Why Ambode should review Land Use Charge

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.]]>