By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi
In a widely circulated video on the social media, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, was reported as saying that under the New Tax Reform, prostitutes would be taxed. The new tax reforms come into effect next year, January 1st.
According to him “the new laws do not differentiate between legally recognised or socially acceptable services and others”, adding that, “one thing about the tax law, it does not separate between whether what you are doing is legitimate or not, it doesn’t even ask you. It just asks you whether you have an income. Did you get it from rendering a service or providing a good? Then, you pay tax.”
That, to me, sounds more like legalising prostitution, which neither the religious beliefs nor the cultures of the Nigerian citizens support. Hence the alienation of the practice and practitioners of the ‘business’ in many places in the country.
Growing up in my remote neck of the woods, most of the practitioners of the ungodly ‘business’ were known as ‘AKWATO’, a nomenclature which origin I cannot say. There were, of course, the locals who were then far and between. But they were considered as PARIAS in the society. Their parents and many people known to be related to them were considered no less so.
If we return to the Holy Quran and Bible, Maryam (Mary) the mother of Jesus (Prophet Isa AS), was angrily asked by some people who knew the extreme piety of her family, where she got the baby she was carrying in her arms. The question was informed by the fact that God forbids fornication. And for an unmarried woman to bear a child, means that lady must be promiscuous. Maryam (Mary) was definitely not.
I am not preaching, because I lack the knowledge to do so, but even at that, I am very aware that fornication is explicitly prohibited by the religions. No religion in Nigeria supports the practice and no administration before
the present regime, gave it an official imprimatur.
It appears that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led regime will go to any length to get money ‘for’ the country, but unfortunately, most of the money always ends in private pockets of a few rent seekers in the country, with what it left spent on Lagos state.
But because some unpatriotic few are invited to the dining table, regardless of their position to the head of the table, they have become deniers of the true situation in the country. They bandy lies to explain the ‘true’ situation, which includes “Nigeria has never been safer than it is under President Tinubu”, and “There has never been blackout since Tinubu took over power, a little over two year ago”.
After legalising prostitution, the Tinubu regime may next consider amending the Nigerian Constitution and legitimise same sex marriage in Nigeria, and the ‘rubber stamp’ National Assembly (NASS) will readily give its stamp of approval. After all, it is another opportunity to make more money from the president.
May God give the next president (NOT Tinubu), the courage to cancel what part of the new tax is not in sync with our religions and cultures.
Malumfashi writes from Katsina
