Taxes: Social Contract Between Society And Government by Akin Adesina

 

Prof Akin Adesina

Charismatic and ebullient African Development Bank President, Professor Akin Adesina has tasked the governments across the globe especially African countries on the social contract between society and government.

Speaking at the Chatham House, the policy center for global affairs in London, Adesina highlights the importance of government playing its roles while enforcing compliance with citizens paying taxes. 

He emphasized that the government has a responsibility to provide infrastructure to the people with the taxes they pay.

If the the people play their parts paying their taxes, the government owes them a responsibility to play its own part by providing basic necessity of good roads, potable water, good hospitals, adequate security and so on.

Adesina berates the situation where an individual has to fix his own road, provide his own borehole, electricity with solar power, provides his own security and still pay taxes to the government that abdicates its own responsibility.

It’s so unconscionable that the African continent that is blessed with repertoire of brains is bedeviled by corruption where leaders exhibit high level of arrogance by refusing to be accountable for the resources that should benefit the people.

Most of the African countries are being ruled by charlatans who do not care about decorum, morality and the truth. They deliberately impoverish the people so as to cower them into submission.

Poverty in Africa is weaponized so much that most of the people who should be demanding accountability from their leaders are the ones defending them.

As Adesina focuses on good governance, I hope African leaders especially Nigeria will heed his voice of reason.