Thread by @DrOlusesan

ALI AND THE ANGEL
@akinalabi's proposed motion to have VAT increase from 5% to 7.5% suspended will be a hard sell in the @HouseNGR, if legislators salaries solely accrues from VAT. We all first kicked against the new VAT and CBN's cashless charges. We all first saw Ali's angel.

https://twitter.com/akinalabi/status/1174608691321962498

Ali and the angel is a fable on the first chapter, in the "New Oxford English Course" primary school textbook of the 80s. Ali is a conman who told his village people that there's an angel in his house, that could only be seen by those who are not sinners. 😀

Ali placed a chair in a room with a pair of shoes in front of it, which he claimed belonged to the angel. He told the villagers that anybody who is clean and without sin would see the angel, but anybody who was a sinner would not see the angel, but would only see his shoes.

Typical of us, playing Ostrich populism, none of the villagers want to be called a sinner. Those who visited Ali's house pretended to have seen an angel. Each of them would come out and tell the next person that he saw the angel. Our new Rep members have seen the angel too. 😀

Nigerians who have a plot of semi-detached duplex in places like Magodo GRA, Lekki Phase-1 earn at least N10Million annual rent on these properties and none pays tax on such income. We are fighting 7.5% VAT when landlords in UK that we want to be like pay tax on rental income. 😀

We visit Europe and gladly pay all manner of taxes - City taxes, consumption taxes, VAT, hotel taxes. Those who didn't travel equally pay taxes, ordering things from Amazon. Ironically, angst against paying taxes here often originate from those who have nothing to do with tax.

The truth is, tax oo, vat oo, residents association levy oo, refuse collection charges oo, electricity bills oo, a majority just don't want to pay, if government likes, let it tar road to the door of our bedroom. It's the same spirit of obinwanne. Living at the expense of others.

The spirit behind CBN's new charges on cash deposits and withdrawals is clear. However, it isn't a surprise many still have a problem with it. Usually, Nigerians don't need to be affected before antagonizing anything that requires an adjustment in the way we've always lived. 😀

I can't recall when last I had need to withdraw or deposit N500,000! What do you do to deposit 500k daily? Uber? In South Africa, ABSA charge R1.18 for every R100 cash withdrawal. You'll be charged more for deposits too. Unlike here, they don't care about limits; you must pay!

All we want is awoof to riches. A constituency complained about regular outages to a Rep member like @akinalabi, who challenged the affected disco on the matter. The disco proved its case by showing evidences of substantial loss of revenue due to people bypassing their meters.

The legislator led a house to house inspection, to stop the fraudulent behaviour amongst consumers in his constituency. At the next poll, they didn't return him re-elected. They said shebi he likes to work for NEPA, he should go and join the revenue collection unit of the disco.

I had my fair share of our awoof make me fat lifestyle. As a tenant, where I lived in the past, we were to raise N400,000 for transformer in a neighbourhood of roughly 30 houses, where majority are landlords. After a prolonged frustration raising the funds, I provided N200,000.

This is with the hope the remaining N200,000 will be raised amongst 26 landlords or so. I travelled for a month, then returned to darkness. I was told less than N50,000 had been raised in almost 30 days. I deployed all manners of tactics to get my 200k back, then packed my things

Many weeks later, after I had moved out of the area, I got a message from the landlords there that they now have 200k, that I should still help them with the 200k I earlier provided. You should ask with me are they not mad? 😀😀
We just don't want to pay for anything! Nothing!!

Nobody wants to pay if its public, until it's made exclusive. I never believed twas possible to find parents who can pay N1,000,000 university tuition fees. Today, I learnt CU has over 10,000 students. None of these parents would have paid a quarter of this sum to equip UNILAG.

We are easily irritated by any devt requiring individual inconveniences, and our most convenient excuse is that politicians steal. Politicians misappropriate funds in Italy, France, and US. Over there, our posturing on why we evade tax wont be a valid defense on the way to jail.

We want a new N30,000 minimum wage; money made from railway tickets won't pay for the project till Jesus comes. I heard some communities want N2 Billion as compensation for 2nd Niger Bridge? Yet we don't want to pay tax. Let's all continue to play, "Ali and the angel." 😀