Lai Mohammed Makes Shocking Revelation, Says Nigeria Is Broke!

The Federal government has raised the alarm that Nigeria is broke and cannot sustain the subsidy regime, hence the hike in the price of fuel.

Speaking to State House Correspondents on Wednesday after the Federal Executive Council( FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed  lamented that the economy of the country is shrinking.

He was accompanied by the Ministers of Power, Work and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, Labour, Chris Ngige and Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.

According to Mohammed, the government has the responsibility at times to take very difficult decisions which may be unpopular.

He said the current problem is not really about subsidy removal. It is about that Nigeria is broke.

Pure and simple!“It is like somebody who has been earning N100,000 a month and he is faced with a situation where his employer says henceforth you will be earning N10,000 a month. 

He would need to make some very painful decisions and some very painful adjustments. 

That is the situation with Nigeria today.“A few months ago, we were earning as much as $100 for every barrel of crude. 

In the months of February and March, we no longer have the resources, the foreign exchange to bring in refined fuel products. 

And our economy is shrinking.“We appreciate the fact that the decision is going to affect everybody. 

We appreciate what we are going through, but Nigerians should also know that the government has the responsibility at times to take very difficult decisions. 

So, it is not always about popularity.

On his part, Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, stated that Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote group, will fix Obajana-Kabba road, in exchange for tax incentives.

According to the Minister, Dangote will build the federal government road using cement.

Fashola pointed out that the arrangement was not only for Dangote, but for as many companies and organisations willing to make pre-approved investment in state-owned infrastructure.

He said, “We presented a memo to council for consideration. The memo seeks to take benefits of the existing policy and regulation. 

It seeks to take benefits of tax policies, tax laws for the purpose of using them to drive infrastructure development renewal.

“So we presented a proposal by one of the subsidiary of Dangote group, a construction company, for the construction of a section of Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba-Ilorin, specifically the section between Obajana-Kabba Road using cement as demonstrative of how perhaps we should continue to build going forward in order to reduce maintenance on the road and the company proposing to fund the construction of that section of the road in exchange for some tax remissions.

He asserted that companies are ordinarily supposed to pay income tax‎, there are existing policies in the country’s laws which enable government to consider and give taxes incentives.

He added that “So Council considered and approved the proposal for Dangote Construction Company to build that section of the road because the tonnage of cement being produced from the factory has increased and the traffic in that area has increased, there have been unfortunate accidents also.“

So is a total economy policy which council considered and approved because it gives support to industry, it enables us take benefit of our tax law to renew infrastructure at a time where we are really challenged for resources to finance all our routes.

He noted that it also enables the government to save lives by quickly and urgently rebuilding thatroad so that other commuters who also depend on that road for their livelihood would also benefit from the road.

“It is important to stress that this is not a Dangote only issue, it is an existing tax policy that corporate or individual that makes investment on the infrastructure of a public nature should be entitled to make claims for remission on its income tax obligation.

He further explained that even as an individual you are entitled to make this claim if the infrastructure goes through this type of process and is approved by government.

“So is not a Dangote issue but an economic policy that is stimulate investment in infrastructure renewal or in any other area that government feels it needs private sector to compliment it’s efforts in such area.

“So the detail is about 30 per cent income tax obligation spread over time. It doesn’t mean theywon’t pay tax, they will continue to pay their tax obligation but they will get remission for making this investment because ultimately the road doesn’t belong to them but to government and is for the benefits of Nigerians. So is like credit advance to government, He stated.

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