₦airaland Forum

What Nigerians need to understand is that the government cannot fund us. Rather, we fund the government. There are only four ways by which a government can get revenue.

-The first is by sending the resources of the people and the state and claiming it as its own, which General Aguiyi Ironsi did with his Unification of Assets Decree Number 34 of May 24, 1966.

-The second is by taxing citizens and corporations.

-The third is printing money.

-The fourth is borrowing money. Other than these ways and means, governments do not have money that they generate.

We Nigerians are some of the most entitled people on Earth. We expect a lot from our government, yet we hardly pay taxes. Nigerians will watch a movie set in Europe and complain that we want what we see. European nations, like Germany, have a tax-to-GDP ratio of 39%, while Nigeria has a tax-to-GDP ratio of less than 10%.

If you earn €58.597 in Germany, you will pay 42% of your income or €24,610 as taxes. There will be riots if you ask Nigerians to pay this type of tax. So, where will the money to run Nigeria come from?

Oil? Saudi Arabia has a population of 35 million and makes $350 billion annually from oil. That is $10,000 per citizen. Nigeria has a population of 220 million people and generates approximately $36 billion from crude annually. That is $150 per person. At 2.6 million people, Qatar is just one per cent of our population. Yet, their annual revenue is $68 billion. Two and a half times that of Nigeria. 

Nigeria is not "oil rich". We are oil-poor. On a per capita basis, Ghana is more oil-rich than we are. We produce 1.5 million barrels per day for a population of 220 million people. Ghana produces 200,000 barrels per day for a population of 32 million.

So, when Nigerians hardly pay taxes and our oil and gas revenue is insufficient to meet the demands of running our country, we are forced to borrow or print money, which means that inflation will increase.

And under this situation, we cannot afford to artificially reduce the price of fuel by paying subsidy. We will go bankrupt. Therefore, much as this annoys you, the only options are to allow market forces to control the price of fuel, just as it does other commodities, or we must be prepared to pay higher taxes.

Failing that, Nigeria will continue to borrow or print more money, fueling inflation and increasing commodity prices.
Protests and riots cannot change these economic realities. They will be just like a child's tantrum when his parents cannot afford to buy him a toy.

LagosPrince:
Reno the fool didn't blame Peter Obi today

LagosPrince:
Reno the fool didn't blame Peter Obi today

ednut1:
Reno abeg try get a job or relocate back to Nigeria.

Racoon:
https://x.com/renoomokri/status/1831995124982898795?t=RuSioq6I2ZY-c5wTspGAyg&s=19

TWITTER USERS REACTIONS;

EvilMerodack:
Dont derail the thread
Dont bring Obi to this thread

Its not about him

Reno raised some Valid points as to why we have to go this route, you couldnt counter him with facts nor support him with greater argument?

SMH

LagosPrince:
Reno the fool didn't blame Peter Obi today

DeLaRue:
Finally an intelligent thesis that mirrors what I have been saying all this while on Nairaland.

Any Presidential candidate that promises you things will be honky dory under him and petrol will be cheap, electricity will be constant, prices of goods will suddenly be cheap is living in cloud coockoo land.

You can not keep borrowing to live a middle class lifestyle when you are on minimum wage. Eventually your debts will catch up with you and you will go bankrupt and lose everything.

Over the past decades, Nigerian governments spent more than the country was earning, subsidising this and that, in order to keep the people happy. Those past Presidents feared being unpopular and so gave people what they wanted knowing fully well it was financial poison that future generations will pay for dearly.

Nigerians have got used to things being artificially cheap due to subsidy (education, petrol, electricity etc) that when a new President comes in and say the country will head to the rock unless we change things now, Nigerians say he is the worst President ever.

Niger Republic, Ghana, and other neighbouring countries buy petrol at around N1300 per litre. But Nigerians want it at N300 or less

Unfortunately 99% of Nigerians, including the educated ones, just don't understand economics at the level of a currently poor country like Nigeria.

LagosPrince:
Reno the fool didn't blame Peter Obi today

Racoon:
You mind the idiot! He is helpless with Peter Obi matter because the man has continued to ignored him willfully most of the time.

chatinent:
Man with two sides of a mouth.

Free2Fly:
Stop posting tweets from that bastard here, abeg.
You guys end up giving him the popularity he doesn't merit

advanceDNA:
The day is not over....

LagosPrince:
Reno the fool didn't blame Peter Obi today

trutharena:
Reno, you make some valid points.

Salewa97:
Toh

Makunahatata:
The usual inferior beings trying hard to make the thread about them.😌