Since the this present administration came into power, a lot of Nigerians have been complaining about the sudden and unexpected high cost of things in general, especially food stuff and transportation. Most people can afford the 3 square meal that they were used to and a lot of people are now trekking with their cars parked at home due to high cost of fuel as a result of the high tax that has been placed on everything. It is a shame. People are now suffering and smiling.
Almost everyday or if not everyday, as the sun sets behind the dusty skyline of my neighborhood and as the heat gives a relief a little bit, I sit my my phone in my hand with my calculator application on trying to calculate my daily budget, sometimes I do this on my head — with anxiety in heart.
Here comes another tax season. Or rather, in my country Nigeria, everyday feels like a tax season because this new administration now place tax on everything. The tax is becoming unbearable.
Between the every transaction VAT which has now gone way higher unlike before, the Pay As You Earn (PAYE), stamp duties, 200 percent increase on data subscription, hike in the price of fuel, unbearable monthly electricity bills and some of the unimaginable random charges I can not even remember consenting to. The truth be told, it is like this current adminstration is built to siphon and take from everyone in the country, both strong and weary. Come to think of it, for every 20 naira I make, at least 4 to 5 naira is wicked away into the pocket of the government. That money may not sound as a big deal because it looks little until you discover that nothing around you is working in quota to what is actually being paid.
Looking at the public and community hospitals that we all depend on are not well equipped and short staffed to the extent that drugs are becoming unaffordable. The generator we run from sunrise to sunset? The major roads are pothole carnival. All these purr a bitter song of failed promises.
The question now is, those little little deductions and taxes, where do they go? Not into the safety of the community, not into free public transport, not into free education which they say will give the youth and young Nigerian a brighter and glorious future.
And yet, we keep paying — because we must.
But something has to give. Responsibility must cease to be a catchline. If the system of government is working as it should be, there is nothing stopping the government from providing a visible, detailed and transparent records showing how the money is being used. Financial reports. Community dashboards. Anything to help us have confidence in the government that we are not just bleeding into an abyss.
I am only a little boy. But I speak for many if not all — students, children, youths, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, entrepreneurs, unemployed — who are taxed beyond money. We are taxed in forbearance, in expectation, in nobility.
And I want the government to remember this saying, a nation’s strength lies not just in what it takes from its people, but what it gives back.
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