Democracy & Governance
Your Excellency, Please Be The Transformational Leader-president That We Need -By Prince Abitunde Taiwo
Please take the bull by the horns by raising the annual national revenues to up to $100 billion US dollars principally from taxation of the incomes of 10 to 20 million elite citizens resident in Nigeria and in the Diaspora to supplement our meager oil revenues.
Your Excellency, President Elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
Thank you very for choosing to run for the presidency in a democracy that you played a prominent role to birth through your activities in NADECO. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, as popular saying goes, but I strongly urge you to share the burdens and responsibilities of governance with the Nigerian people, including members of the elite class at home and in the Diaspora, as democracy demands. Nigerians typically ask for what the country can do for them. You must challenge Nigerians, especially the members of the elite class, to follow the advice given by President Kennedy to be willing to do something for their country. You made a promise to form a government of national competence. I urge you to also form a government that adopts and promotes global best practices such as raising revenues from income taxes of members of the elite class and adopting and enforcing accounting and managerial controls in government to curb corruption for Nigeria to be globally competitive.
In my humble opinion, the foremost agenda of your presidency should be to end the persistent fiscal malpractice and malfeasance in governance in Nigeria: the unwillingness to develop the capacity to raise substantially adequate government revenues and the apparent refusal to use effective accounting and managerial controls to drastically curb corruption in government!
You will not be able to govern efficiently and effectively and meet the urgent needs in the nation with the current paltry and woefully insufficient federal annual revenues of the equivalent of about US$15 billion dollars and without the use of effective accounting and managerial controls!
Neither will you be able to continue with the prevailing borrowing binge to make up for inadequate revenues as the country is on the brink of bankruptcy!
Your excellency, the following problems that must be solved or ameliorated for you to have a successful presidency depend on the efficient and effective deployment of available and sufficient financial resources:
- Pervasive insecurity nationwide.
- Millions of unemployed youths.
- Road networks in need of major repairs.
- Poverty everywhere.
- Poor state of health care infrastructures.
- Housing deficit.
- Power supply inadequacy.
- Petrol shortages.
- Poor financial state at all levels of government and in all
institutions of learning. - Economy in need of diversification from oil.
- Inflation or high prices of food and other commodities.
- Desertification, climate change, and herder-farmer clashes.
Please take the bull by the horns by raising the annual national revenues to up to $100 billion US dollars principally from taxation of the incomes of 10 to 20 million elite citizens resident in Nigeria and in the Diaspora to supplement our meager oil revenues.
As you may know, 12 million barrels of oil are sold a day in the United States, the largest producer of oil in the world. The United States has a population of less than twice that of Nigeria but produces approximately six times more oil than Nigeria. However, most of the revenues of the United States is from income taxation of its citizens and residents, not from oil: A global best practice! America’s economy will collapse if it depends only on oil revenues!
The projected revenue in the federal budget for this year is about US$15 billion dollars with income taxes contributing an insignificant portion. The revenue to GDP ratio is about 3 percent, significantly less than the 15 percent recommended by the World Bank for any government to be able to provide minimum services for the population and to support economic growth.
With a GDP of approximately US$500 billion dollars, 15% of which is US$75 billion dollars, a revenue gap of US$60 billion dollars exists that needs to be filled to fund the provision of basic services, security, and infrastructures needed for economic growth and to reduce unemployment.
The current security crises confronting Nigeria from kidnappings, banditry, herdsmen-farmer clashes, and gang robbery, among others, have put the people in the country in a state of fear and terror. Many farmers have abandoned their farms for fear of being kidnapped for huge ransoms or being killed. As a result, food prices have soared, further impoverishing the people.
Inadequate funding is also responsible for the poor state of the infrastructures needed to promote economic growth and youth
employment. As a result, youth unemployment has skyrocketed causing many young people to embark on a dangerous mission of emigrating via the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to Europe to escape the misery they face at home. Even disaffected young professionals have joined the bandwagon of emigration: “The Japa syndrome”.
Some of the young people that remain in Nigeria join secessionist movements that if not well handled may lead to a second civil war that will destabilize the West African continent, cause untold suffering, starvation, and death of many. As the horror and human suffering from the wars in Ukraine and Sudan show, Nigeria cannot afford another civil war. Neither can our neighbors cope with the influx of refugees into their lands that will result from a war.
In consideration of these issues, please implement a strategy to engage the 10 to 20 million elite Nigerian citizens worldwide to fund the federal, state, and local governments via income taxation as is done in democratic western nations, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.
Through this strategy, a revenue of more than 15 percent of GDP can be realized and used to provide robust infrastructures and services to the people of Nigeria, promote democracy and the rule of law in Africa, and support regional efforts to stem youth migration to Europe, Asia, and America.
Engaging Nigerian elites in this way will transform the brain drain to a resource, capabilities, and capacity gain for the nation!
The engagement of Nigerian elites at home and abroad in funding the government will motivate them to monitor how their taxes are being spent, encourage them to be active in the democratic process and to push public officials to perform in office, and this will help improve outcomes in governance. The nation is owed a return on investment on the enormous funds spent on the education of Nigerian elites. In addition, many elites receive many benefits and patronage from all levels of government. It is time to ask them to give back to the country.
The annual revenue gap of US$60 billion dollars, which is a small fraction of the annual incomes of Nigerian elites worldwide, if closed and the funds spent wisely, will do wonders for the economy and lead to improvements in youth education and employment, security, and physical infrastructures. Investments in security, infrastructures, education at all levels, healthcare provisioning and communications will make Nigeria to become a destination for more local and foreign investments and will turn the nation into a significant player in global trade and in the mitigation of climate change, global pandemics, and transnational terrorism.
I humbly suggest that you, with due consultations, implement a variable progressive taxation regime in a range from 16% to 24% of the annual incomes, including all allowances, of members of the elite class resident in Nigeria and to be distributed as follows: 25% for local governments, 25% for state governments, and 50% for the federal government.
Diaspora elite Nigerians should also be assessed a variable taxation regime, after due consultations, in a lower range of 1% to 4%
of their annual incomes due to the high taxation regimes in the countries of their residence. These taxes should also be split and distributed using the formula applied for the elites resident in Nigeria. With a reciprocal tax arrangement with host countries, which I recommend that you establish, Diaspora Nigerians will be able to deduct their tax payments to Nigeria from their incomes and pay reduced taxes to their host countries.
I must bring to your attention again to the fact that the richest country on earth, the USA, taxes the incomes of its citizens resident anywhere in the world. It is foolhardy for Nigeria not to do likewise. I hasten to add that it is imperative that Nigeria does the same!
With the implementation of these taxation regimes, and in addition to existing income streams, annual revenues of up to US$100 billion dollars, a multiple of current revenue levels, will be realized.
In conclusion, your leadership in implementing a strategy to increase government revenues substantially, and to properly and transparently deploy them to solve current problems and meet future challenges will make your presidency a transformational one. Our rural and urban citizens will become richer and safer, not poorer nor in peril, from investments in secure environments in the infrastructures that promote productive commercial activities in agriculture, animal husbandry, food processing, industry, tourism, and housing. The lives of all citizens will also be enriched through investments in human capacity development and in support services that include social security, health care, and in the promotion of exports to the sub-continent, continent, and rest of the world.
Thank you very much, Your Excellency, for taking the time to read this. God bless you, your family, and Nigeria.
Sincerely,
Prince Abitunde Taiwo.
abitundetaiwo3@gmail.com
