Don hails Ikpeazu’s strides, stresses need for residents to pay tax to strengthen IGR
A don and former Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Deputy Governor, Dr. Chris Nwagboso, has lauded Governor Okezie Ikpeazu for his giant strides in infrastructure, agriculture, SME and other pillars of development of his administration.
Dr. Nwagboso, who was speaking in an interview with news men in Isialangwa stated that the Governor has done well in fixing the hitterto infrastructural deficit of Aba, “we know how our roads used to be before his inception in 2015. A cursory look at what is going on in Aba, one doesn’t need a prophet to let him know that something fundamental, something tangible has been put in place in Aba. You cannot talk of development in Abia without Aba, Aba is the corner stone, visa viz development in Abia State.”
The university lecturer who regretted that “our people, especially the residents of Aba don’t appreciate what the Governor has done as they don’t pay tax”, insisted that “Aba alone is capable of generating not less than 1 billion naira every month for the State. A State like Abia State based on what we have in Aba, shouldn’t rely on Federation account to pay salaries, Aba has the capacity of generating sufficient revenue for payment of salaries and other developments.”
He said, those who make use of the infrastructural facilities in Aba should endeavour to pay their taxes, stressing that anyone who does not want to pay taxes should relocate from Aba and go those areas they feel people do not pay tax.
He urged the State government to come up with strong implementable policies of generating the IGR which he said should be devoid of favouratism. According to him, ” the global economy has problems right now and the Nigeria economy has problems, so, if proactive steps are not taken now in a couple of months, government will not be able to pay” and civil servants would not be able to receive their salaries.
Dr. Nwagboso, who is also a farmer and public policy development expert advised government to be committed to its policy processes adding that “government should design policies that can make our people, civil servants and farmers to be self-sufficient. You don’t need to buy everything in the market, what stops a civil servant having a tenera palm in his compound?” Dr. Nwagboso volunteered to train Abia youths free of charge in various aspects of farming. He recommended that civil servants should be mandated to engage in agriculture so as to provide food for themselves.
He commended Governor Ikpeazu for his promotion of SME and Made in Aba products, which has contributed to the economic development of the State and advised all to key into the pillars of development of the Governor which is geared towards leaving Abia better than he met it.
