There is no other way to put it, our normally impressive
Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration in Lagos State is very wrong on
its position on the recently amended Lagos State Land Use Charge
Act which he considers as rather low, not reviewed for a long time
and therefore worthy of increase to raise revenue for development
and other expenses.
The Lagos State’s position is not new. I suspect it resonates
with a number of people in government and that is scary.
It is scary because it shows us that regardless of all the talk
of modern management, megacity and global awareness, the best of
our policymakers are still stuck on the archaic, inefficient and
unproductive top-down militaristic approach of taxation for
expenses for development.
Well, I have news for you, Dear Nigerian policymakers, those bad
days of just waking up and telling people what to do in the name
some authority or greater good no matter how noble are long over.
The new world is based on consideration, consultation and
negotiations.
A government and a policy worthy of this era must learn to
consider the situation of the people it is elected to govern,
consult with stakeholders that will benefit from or pay for the
decisions of the policy and government and negotiate the effect of
such policies with electors and other stakeholders.
In our times, a government or a policy that fails to live by and
up to these standards but tries to justify or base its actions on
being a constituted authority risks becoming a constipated
authority will be challenged and expelled in all ways.
Even the most distracted members of the team that dreamt up the
newly amended Land Use Charge Law will have by now noticed that the
reality emerging through people’s reaction is far different and
specifically crueller than expected or projected outcome.
When reality does not meet expectation, the next step is to
review.
This Land Use Charge Law needs to be reviewed because the timing
is just so wrong. There are policies that make one wonder how
disconnected policymakers are to the people and how they elected or
nominated to govern. This Land Use Charge Law takes that wonder to
a fantastically annoying height of disconnectedness and it makes
one ask if power, office or responsibility turns our policymakers
and public office holders into autistic.
At a time when people are just getting out of recession, it
beggars belief to observe the best the Lagos State Government, in
particular, can do is to increase any form of tax in the name of
any form of development.
Even at the best of times, a policy that does not consider that
people might not have extra income set aside for unplanned tax is a
policy to be reviewed. A government and a policy that consider its
people and reality will start with a plan of gradual increase and
not to make all the money they have not made in four years in just
one year!
Those that I have spoken to show me bills with increase of up to
400 per cent. That the government argues that such is not the norm
is another indication that this government does not understand how
angry the people are and how tough things are in the country.
Please, let us do ourselves this simple favour, the next time
you meet a Lagos State Government official making a case for that
the percentage increase, if it is not what some of us are saying,
ask him or her to show you what he or she was paying last year and
what he or she is required to pay now in 2018.
That taxation can be problematic and needs to be done with tact
is not a new lesson but clearly those who designed this policy were
not attentive in their history classes because if they were then,
they would have readily recognised that in time and in space, tax
is one issue that government threads carefully with. Just to say,
stay in Nigeria and in modern times, let us remind ourselves of the
Aba Women War of 1929 and the Mrs Ransome-Kuti-led Egba women
protest of 1940.
The effect of this anger has now led people to discover and
challenge the legitimacy of the method of managing the Land Use
Charge Law itself; as I write this piece, there is a group going to
court to remind the state government that the 1999 Constitution
provides that the Local Government as the third tier of government
is responsible to assess tenement rate without prejudice to the
Land Use Charge to be collected by the local government.
There is another group signing a people petition asking for the
review of the Land Use Act; I am with the petition group.
Yes, the government needs money to build roads, improve the
health and education system and maybe one day fix electricity
supply. These are certainly laudable and needed projects that will
also create jobs and wealth for the country. To embark on such
projects however, let the government reason outside the box like
families are doing.
Perhaps, like every organisation that needs to raise funds for
projects, the government can start by cutting its expenses, sell
some of its assets in a transparent and effective manner, then move
on to borrowing and then unto partnership with private entities
that will invest in projects.
Ordinarily, one would suggest that the Ambode Government could
also, maybe, start from ensuring the effective collection of the
existing rates. For there are a lot of companies and individuals
celebrated as the biggest or the richest but are not known to be
the biggest taxpayers.
This is however not the time to focus on taxes or to increase
any rate. We are recovering from a season of economic contraction
and the least the government can do is to help boost the system and
not add to contract it any further and painfully.
Kila, a Jean Monnet professor of Strategy and
Development, is currently the Centre Director at the Centre for
International Advanced and Professional Studies.
@anthonykila.
