On Taxation Matters Or Non Compliance By Most Billionaires, Companies and Others 

BY STEVEN CHUKWUEMEKA EJEZIE 

The balance and counterbalance of appropriate taxation has been a recurring decimal in our state affairs as a country. The crux of the matter isn’t about non compliance or partial compliance to tax payment by the supposed rich or poor: far from it!

The actual bane is the generational non compliance of all past governments to actually invest in the equity of Nigeria and Nigerians, and then attempt to seek adequate recompense via tax.

The government of any people is first and foremost- a protection after which a suitable hub for living and growing which should be run in a businesslike module – to which ALL sides must gain.

Infrastructure and security become paramount for governments to implement and supervise whilst the enjoyment of such provision become the imperative for the peoples to oblige by way of tax and conformity to law and governance.

The reason even the expected rich do not strictly adhere to certain obligations of appropriate tax is that the Determinants that should grossly facilitate their businesses and other interests are EITHER NOT AVAILABLE or ARE SELF-CREATED AND SUSTAINED. These include and are not limited to – security, electricity, bureaucratic bottlenecks, inconsistent fiscal policies, blatant corruption (both public and private sectors), poor leadership or policy formulation etc.

The current systems as seen today is a reflection of the government that head the country and have done so in the past 50 years.

A country cannot work on near auto pilot and be expected to fulfill the ambition of its citizenry whilst the government expects thorough conformity from its people.

Technocrats must be involved in drawing up appropriate systems that firstly aim to run seemingly seamlessly where squeaks and bumps could be quickly identified and addressed in order to maintain proper ebb and flow accruable to a proper governing system AND THEN in return, should expect a near total compliance to taxation and other forms and schemes of revenue generation could be properly instituted and be effectively utilized.

The average Nigerian just like the very same billionaire companies or businessman has lost faith in our current system and as such, takes to the premodial posit of “self preservation” which could sadly but effectively afford for all manners of graft, crime, indulgences etc whenever the handshake goes beyond the elbow, be it in life or business.

Thus, be it the blue chip companies, self made billionaires, growing SME or that cobbler by the road side, once the paraphernalia of proper governance and infrastructure is not put in place, and as long as one can bribe an agent to be excused from having a driving test before acquiring a license, when one can bribe a matron to have the most suitable ward hitherto not allocated in the public health sector, when court processes can be manipulated, when national infrastructure such as refineries can be made moribund, airport staff can be compromised, civil service can be bastardized, individuals allowed to run militias, security services can be pocketed, higher institutions can be financially disenfranchised, 35-year service pensioners can left to rot while 8-year governors will be paid for life, State and Federal Assemblies remain rubber stamps, service officers remain underpaid, doctors fleeing, senators and representatives continue increasing their own allowances, importation levies unduly increased, citizens forced to form vigilantes, roads remain in dire states, simple public utilities remain unavailable, youths remain unemployed and hungry etc, then how does any government really seek equitable compliance from such a populace?

These and more are the real tasks all governments of Nigeria have avoided over time and instead hinged on the distractions that will occupy everyone for the period of their varying tenures as treasuries are looted and borrowed funds, squandered.

Until the right things are begun and actualized –from the top and this is pertinent– nothing would move appropriately; no matter.

The head of the country and his/her kitchen cabinet must be square pegs in square holes with a viable and doable master plan that will not be ambiguous but should readily and positively effect the lives of everyday citizen FIRST and then the accompanying processes to follow. Not until such a situation is instilled, would appropriate taxation become a true civic responsibility. Otherwise, equitable and appropriate taxation would continue to remain a hoax in its current implementation in Nigeria which despite State backing, would remain a semblance of Chicago mob extortion-type in the 1930’s (almost a hundred years ago) and sadly so.

Steven Chukwuemeka Ejezie is a writer and political advisor/analyst. He is also a consultant on international relations/affairs