Focus on productivity, not taxation – SDP Presidential candidate tells FG

Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the last election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has asked the present administration to focus more on productivity, rather than taxation.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, Adebayo said while it is good for citizens to pay their taxes, government should prioritize production, saying that it will benefit the country on the long term.

He said, “It’s good to collect taxes, but the entire government cannot have the philosophy of a tax collector. But, there are certain things you need to put in the economy that look free, but they have a multiplier effect. Access to water has a multiplier effect on health care. Access to food has a multiplier effect on productivity and wellness. Internet access has an impact on creativity, productivity, and attractiveness of the country, and also has a multiplier effect on security.

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“So these things are lost on them, and that is why we need to give them a lot of reorientation, starting from the president to the vice president, the economic team and down to the last person in the cabinet of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We need to reorient them to understand that it’s not about money. You have to let people live with some level of ease and facilitation, then they will become productive.”

He also decried the government’s focus on taxation at the detriment of productivity, saying, “Taxation is now the focus of the government whereas productivity needs to be their focus. But, the fact is that they do not understand that in economics there is a difference between what makes sense for a company, and what makes sense for the larger society.

“In macroeconomics, you make decisions for the general good of the largest portion of the population, whereas in microeconomics, you make decisions only for the person within your value chain.

“So, they are isolating the government like a company, that the more money the government collects, the more successful the government is. No, a government is a representative of the entire swath of the population. Even if the government is not making as much money, but the GDP is rising, unemployment is going down and real employment is going up, you can travel faster, safer, and cheaper over time, you can use modern tools to assess wealth, and you can stay in Nigeria and do work that can be exported overseas, that is real progress and development. ”

He went further to say that “What’s more important today is the ability to export intellectual property. To do that, you need to build an environment that has good electricity and is stable, cheap and affordable. You need to build an environment that has affordable housing. You need an environment, where you can travel long distances at a reasonable cost and you can carry goods and services.

“So if you go around the country, like I did recently, you will see that everywhere is full of trailers; all overloaded. Why are the trailers overloaded? The cost of buying diesel to fuel these vehicles is making the transporters run at a loss. So as a result, they make the mistake of overloading their vehicle, which causes accidents, wastages, delays and clogs.”