The Father of Nigerian Students-FoNS, Chief Dr. Patrick Osagie Eholor otherwise known as Ultimate Equal has lamented and called to end corruption in Nigeria.
In his words with the Journalists today, he spoke on the Taxation, he said that Tax is a compulsory fund to developing the country not fund to embezzle. It has to be used on what will benefit the citizens but the government has been ignorant of these and also when new government comes in, there is no continuation to the good works previous government has done and that is why government has not being able to give back the dividend of democracy.
Addressing the issue revolving around the House of Representatives, Dr. Eholor said "You are defending what is not defendable, you are still talking about 160 million naira to buy SUV for you, shame on you, you are not elected to have SUV, you are elected to work on the damages the previous government did, where do we get the money from? Your colleague have raised a very important fundamental issue in the house, that over Eleven Trillion of our money used to repair the four refinaries without working. Imagine, after spending Eleven Trillion, none of them is working, this is what is putting our country into debt and you are talking about borrowing money to buy you SUVs when you are not doing the work you are elected to do, there is nothing Honourable about you if you are one of them, you will have to investigate those people who steal our money.
"Recently, Six Hundred Million dollars awarded to NNPC without nothing to show for, if we need to sell the NNPC, then let's sell it, if NNPC is my private business or yours, would you invest Eleven Trillion without returns, without profits? People do business for gain not to loose, Nigeria has lost lots of money, therefore, forget the idea of buying the SUV.
"I went to court recently to stop the Federal government for borrowing Eight hundred million dollars and I have also written to the world Bank that whatever money they lend to Nigeria should be considered as lost money.
"Also talking about the palliative federal government plans to execute for fifteen million people, that is fraud, are you putting us back into poverty? We do not need that palliative, we have suffered enough and we will endure our suffering, put the fund back into infrastructure, education, there are lots of poor children in the north, over fifteen million, take care of them, wasting money on unnecessary things is shameful, let's do the right thing and forget buying of SUVs.
"However, if the president Tinubu wants to stop corruption, you want new policy for taxation, let it start from you, rewarding Mc Oluomo by collecting tax from people as well as Iyaloja General of Nigeria in Lagos, the money collected from people are not even used adequately for national development, this is a criminal act.
"Buhari once said, 'if Nigeria does not kill corruption, Corruption will kill Nigeria' see the case of Ikoyi loot, there is no documents given to the public about it, we should redefine penalty for national fund embezzlement to death sentence or life imprisonment."
According to investopedia.com "Taxes are mandatory contributions levied on individuals or corporations by a government entity—whether local, regional, or national. Tax revenues finance government activities, including public works and services such as roads and schools, or programs such as Social Security and Medicare."
Therefore, Dr. Eholor pleaded to all government officials as well as the arms of Government to curb corruption by first showing good examples as the leaders and utilize the taxes for the betterment of the country.