To this end, he disclosed that the government’s core role in Cross River State is to protect the governed. The governor stated this in Calabar after listening to a presentation by a consulting firm and a bank on how to increase the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by introducing new tax heads. Governor Ayade ,who lamented that the model presented by the investors, which has worked in Lagos and Ogun states to boost their internal generated revenue, will rather add to the hardship being suffered by the people. He said, “I want you to sympathise with the state of Cross River, we are a state whose corporate philosophy as a government is bringing government to the people that need it the most. We are a people who believe in the Afro-centric theory of providing a shoulder for your tired brother to lean on. “If we deepen this theory, it might come to a point when there is a Kantian impression that tends to equate government and the economy in such a way that the government’s core role in Cross River State is to protect the governed. There is no developmental effort, no deliberate effort of raising IGR that will be premised on taxing your people to prosperity, and as a government that has a corporate conscience, at any point you put a tax, you should ask yourself what you are giving to the people in return.” Speaking further, he said: “When I do the Home Certification Process at a cost to a man who is a civil servant, I will be putting an extra burden on a shoulder which is tired with a deliberate struggle to see how I can get money and raise my IGR.]]>