Taxes, levies too heavy for ordinary Nigerians — ACF laments
By Austine Emmanuel, Kaduna
Arewa Consultative Forum, (ACF) has decried the addition of new taxes and levies on essential goods and services, saying it has become increasingly burdensome and too heavy for ordinary Nigerians to bear.
This is as the Forum with concerns called on government at all levels to confront the decline in the living condition of citizens by giving adequate attention to the plights and yearnings of the Nigeria populace.
In a communique issued to journalists in Kaduna on Tuesday after an intense meeting of the ACF National Working Committee, (NWC) the National Publicity Secretary of ACF, Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba stated that the need for a roll out of public policy programmes and projects aimed at addressing low purchasing power challenges can never be overemphasised.
ACF in a meeting presided over by the National President, Mike Mamman Osman, SAN called on citizens to rally around the government and seek God’s interventions. They identified justice, equity, love, righteousness, amongst other virtues as factors capable of the rebirth of a prosperous Nigeria in the place of current despair and hopelessness.
The Northern sociocultural umbrella further called on public officials to shun and recklessness in spending of public funds, while noting that such an act will inspire the spirit of needed sacrifices by citizens.
“On the national front, and specifically applicable to the Northern states, NEC notes that the times continue to be tough and challenging for the average citizen who is daily confronted with runaway inflation, unemployment, rapid deterioration in standards of living, all in the face of incidents of insurgency, terrorism and banditry, etc. These problems that have remained dire, acute (or even chronic in some places) in the North in particular.
“The immediate causes of the problems have been policies put in place by government over the past months, including but not confined to removal of subsidies from the prices of petroleum products, floating of the Naira, and astronomical hike in the cost of poorly supplied electricity, increasing tariffs and taxes against the seemingly insensitive profligacy in spendings by public officials, to list a few.
“NEC acknowledges the efforts of the Federal, state and, to a little extent, local governments have been making efforts to tackle the problems identified above. However, overall, it is undeniable, perhaps due to the quantum and widening dimension of the problems, that public policy response to the problems remains weak and ineffective at best.
“NEC noted with grave concern, regrets and decries the continuing, the deterioration or escalation in the spate of insecurity-related incidents in all three (3) geo-political zones under which the northern states are grouped. These problems reflect on the region’s cascading political, social, economic challenges. NEC reiterates ACFs earlier expressed position that the emergent protracted dimension of these problems, if untamed, are harbingers of citizens discontent, social chaos.
“Equally worrisome to NEC is the widening regional disparities in social demographic factors, such as access to education, health public, infrastructure, economic inclusion, political participation, living conditions, etc.
“Governments must move to curb such disparities so as to ensure that Nigeria does not become two-states-in-one. Factors that unify, rather than divide citizens along any lines, should attract the attention of all concerned, government and citizens alike,” the communique read in part
