When the economy began to bleed noticeably and many state governments could no longer pay salaries, some of them invented all manner of taxes, levies, fines and whatnot to increase revenue. The Enugu state government, for instance, first changed its traffic law by 'instituting' that the amber traffic light meant STOP, and nothing less. The amber traffic light no longer meant WARNING! To enforce this unique 'law', the government recruited and made uniforms for mean--looking, jobless young men and purchased maybe a few hundreds of motorbikes and stationed half of the men at every lamppost. They also printed handbills, which each man would readily jump out of his breastpocket as a policy document to indict a road user. Visitors suffered it the most. One-quarter of the men prowled the nooks of the city with heavy wheel clamps, while the other quarter patrolled in non-descript buses and towing vans. If you stepped on your brake near the kerb or parked on it, your wheels were clamped before you alighted. For either a traffic offence or 'road obstruction', you'd beg with N10,000 or have your car towed to 'our office' to pay N23,000. If you weren't there, your number plate was removed and a bill left on your widescreen so you knew what to do. It was sheer victimization and it wasn't funny. Occasionally it was a teacher with a monthly salary of N43,251.20 leaving her 1986-model Peugeot (which she had been finding difficult to cough out N3,000 to change its engine oil) to buy a N300-loaf of bread for her kids. She would pay N10,000.

There were many other antics. Renewal of vehicle papers were surcharged by 100%, and you were fined for any single document you didn't renew the previous year. If a lady borrowed N50,000 to set up a hair salon, and used N3000 to print a 6ft by 5ft sign, she paid advertising levynof N8,000s before opening the shop. The waste management authority would bring a bill of N12,000. Business Premises would paste an ultimatum worth N4,000 on her door overnight. Local government revenue officers would accost her by 12 noon the following day. All these people would keep harassing her until they found the shop locked for four consecutive months. The business never took off. The same thing would happen to the young man that wanted to sell a few electrical wires and bulbs. The same thing happened to the school leaver who started a popcorn business.

The road traffic and obstruction offences have been shelved today. However, you should know that it didn't stop because Government found it obnoxious to the masses. No. It stopped because it was not an economically viable venture. It took more money to pay those touts salaries than they generated for the government. More than 50% of the money coerced out of the unlucky lot went missing into the pockets of the revenue bosses who saw their appointment as political windfalls. The smarter foxes among the touts regularly conducted out-of-office, bush-path settlements and made some quick cashe. That is how Nigerian state goverments are run, which means that, on the whole, it is a baboon-baboon kind of business --chop-chop.

How do all these grow the economy? Does any of these activities increase the total sum of money in circulation? Perhaps, only perhaps, few monies are driven out of strangers who visited the state with money paid them by the FG and defaulted in traffic; but how much is that? The overall result is that government only seeks to control a larger fraction of the money in circulation so the citizens would be left with little of it. The government would, therefore, boast that they have increased revenue. From where? From the peanut they pay civil servants. They give them N30,000 and then accuse them of N10, 000 offence and end up getting N3, 000 from it, while N7,000 flies in the wind of corruption? Is that how economies are grown? The masses are simply the pawn in the ridiculous economy game.

Today, it is raising tarrifs on international calls to get the Nigerian economy out of recession. Wonderful, viable, economically transforming policy, isn't it? Not entirely clueless, but certainly not a properly lit way out.

As we all are witnesses, Government is killing people's businesses with stringent forex and tax/revenue policies. Foreign investors are, understandably, pulling away resources. How many new factories are being built, and how many are shutting down operations? That is one vital index. Besides the crude oil, is there any other source of foreign exchange that causes inflow of money into the overall economy, besides meagre foreign exchange via random spiritual tourism to TB Joshua's SCOAN? What's happening to our GDP? How much is Nigeria's per capita income? When last did you hear of any increase in foreign exchange reserve? Granted, Anambra is exporting rice but her people are still getting suffocated at the foreign rice market! Isn't that a form of window dressing? However, if all other states can make similar effort, perhaps increased volume of mutual inter-state agricultural trades can transmogrify.

The way forward for Nigeria is innovation and production, not tax raises, levies or fine.
Dr OKDD