₦airaland Forum

forgiveness:
Maybe he has abandoned his campaign promises. No worries, his party will come back begging for votes soon but dem go show dem meme.

Atleast, PDP winning almost all the seats around that area testified to the fact that they can't be decieved twice.

I still dey observe am.

Maybe he has, maybe he hasn't. What I do know is that Ogun of now is not the Ogun of 2013. Amosun deserves applaud for how he has made Ogun ripe for investors.

You want that Cargo airport, you'll need more investors.

Nigerians weren't deceived, they're shortsighted.
Buhari was the better alternative for corrupt GEJ.

forgiveness:
I am in support of anything good for the state but Amosun never fulfil is promise of building Cargo airport hence my submission of talking to much.

When last did you hear anything about that? I share your worry.

forgiveness:
I hope Amosun is not only talking story. We dey observe.

Amosun didn't come up with the rankings and judging by what has been going on in Ogun recently, that state deserves it.

Full list of ranks http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings/Nigeria

Ibos politicians don chop oil money finish. I feel sorry for SS minorities who want to allign with Biafra.

CSTR2:
You lots are sick. People are compensated by the government in situations like these In countries with a future.
Which is why karma will always ensure your country is nothing more than a backward jungle, where your collective lives mean for nothing.
Hopefully, igbos can get their sovereignty , sooner rather than later and leave you animals to your fate.

We're all hoping they do. With Igbos gone, Nigerians will finally rest from chestbeating noise.

CSTR2:
This guy need to be voted out as a matter of necessity. I would agree with him if it were a sane country, but Nigeria is not sane.
A country with 60% majority Muslim can not be sane.
A country with the 3rd and 4th most deadliest terrorist groups in the world is not sane.
Even the President is mad.

Ebonyi belongs to the Fulanis. Even if you vote him out, your Fulani masters will replace him with another ass licker.

Onenaira5

When we told you loud chestbeaters that they've sold igbolans to Fulanis, you dey make noise

Ebonyi has an emir, believe it or not.

Babacele:
so where did the strong ones go after being informed of the impending attack? does commonsense support strong folks abandoning or defending their people during hostilities? so all the youths couldnt form vigilante including Corporal Chukwu ? they wore black shirts ,so how do u know they were fulanis? Corporal Chukwu is a Fulani too, abegii we ain't fools....

The strong ones are online blaming Yorubas.

FKO81:
why will they move when your forefathers all agreed in indivisible nation, until Nigeria cease to exist they can now move.

So why complain about SE being inhabitable and economically backwards when your kindmen see no value in their own land?

WhoRUDeceiving:
Looks like Yoruba have been reading Nairaland very well and have seen everyone thinks of the term coward and Yoruba as the same lol. Now because Fulani fools have gone to kill (something they have been doing for 80 years and counting), the Yorubas are taking jabs at Igbo.

Doesn't this remind us of 1966 all over again? Im glad that those Easterners, including GEJ, that thought Yoruba were for the south can see what even the British saw in the 1800s- that is, Yoruba cannot be trusted.

Another chestbeating igbo coward. Welcome.
Yes, Yorubas booted the clueless baboon out. We don't regret it. We'll do it again and there's nothing you cowards can do about it
See as the thing pain una well well.

Bitterleafsoup:
Brose Brose hold on now. Don't let another person take you out of your true self. The attacks looked well plan as you have investigated. Now wettin you go do with that news? That should let us know that this is getting serious, we have to direct our energy to stoping these terrorist. They are a new brand of terrorist the 2nd from the North. The way it is going now we have a common enemy a problem the administration is ignoring and we have to take serious.

What will I do with the news? I posted it.
What you plan to do with the news is up to you.
If Enugu people were smart, they'll stay on guard. How can Fulani herdsmen attack, then come back and attack after the police had left? They're no longer herdsmen, they're terrorists and they have a stake on Enugu.

andersonbaba:
Compensation for what? Ibo and money is just like bread and butter
Maybe federal government should the compensation from the 100s lives lost during the Ikeja bomb blast, then the lives lost to different boko haram attacks.
What I think federal government should do is to pay the medical bills of the injured and provide adequate security against subsequent attacks

They also want Nigeria to compensate them for the Biafran war; N1bn. Let's see how long it takes; when FG gives in or when ultimatum deadline draws closer.

