Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara has said that the proposed tax reform bills are an opportunity for northern leaders to shun the waste of public resources and work hard to embrace the reforms’ benefits to 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.
Hon. Dogara expressed worry that Northern leaders, particularly governors, are busy junketing around the globe with their family members without investing in their home States for job opportunities and development of the North once they 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 the country’s leadership position until eternity, nothing will change for the better unless it is 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), with the theme “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. The Chairmen of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) from the 19 northern states, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and several other clergy were in attendance.
According to Dogara, “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, notice when they paid to 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, 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 and who I am talking about.
“Those who are protesting the VAT that they will cheat them, those who are agitating against the tax reforms, check where they are, 80 per cent of them are not in Nigeria, they are in Dubai, Brazil, Egypt, America, they go to so many other countries. What are they doing there? Only God knows. What have they brought home if they are looking for investors and business partners after many years of junketing after FAAC is allocated? That is where our real problem is.
“It happened that you are wealthy, and you want to travel. Just enter the first-class cabin of any aircraft leaving, and you will be shocked to see that their three- or five-year-old has first-class seats. That is where the money is going. The money to build hospitals and schools to enable us to catch up with the South is going. That is how we are processing the funds, so it will not change anything until we change, if you like, and have the eternal leadership of Nigeria in the hands of the north. We would have been a mini Dubai, having ruled for 40 years.
He said, “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 must invest in this country so that we can expand the economic opportunities for the citizens. So, if you are the money bag, for example, 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? Business’s essence is making money, and taxation affects your profit. In Nigeria, we have 11 laws that deal with taxation.
“This regime wants to reduce the 11 tax laws to only two. 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 crucial 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 have 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. There was a time in this country when the President was a Northerner, the Senate president and the speaker were Northerner, all the security heads were Northerners occupied Northerners, 22 most senior positions in NNPCL, and 20. How did the North fair? Did we do better? So, the truth is that the North’s problem is not a denial of appointment opportunities because we have had it so much; it doesn’t work for the North. It is not even an allocation of funds or 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’s 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, is that I want you to listen to me because we are not asking the right questions. The right questions should be on the allocations from the federation account. Where is the VAT we are getting? That should be the first question even before we seek for more. The one that we think is not enough, where is the money? How are we processing it? Let’s go back to the independent period when we had Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Sir Ahmadu Bello, those excellent sets of parents. They are not even our parents. When you see them, you see lions, tigers and elephants. How can an elephant give birth to a rat or a lion give birth to a monkey that will be begging for a banana?
“You know what that means. If God were to bring them back to life, and they see how the North is now, they would 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 share 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 acts or omissions. Act refers to when you are in the position to stop something and 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 unacceptable that the biggest dairy farm in Nigeria and West Africa is located in Ogun State, not in Kaduna or Kano, Sokoto, Jigawa, or Kebbi? How is Lagos State launching an agro-processing centre in West Africa when it 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 essential—even though we Christians have 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 we can’t operate on the same page and have 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 them 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? If you want to sail on a sea and see bickering, would you like to board that ship or fly the aircraft? So, the unity of purpose will bring us together as a nation. It is in pursuit of those things we are as a people that will ensure our advancement”.
In his welcome address, the Executive Director of 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 the National Assemblies to ensure what needs to be corrected, add what may have been omitted, be delivered so that the bill be passed but not to call 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”.
