₦airaland Forum

A Good Samaritan Assistance program for nano, micro, and small
businesses and vulnerable people in Nigeria is hereby proposed to
bring socio-economic progress to our communities, cities, local
government areas, states, and nation( GAP), and is urgently needed
now! This “Micro-Marshall Plan”, a voluntary program to be implemented
by willing Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora, will complement
government efforts at poverty alleviation and job creation.

Progress and development in any nation is not the exclusive
responsibility of governments! Citizens have a role to play, and a
responsibility too for improving the socio-economic condition of their
nation.

Today, Nigerians of all stripes aspire to leave, and many have already
left the country for greener pastures cultivated by the efforts of
citizens of these nations and their leaders. There is an urgent need,
and indeed an imperative, for Nigerians also to augment the efforts of
our local, state, and federal governments to make our own pasture as
green as possible! It is time to get on with it!

Please join in this effort to develop Nigeria, abandon the Siddon-look
approach of many, and end the blame-the-politicians pastime. Please
get involved and help to dramatically reduce the ‘Japa’ exodus of
frustrated and unemployed youth and professionals by contributing your
own quota. Please become a part of the solution! To all Nigerians who
can help, please do so by identifying a nano-business, a
micro-business, vulnerable people, or a charity to help.

We recommend that you give a grant of N100k to N250k or more to any of
a micro-business, a charity, a startup, or a social or security
service provider as your citizen contribution to improving the
socio-economic condition in Nigeria.

The goals of this effort: To improve the security and living
conditions of rural and urban dwellers, a significant reduction in
extreme poverty in rural and urban areas, and job creation for
Nigerian youth.

Strategy: A laser-focus on R.I.C.H.E.S.: Rural and urban investments
in crop planting, harvesting, agro-processing, and animal husbandry;
investments in health, housing, human capacity building; investments
in energy, exchange, and export services; and investments in social
services, which include security services.

Our approach: Due to widespread corruption in the country, it is
unlikely that people will trust any organization with their funds to
support this effort. We urge you to take personal responsibility in
identifying the recipient micro-enterprises, organizations, or people
to receive your support, and to diligently assess them for
authenticity before sending them money.

Willing Nigerians worldwide should identify entrepreneurs to support
in the areas captured above, and highlighted below, in the local
government areas of their states of origin and elsewhere:

1. Start-up of new ventures, consolidating new ventures, and
expansion of existing businesses. Entrepreneurs seeking to expand and
employ more young people should get priority.

2. Identify charities to give grants to: Orphanages, senior
citizen support services, rural and urban health clinics, IDF camps,
and others.

3. Job training, educational institutions, research institutes,
and urban and rural extension service providers.

4. Rural farmers and farm settlements.

5. Security agencies and forest guards, especially in the rural areas.

6. Service providers that facilitate intra-state, inter-state,
and international trade.

Nigerians at home and abroad are hardworking people with a combined
gross annual income of the equivalent of over $500 billion US dollars
and have the financial capacity to help their fellow citizens and
their nation. There is no excuse for Nigerians not to help. If you
choose to help, it will make a decisive difference in the lives of
people and in the socio-economic situation in the country. Please
help! Thank you very much. God bless you. God bless Nigeria.


Sincerely,

Abitunde Taiwo

Your Excellency, President Elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,

Thank you very for choosing to run for the presidency in a democracy that you played a prominent role to birth through your activities in NADECO. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, as popular saying goes, but I strongly urge you to share the burdens and responsibilities of governance with the Nigerian people, including members of the elite class at home and in the Diaspora, as democracy demands. Nigerians typically ask for what the country can do for them. You must challenge Nigerians, especially the members of the elite class, to follow the advice given by President Kennedy to be willing to do something for their country. You made a promise to form a government of national competence. I urge you to also form a government that adopts and promotes global best practices such as raising revenues from income taxes of members of the elite class and adopting and enforcing accounting and managerial controls in government to curb corruption for Nigeria to be globally competitive.

​In my humble opinion, the foremost agenda of your presidency should be to end the persistent fiscal malpractice and malfeasance in governance in Nigeria: the unwillingness to develop the capacity to raise substantially adequate government revenues and the apparent refusal to use effective accounting and managerial controls to drastically curb corruption in government!