There is no other way to put it, our normally impressive
Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration in Lagos State is very wrong on
its position on the recently amended Lagos State Land Use Charge
Act which he considers as rather low, not reviewed for a long time
and therefore worthy of increase to raise revenue for development
and other expenses.
The Lagos State’s position is not new. I suspect it resonates
with a number of people in government and that is scary.
It is scary because it shows us that regardless of all the talk
of modern management, megacity and global awareness, the best of
our policymakers are still stuck on the archaic, inefficient and
unproductive top-down militaristic approach of taxation for
expenses for development.
Well, I have news for you, Dear Nigerian policymakers, those bad
days of just waking up and telling people what to do in the name
some authority or greater good no matter how noble are long over.
The new world is based on consideration, consultation and
negotiations.
A government and a policy worthy of this era must learn to
consider the situation of the people it is elected to govern,
consult with stakeholders that will benefit from or pay for the
decisions of the policy and government and negotiate the effect of
such policies with electors and other stakeholders.
In our times, a government or a policy that fails to live by and
up to these standards but tries to justify or base its actions on
being a constituted authority risks becoming a constipated
authority will be challenged and expelled in all ways.
Even the most distracted members of the team that dreamt up the
newly amended Land Use Charge Law will have by now noticed that the
reality emerging through people’s reaction is far different and
specifically crueller than expected or projected outcome.
When reality does not meet expectation, the next step is to
review.
This Land Use Charge Law needs to be reviewed because the timing
is just so wrong. There are policies that make one wonder how
disconnected policymakers are to the people and how they elected or
nominated to govern. This Land Use Charge Law takes that wonder to
a fantastically annoying height of disconnectedness and it makes
one ask if power, office or responsibility turns our policymakers
and public office holders into autistic.
At a time when people are just getting out of recession, it
beggars belief to observe the best the Lagos State Government, in
particular, can do is to increase any form of tax in the name of
any form of development.
Even at the best of times, a policy that does not consider that
people might not have extra income set aside for unplanned tax is a
policy to be reviewed. A government and a policy that consider its
people and reality will start with a plan of gradual increase and
not to make all the money they have not made in four years in just
one year!
Those that I have spoken to show me bills with increase of up to
400 per cent. That the government argues that such is not the norm
is another indication that this government does not understand how
angry the people are and how tough things are in the country.
Please, let us do ourselves this simple favour, the next time
you meet a Lagos State Government official making a case for that
the percentage increase, if it is not what some of us are saying,
ask him or her to show you what he or she was paying last year and
what he or she is required to pay now in 2018.
That taxation can be problematic and needs to be done with tact
is not a new lesson but clearly those who designed this policy were
not attentive in their history classes because if they were then,
they would have readily recognised that in time and in space, tax
is one issue that government threads carefully with. Just to say,
stay in Nigeria and in modern times, let us remind ourselves of the
Aba Women War of 1929 and the Mrs Ransome-Kuti-led Egba women
protest of 1940.
The effect of this anger has now led people to discover and
challenge the legitimacy of the method of managing the Land Use
Charge Law itself; as I write this piece, there is a group going to
court to remind the state government that the 1999 Constitution
provides that the Local Government as the third tier of government
is responsible to assess tenement rate without prejudice to the
Land Use Charge to be collected by the local government.
There is another group signing a people petition asking for the
review of the Land Use Act; I am with the petition group.
Yes, the government needs money to build roads, improve the
health and education system and maybe one day fix electricity
supply. These are certainly laudable and needed projects that will
also create jobs and wealth for the country. To embark on such
projects however, let the government reason outside the box like
families are doing.
Perhaps, like every organisation that needs to raise funds for
projects, the government can start by cutting its expenses, sell
some of its assets in a transparent and effective manner, then move
on to borrowing and then unto partnership with private entities
that will invest in projects.
Ordinarily, one would suggest that the Ambode Government could
also, maybe, start from ensuring the effective collection of the
existing rates. For there are a lot of companies and individuals
celebrated as the biggest or the richest but are not known to be
the biggest taxpayers.
This is however not the time to focus on taxes or to increase
any rate. We are recovering from a season of economic contraction
and the least the government can do is to help boost the system and
not add to contract it any further and painfully.
Kila, a Jean Monnet professor of Strategy and
Development, is currently the Centre Director at the Centre for
International Advanced and Professional Studies.
@anthonykila.
Read more https://nairalaw.com/why-ambode-should-review-land-use-charge/