AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR OF ENUGU STATE, PETER MBAH.
Governor Peter Mbah,
There is no finer way to address this matter except to go straight to the point to inform you that the people of Enugu state are being crushed most ruthlessly under the burden of the multiple taxes that your administration impose rather whimsically against the age old principles of taxation and in utter indifference to the conditions of deprivation and extreme poverty of the people of Enugu state imposed on them by the combined effects of leadership failure at all levels and attendant poor policy decisions.
You may not know it, but the people of the state have become walking ghosts, beleaguered as they have become, by your economically regressive taxation policies since you found your way into office as the governor of the state.
I hereby beg you to HAVE MERCY ON THE PEOPLE OF ENUGU STATE.
You, being of the Christian faith I take it for granted that you are conversant with several prayers that have this refrain, “Have Mercy on us”. I also believe that you have come across the supplication in Psalm
123 verse 3 which says ” Have Mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt”.
It is in this wise that I write you with tears, on behalf of the traumatised people of Enugu State whose backs you have broken with your inhuman, punitive tax burden, imploring you to have mercy upon our suffering people, O Peter Mbah; have mercy upon the people of Enugu State, for they have had more than enough of contempt!
How does one begin to reach the compassionate corner of the heart of a man who picks up his people, people whose lives have been scorched by the harsh desert sun of poverty and begins to squeeze them for water?
How can anyone reach that recess in your heart to stoke the sleeping embers of empathy that may still exist in you with the hope that you begin to see the people of Enugu State who you have taxed to intolerable levels,not as capital to be exploited and maximized to the ends possible, but as human beings deserving protection, compassion, love and support.
Since your assisted-ascension to the highest office in our state, the needle of the perceived stress scale has been on the increase and has
reached breaking point, resulting in deaths, frustration-induced high blood pressure and gruesome economic hardships that has resulted in the shutdown of countless small and medium businesses.
While the pliable Nigerian media is awash with sponsored news of your drive for investment, the reality on the ground indicate that businesses that have survived the cruelly squashing tax regimes you impose at every whim have taken flight to other places of capital comfort.
Even if you didn’t study Economics in Secondary School, with the benefits of your fabled multiple exposures, you will by now be conversant with the Principles of Taxation as propounded by Adam Smith. When this renowned economist and philosopher propounded the theory of Good
Taxation in his popular book, ‘The Wealth of Nations’ published in 1776, he argued that taxation “should follow four principles of fairness, certainty, convenience and efficiency”.
Fairness, he wrote means that taxation, should be compatible with taxpayers’ conditions,
including their ability to pay in line with personal and family needs. Certainty, he further advised, should mean that taxpayers are clearly informed about why and how taxes are levied.
In terms of convenience, Smith talked about ease of compliance for the taxpayers, that is how simple the process for collecting or paying taxes should be, while, efficiency, the final leg of the quadruped stated that the administration of tax collection should not negatively affect the allocation and use of resources in the economy.
Daily taxes for all buses operating in the state increased from N200 to N2,000. Daily taxes for Tricycles/Keke increased from N100 to N450. Daily taxes for barrow pushers increased from N100 to N2,000. Small business premises tax soared to N25,000.
Medium business premises tax skyrocketed to N56,000 while malls are made to pay N200,000.
In Enugu, we have a Purchase tax which range from N5,000 to N15,000 depending on location. This has been imposed on groceries and all factory products, from which VAT had already
been collected, meaning there is double taxation, assuming that all other taxes listed are morally justifiable. We recently got what you called Carbon emission/generator tax for hotels ranging from N88,000 for small hotels to N200,000 for big hotels.
This is happening when government has failed to provide stable electricity and even in the infrequent times that public power is available, the people still battle with crippling estimated billings because the power company has not democratized the installation of prepaid electricity metering systems.
As it is today, the people of Enugu State are being taxed without their inputs and with no regard to their capacity. Their cries bring to mind the agony of TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. In 1929, Igbo women rose against the colonial government
in the historic Aba Women’s Riot, to protest against taxation without representation, a hundred years later and under an administration led by our own citizen, we are confronted with the same challenge. Those who fail to learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.
With the deplorable economic situation which has led to high cost of goods and services, I have always wondered where the government believes the struggling businesses in Enugu would source the funding for such inhuman tax impositions that, to all intents and purposes, are fashioned as weapons of vindictiveness against the people.
Any person who followed your assisted ascension to the governorship position of our dear state would be forgiven for concluding that your vicious determination to tax the people of the state to oblivion is traceable to your deep seated anger towards the people of Enugu State for rejection of your aspiration for the leadership of the state during the 2023 elections. Haunted by this omnipresent spectre of your rejection by the people during the elections, you have obviously chosen to extract your revenge by introducing unbearable taxation fetters and manacles, the types used during the slave trade; you are punishing them for refusing to vote for you and after wangling your way through the obnoxious Nigerian way, inflicting punishment on them has become your favourite sport.
Enugu people had hoped for a breadth of fresh air in the run up to the 2023 elections, but they were robbed by elements which lifted you to into office against what the people spoke through the ballot.
And rather than have mercy on the people, you faced them with the horsewhips of vengeance.
We saw this in the Bible in the story of Rehoboam. A young king, there were high expectations that a departure from the maladministration of his fathers before him would be his guiding principle, but when confronted with what the people should expect under his kingship, he made the stunning statement which led to the division of the kingdom of Israel into two.
Rehoboam, in 1Kings 12:14, is recorded to have told the elders who came to him:
“My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.”
This is why I am imploring you to discontinue with this wicked contempt for the citizens and like I said in the second paragraph of his letter,
HAVE MERCY ON THE PEOPLE OF ENUGU STATE.
As you preside Enugu like Pharaoh, it is my plea that you cease to treat the people so harshly. Like Moses to Pharaoh, today, I say to you
“let my people go”.
I make these pleas in good faith.
Thank you.
Hon. Chijioke Jonathan Edeoga.
