My last post is stressing some of our members here. Yes, I explained why South Africa has an edge over Nigeria on budget size, tax revenue and even the capital market. Good People, Nigeria is like a startup which needs funding for growth. Of course, the nation has not fully justified why Nigerians should fund it, looking at how it has handled the small funds it has already received.
That said, if you earn N70,000 per month and have a family of 6, even at the best of your efficiency, you will still struggle when compared with someone who has a family of 4, and makes N5 million monthly. Simply, even if you have the most efficient manager in Nigeria, the nation does not have the funds to drive massive transformation.
Note this: “In South Africa, property tax is levied by local municipalities and is based on the value of the property. The tax rate varies depending on the location of the property and can range from 0.5% to 1.5% of the property’s value.”
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Simply, South Africa collects at least 0.5% of property value yearly. If you do that in Nigeria, the local government areas will have resources to transform our communities. As they say in an ancient axiom, when a poor man is told what it would take to prepare a good soup, he will tell the wife that he is fine with the current quality of the soup. Nigerians must understand that all those nice things in London, New York, etc, happen because taxes are paid. (And the managers do not steal the resources as they deploy them for the general good; I acknowledge that.)
In London, if you make $50,000, you pay a tax of about 40% on that! If your house is worth $400,000 in New Jersey, USA, you pay the government about $8,000 yearly. “Good soup, na money make am”, they say! We like those places, but they collect taxes to make them glitter.
Of course, without a transparent and honest leadership, you cannot expect people to waste their money. That is the chicken and egg matter here, but that does not change the fact that the promises of governments are future taxes of the citizens, and when those are not possible, visions fade!
Just like a startup, you need a leader in Nigeria who can make investors believe by providing a clear roadmap on how the funds they will deploy will be used to advance the nation! That will help us close some gaps with South Africa.
Someone who can create a society to engage our brightest minds in government by evolving a new political system designed to solve problems, rather than holding offices. A person who can engineer Nigeria into rebirth and restoration to offer a prosperous nation that is colorful, fluidic, vibrant and open for change. Someone who will help us solve our problems instead of thinking that World Bank and IMF will. Yes, a person of immense intelligence, competence, pragmatism, and unimpeachable. A person of integrity, broad knowledge, enormous vision and solid experience; one that can stimulate more vibrancy in the private sector and move the public sector out of its stasis. He must tackle corruption and stabilize democracy. And yes, give us electoral reform to remove stagnation, circuitous legal component and time-waste to get parliament focused on their work as soon as possible after elections.
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Nigeria needs plenty money to develop, alongside good managers. Nigeria has neither the money nor the managers, and to break the logjam, good managers will precede more money.
If someone receives N2 million and cannot account for it, what is the evidence or proof that if he receives N50 million the story won’t be the same? If you cannot be trusted in small things, no one will give you big things to handle. This is why we are where we are.
No money, no money, and Nigeria expressly awarded trillions of naira road, from coast to coast, if there is plenty money, someone might decide to build a bridge from Lagos down to Calabar, or a flyover from Lagos to Sokoto. Another may tear down Aso Rock and build a GreenWhiteHouse. We don’t know what to do with money joor, more training and proper education must come first.