₦airaland Forum

President Bola Tinubu has called on Nigerians to pay their taxes, saying that is the only way the government can meet their demands for infrastructure and public services.

Tinubu spoke on Friday at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, where he said Nigerians want well-equipped hospitals but are unwilling to pay taxes, while others want good roads but oppose construction through their properties.

“Nobody wants to pay taxes. Taxation is not friendly to the wealthy, middle class, and to the poor.

“Every human being expects development, but the question they don’t answer is how do you pay for it. You want a good highway, but you don’t want it to go through your land.
You want good and well-equipped hospital, and you don’t want to pay taxes, how do we care for the vulnerable, and how do you protect the future of the children? How do you even research and develop? The pharmaceutical industry, we remember COVID-19; we remember what happened to the world at large.

“So in the world where you can’t predict what exactly you are doing, you must think from where the source and application of funds should be engineered.

“Tax is a priority. A citizen who pays tax is a citizen, whether corporate or individual. If you are not a taxpayer and not exempted, then you are not a citizen,” he said.

The president also defended the economic reforms he introduced in the early months of his administration, describing them as difficult but necessary.

He said Nigeria could not continue to spend future generations’ endowment before they were born.

“It was very necessary to reset, recalibrate and reform the economy. It is a fake life to think you can, in a global economy, continue the subsidy that is wasteful, it is an encouragement for falsification of papers, (and) smuggling,” he said.

And that is a very critical situation for the country. When you look at the economic problem of the country, and you see that you are almost going bankrupt. Of the 36 states, 27 of them were unable to pay the salaries of the workers. Where is the money?

"You are an oil producer, you are earning, you are giving fuel, you have no refinery that is functional. It is not possible to continue that trend.

“It is difficult, it is painful, but just like a woman reproduction process, a woman carries the pregnancy, endures the pain of labour and will have a very big smile when you see the live child,” he said.

Tinubu said he stopped reading newspapers and commentary during the reform period to avoid being deterred by public pushback.

Despite reforms ranging from subsidy removal to the unification of the naira, the president said Nigeria faced more challenges and he would do more work in a second term if re-elected.[b]

“The philosophy I came with in governance is believing that the hallmark of a transformative leader is the ability to take decisions, do it at the time it supposed to be done on behalf of the people.

“If you miss that curve, you are not on the path to success. That’s what I believe. First term, took hard decisions, regardless of pain, I stopped reading newspapers and commentary because I knew I was going to get big pushback, and I did. I was sitting on a hot burner.

But we made the curve. Today, there’s a very bright light at the end of the corner. The naira is stable, predictable, planners can do reasonable budget, they can plan their lives well, the students are in school, the vulnerable are being helped; we have a direct transfer to very poor households,” he said.

Tinubu added that his reforms had made it possible for the government to support education for students “who ordinarily would stay out of school because their parents cannot afford school fees. They are now even giving them allowances and upkeep for their school.”

helinues:
Imagine, they don't want to pay tax yet still fuming about FG borrowing

HumbleOptimist:
We can't also pay tax without development

Mattswaggz:
https://punchng.com/you-cant-demand-development-without-paying-tax-says-tinubu/