My Country

Today is not one of those that i feel like working. Actually, its really not one of the days that i feel like thinking or talking or feeling. Its one of those days when all i want to do is breathe, to focus on getting as much air as possible in and out of my lungs. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day. But today, today all i want to do is breathe.

 

I am wearing the wrong vest underneath my jacket, it is the wrong vest becaue its is cream coloured and you can see right through it into my cream coloured Marks & Spencer bra. Concentrate on the fact that i highlighted the designer of my bra; my underwear, who no body really gives a care about. I did this just because i feel an innate need today to increase my self worth. I came to work with my neighbour as usual.Sitting right next to him as we sped past Lawanson and headed straight for the Island, we got into a discussion on my least favourite topic; my country; Nigeria.

 

The discussion centered around Affluence, The Nigerian government and Taxation. In his usual characteristic calm voice, he asks , "Onyi, if you were a Pastor, will you own a private jet?". Laughing out loud in my most no committal way i replied, "i don't know". A definite answer may have been easy to state for some people, but not for me. In my case, i have had the privilege of being on the good and not too good sides of life. I knew what it meant to be driven at the back of a taxi straight to work and back home and i knew the craziness of having to struggle for a bus to get to work and to get home in good enough time. It wasn't just the comfort of it, it was the filth around Mushin area of Lagos, the madness and recklessness at Oshodi, the filth and rudeness from conductors and commuters as a whole, the helplessness of squeezing into space that would cramp your back for a whole week and still having to keepcalm and maintain a serene front. I knew what it meant to want the finer things of life not because you feel the wealth was uncontainable but because, some place in your mind you feel that you have earned the right, to have those things.

 

My neighbour went on to explain the injustice of it, "Why should they own jets?" 'At the worst, they could charter a plane, but to buy a jet and maintain it at an unbelievable amount is the ultimate show of rude affluence".  What cut most about this was that these pastors amass wealth via the sweat of struggling people and the Nigerian government do not have that special knowledge to levy tax on this wealth. Is this me and everyone else who thinks same being jealous, i think not. What should be done must be done, after all, aren't we all equal anymore?

 

You make an income, not just peanuts, but a substantial chunk of money. It follows that you should give back to the society. Or what? Haven't they heard of "give Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar?" I once read that if your activities enables you derive an income in such a way as to constitute a trade or profession, then the profits are liable to tax. So you earn an income, why not pay tax? Why not contribute to the society instead of preach doomsday, doomsday, doomsday? I mean c'mon, even prostitutes pay tax in some countries. Yeah, i said so. Prostitutes pay tax, prostitutes pay tax in Germany, in Sweden, in Neatherland, those are the few i know. If those people could be taxed and even the lowliest of the society, why not u? Those prostitutes make an income and their profession is legal so they pay tax. If you amass billions every year from your church, it wont be asking too much that you give a fraction of it back to the society to improve it. You can't just preach this and that and show zilch committment to your state and country.

 

I am a Nigerian. I work for a Nigerian company. I have grown to love my work place but my least favorite topic still remains my country Nigeria. When i talk about my country and their too many issues, i feel helpless. I fail to understand why there is absolutely nothing that anyone can do which would revive Nigeria. I tell friends i'm apathetic to the political situation in Nigeria but the truth is that with each year that passes, i am older and the decadence in the country stares me right in the face and all i can do is turn the other way. Am i sick of this? Yes. Can i do something about it? Maybe. What can i do? I have no idea.