You will not be able to govern efficiently and effectively and meet the urgent needs in the nation with the current paltry and woefully insufficient federal annual revenues of the equivalent of about US$15 billion dollars and without the use of effective accounting and managerial controls!

Neither will you be able to continue with the prevailing borrowing binge to make up for inadequate revenues as the country is on the brink of bankruptcy!

Your excellency, the following problems that must be solved or ameliorated for you to have a successful presidency depend on the efficient and effective deployment of available and sufficient financial resources:

1. Pervasive insecurity nationwide.

2. Millions of unemployed youths.

3. Road networks in need of major repairs.

4. Poverty everywhere.

5. Poor state of health care infrastructures.

6. Housing deficit.

7. Power supply inadequacy.

8. Petrol shortages.

9. Poor financial state at all levels of government and in all
institutions of learning.

10. Economy in need of diversification from oil.

11. Inflation or high prices of food and other commodities.

12. Desertification, climate change, and herder-farmer clashes.

Please take the bull by the horns by raising the annual national revenues to up to $100 billion US dollars principally from taxation of the incomes of 10 to 20 million elite citizens resident in Nigeria and in the Diaspora to supplement our meager oil revenues.

As you may know, 12 million barrels of oil are sold a day in the United States, the largest producer of oil in the world. The United States has a population of less than twice that of Nigeria but produces approximately six times more oil than Nigeria. However, most of the revenues of the United States is from income taxation of its citizens and residents, not from oil: A global best practice! America’s economy will collapse if it depends only on oil revenues!

The projected revenue in the federal budget for this year is about US$15 billion dollars with income taxes contributing an insignificant portion. The revenue to GDP ratio is about 3 percent, significantly less than the 15 percent recommended by the World Bank for any government to be able to provide minimum services for the population and to support economic growth.

With a GDP of approximately US$500 billion dollars, 15% of which is US$75 billion dollars, a revenue gap of US$60 billion dollars exists that needs to be filled to fund the provision of basic services, security, and infrastructures needed for economic growth and to reduce unemployment.

The current security crises confronting Nigeria from kidnappings, banditry, herdsmen-farmer clashes, and gang robbery, among others, have put the people in the country in a state of fear and terror. Many farmers have abandoned their farms for fear of being kidnapped for huge ransoms or being killed. As a result, food prices have soared, further impoverishing the people.

Inadequate funding is also responsible for the poor state of the infrastructures needed to promote economic growth and youth
employment. As a result, youth unemployment has skyrocketed causing many young people to embark on a dangerous mission of emigrating via the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to Europe to escape the misery they face at home. Even disaffected young professionals have joined the bandwagon of emigration: “The Japa syndrome”.

Some of the young people that remain in Nigeria join secessionist movements that if not well handled may lead to a second civil war that will destabilize the West African continent, cause untold suffering, starvation, and death of many. As the horror and human suffering from the wars in Ukraine and Sudan show, Nigeria cannot afford another civil war. Neither can our neighbors cope with the influx of refugees into their lands that will result from a war.

In consideration of these issues, please implement a strategy to engage the 10 to 20 million elite Nigerian citizens worldwide to fund the federal, state, and local governments via income taxation as is done in democratic western nations, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.

Through this strategy, a revenue of more than 15 percent of GDP can be realized and used to provide robust infrastructures and services to the people of Nigeria, promote democracy and the rule of law in Africa, and support regional efforts to stem youth migration to Europe, Asia, and America.

Engaging Nigerian elites in this way will transform the brain drain to a resource, capabilities, and capacity gain for the nation!

The engagement of Nigerian elites at home and abroad in funding the government will motivate them to monitor how their taxes are being spent, encourage them to be active in the democratic process and to push public officials to perform in office, and this will help improve outcomes in governance. The nation is owed a return on investment on the enormous funds spent on the education of Nigerian elites. In addition, many elites receive many benefits and patronage from all levels of government. It is time to ask them to give back to the country.

The annual revenue gap of US$60 billion dollars, which is a small fraction of the annual incomes of Nigerian elites worldwide, if closed and the funds spent wisely, will do wonders for the economy and lead to improvements in youth education and employment, security, and physical infrastructures. Investments in security, infrastructures, education at all levels, healthcare provisioning and communications will make Nigeria to become a destination for more local and foreign investments and will turn the nation into a significant player in global trade and in the mitigation of climate change, global pandemics, and transnational terrorism.

