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Taxation is not merely a statutory power conferred on government; it is a moral, constitutional, and democratic contract between the state and its citizens. In every functioning democracy, taxes are paid not simply because the law says so, but because the people can see, feel, and benefit from what their money produces. Where this reciprocal relationship is broken, taxation loses legitimacy and becomes nothing more than coercion.
In Nigeria today, that legitimacy is deeply in question.
Taxation and the Social Contract
The idea of governance rests on a simple bargain: citizens surrender a portion of their earnings in exchange for security, infrastructure, welfare, and opportunities that improve collective living standards. This is the foundation of the social contract and the ethical basis of taxation.
A government that fails to provide these essentials cannot morally insist on heavier taxes, no matter how elegant its fiscal policies may appear on paper.
Security: The First Duty of the State
The primary responsibility of any government is the protection of lives and property. Yet Nigerians today fund their own security, employ vigilantes, install private surveillance, and in the worst cases, negotiate ransoms with kidnappers.
When citizens must personally underwrite their safety, the state has already abdicated a core obligation. A government that cannot guarantee security has not earned the moral authority to impose additional taxes.
Infrastructure: Paying Twice for What Should Be Public
Across Nigeria, citizens pay privately for what taxes are meant to provide publicly:
Electricity is self-generated at enormous personal and business cost.
Roads are dilapidated, unsafe, and economically punitive.
Public transportation systems are largely non-existent, forcing Nigerians to bear exorbitant logistics costs for movement of goods and services.
Taxation, under such conditions, amounts to double billing: citizens pay taxes and still pay again to survive.
Healthcare and Education: Systems in Decline
Public hospitals and schools across the country are in distress. Facilities are underfunded, professionals are poorly motivated, and outcomes are bleak. Nigerians who can afford it seek private alternatives or medical care abroad; those who cannot are left exposed.
Education tells a similar story. Public schools are crumbling, lecturers and teachers are undervalued, and students face systemic uncertainty. The much-publicised student loan scheme remains shrouded in opacity, with no publicly verifiable list of beneficiaries despite formal requests.
A state that neglects human capital development while expanding its tax appetite is misplacing priorities.
Transparency: The Missing Link
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of Nigeria’s current tax debate is the absence of accountability for existing revenues.
Fuel subsidy removal was justified as a painful but necessary sacrifice for national renewal. Nigerians were promised reinvestment into infrastructure, transportation, healthcare, and education. Yet today, citizens legitimately ask:
Where are the new rail lines?
Where are the modern hospitals?
Where are the visibly improved roads?
Where is the detailed public account of how those trillions were spent?
A government that cannot transparently explain how yesterday’s funds were used has no business demanding more tomorrow.
Political Privilege Versus Public Suffering
Nigeria maintains an outrageous system of lifetime pensions, luxury benefits, vehicles, and healthcare for former political office holders — in a country where the majority struggle to meet basic needs.
It is morally indefensible to ask citizens for increased taxes while sustaining a political class that lives far above the realities of the people it governs. A society that rewards mediocrity in politics more generously than excellence in academia, medicine, or public service is structurally unjust.
Democracy Means Accountability
The President is not an emperor. He occupies office in trust, not by divine right. In a democracy, leaders are subject to scrutiny at all times. Citizens who pay taxes are not beggars — they are employers.
As the saying goes, he who pays the piper dictates the tune. Taxpayers have the right to demand how their money is spent, and to reject policies imposed without accountability.
The era of rubber-stamp legislatures, frivolous bills, and governance by arrogance must end.
Taxation Without Delivery Is Unacceptable
No government can tax people it refuses to answer to. No democracy can survive when sacrifice is demanded without evidence of stewardship. No nation can progress when politicians live richer than the citizens whose sweat funds the state.
Before imposing new tax regimes, the government must first show workings with what it already has. Trust is not commanded; it is earned.
Until then, suspending further tax burdens is not rebellion — it is a legitimate democratic demand.
Taxation is a right earned through service, not a weapon wielded against a struggling people.
© Chief Akinwumi Akinfenwa
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Political Scientist, Public Policy Analyst, Social Commentator, and Advocate for Constitutional Decency lives in Ibadan.
SB E-news.
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