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What do you think will be the perception of the international community of Nigeria over the trial of those minors?
The world is watching as evidenced by how foreign journalists from the United States of America and Australia reached out to me even before I saw the clips. Nigeria is a signatory to many international treaties that protect the rights of children and President Tinubu in addition to being our president is also the current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Nelson Mandela once said: “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” This shameful treatment of these minors has no doubt inflicted a huge dent on Nigeria’s international standing.
Eighteen months after his inauguration, how can you rate the government of President Bola Tinubu?
No Nigerian needs to be reminded that President Tinubu’s government has inflicted unbearable hardships on all citizens particularly the most vulnerable amongst us.
The government says that its economic reforms have started yielding fruits. What is your take on this?
I don’t know which planet members of this government are living in to think that anything is yielding fruits. Those of us that live in Nigeria on this planet earth know differently. I have raised my voice again and again to warn the government that there is hunger and anger all across the land and that the fear of impending anarchy is real if urgent steps are not taken by the government to ameliorate the sufferings of citizens.
President Tinubu’s blind acceptance of the World Bank’s economic prescription of removal of fuel subsidy and floatation of the naira in an import dependent country like Nigeria was misguided. To make matters worse and in his eagerness to please the Western World, he had no plans to mitigate the predictable consequences of these reckless policies.
These misguided economic policies have caused runaway inflation never seen in 28 years; food inflation of over 40 per cent skyrocketing the cost of everything particularly energy and medications. Citizens have stopped taking their life-saving medications resulting in increasing mortalities from treatable diseases like hypertension and diabetes. Hospitals are now mere consulting clinics resulting in mass exodus of healthcare workers to the UK, Canada and the United States.
The President is calling on Nigerians to be patient and make sacrifices. But Nigerians are worried about the extravagant lifestyle of their leaders – new presidential jets, presidential convoys of luxury cars, NASS members living in opulence etc. Are the leaders showing good examples?
It is a case of do as I say not as I do. Good and patriotic leaders always lead by example especially when their country is going through challenges like ours. The impunity and arrogance of power exhibited by our leaders in both states and the federal government is nauseating. At a time when the country is experiencing the worst insecurity of our lifetime and hunger imposed by President Tinubu’s policies, these leaders are living it up as if all is well. They clearly are totally disconnected from the daily sufferings that people all across the country are going through.
The North rejected the Tax Reform bill that Tinubu sent to the NASS. What does the region disagree with in the bill and how will it affect the region?
Northern governors and some prominent traditional rulers recently met in Kaduna, the old capital of the region to discuss many issues. What made the headlines was their rejection of the tax bill President Tinubu sent to the House of Representatives. The bill proposes to change the sharing formula of the Value Added Tax (VAT) collected.
It proposes to give more to states where the VAT is collected. What this means is that Northern states will be shortchanged because all these major companies will pay their VAT to Lagos State, where their headquarters are instead of the states where they have their operations.
I agree completely with the position of the Northern governors. Those that know have explained that VAT is a consumption tax which should be paid at the point of consumption not to the state where the company is headquartered. An example is Dangote Cement, which is produced in Kogi State but pays VAT in its headquarters in Lagos. All oil companies operate in the Niger Delta regions but they pay their VATs in Lagos not the states they operate. Another example is all national banks that make their profits from all 36 states and the FCT, where they operate but do not pay VATs to these states but Lagos.
Lagos is what it is today because of the massive investment of Nigeria’s commonwealth in building all its major infrastructures of roads, bridges, sea, airports and real estates etc, but the rest of the country is not grumbling and demanding for their fair share of what accrues from these investments.
President Tinubu’s economic and tax policies and his unapologetic lopsided appointments of his tribesmen to head all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) where money is collected or spent is viewed in the North as a calculated premeditated attempt to corral federal resources to the South-west region, particularly his home state of Lagos. This is not only dangerous but an existential threat to Nigeria’s national unity.
There is this clamour for regional autonomy, what is your view on this?
I don’t know who is clamoring for regional autonomy. When serious countries are looking ahead, some selfish Nigerian politicians are looking to go backwards. What they fail to realise is that the good old days were good because of the quality of leadership that governed these regions. All the regions were led by patriotic men and women that served their people with the fear of God. We can’t say the same of the current crop of selfish leaders at the helm of affairs all over this country.
Check this story on Part 3
Tinubu’s tax policies meant to develop South-west –Prof. Usman Yusuf (3)