- Northern Christians back Reform bills
From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The 9th National Assembly Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara has said that the proposed tax reform regime is an opportunity for northern leaders to put aside the waste of public resources and work hard towards embracing the benefits of the reforms for the northern region.
This was even as representatives of zonal leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the North, Bishops, Reverend Fathers, and Pastors from various denominations agreed to take the message of the reform to their respective congregations. Elder Sunday Oibe, who is the Secretary-General of Northern CAN, graced the occasion.
However, Dogara expressed worry that northern leaders, governors in particular, are busy junketing around the globe with their family members without investing in their home states for job opportunities and the development of the North, once they have accessed funds from the Federal Allocation Account Committee (FAAC).
He regretted that the North ruled the country for 40 years without bringing development to the region, adding that even if the zone remains in leadership positions of the country till eternity, nothing will change for the better, unless they are determined to tap and harvest the economic values of natural resources that abound in the North.
The former Speaker stated this in his keynote address on Thursday at a one-day Town Hall Meeting for Christian Leaders in Northern Nigeria, organised by the Christian Awareness Initiative of Nigeria (CHAIN).
The event was themed, “Church and Society: Tax Reforms and Matters Arising.”
The occasion was chaired by Mr. Sunday Dare, SA, Media & Public Communication to President Tinubu, represented by the former Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Mr. Simon Achuba.
According to Dogara, “My brothers and sisters, let me tell you where our problem is and why we must demand change. I don’t know if you have been observant at the end of the month when they pay FAAC, just notice when they pay, count one to three days. If you are in the business of dealing with dollars, go to Zone 4 in Abuja and see what is happening. Just count more five days and check the location of the people processing our wealth in the North. Maybe I don’t want to call their names, but some of you know who I am talking about.
“Those who are actually protesting the VAT, that they will be cheated, those who are agitating against the tax reforms, check where they are. Eighty percent of them are not in Nigeria. They are in Dubai, Brazil, Egypt, America. They go to many other countries. What are they doing there? Only God knows. If they are looking for investors and business partners after many years of junketing after FAAC is allocated, what have they brought home? That is where our real problem is. It happened that you are wealthy and you want to travel; just go into the first-class cabin of any aircraft leaving, and you will be shocked to see that their three-year-olds or five-year-olds have first-class seats. That is where the money is going. The money that is supposed to build hospitals, schools to enable us to catch up with the South is going. That is how we are processing the funds. And until we change, if you like, have eternal leadership of Nigeria in the hands of the North, it will not change anything. If it were possible, we would have been a mini Dubai having ruled for 40 years.
“The coming tax reform system in Nigeria, as a parliamentarian, I can tell you for free that we have a lagging law on taxation, but the truth is that we as a country cannot just close ourselves and develop. The people who want to invest in this country so that we can expand the economic opportunities for the citizens—so if you are the money bags, for example, and you went to Cameroon to invest your hard-earned money there and you say, ‘Let me see your tax laws,’ because every investor is bothered about tax, he wants to know how his income will be taxed. What profit will he make? What profit does he want? The essence of business is to make money, and taxation affects your profit. In Nigeria, we have 11 laws dealing with taxation. This regime wants to reduce the 11 tax laws to only two laws. That is what this reform is talking about. Our problem as Northerners is that we are not asking the right questions.
“This brings me to the most important point I am trying to raise here: we are all Northerners, and I want to tell us that our problem is not that some Southerners or Lagos Boys or President Tinubu has connived to cheat the North out of Value Added Tax (VAT). That is not the question we should be asking, not at all. Some have thought about positions in government the way people are being given appointments and so forth. Is that the reason why the North is not developing? I want to ask us to interrogate ourselves. To me, that is not the question we should be asking. As a matter of fact, there was a time in this country when the President was a Northerner, the Senate president and the speaker were Northerners, all the security heads were Northerners, 22 of the most senior positions in NNPCL, 20 of those positions were occupied by Northerners. How did the North fare? Did we do better? So the truth is that the North’s problem is not denial of appointment opportunity because we have had it so much, it doesn’t work for the North. It is not even the allocation of funds or even VAT fair distribution. We have so many trillions coming to the North. It has not helped us. The problem is not even the presidency; out of how many years of Nigeria leadership, the North has ruled the country for over 40 years. Where are we today?
“We were travelling from Abuja to Kaduna for this occasion, and we see that all the villages remain as they were many years ago. The problem with us, honestly, I want you to listen to me, is that we are not asking the right questions. The right questions should be on the allocations we are getting from the federation account. The VAT we are getting, where is it? That should be the first question even before we seek more. The one that we think is not enough, where is the money? How are we processing it? Let’s go back to the independence period when we had Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Sir Ahmadu Bello, those wonderful sets of our parents. In fact, they are not even our parents. I am beginning to see that when you see them, you see lions, tigers and elephants. How can an elephant give birth to a rat or a lion giving birth to a monkey that will be begging for bananas? You know what that means. If God were to bring them back to life and they see how the North is now, they will beg for instant death.
“We (Northern leaders) are a disgrace, and that was the point I am trying to make. I don’t think we don’t share in the blame. We are a disgrace, that is the truth, and that was the point I was trying to make. In law, we talk about act or omission. Act refers to when you are in the position to stop something and you fail to stop it, you are equally guilty. The truth is, how are we processing this fund in the North? And how are we investing it? Is it not unacceptable to you that the biggest dairy farm in Nigeria and West Africa is located in Ogun State, not in Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Jigawa, or Kebbi? How is Lagos State launching an agro-processing centre in West Africa when Lagos State doesn’t have ten hectares of land?
“One thing that I don’t like about the conversation is that it is dividing this country or everything about the bills is anti-North or against the North. I have heard that from preachers of both faiths. But you see, the truth is that Nigeria cannot survive if we merely tolerate ourselves. We cannot. Unity is important. Even we Christians, unity—how difficult it is, even as Christians. Let alone uniting Nigeria with diverse faiths. I am educated enough to know the difference between unity and uniformity. I am not agitating for uniformity because it is impossible for us to operate on the same page and the same ways of doing those things. It is impossible. But when Christians or Muslims, and even those who don’t believe in God.
“There are basic things that we can unite to fight for and pursue those things. We will build a great nation. How many of us would like to board an aircraft, for instance, and you see the pilot bickering? Or if you want to sail on a ship and see bickering, would you like to board that ship or fly the aircraft? So, it is unity of purpose that will bring us together as a nation. It is in pursuit of those things that we are as a people that will ensure our advancement.”
Earlier, in his welcome address, the Executive Director, CHAIN, Rev. Joseph Hayab said, “Nigeria must move forward. Hence, citizens should not engage in religious or ethnic sentiments or divisive patterns to derail Nigeria’s progress. From information gathered from experts, there are pointers that the tax reform bill has many prospects, even though some areas must be redefined and realigned.
“As a result, I believe that when leaders are well informed, they can recommend, promote, and encourage their elected representatives both at the State and National Assemblies to ensure what needs to be corrected, add what may have been omitted, and deliver so that the bill can be passed but not called for the bill to be thrown away.
“Nigeria must not continue in the old ways, which have delayed our progress. Nations are built on the positive contributions of citizens. Accordingly, every citizen has a vital role and contribution to nation-building and should be guided and allowed to do so.”