SirJeffry:
They wrote you a letter telling you to prepare for war. You called them for peace talk and they insisted on the war only for you to mumuishly relax to be killed.

That king deserves to be slapped by the gods. How I wish it was Aguleri or Umuleri King in Anambra that they wrote that war letter to. The herdsmen would have been united with their virgins in hell by now.

Some are strong for battle, others must consistently wave the white flag.

Bitterleafsoup:
Is this a joke to you?
Were you raised with parents?
As you were reading of the slaughter and hacking of humans your little wee wee tighten up?
Your really sick dude...

The sick ones are the ones that rejoiced and called others cowards when agatu/mile 12 were attacked.
This is beyond joking. Lives were lost and a possible attack is coming.
Instead of focusing on kissing Saraki's ass or blaming Yorubas online, tell your people to secure themselves.
Judging by the stories, these were PLANNED attacks, unlike your typical chestbeating.

Onenaira5

my bingo, come and see sense. I know you go vomit for mouth, but I just want you to receive sense, okay. Even from your IDP camp, you need to come read this.

This is my favorite paragraph

This is why the next thing to do for the Yoruba is to break up Nigeria immediately while assuring all that they have nothing to fear and that they should get their acts together as well. Interests can never be allied in Nigeria for the country to take off. That is impossible. People delude themselves that the current President is in alliance with the Yoruba via Former Governor Tinubu but when asked why a Yoruba man and disciple of former Governor Tinubu was blocked AT ALL COST from becoming the governor of Kogi state by the APC under President Buhari, they have nothing to say.

I love that my people are finally waking up.
Nigeria is not and will never benefit the great Yoruba nation.

lmaoooo aint the dude supposed to be on exile? Abi na Obanikoro? Can't tell the difference between those two devils.

If we talk now, they'll start blaming Yoruba

Onenaira5

From your IDP camp, can you please provide a full detail of what is going on onground? Let us know how much we can donate to the helpless. O ma se o. Ahh these attacks are well-planned!

Enugu — Perhaps, the Monday, April 27 invasion of the Ukpabi Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State by suspected armed herdsmen would have been averted if security operatives in the state had properly beefed up security when they received a report on the imminent attack.

There was an allegation that the community was successfully attacked because unscrupulous elements leaked intelligent information to the invaders. The attackers were said to have stormed the community from the surrounding bush, hacking their victims to death with daggers, knives, small axes and A-K 47 rifles.


Nimbo is made up of seven villages - Enugu Nimbo, Nimbo Ngwoko, Ugwuijoro, Ebor, Ekwuru, Umuome and Ugwuachara - all of them were attacked brutally.

Right now, nobody, not even the security agencies or villagers can give the accurate figure of casualties. [size=14pt]This is because more corpses are being recovered from the bush and some victims who were receiving treatment have died[/size]. For instance, Akogwu Utazi, a relative of Senator Chuka Utazi, representing Enugu North Senatorial Zone, was said to have died at the Bishop Shanahan Memorial Hospital, Nsukka on Wednesday. Also, it is not clear whether Mr. Patrick Eze, a youth corps member and one of the three victims referred to the National Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu (NOHE) would survive.

When Daily Trust on Sunday visited the hospital, it was learnt that Eze's condition had worsened on Thursday. "We're not sure he will last till tomorrow (Friday), and there's no way we can allow you to enter there," a nurse told our reporter at the NOHE.

One of the indigenes of the community, Chioma Ajogwu, whose brother, Celestine, is one of the lucky surviving victims currently receiving treatment at the hospital, said: "For over a week and some days, we had police security. We also had all the youth in our community and its neighbourhood. Every day, they (security men) would keep guard in the community and its surroundings.

[size=14pt]"But immediately the security men left the community about 6am on Monday to prepare for another night, the invaders came. They came from the bush, dividing themselves into several groups," she said[/size].

Celestine received life-threatening bullet and machete injuries on his neck, mouth, hands and back. Thinking that he had died, his attackers abandoned him.

Root cause of the invasion, Daily Trust on Sunday was informed that the relationship between Ukpabi Nimbo and its herdsmen guests was severed in 2015, when the hosts demanded that the herdsmen must leave their land. They accused them of unleashing destruction on their farms as well as raping their women. Last year, a fight between the herdsmen and Nimbo people reportedly led to the loss of lives on both sides. At last, the herdsmen were said to have angrily left the community, but some of them stayed back inside the bush.

