Lagos — The 36 state governors met recently to deliberate on the difficulty they face in delivering the dividends of democracy to the people in their respective states. Chuks Okocha reports that with the outcome of the seminar, Nigerians should be ready to carry more burdens

Worried by the dwindling of the resources available to deliver their campaign promises to Nigerians, governors from the 36 states of the federation gathered in Abuja recently to hold a three day seminar on how to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people who voted them into the office

They were faced with the hard facts that both the federal and the internally generated revenue can no longer support the public services. The governors had however resolved to seek alternative means of generating additional resources to power governance They also resolved to look inwards and stop their over dependence on federal allocations.

However, participants at the seminar made it clear that much as Nigerians are willing to pay more taxes, the governors should bear in mind that to whom much is given, much is equally expected.

The meeting focused on how to reduce the level of waste and make the states stronger in terms of resources.

Other governors were enjoined to toe the line of the Lagos state government in reinvigorating the regime of taxes to sustain its developmental projects. The governors also canvassed that good governance will depend on the ability of states to improve their internally generated revenue.

The paper that kicked off the seminar was delivered by Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiohmole whose paper "Rebuilding Tax Payer's Confidence between Good Leadership and Internally Generated Revenue" canvassed that good governance remains the key to improve internally generated revenue in any state.

According to the governor who traced the nexus between good governance and payment of taxes, said, "The process of proper elections gives government legitimacy and the mandate to act on behalf of the people. If a government is not legitimate, it may not have the courage to go to the people and demand taxes. Having collected taxes, what the state does with it derives from the mandate which the people gave in the first instance."

Oshiomhole also said, " it is understandable that a government that is not properly elected will not have the political will to enforce tax compliance on its citizenry, as it does not enjoy popular support and trust of the people. Such a government will not have the moral authority to enforce such compliance from its populace to continuously sustain tax drives

In this regard, he said that the payment of tax is a civic duty which where there is good governance, it would ensure increased revenue. He explained that the state revenue would continue to decline, in a situation where a governor was imposed on the people and the governor in question may not have the courage to enforce tax and generate money for the development of the state's decaying infrastructure.

He advocated the policy of taxing the rich and introduction of property tax as a veritable measure of increasing revenue. He said that it is only the civil servants that consistently pay their taxes through the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system.

According to him, most politicians and contractors only pay tax when they have contracts to collect and execute in order to enable them present the necessary and needed tax clearance.

The governor also advocated for a situation where companies will pay more taxes on their turnover and net profits, because the net is subject to several abuses.

His views were adopted by the Ogun state governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel who also advocated for the introduction of property tax as a way of increasing the revenue accruing to the states.

He blamed the continued dependency of the states on allocations from the federal government as a process of weakening the revenue generation to state.

In his own paper, the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola said that tax compliance has become a way of life for the people of Lagos state, as no one is granted audience to see him without ensuring that the person or group is tax compliant.

In his paper, the Cross River state governor, Senator Liyel Imoke said that the state has to rely on taxation to meet the declining revenue. According to him, since most of the oil wells that formerly belonged to the state have been taking away, business men in the state are reluctant in paying taxes as they are finding it difficult to pay. He

Imoke further said that the fall in oil revenue from the federal government is now waking the governors from their slumber He also said that the people has the right to refuse to pay taxes to unjust government

He also said that the ability to pay taxes as at when due depends greatly on political will, he advocated for maximisation of internally generated revenue as a way forward by reviewing, streamlining and strengthening the organisation and governance structure, reforming business processes and procedures and management controls.

The chairman of the Governors Forum, Dr Bukola Saraki of Kwara State who was represented by the Ebonyi state governor, Martin Elechi, urged his colleagues to be more accountable and transparent as they explore non-oil avenues to increase internally generated revenue.

He equally urged other governors to tackle corruption and other vices which may impede the implementation of tax policy in the states.

The governor also blamed the over dependency on oil, a mono commodity as factor responsible for the decline in the internally generated revenue, "by creating a sense of dependency, we have affected other areas of the economy in ways which do not support sustainable development practices.

The Accountant General of the Federation, Ibrahim Dankwambo gave statistical figures to show the effect of states dependency on the centre for revenue. Though, he called on states to emulate the Lagos state tax regime, he however said that due to the inability of the states to generate revenue, a total of N375.035 billion was withdrawn from the excess crude proceeds account (ECA) to augment N1.377 trillion federal allocations which was distributed to 36 states of the Federation between January to November 2009. Giving details, he said that five of the 36 states which were top beneficiaries of the largesse from the ECA received double-digit figure amounts, in the period under review.

Top on the list, according to him are, Rivers State, which received N58.271 billion, and followed by Akwa Ibom which got N50.030 billion. Delta got N33.876 billion while Bayelsa and Ondo received N20.977 billion and N14.987 billion respectively. The Accountant General lamented that the development had further depleted the nation's treasury and as a result made it difficult for government to meet its obligations. According to Dankwmanbo, "many states and local governments could hardly pay salaries of their workers, how much less of embarking on capital projects."

"Given the current realities, it has become increasingly necessary that state governments source for revenue from other avenues to supplement what they receive from the federation account instead of dipping hands into the ECA.

He suggested that, an "obvious alternative" was to generate incomes internally from their states and local governments, which according to him, seems to be the only way to fulfill their electoral promises.

"It has thus become increasingly clear that attention must now shift to other sources to generate revenue to supplement allocation from the federation account.