I humbly suggest that you, with due consultations, implement a variable progressive taxation regime in a range from 16% to 24% of the annual incomes, including all allowances, of members of the elite class resident in Nigeria and to be distributed as follows: 25% for local governments, 25% for state governments, and 50% for the federal government.

Diaspora elite Nigerians should also be assessed a variable taxation regime, after due consultations, in a lower range of 1% to 4%
of their annual incomes​ ​due to the high taxation regimes in the countries of their residence. These taxes should also be split and distributed using the formula applied for the elites resident in Nigeria. With a reciprocal tax arrangement with host countries, which I recommend that you establish, Diaspora Nigerians will be able to deduct their tax payments to Nigeria from their incomes and pay reduced taxes to their host countries.

I must bring to your attention again to the fact that the richest country on earth, the USA, taxes the incomes of its citizens resident anywhere in the world. It is foolhardy for Nigeria not to do likewise. I hasten to add that it is imperative that Nigeria does the same!

With the implementation of these taxation regimes, and in addition to existing income streams, annual revenues of up to US$100 billion dollars, a multiple of current revenue levels, will be realized.

In conclusion, ​your leadership in​ ​​implementing a strategy to increase government revenues substantially, and to properly and transparently deploy them to solve current problems and meet future challenges will make your presidency a transformational one. Our rural and urban citizens will become richer and safer, not poorer nor in peril, from investments in secure environments in the infrastructures that promote productive commercial activities in agriculture, animal husbandry, food processing, industry, tourism, and housing. The lives of all citizens will also be enriched through investments in human capacity development and in support services that include social security, health care, and in the promotion of exports to the sub-continent, continent, and rest of the world.

Thank you very much, Your Excellency, for taking the time to read this. God bless you, your family, and Nigeria.

Sincerely,

Prince Abitunde Taiwo.

abitundetaiwo3@gmail.com

Congratulations on your victory at the polls, Your Excellency.

In humility, I offer you this advice for your consideration as you prepare to take office on May 29 by the grace of God:

Devise and implement a strategy to raise the annual revenue of the federal government from the present pathetically paltry 15 billion US dollars, or 3 percent of our GDP, to about 100 billion US dollars which is 20 percent of Nigeria’s GDP of about 500 billion dollars. This is a mission that is possible! Resourcefulness, ingenuity, imagination, and innovation are required to achieve this goal! If the second and third largest economies in Africa, Egypt and South Africa, each have an annual revenue of about 90 billion US dollars, Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, can do better!

A robust revenue profile will enable your administration to have the funds for capital projects, for service provisioning to fulfill the yearnings of our people, to address the security challenges in the nation, and to create the enabling environment for socioeconomic growth that will create jobs for millions of our people.

Nigeria is very fortunate to have you as president-elect as you are a proven performer, a resourceful revenue generator, an innovative investor, and a great recruiter and motivator of talented people to work with. Lagos, the 5th largest economy in Africa after Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Algeria is an eloquent testimony to this.

May The Lord God Almighty who helped you in Lagos also help you in Abuja.

Best wishes.

May God bless Nigeria.



Prince Abitunde Taiwo

abitundetaiwo3@gmail.com

A real and imaginative plan. Not fake news. Please support to empower 20 million youth and set Nigeria on a path for economic and social development. Thank you.

I hereby declare my intention to run for the presidency in 2023, God willing. I am using this platform to promote the imperative of a Diaspora-Nigeria alliance to tackle the problems in Nigeria, promote democracy, security, and socio-economic development in Nigeria.

A functional, practical, and continuous interaction between Diaspora Nigerians and the nation's universities, research institutes, teaching hospitals, and the three tiers of government and the MDAs is needed to transform the current brain drain into a brain gain.

I am also running to get Nigeria back on track to true federalism that we got off in 1966. We abandoned federalism for a unitary system of government. For any meaningful and sustainable development to occur in Nigeria we must get back to true federalism and democracy where the states can pursue economic policies in their areas of comparative advantage and where the responsibility for leadership to solve problems is shared among the people, the state governors, the local government officials, and the president.

