Date: 2015-07-13

One of the enduring lessons of the last general elections was that power has actually been restored to the people and any politician who dare gets access to the corridors of power does not have alternative than doing the biddings of the masses by fulfilling his or her campaign promises or be showed a red card through the ballot.

Indeed, the era of politicians deceiving the electorate with sugar coated mouths several times in the name of campaigns and naratting bicycle stories at the end of the tenure while seeking another mandate has gone.

Today, political culture in Nigeria has improved. Citizens are more politically conscious and alive to their responsibilities; asking questions from the elected representatives intermittently and getting more interested in the business of governance as a result of social contract between the governed and those who govern.

Across the land, expectations are high, citizens expect rapid change in all facets of human life and improved welfare of the citizenry while most Nigerians are desperately eager to see that things are turned around to enable the country take its rightful position among the comity of nations. As evident across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria, the inaugural addresses of the recently sworn-in state governors reflected on their outlined programmes and developmental projects to be executed in the next four years.

The case in Kwara State was not different as Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, the Maigida nKwara, as fondly called, unveiled his plans for the state in the coming years shortly after he was sworn-in for a second term in office. Governor Ahmed promised to strengthen urban electrification programme with solar streetlights on major roads in major towns like, Omu-Aran, Patigi, Kaiama, Lafiagi, Offa, Share and Tsaragi.

On the security of lives and property, Governor Ahmed said his administration would sustain the strategies designed to reduce activities of hoodlums in the state through job creation and entrepreneurship development. According to him, the International Vocational Centre, Ajasse-Ipo will be fully equipped and become operational this year to provide the youths critical vocational skills for entrepreneurship.

He added that, a 100 megawatt Independent Power Plant would be built in Kwara North senatorial district to power essential service, such as hospitals, government offices, educational institutions in order to free up more energy from small and medium scale enterprises.

Interesting as how these outlined programmes may sound or appear however, it will remain a mirage if nothing is done to increase the resources coming to government's coffer from different sources of revenues because the federal allocation accruing to the state is unreliable as it could not pay the wage bill of the state let alone developmental projects.

The drop from an initial monthly allocation that was a couple of years back a little over N3bn to far less than N2bn leaves no one in doubt that no serious government will continue to hinge its programmes and projects execution on proceeds from the sales of crude oil, the mainstay of Nigerian economy. The drop has become a recurring decimal over the years!

Thus, it is interesting to know that Governor Ahmed made it unequivocally clear that the government would not impose new taxes in its strategy for increasing IGR to N2b per month but by increasing the efficiency of revenue collection. The monthly IGR which stood between 600 and 800 million naira per month is nothing to write home-about when a state like Lagos is generating about N27bn monthly.

At a meeting with state governors over unpaid workers salaries, President Muhammadu Buhari made it crystally clear for the governors to cultivate the culture of prudent management of resources.

President Buhari tasked the Governors to look inwards to secure sustainable ways of increasing internally generated revenue (IGR) and harnessing growth potentials of each state to supplement allocation from Federation account. Hence, the justification for the establishment of the new independent revenue generating agency to champion the new tax regime and drive the state economic policy.

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed while signing the new law on Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KSIRS) in his office said Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KSIRS) is a corporate body charged with the sole responsibility for effective collection and management of state and local council revenue.

According to him, the establishment of KSIRS was necessitated by the need to reduce reliance on federally allocated revenue and raise additional revenue to ensure the state government continues to meet its obligations to the people.

Governor Ahmed emphasised that while KSIRS would not be imposing fresh taxes on individuals and businesses in the state, the new service is authorized to assess and enforce payment of due taxes, levies, fees, and charges in the state.

Governor Ahmed said the new law also establishes a State Joint Revenue Committee with the responsibility to harmonize tax administration in the state and deal with revenue matters of common interest to state and local government authorities.

Governor Ahmed also announced the establishment of a Revenue Court to try tax defaulters and evaders as well all any individual or business that refuse to comply with the provision of the law.

On the fate of staff of the defunct Board of Internal Revenue, Governor Ahmed said they had an option of remaining in KSIRS, transferring their services to the core civil service or leaving the service.

To enable the Service meet its target and more importantly to safe various ongoing projects in Kwara state from being abandoned and to ensure execution of more meaningful projects, all residents of the state must brace up for the new tax regime.

This is indeed not a time for desperate politicians fighting tooth and nail to get appointed into juicy offices while lacking prerequisite knowledge and experience to bring government's outlined programmes in such sector to fruition and attract investors into the state.

Kwara and other states in Nigeria should break away from habitual addiction to oil money if Nigeria must develop by tilting to other funding windows such improved Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), creation of conducive business friendly environment to attract investors into the state and harnessing various mineral resources in the state as well as explore opportunities abound in agriculture and tourism sectors with a view to improving revenue and enhance the state economy.

Since tax is an extraction from citizens income to the government, the government should build the economy by creating environment that would make the citizens prosper and develop their capacity to pay more taxes to the government's coffer.

There are some individuals and corporate organisations who are reaping and benefitting much from the state without paying anything into the coffer of the government. This is not healthy for the state economy. They ought to plough back to the society through regular payment of their taxes for the government to further development the state.

In fact, it is a stupendous injustice against the civil servants who on monthly basis pay their taxes from the source through PAYE system for years while some investors and businessmen and women pay little or nothing as taxes over the years as required by laws. It is believed this new drive will rectify the injustice and inequality in the interest of the state.

Without shadow of doubt, there is fear on the air owing to misplace priority, perceived lack of prudent management of the resources among government officials at all level over the years as well as the issue of public trust on whatever noble novel idea government is unveiling. The questions that usually arise are what has happened to beautiful idea earlier initiated? What brought about non completion of some projects? How did the government manage federal allocations and IGR accrue to the government over the years?

For residents of the state to be encouraged to willingly perform their civic duties, it is pertinently important for the government to justify the judicious utilisation of the state resources and be more transparent in its dealing to the public.

Good news is that the new tax law of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed promises to block leakages in revenue collection and reduce cost with a lean but effective team in order to reduce the cost of governance and guarantee prudent management of the state resources. The new tax administration guarantees improved process of tax administration and management in order to create more funds to drive infrastructural development in the State, create more opportunities for teeming youths and improve the living standard of the people.

The process of stalemating the activities of touts who forcefully or willingly collect taxes from unsuspecting members of the society without receipts has commenced in harness and yielding positive result. In otherwords, all taxes paid must be backed with verifiable receipts to ensure transparency in the tax administration in the state.

All revenue generating establishments such as the Kwara State Signage and Advertisement Agency (KWASAA), Kwara State Environmental Protection Agency (KWEPA), Bureau of Lands, Harmony Holdings Limited, Vehicle Inspection Office, Kwara State Traffic Management Agency (KWATMA) among others must sit up and brace up for the new challenge in raising the state's revenue profile.

State owned parastatals, agencies and institutions should equally venture into business programmes without derailing from their primary responsibilities in order to augment their internally generated revenue and relieve the state government of the amount of subventions it usually made available. The Chief Executive Officers of the state owned establishments must endeavour to shun reckless spending and be more transparent in their dealings in order to save for the raining days.

Religious leaders, the media, opinion moulders, traditional and community leaders should use their influence to encourage the citizens to play their part by paying their taxes as and when due and perform other responsibilities while they keep the government on its toes to justify the taxes being collected.

Time will indeed tell whether the new IGR drive is a better alternative to financing projects and other people oriented programmes or not!

Abdulrosheed Okiki writes from Ilorin