Oyo State Government led by a disingenuous Engineer Seyi Makinde decided to test waters with the introduction of entertainment tax to overburden Oyo State citizens. As it is typical of the current government in the state, what they thought were waters because they looked less turned out to be a mud into which they sank, struggling not to drown deeper into the ‘pọtọpọtọ’.
Since yesterday when a flyer introducing entertainment tax and advertising the rates for categories of events surfaced, allegedly from the government, those within the corridor of power at Agodi have become uneasy. Uneasy because they did not expect the outcry of negative reactions that greeted the disclosure. Oyo people woke up this morning to gales of denials from the government circle, pushing spurious narratives that the flyer was the handiwork of the opposition. The opposition must have been so daring to have included an address at the Secretariat and phone numbers for further enquiries on the flyer! If anyone believes Oyo government’s denials of the viral flyer, advertising the entertainment tax rates, such a person can believe anything, including that okra grows on baobab tree!
Unfortunately for the government, Oyo people have become wise. Seyi Makinde led government has taken Oyo people for a merry-go-round ride that the house of deceit built with spittle faces a threat from dew. The honeymoon of populism between Governor Seyi Makinde and many undiscerning citizens of the state appears to be over. The scales of deceit are falling off the eyes of these citizens who thought Governor Makinde was a godsent governor. It is clear as a crystal to them now that the taciturn Governor used a facade of humaneness and humility to hoodwink them into thinking he was their saviour.
Just days ago, Governor Makinde threw a mockery, masquerading as a rhetorical question, to the Federal Government that ‘when will hunger defect from Nigeria?’ It’s a mocking reaction from the governor about the ailments of defection threatening to snuff life out of the PDP as many of its stalwarts, including governors, senators and federal honourables, are joining the ruling APC in droves. What’s obvious from Governor Makinde’s mockery of the defections from his orphaned party is a depressed state of mind. It has become a singsong for the Oyo helmsman to remind Oyo people that they are hungry and that the federal government is responsible. He continues to emphasise such a reckless statement as ‘people are hungry’ because he thinks the people have lost their thinking cap.
It is an indescribable buffoonery that a Governor, who, by the virtue of Section 1 of the Land Use Act 1978, holds all the parcels of land in the territory of his state in trust for people, would ashamedly say his people are hungry! In Oyo State, apart from holding the lands within the state into trust for the people, there is a ministry of agriculture, into which the governor appoints a commissioner, a special adviser and a special assistant. There are agencies and departments that have to do with agriculture in the state, while administrators are appointed to oversee the activities of the establishments. Since Governor Makinde assumed office in 2019, he has been making budgetary allocations to agriculture annually. Notwithstanding, all these have not brought food security to the people of Oyo State. The governor himself has confirmed that his people are hungry, blaming the federal government for this. Who will tell Governor Makinde that his statement of hunger is an indictment on the failure of his administration to use resources of the state to ensure that his people are exempted from the touted hunger which blame he places on federal government?
While the federal government led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has rolled out tax reforms that ensure that the poor will either not pay tax or pay less while the rich will pay more, Oyo State government led by Seyi Makinde attempts to impose stiffer tax on the people of the state his administration has already sapped with his misgovernment.
And, to show that Governor Makinde does not really care that people are hungry. He only hammers on the statement to paint the federal government in a bad light and score cheap political points. It is a statement that does not leave his mouth! Which state governor would attempt to impose killing tax on his citizens when his state has been receiving excessively huge funds from federal allocations monthly?
He appears to have a morbid obsession to see Oyo people hungry. Or, why would his government introduce entertainment tax to overburden people with tax, knowing Yoruba people in general and Oyo people in particular are ardent organisers of parties and events? What is scary about the whole thing is that people will become hungrier with the introduction of entertainment tax because people will either cease to organise events or reduce the rate at which they organise parties. This will mean that the poor people, the scavengers, and the ‘mo-gbọ-mo-yas’ who troop parties to get something to eat will remain hungry!
There is also another negative side to the introduction of entertainment tax. Many event centres will fold up since people will no longer organise parties. Also, caterers and servers who earn living through parties will become idle and unemployed. Why is Governor Makinde bent on leaving Oyo State poorer than he met it?
Rather than pushing the blame of hunger on the federal government, Governor Makinde should borrow a leaf of prosperous agriculture from his counterpart in Niger State, Muhammed Bago, who is revolutionising agriculture in his state. Bago is not blaming the federal government that his people are hungry. He set to work, and he placed his state on agricultural prosperity.
Governor Makinde has a contemptuous perception for Oyo people. He ensures they go hungry and he rubs it on their faces. To rub salt to the injury of hunger he has inflicted on the people, he taunts them, singing: ‘ebi nii pa mọnamọna ku’. Or what conclusion could we arrive at when a governor overburdens with tax the only thing that prevents Oyo people from depression – entertainment?
