Sometime in 2022, when the newly sworn-in governor of Anambra State, Prof Chukwuma Soludo declared, “pay your fair share of tax and other levies and try us”, little did Ndi Anambra knew that what the Aguata-born economist meant was heightened business unfriendly fiscal policies and multiplicity of taxes.
In the face of present realities in Anambra today, another declaration upon the governor’s assumption to office which has become a fairy tale is: “as a humane and progressive government, we shall strive to deliver the difficult with a human face”.
But, a cursory look shows of a state with a preponderance of burdensome levies on citizens with a dissonant tune on the economic stage of tributes dance upon the shoulders of both businesses and individuals, casting a shadow on prosperity’s path.
There’s no gainsaying that citizens of Anambra State are caught up in the deliberate error of double and retrogressive taxation, where the poor are being asked to pay regressive taxes non-proportional to their earnings.Commercial drivers and Keke operators are exploited to cough out more than N20,000 monthly because they are assumed to be making N15,000 per day in the face of lack of several social packages.
About last year, Ndi Anambra rose to a message alert which hit them like a thunder bolt out of the blue sky to the extent that the State government now wants POS operators to pay taxes and other levies. In a state where the rate of unemployment is on the increase, one wonders if such a move directed at POS operators is not an act of wickedness to stifle life out of petty traders who are doing everything possible to keep body and soul together through their meager efforts.
Today, there is abundance of thugs who work as tax collectors for the state government using archaic means such as whipping residents with horsewhip and cutlasses as mode of collection. When residents of Onitsha petitioned that there’s need for new road networks round the metropolitan area, starting from Tarzan to Nkwelle Ezunaka, New Parts to 3-3 Junction, Marine to Nsugbe; road network from Mgbuka Obosi to Iyiowa Odekpe, dualisation of Awka Road to Main Market Onitsha, but instead the non-performing state government led by Professor Soludo preferred that more taxes be imposed on the masses.
Despite this multiple taxation, Anambra cities are aggressively competing for best polluted cities in the world. Cities like Awka, Nnewi and Onitsha which need total overhauling on waste control management, and quality sanitation are jettisoned with rancid smell and heaviness in the air that makes one sicker. One would think that the double taxation in the state will at least result to radical urbanization and provision of social amenities as the governor promised when he signed the dotted lines with Sir Emeka Ofor’s EEDC (Enugu Electricity Distribution Company) in 2022 to boast power supply, but hopes of Ndi Anambra have been dashed years after the “audio” MOU agreement with the electricity distribution company.
It is now obvious that Professor Chukwuma Soludo has made his mark time and again as a well known theoretical economist without practical knowledge of same. His first public outing that gave him out as so was when he was the country’s number one Banker and led the recapitalization as CBN Governor in 2005. His unimpressive stint in office as CBN governor especially his recapitalisation which was not well thought out saw about 89 banks to perish. Whereas, we’re told that the aim of the consolidation and capitalization was to achieve sound financial system, but we ended up with corporate malfeasance or more or less a ponzy financial system.
It took the efforts of his successor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to convince Late President Umaru Musa Yaradua to inject a whooping N400 billion into the banking system to save the financial system of Nigeria. In his book: “Power, Politics and Death; a front row account of Nigeria under President Yaradua”, Presidential Media Adviser, Segun Adeniyi reported: “Among the documents Sanusi met at CBN when he assumed duty as CBN governor were copies of an internal report in 2007 warning his predecessor, Soludo, that banks were trading in their own shares and sitting on bubble capital with risk to the financial system as corroborated by the then NDIC boss.
As the burden of Soludo’s multi taxation which adversely affect businesses grows; Ndi Anambra are in dire search of a progressive alternative with vision and empathy— a virtuous conductor of progress, to bring about the much desired harmonious change and orchestrate a cadence of societal evolution, other than suffocate them with multiple taxation.
Governor Soludo and his Tax Brigade must allow Ndi Anambra to breathe!
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Progressives Media is a passionate advocate for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra.
We provide insightful analysis of Anambra’s political, social, and economic landscape, empowering citizens to engage actively in shaping their future.
By the Progressives Media
February 21, 2024