"When the herdsmen left, our people rejoiced, thinking that the matter was over. We did not know that few of the herdsmen were still in the bush. Later, they wrote a letter to our Igwe (traditional ruler), telling him that they would come back for war, whether he liked it or not. They did not state the actual date of the proposed war," Ajogwu recalled. According to her, the herdsmen had vowed to avenge the death of their brothers during last year's fracas.


To prevent the imminent war, upon receiving the threat letter from the herdsmen, the traditional ruler of Nimbo, Igwe John Akor, reportedly held a meeting with the leadership of the herdsmen and some of their notable kinsmen. He wanted to find a means of averting the attack. The response he got from the leadership of the herdsmen and their kinsmen was that nothing could be done to prevent the attack, adding that they should prepare for war. He reportedly alerted the state and local governments.

Following the development, stakeholders from the local government met in Enugu to seek a lasting solution to the alleged attacks, kidnap and rape of women by the suspected herdsmen in communities within the council area.

The chairman of the Transition Committee of Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Cornell Onwubuya, also alerted Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and the commissioner of police, Enugu State command, Nwodibo Ekechukwu, of the herdsmen's threat.

Onwubuya said the local leaders of the Fulani community also confirmed that there were attempts to bring in mercenaries to invade some Uzo-Uwani communities. He recalled that some Fulani leaders in Enugu had complained that some of their people were killed within Nimbo and Abbi communities last year.

During the meeting held in the Enugu Government House, the traditional leader of Fulani community in Enugu State, Alhaji Haldo Saidu Baso, said he had lived in Enugu State for over 33 years and would not be alive to witness the kind of crisis they were talking about. Baso assured that he would talk to his people not to take laws into their hands but to always report disturbing issues to traditional rulers of the communities.

Daily Trust on Sunday was reliably informed by an indigene of the community that the invading attackers were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, bayonets, small axes and knives. They wore black cloths. They also tied black cloths on their foreheads.

A villager and one of the victims of the attack, Kingsley Ezugwu, who is also a former councillor for Nimbo Ward 2, spoke in his hospital bed at Nsukka, saying: "I was coming out from the house when I heard the community bell ring. I went with a friend to know what the bell was about, only to see about 40 Fulani herdsmen, armed with sophisticated guns and machetes. They pursued us, killed my friend and shot at me several times but missed. They later caught me and used machetes on me until I fainted." He said they abandoned him, thinking that he was dead. Ezugwu said he managed to crawl out of the spot until another villager took him to the hospital.

Our correspondent learnt that a team of security agents, made up of the army, police and the Nigeria Security Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), has been deployed to the troubled area, which was deserted following the invasion.

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who visited the area on Tuesday, not only wept openly, he also asked the people to remain calm. He declared two days of fasting and prayer for God's intervention in the matter, and donated N5million to the community as a palliative measure.

Ugwuanyi also told the people that when he got a security report on Sunday concerning the imminent attack on the community, he immediately summoned an emergency meeting of the State Security Council. He said the council met on Sunday night till the early hours of Monday, shortly before the herdsmen struck. He regretted that the sad incident eventually occurred despite all the assurances by security operatives.

The Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, who visited the community on Wednesday, April 26, vowed that the police would fish out the perpetrators of the attack and prosecute them accordingly. He ordered the arrest of one Corporal Chukwu, attached to Adani Police Division over an alleged collaboration with the attackers during the invasion.

Many stakeholders of the community and others believe that the unfortunate attack would have been nipped in the bud if security was properly beefed up by those concerned.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201605020877.html

Mynd44
lalasticala
onenaira5
superstar1
scholes5
omenka

This is an oil producing state o. If we talk now, dem go say 'na our son. na our oil'

onenaira5, my bingo, come see this news

kabman:
Not going to happen

Why not?
Don't you think they deserve compensation?

onenaira5,

From your IDP camp, can you confirm whether your governor has compensated the Fulani invasion victims?

You said 9 people die, NUF said 50. Who should we believe?

