President Buhari, For A Sustainable Victory In The War On Corruption, You Need To Enlist Or Recruit A Formidable 'Citizen-Army' Of Tax Payers’ Resident In Nigeria And In The Diaspora
Dear President Buhari,
Welcome to the command and control center in the current 'war' against corruption that is responsible for the poverty, infrastructural decay, insecurity, and hopelessness in Nigeria.
1. You need a robust strategy to win the 'war'.
2. You need to identify the weaknesses and strengths of your strategy.
3. You need to define achievable objectives to reach your overall
goal, which is victory in order to end the suffering of millions of
Nigerians.
4. You need to shore up and marshall the resources available to you to
prosecute the 'war'.
5. You need to engage and lead your 'troops' towards victory: No
general in history has ever won a war single-handedly. Generals
enlist, motivate, and lead troops to battle. So must you in this
'battle' to rescue Nigeria from the suffocating stranglehold of
corruption.
My suggestions:
A. I urge you to engage millions of Nigerians worldwide in this fight
against corruption that has impoverished the Nigerian people. You can
do this by making income taxation a major means of raising revenues
for the federal government in addition to oil sales! I am confident
that Nigerian people around the world will ensure that their sacrifice
of taxation is not squandered, embezzled, or laundered overseas but
employed for the benefit of the citizens of Nigeria.
B. I urge you to only appoint credible and capable persons from among
Nigerians worldwide in your cabinet as ministers.
C. I urge you to make the salaries of your ministers and legislators
to reflect the state of Nigerian economy by pegging their total
emoluments to be no more than 20 times the GDP per capita. Legislators
and cabinet members have a choice of accepting this or resigning! You
should also make their emoluments comparable to those of other public
servants like experienced teachers and professionals in public service
to discourage the wrong people from getting into, or staying in,
politics.
D. I urge you to ensure that all agencies of government involved in
collecting fees and taxes remit the revenues to a central agency that
should be audited several times a year, and these revenues should be
applied to the annual budget.
E. I urge you to tax Nigerians at home using a progressive rate of 0%
to 30% of annual income, and Diaspora Nigerians at a flat rate of 3%
of annual income as Diaspora Nigerians pay many taxes in their
countries of residence. Please tax thousands of Nigerian millionaires,
multi-millionaires, and billionaires at the highest rate. They can
afford it.
F. If you plug the leakages in the revenue collections from agencies
of government, collect taxes from Nigerians worldwide, and drastically
reduce the remuneration of politicians and your ministers, so much
money will accrue to government. I estimate a total revenue of up to
N40 trillion naira for the federal budget is realizable, approximately
ten times as high as the current federal budget.
G. I urge you to employ some of the huge funds that will accrue to the
government in the building of infrastructural networks nationwide:
North-South and East-West expressways, power plants, rural-urban
roads, water-ways and canals, dams and irrigation canals, game
reserves, botanical gardens, forest and eco parks, bridges, etc.
H. I urge you to invest heavily in human services, security services,
special needs programs for people with disabilities, social security,
health care, research and development centres, education at all
levels, and job training programs.
I. If Nigerians in the Diaspora are subjected to taxation, it is
necessary that they be allowed to vote and to contest for elective
offices in Nigeria.
Millions of Nigerians want you to deliver on the promise of change.
Taxation of Nigerians worldwide will motivate and galvanize them to
apply their God-given talents, resources, and abilities in alliance
with you to deliver on that promise.
I wish you the best. May God bless you and your family, the
Vice-President and his family, Nigerians, and Nigeria.
Sincerely,
Abitunde Taiwo