By Iliyasu Gadu
What is with Tinubu and taxes, levies etc? Is it the accountant in him or is it plain cynicism, wickedness and hatred for the people of Nigeria? Is it also greed and rapacious covetiousness?
As Governor of Lagos he taxed and levied the people of the state brutally in the name of raising money to provide and improve services. Yes so much revenue accrued to Lagos but the services and infrastructure provided did not amount to what the people expected. When it rains Lagos is flooded. It is still full of dirt and filth. Roads are poorly constructed. With all that money Lagos still ranks far behind some African cities in terms of infrastructure and services.
What has not been said is that 15 per cent of all the IGR of Lagos goes as commission to a company allegedly owned by Tinubu. If you calculate the tally since then it runs to trillions and counting.
And now he is replicating same at the federal level as president. Taxes, levies, subsidy removal and increase in tariff has been his module since his ascension to office. In other to maximise the revenue take he is squeezing out all the areas in government where subsidies are provided to cushion the effects of the harsh economy. Not satisfied, he is also burdening the people with obnoxious taxes, levies and tariff increase.
The latest tax is the Cybersecurity tax in which bank transactions will be taxed to fund a war on cybercrimes in the cyberspace. In all the take from this heist on the people runs to trillions annually. This tax will certainly not be the last as the Telecoms sector are also warming up
Tinubu is so determined to take from the people that he has placed his cronies in all sectors, agencies and ministries that have to do with revenue generation. Finance, CBN, Customs, Immigration, FIRS, you name it are all manned by people who will help in the money take.
By his actions and policies Tinubu is anti-people believes they should be squeezed. He once said it in a lecture.
Tinubu is behaving like Ibadan of pre-colonial times. Having taking over from the Oyo Empire which collapsed and leading the war that defeated further Fulani advance into Yoruba land in 1841 in Oshogbo, Ibadan took it upon itself to establish a reign of terror on the other Yoruba sub-groups like Ekiti, Ijesha, Ijebu and Egba. In the process, Ijaiye the town of Kurunmi the general that led the war against the Fulanis was completely destroyed and he himself killed.
Ibadan started forcing all manner of taxes and levies on the other Yorubaa towns appointing agents or ajeles to enforce the collection of such taxes by hook or crook. The ajeles even levied taxes on marriages and if you could not pay, your wife or bride was taken. An ajele will come to your house and take your wife and or daughters and sleep with her. And if you complained, you were captured and turned into a slave and sold. Your household would be taken over.
The last straw to this was when an Ibadan ajele in Ekiti slept forcefully with the wife of an Ekiti warlord Fabunmi of Oke-mesi. And in revenge, Fabunmi proceeded to kill and behead four of the soldiers in the household of the Ajele.
This incident was what ignited the Kiriji war in Yoruba land which lasted from 1877 to 1893. This war was fought by the Yoruba sub groups against the Ibadan and it was more or less a revolution against the oppressive rule of Ibadan.
As a Yoruba man, Tinubu must know about this sad chapter in the history of Yorubas that ended eventually after a peace treaty was signed in 1886. He should know that oppressing the people with taxes and levies as he is doing now will only lead to a repeat of what happened to Ibadan of those days.
Tinubu Ronu!
Iliyasu Gadu is a former Foreign Service Officer who served at the Nigerian Missions in Germany and the United Kingdom (UK)
