I ask if the federal and FCT governments are content
with making Abuja and Nigeria a contract pursuing, civil service country. My
question is informed by the way business owners, industrialists and estate
developers are discouraged from doing business in the federal capital through
unwholesome and obnoxious illegally duplicated taxes and levies.
Last week,
an acquaintance, whose company is developing an estate in Abuja, drew my
attention to one of those criminal ploys deployed by government agencies to
fleece any form of investment one tries their hands on in Abuja. Before construction work commenced on his
site, they had sought and secured all necessary approvals from concerned
government regulatory departments. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) had
been carried out and vetted by the development authorities. However, the Abuja
Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) served them a letter two weeks ago,
mandating they pay a “review charge of N500, 000 and an administrative charge
corresponding to the cost of your project”. In addition, it would be the
exclusive prerogative of AEPB to appoint a consultant for the job from a pool
of their “accredited consultants”! In fact, the letter’s complimentary open
started with: “You are requested to stop work immediately...”
If this
isn’t daylight robbery, then I wonder what name to call it. I was made to
understand that the site had received nothing less than eight similar letters
from government agencies threatening to obstruct work on the project which
already has all the regulatory approvals and environmental impact analysis,
from no less than the Development Control unit of the FCDA.
Has this
happened to you too? My advice to the demoralised investor was for him to
continue work and make all relevant documents available and be ready to view
whenever AEPB feels like coming to actualise its threat. He should also take
the threatening letters to Development Control, for their comments on this and
as a last resort to take the matter up in court.
The situation
is almost as if these agencies are set up to obstruct, using strong-arm tactics
to enforce the use of their often non-existent services.
It appears that the poor are made to bear a disproportionate burden for the
lack of capacity or the unwillingness of government to provide what should by
right be our due. The Idu Industrial Estate, which normally should be the flagship of Abuja’s
industrialisation, is nothing but a junkyard. Infrastructure at the Industrial
Estate is deplorable; electricity supply is erratic and incapable of powering
industries located there. Communication is a challenge as no masts have been
erected there and road construction has been abandoned. Yet businesses are
threatened with illicit levies and taxes. Most recently, trucks have refused to
ply Idu Yard because at the entrance is a gang of armed tax force agents,
arm-twisting truck drivers into paying an unspecified freight levy on behalf of
government.
It is clear
that it is either the government is not interested in implementing its
industrial blueprints, such as the National Industrial Skills Development
Programme and the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan, or its agencies are
sabotaging efforts at implementing them. Either way, we are killing businesses
that we expect to create jobs.
We lack the
urge to propel our country’s industrialisation drive. This is why the relevant
officials of industry and job creation-related departments sit on their
made-in-China furniture and draft onerous letters to the same businesses they
are supposed to support for greater output. There are Nigerian factories
performing nothing short of wonders without government’s support in Kano,
Abuja, Lagos, Aba and Port Harcourt etc. Mr Director would do well to visit
these companies and ascertain how to encourage and not cripple them.
Funny
enough, the same government officials would be quickest to claim the glory when
something good is said about the Nigerian economy. Like the recent rebasing of
our GDP, which every public servant attributed to their oga at the top. But we
all know that it is the undying spirit of Nigerians that keeps the flame of the
Nigerian economy burning. Left to the uninformed statistic-reeling ministers
and special advisers, our economy would be in shambles, because government is
not doing enough. A government that has not adequately invested in human
capital and infrastructure is frustrating and averting enthusiastic investors
who are risking all to run their businesses in such unfriendly circumstances.
Of course, many are content with our importation culture; it affords inflated
contracts and kickbacks. It also ensures that their fronted concerns get the
exclusive importation licenses and accompanying waivers! This adds zero value to
our economy and only fuels that of others.
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