VAT: North can survive without billions accruing to Southern states — NEF

*Says VAT war, a wake-up call to northern govs to develop resources, human capital of region

*Urges Nigerians to move beyond ethnic, religious sentiments with regards to 2023 presidency

As the tussle between states and the Federal Government on the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) lingers, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) says the north is a rich region and can survive on its resources without the billions of naira accruing to Southern states.

NEF Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, made this known on Tuesday when he featured on Arise TV’s ‘The Morning Show’ breakfast programme.

He was reacting to the tussle between Rivers, Lagos among other states and the Federal Government on the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT). The legal tussle has now shifted to the Court of Appeal.

The Court on September 10 stopped the collection of VAT by the Rivers State government pending the determination of an appeal filed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) against the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt that ruled that the state had powers to collect VAT and not the FIRS.

Speaking during the television programme on Tuesday, Baba-Ahmed said: “I will advise that we wait to hear what the court says. However, even the fact that it has become an issue suggests that we really do need to address the fundamentals and the manner in which the federation works.

“We have always supported restructuring. We have always asked that a major and genuine shift initiative either by groups or the National Assembly so that matters like this be addressed properly.

“If we don’t do that now, then we should get a leader that will do that in 2023. This administration appears not to understand the importance of restructuring; we do in the north, we recognise the fact that we need to change the manner in which we generate wealth and allocate (it).

“The thing about is: the north wants restructuring; the north wants fiscal federalism. We are a rich region and we can live on what we have, even if we don’t have the billions that accrue to other states. Our poverty is not a kind of problem that we would break this country over.”

According to him, the VAT war is a wake-up call to northern governors who need to recognise the fact that VAT or no VAT, they need to develop their resources and develop the human capital of the north.

Furthermore, the NEF spokesman said: “North, you said you have many people but you are under-developing your own people – the biggest liability of the north is that we have a huge population that is under-developed. You need to develop the human capital that you have.

“We need leaders, the current governors don’t recognise this. Otherwise, they won’t be involved in this argument; allow the court to decide.

“But for goodness sake, (they should) begin to think — what else can we do if the court decides now that Rivers State is right, Lagos State is right, and they won’t be getting all these billions coming in from VAT? What happens?”

Baba-Ahmed said the Northern governors at this stage should not be sleeping, noting that the north is “sitting on wealth, we have massive resources in this country, we have to fight insecurity first, and the Federal Government has to help us, we need to clear the bushes, the forests and all the criminals that are there and we need to go back to farming.

“Agriculture is a major asset; we have land, we have water, we have livestock, we have minerals that are literally begging to be picked from the ground but our governors are too focused on the pittance that they are getting. This is wrong.”

Speaking further, the NEF spokesman said Nigerians need to move beyond ethnic or religious sentiments on the issue of the 2023 presidential election.

He particularly referred to the demand by southern governors in their last meeting that the next president of Nigeria must come from the south, stressing that the demand by the southern governors was not presented properly.

“There is nothing about the north that says it has something against the southern presidency. We understand people who keep saying ‘if you want justice, equity and peace in the country, you must bring a southern presidency’. What we say is, that is not the way to ask for a southern presidency.

“You cannot threaten us with violence and intimidation. We can read the constitution; we know what it takes to be the president. You can have to score at least 25 per cent in 24 states. There are no 24 states in the north, which means no northerner can become a president, unless he gets support from the southern part of the country.

“By the same token, no southerner can become president unless he gets support from the north. We understand this; we are not ignorant. We know there will be a time when someone from the south will become president.

“But it must be a president that will emerge through the political and electoral process. He must be a president that southerners and northerners both like and vote to make him or her president.

“He must be a Nigerian president, not an ethnic president, not a regional president, not a religious president.

“We have learnt a lesson from the north about this tendency to say ‘only one of our own’. We are in trouble today, because one of our own has put us in serious trouble. And if the north doesn’t believe that, they should just look around.

“Leadership has failed Nigerians, not just northerners. What we are trying to say is that ‘don’t let us keep going back’. If this country becomes hostage of primordial and limiting past, we are in trouble, all of us.

“If we can’t move beyond ethnicity and religion and think of one country and create citizens of equal rights, then I’m afraid all we are going to do is go in circles and keep repeating the same mistakes we are making,” Baba-Ahmed stated.