[size=18pt]Enugu massacre: Igbo group wants government to compensate victims’ families
[/size]

The Ndigbo Unity Forum (NUF) has called on the Federal and the Enugu State governments to compensate the families that lost their loved ones in the April 25 invasion of Nimbo community in Enugu State.
The President of the forum, Augustine Chukwudum, NUF made the statement while addressing newsmen in Enugu on Monday.

According to Chukwudum, government should be held responsible for the invasion of Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area by suspected herdsmen.

He noted that the successful attack and killing of about 50 people in the community was as a result of government’s inability to provide enough security in the area.

“The Federal and Enugu State government must bear the burden of the deaths and pay due compensation to the families of the deceased.

“This is because government has failed in its constitutional duty of protecting its people,’’ Chukwudum said.

He said that the forum condemned in strong terms the “criminal invasion and killing of over 50 Nigerians in a peaceful and quiet Nimbo community without any iota of provocation.

“What we are seeing has shown that this crime against humanity is been committed with impunity.

“Security agencies have not taken concrete steps to apprehend and bring the perpetrators of these systematic killings in the South-East to book until the recent massive and breathe-taking one that happened in Nimbo community,’’ he said.


http://dailypost.ng/2016/05/02/enugu-massacre-igbo-group-wants-government-to-compensate-victims-families/

Wetin concern Ipob with Fanyogo?
This isn't international politics section. She's so tall, damn!

Lagos State will finally be absorbed into the O’dua Group, comprising the five states of Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti, which make up this 40-year old association that seeks political and economic integration in the old Western region of Nigeria.

Only the host governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi and his Ekiti State counterpart, Mr. Ayo Fayose, were represented by their deputies. The other three governors – Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State and Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, who read out the four-point communiqué were present at that momentous occasion where Lagos State was formally recognized as one of their own, a true Yoruba state, a bona fide member of the O’dua clan, which undoubtedly deserves to be in sync with the other states to which progressive ideology is synonymous.

[size=13pt]“The drive towards regional integration in the South-West of Nigeria cannot be effectively pursued,” according to Governor Ambode “if all the states in the region fail to combine their resources, work together and maximize their comparative advantages in order to build a strong regional infrastructural and social links amongst themselves.”
[/size]

Lagosstate.gov.ng

Rayhutar:
How can they move ndigbo forward with reverse migration when FG is bent on protecting Lagos as only economic viable hub for Nigeria, what is preventing FG from building a standard sea port in Akwa Ibom or Bayelsa and building of river port in Onitsha, also building of standard international airport in Enugu and PH, dont asked me why GEJ did not do all those things because Nigeria have been together for about 43 years since after the civil war before Gej came on board and the north did not give him a breathing space. Lagos cannot continue to host all the bank and oil headquarters, only viable international airport and sea port,Embassies and you will not expect net migration. If FG is serious, they should work toward making embassies to have consulate in Enugu and Kano, and ensure standard viable international airport in Enugu for SE; PH for SS; kano for North and Lagos for Sw, build standard seaport in Akwa Ibom and river port in Onitsha and Kaduna. Oil headquarters relocated to oil producing states. Net migration to Lagos will drop. If you are flying to Germany ,SA and other serious countries you fly direct to your destination state, not like Nigeria where you must go to lagos for your visa and exit via lagos to most world destinations. Lagos is hustling and congested economic viable ground because of tribalism on the part of FG to open up other part of Nigeria like SS/SE as I mentioned above

So whose stopping Igbo business men from moving their business to the east?

Onenaira5,

Bingo! *whistles*

Come and see magic. If only Fulanis can let Enugu reach this level.

Thanks to Lagos leaders...... visions upon visions

[size=18pt]‘We’re targeting N50b monthly IGR’
[/size]


Lagos State is the state to emulate when it comes to running an efficient tax system, posting huge monthly Internally Generated Revenues (IGRs). The Executive Chairman, Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), Mr Olufolarin Ogunsanwo, speaks to Group Business Editor SIMEON EBULU and COLLINS NWEZE on ongoing tax reforms in the state and how tax revenues are deployed to key developmental projects that meet the needs of the people.



At a time like this, Lagos State needs you. How are you faring?



