Things are getting better

Things are getting better

Nothing can gladden the heart of someone from Nija than reports that "Things are getting better" in our country. Under two years into the democratic dispensation, it is stunning for someone to say that things are getting better in the country without anyone cursing them good and proper. What this 'betta should mean is that all the previous deprivations are in that category previous, past, gone and never to return. Transportation, communication, distribution of goods and services are all in place. And out of place are the arrogance of power, misuse of power and unpunished corruption. If this is the case now in Nija, then things are getting better!

The slide downhill has been halted, the drift of people and hopes has been arrested and space has been created for the realization of the greatest possibilities of the greatest numbers of our people. The space on the side of the mountain that would ensure safety from further sliding and provide time for re-assurance and re-alignment of our visions has finally been secured. That space will have to accommodate something called infrastructure. This would mean that there is electricity 24 hours, there is fuel on demand, the roads are finally decongested and it does not take hours to get from one side of a football field to the opposite side. It means that you do not have to be on the road when you do not need to be on the road because the telephones carry messages to where they are sent.

This space on the side of the mountain is the space that needs to be occupied and expanded in an effort to ensure that everybody is on board for the take-of that should follow this arresting of the national downward slide.

Is this the point at which Nigerians who left the country should be packing to return? This is a difficult question to answer. Different people left the country for different reasons while walking under the banner of the unbearable (for some) conditions of existence in the country. Hence, it is difficult to say when the time of return is right. While this question is being considered, and if things are in fact getting better, then Nigerians outside of Nigeria can begin to make their contribution to the economic development of the country. If banks are working as banks work in countries where things are better and still getting better and the postal system delivers as it should, funds sent to Nigeria should begin to make a difference to the situation of the country. The most interesting example is of course India. The famous Silicon Valley has many Indians working in the computer industry just as it has Nigerians. The money that many of these Indians send to India help to develop Indias own computer industry as well as many other supply industries. So, while we wait for the final return, the money that Nigerians are making wherever in the world they are based can be put to good use. Except that the Indian attitude and the Nigerian attitude are different in terms of what the state is about. In India, citizens have to tax themselves in order to raise funds for their development. Budgets in India are not based on the current price of minerals that are mined in India. Budgets are made on the basis of the total amount of personal and business taxes collectible in the country. Whatever the minerals bring to the purse of the country would be additional fund for development. In Nigeria, the current budget says that it is based on the price of one barrel of petroleum crude not going below twenty-two United States dollars.

What this means is that the life of the country for one year is dependent on what European and United States of America decide to pay for petroleum crude. If they can get through the winter with buying the least quantity of crude oil then the price would go down, to say $10 per barrel. Which says that without oil, whose price we do not determine, we cannot exist as a nation. We would have no money to do the things that we need to do communally. Or, put differently, if the buyers of crude oil find other means of getting power we would be out of existence.

One has to live in a country that has a sound financial infrastructure to see how much Nigeria under-prepares it citizens for proper financial responsibility. Beyond the world of "kara-kata" (buy and sell) economic activity, what else can people do where there is no proper infrastructure? Is this not like the country depending on one single product? Trading is okay just as selling one product is fine as long as there are buyers for the product. Countries and people shore up their future by giving themselves options and choices.

One of the ways that South Africa has beefed up its resources in the last five or so years is to make tax collection more efficient while at the same time expanding the tax base of the country. At the lowest level, there are earners who are exempted from taxation. At the other end there are those who pay as much as 42 per cent of their earnings in tax. The percentage of tax rises as the earnings of the particular citizen rises. The collection of tax is so closely linked to the budget that it (the budget) could not exist if there was no taxation. One of the ways of expanding the tax base is to impose taxes on consumption such as value added tax, generally known as VAT. The introduction of VAT in South Africa years ago was to bring Blacks into the taxation pool through taxing consumer goods.

Can Nigeria really care about cocoa, palm oil, hides and skins, ground nuts, shea butter if the government thinks that its budget depends on the price of one and only one product? Does this dependency not further create problems with the states and peoples of the Riverine areas of the country when the government gives them the impression that in fact the country has nothing to do but feed on their area? Can things really be better when Nigerians do not pay tax to support their needs?