By Richard Maduku
There is hardly anything meant to enhance life that we don’t corrupt in Africa especially here in Nigeria. Clocks and watches for instance, are meant for us to keep to time but we often use them for the opposite. To most of us, arriving on time for any occasion is a taboo.
We call it ‘African time’. We convert gutters meant to drain off rain water into dumps for our refuse. We can hardly vote out a bad government because of our corrupt nature. Right now, a piece of admonition intended for our good is being misapplied in many places..
The constant exhortation by economists on the need for Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) diversification instead of relying solely on funds from the sale of crude oil is a commendable advisory. Regrettably, many states and local governments are going about it as if it is not for creating more taxable wealth but for making the poor and the vulnerable to become poorer.
As if they are unaware of what led to the Arab Spring in North Africa in 2011, (more on it shortly), some local governments are making life unbearable for many poor people in the name of IGR. Instead of creating the environment that attract production such as industrial estates, they are imposing frivolous levies on commercial motorcycle (okada) and tricycle operators.
They are also doing the same to petty traders who hawk assorted cheap wares on the fringes of big markets. People sell in this way because they coutd not afford to rent shops. The goods of those that were unable to pay for tickets of the local government agents were usually seized and taken away.
A young man in Tunisia died from the fire he set on himself when the vegetables he was selling were carted away in this manner. His death so angered youths in the Arab world that the protests that followed led to the fall from power of some leaders in that part of the globe. It is what is referred to as the Arab Spring.
Self-immolation or other forms of extremism is not in our genes here but that doesn’t mean we are to be over exploited by anyone as it is happening to another set of people in Ughelli North LGA in Delta State.
As if the one or two hundred naira petty traders pay daily before being allowed to hawk their goods has become a pittance, the Ughelli North LGA has upped the ante in the craze for IGR diversification. We learnt that the IGR department of the LGA was given a month to come up with something that would rake in huge funds into the coffers of the local government. But before the month ended, the head of the IGR department went to see his oga..
According to the source, the overall boss was so pleased after being briefed by the IGR department man he brought out one of his expensive wines which they shared. Three days later, after consulting their lawyer, it was announced on the local radio that every building and undeveloped plot owner in Ughelli Town was to pay ten thousand naira for their houses or plots to be re-numbered. The money was to be paid within a fortnight.
Failure to pay within the stipulated time will attract a fine of five hundred naira for each day of default plus the ten thousand naira. According to the announcement, the levy will enable all buildings and plots to appear on Google map which in turn will enhance security bla bla bla!
The re-numbering has since started.
To the residents, some of whom are in their nineties, the announcement was a bombshell. Not only because they were not consulted first but also because they had not seen this type of brazen act of fleecing before!
According to some of them, numbering of buildings had always been the individual’s responsibility even in the GRA and the pre-planned areas known as Layouts. Many of these elderly residents could hardly believe they are to cough out ten thousand naira for the mere numbering of their buildings when the plot itself where their buildings stand were bought for less than three hundred naira in the good old days!
Most of the landlords in the main town were traders, civil servants, servicemen and artisans who spent up to twenty years before completing their houses. It is unlike these days when mansions are completed within a year or two by workers in the oil companiels and youths versed in the various trades on the Internet. Their mansions are mostly in the neighbouring villages that are now merging with Ughelli Town.
Due to the high cost of building materials especially cement and roofing sheets today, many elderly landlords can hardly maintain their houses. Unlike roofs of the 1930s to the 1960s that lasted more than a lifetime, these days, many start to leak from the second year.
This is due to the substandard zincs in the market today. Chemicals that corrode metals being released daily into the atmosphere through gas flaring and the half-baked carpenters that abound today are some of the other reasons. Many elderly landlords were actually expecting help from the local government, not this extortion in the name of re-numbering!
What irks many old landlords most is the lie that the new numbers will enhance security in the town. For instance, a visitor cannot read the new house numbers while inside a moving vehicle as was the case with the old numbers. The visitor cannot read them even while standing on the street or road.
One has to move close to the house before he could read them. This is because the size (font) of both the numbers and the street names are too tiny. They are of no use to firefighters or police men in the case of an emergency! Like email addresses, it costs nothing for places to appear on the Google map!
Richard Maduku, a retired Nigerian Army (Infantry) Captain and novelist, lives in Effurun-Otor, Delta State