Calls For Accountability
Presidential candidate in the last General election on the platform of Social Democratic Party SDP, Prince Adewole Adebayo , has decried the lackadaisical approach of Nigerians in matters that affect their growth and well being even in the hands of their tormentors, called leaders.
He said despite the increasing hardship experienced by the vast majority of the people occasioned by government unfriendly policies, Nigerians have repeatedly shown that they would rather smile in their suffering than confront and protest against government. “I don’t want us to reach a tipping point because the tipping point is a mirage. You would think people will never accept N500 per litre. They accepted 1000 plus and they are going towards 2000 without anybody stopping them.
Any government that cannot help you find your missing cat or missing dog, after a while, they won’t be able to find a missing child. After a while, they won’t be able to find a missing town. Going to the Eagle Square to hold the Bible or Quran and say a few words, salute the police and then disappear into the shadows doesn’t make you a government. The people must feel your presence if you truly you are governing.”, he said.
He said the continued scarcity and increased in fuel pump price is a ploy to perpetually pauperise Nigerians. He explained that the state owned refineries are not working because of the interest of the few whose livelihood is on the scarcity and increase of the product.
He said: “How many refineries are in Singapore? Go to the refinery market, with 2-3 billion dollars, you will build a good refinery. People call bogus figures here because the government is involved and because they try to siphon the money. The refinery is an old technology distillation. The refinery is in the gulf of Beirut since 1900, the one in pennsylvania in 1903, and they are still working. So what is new about the refinery? Talk to chemical engineers, ask them the largest and most complex catalytic cracking unit. How much would it cost? Even if they have to get it designed from the beginning. So don’t let us pretend that we don’t know that we have been captured and our brothers and sisters in government who captured us want to squeeze us like oranges and squeeze the juice out of us and probably discard when there is nothing more. They want to remove economic participation.”
On the proposed tax increase for the rich, especially those earning above N100m, Adebayo said he would not mind the increase if the government is responsive to its responsibilities. “After all, in Norway, it is higher than that. But I am spending billion, literally, to power my productive enterprises. But you can not pauperise us, take all the taxes, and still not be responsible for anything”.
He continued: ” I, Adewole Adebayo, government, come and tax me, and I am ready to pay 50% of my income in taxes. I don’t mind.
Anybody who tells you that we should remove subsidy from an underdeveloped economy where productivity is low had F9 in economics. In China, with 10000 dollars, you can have a factory in China. All you need to do is demonstrate to the city or the government there that you are producing this particular product. If they see the production plan, they will give you a factory on credit, and you start paying back. That is not available here in Nigeria. What is it that is incentive for productivity? Nothing”, he stated.
Adebayo is one of the several people against the federal government’s tax incentives enjoyed by companies. He advised that it was better to collect the due taxes than giving tax holidays and incentives, adding that it is a ploy of stealing the unavailable fund in the country. According to him, “It one of the ways by which they steal our money. Somebody will do 100 kilometer poorly done cement road, very narrow, not standardised, and they give him billions, the same road that can be done by local government. Just collect your taxes,” he said.
