------- Forwarded message -----From: "Tobi Adewunmi" <tadewunmi@isgpp.com.ng>To: "Ayo Olukotun" <Ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>Cc:Sent: Wed, 22 May 2019 at 15:06Subject: Prof. Olukotun's ColumnMERCY DROPS AMIDST THE UNCERTAINTY
by Ayo Olukotun
"[In reading Newspapers] I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing (to offer) but man's failures" – a former Chief Justice of the United States, Earl Warren
Critical media are often accused of doting on woes, exhibiting our shortcomings and failings, hardly muttering a word about our achievements. Not just in Nigeria, but globally, as the opening quote, sourced from American politician and jurist, Earl Warren indicates, are these complaints and criticisms aired, now and then. If you ask me I would say that the march of history, in its more edifying variants, has benefited more from reformist and radical journalism, far more than establishment or marketing journalism that is little more than what someone described as stenographies of the power elite. Be that as it may, even as we lament our failings, collective and class-oriented, we must occasionally interrupt the dismal narrative to view our more positive sides, the little mercies, the beckonings of greatness, the touching acts of heroism, fresh departures, that prefigure the vista that, though temporarily dislocated, Nigeria may yet arrive at its destined status.
Take for example, the inspiring stories of enhanced revenue generation, relative accountability and showcasing of disciplinary mien in two parastatals, namely the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Federal Internal Revenue Service (FIRS). In a season when several federal parastatals have refused to reply queries from the Auditor-General, it is heartwarming to learn that JAMB, under Ishaq Oloyede, and FIRS, under Tunde Folwer, have continuously expanded the possibilities of innovative income drive, cushioning thereby, the ravages of recession and post-recession. In the case of JAMB, in contrast to an earlier lackadaisical period, when monies generated disappeared into the bottomless pit, the organization has ensured that since 2017, between 5 and 7 billion Naira have been paid to the national coffers as monies accruing from its operations annually. In the same vein, FIRS has progressively increased the tax net and raised national tax revenue from a paltry amount under the Jonathan administration, through 4 trillion Naira in 2017 and 5.3 trillion Naira in 2018.
Interestingly, several of the initiatives and modernization imperatives such as Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), had been in place since the Jonathan years in office, but were indifferently implemented. Fowler's contribution was to breathe dynamism into existing policies, in order to both widen the tax base, and to amass impressive sums for national coffers. Recently, the institution announced excitingly, that it would employ online modalities to break new grounds in the difficult assignment of creating a tax culture in Nigeria. In the case of JAMB, its revenue activism can be better understood when it is factored that between 2010 and 2016, only 51 million Naira was paid to the treasury as revenue by the organization; this figure is only 1% of what accrued to the nation from the same organization in 2017 alone. Remarkably, in some of the years between 2010 and 2016, nothing was paid to the commonwealth. One might also add that JAMB has extended its reformist impulse and dragnet to catch up with exam fraudsters and their barons, through the adoption of close circuit television cameras at the University Tertiary Matriculation Examination centres.
Part of the reasons for pinpointing worthy strides in a nation notorious for incompetence and heist is that, it affirms the right values and flashes the prospect that there can be a better way than the current morass. So, when some of our leaders say that Nigeria is ungovernable, they are only employing idle words, for Nigeria is not ungovernable but it is not being effectively governed. It is important therefore, to employ the status conferral function of the media to highlight new departures and spirited efforts being made, in spite of the odds, to carve out new niches of redemptive governance. This is not to say that the two institutions selected for approval are the only ones that are doing well, or are without blemish, for example, in the case of JAMB, it would still have to work hard to win the battle against the fraudsters, considering that some of its own staff were implicated in the racket, and also given that those who have built semi-industries and make fast bucks around exam fraud are not expected to yield ground easily. In a related vein, the FIRS will have to carry its current struggle beyond its narrow confines, in order to bring in more highly privileged citizens, with high tax net worth, against which it has fought a running battle. The fact that data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is showing that a preponderance of citizens and corporations paying high taxes are resident in the Lagos area, suggests the imperative and urgent need of diversifying the tax net across the nation's geography.
Undoubtedly, there is some ambivalence about tax activism in a setting in which citizens ask the fundamental question of why they should pay taxes when social services are either non-existent or fragile. The point however is that the state itself may wither or be further atrophied if citizens do not pay taxes, especially, when oil receipts are fickle and brittle. In this connection, what can be called the social welfare miracle of Lagos state, was partly built upon the success of the state in pouring the dividends of enhanced tax drive into developmental activities. There is no reason, why the nation cannot repeat that miracle provided that citizens can draw a connection between the taxes they pay and the services they enjoy. In other words, FIRS would need to stretch its tentacles to include more of the informal sector, a goldmine in taxing terms, as well as pursue, with determination, such policies earlier enunciated such as the Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularization Scheme (VOARS) and the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration System (VAIDS), targeted at rich but tax-defaulting Nigerians. In doing this, FIRS should also mind the complaints in certain circles, that some of its methods in collecting revenue, border on intimidation. It should be possible for the organization to walk the tight rope between enforcing the law on tax collection and doing it in a humane manner that does not raise ethical issues.
As we look forward to a reformed and better governed country than we currently have, the debate is bound to go on as to the place of agency, the human factor or leadership, in turning around organizations. In the two institutions sampled, several policies of enhanced revenue yield had been enunciated overtime without improving their lots. They simply existed as part of a national lootocracy in which whatever resources were generated, went down the familiar drain of corruption. The critical watershed would appear therefore, to have been the leadership factor, which enabled them to morph from somnolence to integrity and resource optimization.
As President Muhammadu Buhari begins his second term next week, it would be pertinent for him to come up with a team that can help him translate his vision of a less corrupt and more productive Nigeria into realities. One of the ways of achieving this is through a census of his appointees who have served the nation well, as well as those who have merely marked time, or even undermined his programmatic objectives.
- Prof. Ayo Olukotun is the Oba (Dr) Sikiru Adetona Chair of Governance, Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/1584565376.6647698.1558619883018%40mail.yahoo.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment