By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Ambassador Clement Akanibo, a chartered tax accountant, has condemned what he described as injustice against the South-South Geo-Political Zone in terms of taxation.
Speaking with TPCN on Monday in Port Harcourt, the tax practitioner decried a situation where huge taxes are collected from the zone while denying it of the appropriate development that should naturally accrue to it given the huge revenue the area generates.
“If you take more from here, what about giving back? For example, in Nigeria, that injustice has come to the forefront now; everybody is seeing that the South that is producing oil, producing more of the VAT (Value Added Tax) and all the activities, is benefitting less from the whole thing.
“That means that there is a deliberate attempt to suppress the success and development and civilisation of the South,” he said.
Akanibo said because of this injustice and seeming conspiracy against the South, any leader from the area that decides to demand his people’s fair share of the taxes being collected from that area is not out of order.
“But if somebody has come up and sees it in the point of law, not agitation, that according to this law you’re cheating me, you have to give me this, or it is my right to collect, I think there’s no argument. You just have to follow the law,” he explained.
He advised the authorities concerned to strictly adhere to the law in their collection of the taxes as a way of upholding fairness and equity.
“So, now that God has opened our eyes to see the law, why don’t we follow it? I will suggest that everybody should follow it according to what the law says,” he said.
He described current happenings in the tax sector where governors are demanding for their states’ fair share of the value-added tax as a revolution.
He said: “I see what is ongoing in the tax sector of taxation in Nigeria as a revolution for the good of the people because, naturally, if you pay more tax, you deserve a good deal.”
The accountant, however, implored the state governments to utilise the funds well for the benefit of their people when they collect their states’ due shares of the value-added tax.
“But then, when you get this money, you have to utilise it for the benefit of the people, not to use it as a private estate. Let the people see that what they are paying for is actually crystalising into infrastructure. They should have a happier life as a result of what they are suffering and what they are paying for,” he said.
The tax expert called on Nigerians to cultivate the habit of paying tax, which he said is a standard practice necessary for development all over the world.
“Nigerians should develop that tax culture. Taxation is a global business; it’s a price that you pay for civilisation globally. Go to America, go to everywhere, everybody pays tax. We should be more serious about paying our taxes and doing the needful. But then, let us hold the people in authority to account for it,” he added.
