₦airaland Forum

manny4life: I do not intend to answer for beaf, however, I do think I have answers to some of your questions

1. In emerging/advanced/democratic nations, including the U.S. states and their respective counties generate their own revenue. For instance, when I go to CVS to purchase a pack of gum, look on your receipt, there are two forms of taxes, Walmart has three. The first is the state tax (5%), second is the City (2.5%), and maybe the third, County (2%). In most cases they are usually 2 tiers of taxes (States and County) or (State and City in the absence of counties). I just gave a brief example, this sample applies to just about everything from mortgage taxes, to Auto taxes, sales/exercise tax and the list goes on. These municipalities uses different forms of taxes to generate wealth.

For instance, Washington DC passed a law that retail outlets should charge 5cent on each nylon bags used to bag a customers items. This was to encourage releasable bags. Imagine where an average of 50,000 bags are used daily x $0.05, that's a $2,500 revenue to DC city DAILY. Assuming that 50k bags are used daily for 365days, then u have a revenue of $912,500 annually... you get the idea. My point is taxes, when utilized properly is ONE OF THE FISCAL TOOLS used to generate revenue, unfortunately, it does not apply to Nigeria. Clearly there are so many ways for states to generate revenue, i.e. when given the opportunity. So many states do not tax heavily their citizens but they tax their companies and corporations doing business in the state. FL for instance, like I heard, don't charge income taxes, but it's a tourist state, tourism is the heart of FL, the government takes advantage of that tax large businesses including 4/5 star Hotels, Top tier Restaurants, Parks and recreation, in fact, a survey found that Walt Disney World, is one of the largest revenue contributor to the FL state government and the largest employer in FL ... GO FIGURE.


2. Your answer is in no 1

3. What the U.S. govt and states have done was given these cities jurisdictional control over their resources. For instance, I live in VA, VA Assemble and Govt give autonomous authority to City of Alexandria to set up it own laws. This laws include but not limited to criminal, business, home ownership, rental laws, etc, while their certain laws that reside within state jurisdiction such as Labor/Wage laws, healthcare, education, etc. That is why you see there are certain ordinances that work in the City of Alexandria but don't work in the City of Arlington nor does it work in Fairfax City. In other words, having these cities establish their own guideline, rules, ordinances, statutes, laws or whatever name you like to call it, it gives these cities and counties more power to decide how to generate revenue.

In addition, the states "officially" support these cities financially who in turn support their respective counties. For instance, VA supports/subsidizes WMATA (rail) for the cities of Alexandria, Arlington, as well as other cities that the train travels to, however, the City of Reston/Herndon is ponying up a huge part of the $1.4billion Dulles Rail Expansion, if I'm correct, the state isn't involved in the project. As you can see, the cities are independent, but nonetheless, they do receive significant funding from their states i.e. if it's for the "people's purpose".

4.The simple way to generate revenues simply is to shrink their sizes to 1/3rd the size and perhaps, they can make more impact. If there are less than 300 LGs, they stand a better chance at functioning better than if they are almost 900. The bigger and complex they become (after success), they can split afterwards.

5. IMO, I think that's too much states, apply simple rules in no(4), then reapply (1),(3) and you have it. Nigeria has potentials, all we need is strong anti-corruption laws and keen people who are ready to follow it truthfully. Take for instance, in the SE region, I was reading about the Onitsha Monorail, so based on the numbers from the website, I decided to do a basic finance math, to my surprise, can you imagine the economic/financial potential, that monorail had on Onitsha (single) let alone, given the distance in km if dual states came together to build same size of rail, everything being equal?

6. skipped

7. Good question, to be honest, I think Nigerians need to start holding their people more accountable. The moment the center is weakened, the lesser desire for people to be wanting to be there.

8. I do not agree with this question, Nigeria makes more than enough to help the people there, the problem is that people are utilizing for good use. For one second, let's forget about oil or natural resources, any states, city or county CAN SURVIVE, if they put to good use their resources (not natural resources but like human, capital etc).

Loveangel: Haba take it easy naw,dbanj dey pay u?

PapaBrowne: To all those complaining that the video doesn't match the song, or that it misses the African thingy, Do you really think you are the audience? The audience is well off kids in Europe, America and Asia who are willing to fork out $17-25 dolls on an album, not those 1 dollar bootlegs sold across Africa!!
Videos are marketing tools ang they are made micro targeted to specific audiences!! That beat is different. Those well off kids will definitely be banging their head to that, and if not anything else they would at least be rocking the Azonto dance that the white boy did in that video at the next sorority party!!

Acidosis:
I lived in Kogi state for 10years and I've been to some other cities in the country, but when it comes to stable power, Kogi st. is number 1. You hardly see generator sets. People rely on PHCN to run their biz. .

dayokanu:
I think Imo already have 2 Universities
FUTO and IMSU why do they need 3 additional ones

Chimex30:
I wonder what this comparison means.At least Michell Obama speaks good English than Patience Jonathan.

Chimex30:
I wonder what this comparison means.At least Michell Obama speaks good English than Patience Jonathan.

Riba_man:
Attention all !
Haba Nigerians, when did we get this low?
I am not an Igbo man, but have had the privilege of reading up stuff re the civil war, as well as the run-up to the war.
Some of the tribalistic fiends/goons here should not just judge the man (Ojukwu) on the war, to understand the man and the civil war, one must read the events that happened in the run-up to the war.
I can see why this country (Nigeria) will never change, we are so short sighted and simplistic in our analysis of issues.