Research
The Effects of Pseudo-Taxation Politics on the Implementation of Tax Reform Policies: The Nigerian Experience
Taxation is a viable fiscal policy employed by government to attain economic stability and foster development. The world societal economies are under pressure to reduce poverty, create employment, maintain peace and foster development. With the government being the machinery through which all these could be accomplished, yet having insufficient fund to deliver these social services; there is need for the citizens to render financial support in proportion to their revenue to government, so that these obligations of the government will be rightly fulfilled. This is what taxation entails. However, there have been several cases of tax evasion, tax avoidance and complaints against Nigerian taxation system prompting the reformation of the Nigerian tax policies. In spite of these reforms, it seems the issue of tax evasion and avoidance is on the increase. Many previous literatures have studied the reasons for inefficiency of taxation system despite the tax policy reform, but not much has been said about how the influence of false taxation politics played by the politicoeconomic elites and tax revenue collectors affects the implementation of the tax reform policies. This paper attempts to fill this gap in literature by examining actions of revenue collectors and influence of the elites on tax reform policies. An analytical study on this was carried out and the findings indicate that strong-individual against strong-institution problem and tax collectors suboptimalization are what bedevil the implementation of the tax reform policies. This paper recommends institutional re-strengthening and tax collectors social re-engineering as a panacea to this problem.
Political Restructuring in Nigeria: The Need, Challenges and Prospects
Restructuring is a song on the lips of many Nigerians. It has trended for decades and seems to be an inter-generational topical issue in Nigeria. The persistent call for restructuring takes numerous dimensions, but particularly outstanding is in the dimension of politics. It is no surprise though, because the philosophy behind the existence of every state and the control of its resources bothers on politics. Therefore, when there is a damaged cog in the wheel of the politics of the state, it becomes imperative to politically restructure the state. Since this is so, the big question then becomes ‘what is the damaged cog in the wheel of the politics of Nigeria that is a necessity for restructuring? What are the challenges of political restructuring in Nigeria? And what is the way forward?’ It is in a bid to fill this gap that this paper attempts to answer the above questions through an analytical study of a number of restructuring opinions. The findings of the study proves that ensuring the peaceful coexistence of Nigerian multiethnic nationalities as one peaceful entity called Nigeria and effecting of rapid and competitive development of the different regions of the country among other factors consists the need for restructuring; while elite interest, fear of ethnic dominations, political idiosyncrasy among others construe the challenges facing political restructuring in Nigeria. This paper recommends re-federalization, value reorientation, institutional re-strengthening, ethnic representation amongst others as the solution to restructuring issues in Nigeria.
Public Policy Formulation and Implementation in Nigeria Questions Challenges and Prospects
The nature, stability and development of any government organized country is a phenomenon that is dependent on public policy. This in all ramifications proves the paramount relevance of public policy planning, making, implementation and analysis in efficiency and effectiveness of government. The existence of public policy practice however, is not devoid of challenges as it poses a fundamental question of how best to model public policy so as to create the most efficient and effective government. Numerous previous literatures had attempted to do justice to this question; nonetheless, little or no attention has been given to basic components of this question which are ‘how to aggregate diverse public interest into a public policy, and how to tackle the on-paper-non-practice syndrome of established public policies’. This paper attempts to fill this gap in literature by examining these public policy questions and establishing a panacea for them. A retrospective study of the Nigerian public policy practice was undertaken. The findings indicate that ethno-religious and tribal heterogeneity breeds non-tolerance which poses a problem to the aggregation of diverse public interest into public policy and that the implementation of public policies has been marred by corruption-bred strong-individual against strong-institution factor and the issue of citizenry acceptance of this practice as a right and non-abrogable one. This paper recommends sociopolitical restructuring and reorientation of the entire citizenry as a worthy alleviation to these public policy questions.