In order to promote democracy and socio-economic growth in Nigeria, and to provide relief to many young people in financial distress and without jobs in Nigeria, I am using this platform to ask millions of Nigerian citizens in Diaspora and in Nigeria to match or exceed the N1 million naira that I will donate to a N10 trillion fund I propose, Goodwill Alliance for Investment in Nigeria's youth and infrastructures (G.A.I.N). The fund will pay for the employment and training of 20 million young people for an entire year, and to start as soon as possible at an estimated cost of N5 trillion naira. The fund will also pay N1 trillion naira each for education, health, security, rural, and social security infrastructures! I implore Nigerian youth to vote for those politicians and parties that sign a legally binding agreement to continue to fund this program after its expiration next year, on a yearly basis, until it is no longer needed.

If this annual program is sustained for a number of years until it is no longer needed, it will be similar to the Marshall Plan that helped Western Europe and Japan recover from the destruction and devastation of the Second World War.

Nigeria needs to recover from many years of the destruction and devastation of corruption, tribalism, nepotism, religious intolerance, incompetence, and poor governance. If five to ten million Nigerians join me in this effort and match or exceed the N1 million naira I plan to contribute, 20 million Nigerian youth will be employed in agriculture, ecology, game reserves, horticulture, forestry, internships, apprenticeships, rural-urban road projects, rural-urban renewal projects, and in areas of comparative advantage in their states of residence.

I ask civic organizations and all Nigerians at home and in Diaspora to promote, participate in, and manage this Nigerian peoples' self-help and self-empowerment project that will enable Nigerian youth to be able vote for candidates of their choice in all the elected offices in the elections next year and be able to resist the manipulation of political jobbers and exploiters.

My presidency will represent a departure from the current orthodoxy where power is centralized in Abuja because of the abandonment of true federalism and the practice of a unitary system of governance and the exploitation of the minority peoples of the country living in oil producing areas of the country.

Global best practices that I will follow in my presidency include the derivation of revenues for government operations principally from income taxation at an average of 20% to 50% of the GDP. Efficient tax collection of 24% of Nigeria's GDP, for example, will fetch an overall revenue of over N60 trillion naira which is significantly more than the current revenue profile. I propose a variable taxation regime from 0% to 27% negotiable with the citizens, a third of which goes to each tier of government, and a Diaspora tax regime of 0% to 6%, a third of which goes to each tier of government.

This lower tax regime for Diaspora Nigerians is because of the taxes Diaspora Nigerians pay in the countries of their residence. If elected, I will enter reciprocal tax arrangements with countries where Diaspora Nigerians reside to reduce the tax burden on Diaspora Nigerians in these countries.

As he who pays the piper dictates the tune, citizen taxpayers who fund government operations will demand transparency and accountability from government officials and will also be motivated to get involved in governance which will result in better outcomes in all the 36 states, 774 local governments, and the nation.

With greater revenues and a joint leadership of citizens, local government officials, state governors, and the presidency, Nigeria will be able to tackle and solve many problems and challenges confronting the nation, attract Diaspora and foreign investors, deepen democracy, diversify the economy, and provide badly needed services to citizens in urban and rural areas of the country.

Nigeria will then be able to become a partner with other advanced nations of the world in addressing global and regional challenges of migration, poverty, military coups, climate change, desertification, farmer-herder clashes, pandemic preparedness, and security.

I appeal to Nigerian men and women of goodwill around the world to fund this program and civil society groups that have been strong advocates for good governance in the country for many years to administer this program. If five to ten million of 215 million Nigerians worldwide join me and each contribute a million naira or more to this program, it will take off and begin the process of transformation of Nigeria from the poverty capital of the world to a prosperous democracy, and from a failing state to a thriving state.

If the friends of a pop star popularly called Davido could raise N200 million naira in two weeks from individual contributions of N1 million naira each to mark his birthday, I am confident that there are at least five to ten million Nigerians of goodwill from a pool of 215 million people resident in Nigeria and in Diaspora that will each contribute N1 million naira or more to the GAIN Fund that will help Nigeria and its peoples overcome the current challenges of poor infrastructures, security, poverty, unemployment, diseases, conflicts, and disunity.

May The Lord God Almighty bless Nigeria and its peoples.

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