Nyesom Wike, the minister of the federal capital territory, has said that rich people (big men) residing in Abuja remain the FCT’s biggest problem in voluntary tax compliance for development.
Wike stated this during the inauguration of the newly constructed Collector Road CN2 (Zakari A. Kyari Street), in Abuja on Thursday, by President Bola Tinubu to celebrate his second year in office.
The road, from Arterial Road N11 (Ahmadu Bello Way) in Mabushi to Katampe District, leading to Judges Quarters and other connecting roads, was constructed by the FCT Administration.
According to the minister, the FCT’s big men don’t like paying taxes.
Nonetheless, he was appalled that the same large guys in London, the US, and other nations willingly paid their taxes and ground rent.
He said that the CN2 road and other connecting roads in Katampe district were executed with taxes and ground rents paid by responsible residents.
“For those who said we sealed their houses for not paying a ground rent, see the value; see the product of paying a ground rent.
“If you don’t pay, nobody will provide this infrastructure because the only thing the city has is just to collect taxes.
“People say Abuja is rich. How rich is it?” he asked.
He clarified that what Abuja collects from the federation account was one per cent of what was due to the federal government every month.
“So, assuming that the federal government gets N800 billion every month. One percent of N800 billion is N8 billion Naira and N8 billion is not enough to pay salaries.
“Our salary today is not less than N13 billion because of the minimum wage increase.
“So, if we only depend on one per cent of what the federal government gets every month, it means that we can only pay salaries, not to talk about carrying out infrastructure.
“That’s why we’re very aggressive in saying you cannot enjoy infrastructure free of charge. You have to pay.
“It has nothing to do with ‘I belong to party A; I belong to party B, I belong to party C’,” he said.
He charged Tinubu, who was represented by the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, to address the residents of the federal capital territory on the importance of paying taxes.
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He claimed this would allow the fct Administration to build additional infrastructure throughout the region for everyone’s benefit.
Residents of the fct, especially large males, were cautioned by him that if they own land in the area and have not paid ground rent, they will be listed in publications as defaulters.
He particularly pointed out that no poor man has the financial resources to build a house in Katampe and Mabushi, adding that those building houses in the areas were rich men.
“Mr deputy speaker, see what we are talking about. If you know you have land here and you have not paid, I will publish your name that you have not paid.
“It has nothing to do that I want to embarrass you, no. We need money to do the work that we are doing.
“No poor man can do these houses. No poor man. These houses are being built by rich men. So, you have to pay so we can carry out the job of delivering critical infrastructure.
“We need people to pay their taxes so that we will carry out development in the interest of our people,” he added.