Well, I can say it has been very, very interesting and challenging at the same time. Why it is interesting is because as a tax administrator saddled with the responsibility of generating revenues for Lagos State, I see it as service to humanity. If you look at all the things that the money being generated have been used for, I see it as a call to service. Where the government has to provide schools, good roads, water and other social amenities for the larger society. And you are being saddled with the responsibility of sourcing for the money, because government runs on a budget. There is the revenue and expenditure sides of budget. So, for you to be given that responsibility of generating revenues on behalf of the government, with which they can render all these services to the populace, is a very interesting one. The fact is that the job itself, there is no where in the world where anybody wants to pay tax. So, you have to put together all the skills that you have.



What are you doing about enforcement against tax defaulters?



Sometimes you need to encourage, enlighten and explain and when you are pushed to the extreme, you might need to enforce. And when you look at all these, it makes it a bit challenging. Like I said, there is no where in the world that people want to pay taxes with ease. For us in Lagos State, I want to believe that with this new administration, a lot has been done and we are still going to do more with a view to ensuring that we make life easier for tax payers. And what do I mean by this, we look at the World Bank ease of doing business report, even though before this administration came on about six months ago, a lot has been done in terms of advocacy, enlightenment, improvement in processes, and all these things. We see ourselves as taking over from where my predecessor stopped. And we discovered that there is need to do more for the tax payers in Lagos State. As I was trying to explain, the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index ranks Nigeria 169, out of 189 countries, and this was benchmarked against ease of registering business, ease of registring property documents, getting title documents, and then the ease of paying tax.



Of all these, which one touches you most about this report?



For me, it is the ease of paying taxes than concerns me more, which further explains that it takes 309 hours to pay taxes in Nigeria. And on that basis, Nigeria ranked 181, out of 189 countries. And that made Nigeria to just be a step ahead of countries that are at war. That for me was a big challenge and I feel that something must be done from my own area of specialisation. So, we started by looking at the form that is used to file returns. That form has been in existence since Lagos State came into existence, and Lagos is going to be 50 years sometime next year. This means that the form is as old as Lagos State itself. So, we looked at that form and the position of the law–Section 41, of the personal income tax act. And what does it say? It says a taxable person must file a return on his/her income in a prescribed format and prescribed information to the relevant tax authorities.



We then compressed the form to just two pages. We also put a guideline on completing the form. We need to enlighten the tax payer on when, where and how to pay their taxes. We also looked at our population. Lagos has over 20 million people. People are always coming to Lagos everyday. The population is always on the increase. And out of this 20 million approximated figure, further research showed that there should be between 8.5 and nine million people on the tax net. But of this number, it is only five million that we have, which means we still have a gap of between 3.5 and four million people. Our research further showed that about 70 per cent of them are supposed to be from the informal sector.



What is your view on tax payment by the informal sector?



The informal sector, happens to be the underground economy. They deal on cash basis; they do not have records which make it a bit more difficult to penetrate the sector. So, we feel that one thing that we can do to make an inroad, is to go a step further by interpreting those forms in English, Yoruba and pidgin. Also, we went ahead to acquire the Perosnal Income Tax Act which we have been distributing to people in English, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa and other languages. They also know their rights and obligations, as well as the consequences of not obeying the tax law. Not only that, we also looked at the ease of payment.



Before now, people can only go to the banks to pay. So, many people, especially in a place such as Lagos where there is always traffic. So, payment of taxes may just take the whole day. And many of these people will not want to leave their businesses to go and pay taxes. So, if the mode of payment is not comfortable to them, then it creates a problem. We discovered that almost everyone has a mobile phone and automated teller machine (ATM) cards. So, we deployed point of sale (PoS) terminals to all our tax stations, where people can actually use ATM cards to pay, or even pay online.



