there will be more money for those we are sending money to. People would be able to live. I think every one of us must continue to let our people understand that tax is not killing. Those of us staying abroad live in a country that everything is taxed.

For instance, the lowest earner in the United Kingdom pays at least 20 per cent tax. And Before you get your salary, the 20 per cent would have been deducted. The more you earn, the more your tax, and if you begin to earn over 120,000 per annum in the UK, your tax goes to about 60 per cent. So what are we talking about? That’s why you see a lot of them doing charity work to be able to get back from their tax.

If you have a charity organisation, if you are earning so high, that’s why you see them giving back to the society. I know people like that, and Dangote has been doing that too and a few other people giving to charity. When you have excess, you need to give back to the society.

And that is why the UN Charter appreciates you as you earn much money, you give to the people, and the government will remunerate you in return. I believe that we are going to get there in Nigeria, and I give kudos to the president because he is consistent and firm in that decision.

It is of course not unexpected when people still complain about one or two of the policies of this administration. I want to believe there is no perfect system, but as it is, I give kudos to Mr. President for the courage to stand by Nigerians when it matters most.

Despite the Supreme Court rulings on the Local Government autonomy the state governors still hold on to the funds being allocated to the LGs. What do you have to say about this?

Well, the constitution is clear about the administration of the Local Governments in Nigeria. And their victory at the Supreme Court was the victory for the people at the grassroots.

However, I was at the last NEC of the APC and I saw how President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was serious about the freedom of the Local Government system. Mr.President equally charged the governors to respect the Supreme Court rulings and give the Local Government their dues.

He believed in Local Government autonomy as a major boost for grassroots development.

On this issue of Local Government autonomy, I think it is now time for Nigerians to hold their governors accountable for whatever services they rendered to the people in their respective states. You need to challenge your governors. You need to bring them to account for how they spend your money.

Some of the governors have started coming out to say, look, we have money.

I remember I watched the news when the governor of Delta State was saying, yes, I have money and I am spending the money for the benefit of my people. People in some of these states cannot challenge their governors because of sycophancy and selfishness.

I remember during the days of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. He was a no nonsense man. He would challenge any governor, even the President on accountability.

Everybody is aware that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done well by making sure that the governors are financially comfortable. What they get now is far above their previous allocations, and the reason for the huge allocations is to impact the lives of the people at the grassroots, to make Nigerians comfortable.

So, if a state governor is just spending money recklessly and paying only salary without bringing any tangible infrastructure development that can justify the stupendous allocations they get from the Federal Government, then the people of the state needs to speak up and challenge the governor to be accountable to them.

I think the people must be ready to challenge their governors. There’s a need for governors to publish all the money received as their allocations for transparency and accountability in government.

There must be a thorough financial analysis, an economic analysis of each state that must be married with the income of that state. At least, the governors will be challenged that as the Chief Executive Officer of the state, I am accountable to the people of my state and what translates to is that people at the grassroots will feel the impact of the governors through the local government as it is clearly specified in the Nigerian Constitution.