We are still working out plan to use credits on the phone to pay taxes in Lagos State. We now believe that we have simplified the processes of payment of taxes and filing processes. The end product of the whole process is the electronic tax clearance card, which must be ready within 72 hours on application. Not only that, those that have lost their cards will only pay N1,000 against N2,500 previously. You must be a Lagos resident. All these are some of the initiatives that made life easier for the tax payer and add value to what they are doing. We have also been training and retraining our workers, to be in sync with the recent technology. In terms of customer service and relationship management as well as current trend in tax administration. We have also created the directorate of the informal sector, who are mainly traders, lawyers, and photographers. We also looked at household domestic workers, cleaners, security men, cooks and stewards who also form part of the larger population. Analysis shows they are not actually paying taxes. And the position of the law is that everyone must voluntarily pay their taxes as and at when due. We believe that without enforcement, it is not easy to collect taxes because nobody wants to pay taxes. Once we have established a case against you, and we have gone through the due process and you are still recalcitrant, the person will be prosecuted. We are actually prosecuting tax defaulters. Apart from the 18 high net-worth individuals that are undergoing prosecution, we also have 20 cases being handled. Not filing your returns early is an offence. Not paying your tax is a criminal offence that can even come with both fines and jail terms because not paying your tax is a criminal offence. So, all these are some of the reforms we have been carrying out as a tax administrator and revenue agency.



How are these reforms changing the tax collection figures?



We all know that price of oil has dropped and revenues too. Everyone is now looking inwards to improve Internally Generated Revenues. All these reforms for us, have helped us improve results, but there is still much to be done in the area of revenue generation for the state. We are all aware that many companies are downsising, and some have even cut salaries. And all these have affected the yield on revenue generation. But for us, we believe that if we run an efficient tax administration, we will be able to collect whatever is due to the state government optimally. And that is what we have been trying to do, and has led to significant improvement in revenue generation for the state.



Business owners have been crying over multiple taxation in the state too. How are you addressing this ?



Nigeria is running a federal system of government and all tiers of government have been empowered by the constitution to collect their own taxes. We have the Federal Government, state government and the local government, which is the third tier of government. But the truth of the matter is that it is an interesting topic, when we talk of multiplicity of taxes. The very nature of Nigeria, there is what we call usage taxes, rates and levies. The simple definition of taxation is that tax itself is a compulsory levy that is paid to government without any direct benefit to that person. If you use water in your house and you are asked to pay, it is usage charge and not tax because you benefit directly from it. Then, if you put a signpost in front of your office and you are asked to pay the advert rate, definitely it is a levy. Then if somebody chooses to block the road for a party, instead of renting a hall, inconveniencing your neighbours, and they ask you to pay something to the local government, called merriment tax, it is not a tax, but a charge. Registration of birth and death (also fall within this category). In the real sense of it, we do not have multiplicity of taxes, I think tax administrators should go a step further to categorise what taxes, levies, usage charges and so on are. Act 21, 1998 actually lists what taxes are collectible by each tier of government. So, if there is any tax collected that does not fall within the approved list for collection, then it can be escalated to the Board of Internal Revenue of the state, or to the Joint Tax Board, so that the person that is charging you will have to explain the rational or basis for charging the tax. In all there are just 61 items, in both the federal and state and local government. So, anyone outside the list, is not acceptable and is illegal collection. Out of even these 61, a significant numbers are actually usage charges, rates and levies and not actually tax.



Some people believe that they are not getting the impact of such payment on their lives. How are you going to address the issue of incentives for tax payers?



That is not the story in Lagos State. For us, there is transparency; there is integrity; and there is accountability. For instance, in Lagos, both this administration and the ones before, particularly in the last one year, everybody can see what tax payers money are being used for. There are so many projects that Lagos State government has embarked on, and there are still many that are in the pipeline. For instance, you can see what the governor has been doing. You want to talk about Operation Light up Lagos project, where you can go about your business at any time without fear of attack and molestation. It is not government’s money, it is people’s money that is being put to use. You can see massive constructions, flyovers at Abule Egaba, and Ajah, pedestrian bridges all over the place, even traffic control alone. We have effective traffic control. Even the governor has said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the fourth Mainland Bridge will be signed even before celebrating the administration’s first year anniversary. You can see the launch of equipment for security personnel and the N25 billion Employment Endowment Fund, first tranche which amounts to N6.25 billion has been released. The fund will be given at low interest rates to small businesses. The businesses will create jobs. All these are being funded by taxes people pay. So, when you talk about the direct relationship between what the government is doing with the taxes they are collecting, and what they are doing with it, it is very, very clear and unambiguous in Lagos.



Which sectors of the state economy are giving you the biggest compliance and collections?



The United Nations gave us a template with which we can benchmark success. They believe that it is not about the amount collected. There should be Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to revenue ratio. And though, it is still low, about eight per cent for us in Lagos, but we believe there should be significant improvement. The benchmark they gave us is being sectorised so that we will be able to measure the contribution of each sector to the GDP-that means the revenues that are being collected from each sector, as against their contributions to the GDP of the state. And what we are saying is that each of these sectors contribute significantly to the GDP. Though the energy sector is still the major contributor to the GDP, but we still want to drive the business aspect. With all these things that government is trying to do, to improve commerce, small and medium enterprise (SMEs), because most people want to run their own businesses and create employment for people. Someone running a tailoring shop, will employ more people and all that, and they will all contribute to the GDP. I want to beleive that with the way we are going, we will raise our contribution to the GDP to over 20 per cent. We are also helping businesses to thrive because it is when businesses thrive that we will be able to collect taxes. This is our focus, and our areas of interest.



Do you have challenges with leakages?



That is a thing of the past. We have keyed into the Treasury Single Account policy in the state. All the revenues that come in are swept into one single account on daily basis. We have complemen-ted that with strong internal control and checks and balances. No one can start a process, and complete the process of revenue collection. There are levels of approvals and signoffs that are involved. Even as an Executive Chairman, I cannot just signoff on any thing; we have our checks and balances. We believe it is a legacy we must leave behind. The legacy of accountability, transparency and integrity which are the tenets on which governance and tax administration rest. We also have stringent disciplinary measures. We have zero tolerance for corruption and zero tolerance for fraud. If any body is caught in corrupt act, we have our autonomy, we are not subjected to civil service bureaucracy. The agency has the power to hire and fire. To a large extent, such cases have been reduced to the barest minimum. Nobody can collect cash. Tax payers have to pay straight to the bank. It is a serious offence for anybody to collect cash from taxpayer. And the policy on that is very clear. It is summary dismissal for anybody that collects cash.



Do you have incentives for motivating your workers?



We do motivate our workers. We pay performance incentives. If one meets target against certain benchmark, the government gives us something to motivate the staff to perform better. It exists even in banks. That is one of the reasons the revenues of Lagos State has increased significantly and consistently over the years.



What is the compliance level for financial institutions?



Many organisations, multinationals even the banking sector and all these sectors, are our agents of collection, in accordance with the law. They are employers of labour. And over the years, we have constantly audited them in the past eight to nine years. When we started that process, what we discovered that the level of voluntary compliance, was about 70 per cent and 30 per cent from tax audit. And it has continued to improve significantly over the years. As at last year, voluntary compliance is about 95 per cent, while what we got from tax audit was five per cent. That shows there is significant improvement in voluntary compliance. They know it is better for them to voluntarily comply because the cost for them is higher.



Every N100,000 that you do not remit to the government, you have to pay additional N31,000 as penalty and interest. When you look at that ratio that one third of what you are expected to pay is for penalties and interest, it is in their own interest for them to voluntarily comply. If we have to enforce payment, they still have to pay for the cost of such enforcement and their businesses would have been disrupted.



How do you ensure that people are rightly taxed?



We carry out proper profiling of the taxpayer. Even if they chose not to file the proper returns, for everyone, there is always the income and expenditure side. We can from their expenditure profiles, determine what their income should be.



What do you recommend for other states ?



I think Lagos State caught the vision many years ago, during the tenure of the former Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is now the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He saw that the amount of money we were getting from the Federal Government cannot significantly take a state like Lagos to the promised land. So, he granted autonomy to the agency to ensure efficiency, professionalism and optimal collection of revenues. That vision moved the monthly revenue of the state from N600 million to what it is today. It is on that basis that we want sister states of the federation to look inwards to improve their IGR. They have to grant autonomy to their revenue agencies, so that they can work optimally and not subjected to civil service bureaucracy. Revenue generation is a business and should be run as a serious business and the whole process must be businesslike. They need to also constantly showcase what the government does with the revenue so that people see what the money is being used for and they will be encouraged to pay their taxes.



As you drive this vision, where do you want to take the state revenue to?



There is still a lot of potentials; we are looking forward to a point where monthly revenue of Lagos can hit N50 billion. Lagos has the potential to do that and we are not shying away from that. It is a journey that we have embarked on. We want to believe that even as the economy also improves, the revenue profile will also continually improve.

http://thenationonlineng.net/targeting-n50b-monthly-igr/


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