Literally the barest minimum
Nigerian doctors are begging FG to intervene in abduction cases
Good morning, Big Brains. Today, I legit watched five IG reels of a person cutting different types of fruits till they turned into jelly. I guess this proves I can watch anything because those videos were pretty lengthy, and I still liked them. I need deliverance at this point.
- Chigor
Word count: ~ 1, 000
Reading time ~ 4 mins
Let’s get into today’s edition:
Nigerian doctors are begging FG to intervene in abduction cases
The FCT is about to start an approved eating of the rich
The Big Deal
Nigerian doctors are begging FG to intervene in abduction cases
“You cannot shame the shameless” is such a solid statement, and Nigeria, for one, is an example that keeps on giving because tell me why this headline above is even a thing at all.
So on Monday, December 9, the Association of Resident Doctors, Federal Capital Territory Administration (ARD-FCTA), appealed to the government at all levels to intercede in the frequent abductions of medical doctors across Nigeria.
President of ARD-FCTA, Rahman Olayinka made the appeal at a press briefing announcing the association’s 2024 Annual Health Week and Annual General Meeting/Scientific Conference.
As he spoke, Olayinka noted that the abduction of medical doctors across the country has become so frequent that it is now something to be heavily worried about.
Speaking about a colleague who was recently abducted, Olayinka said: “We are grateful that the doctor has been released, but we all know the efforts that went into securing their freedom. If security and welfare cannot be guaranteed in the workplace, what do we expect?”
Why is this a big deal?
If we start listing the things that make this a big deal, we might run out of space here, but for starters, Nigeria is currently suffering a huge shortfall of medical professionals, so “abduction” and “doctors” shouldn’t even be in the same sentence but it’s beginning to look as if they swore for this country.
In July, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Bala Audu, said that the doctor-patient ratio in the country had gotten so bad it had fallen 1,000% cent behind the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendations—the culprit? Japa syndrome.
Japa syndrome among Nigeria’s medical professionals has been a thing for a minute now, and there is no blaming them because, like everybody who leaves Nigeria for good, these professionals are doing so in search of greener pastures and better working conditions.
The rate at which they are leaving is beyond alarming. Between 2021 and 2022, for instance, Nigeria had the highest exodus of healthcare workers in Africa.
As of April 2024, the country had only 55,000 practising doctors despite its 220 million population. With about 7,600 of those doctors in Lagos and 4700 in Abuja, the rest of Nigeria shared the remaining 42,700, leaving two doctors each for every 10,000 people.
The ripple effect is crazy, too—due to the reduction in health workers, the workload has become unbearable for the ones left behind, with some of them falling ill and dying from exhaustion.
There is no better way to explain this mess than in the words of the President of ARD-FCTA : "Doctors often work under such harsh conditions that they become ill themselves and cannot afford adequate healthcare."
"It is shameful that, as healthcare professionals, we are unable to access the very healthcare system we work in. These unresolved issues have forced many healthcare workers to leave the country in search of better opportunities."
With public health threats like the XEC COVID-19 variant rapidly spreading through 29 countries, we might need to pray like crazy because the odds are already stacked against us.
The FCT is about to start an approved eating of the rich
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is about to start something awesome, and it’s music to our ears. On Monday, December 9, the Acting Executive Chairman of the Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS), Michael Ango, announced that the agency has created a separate unit particularly dedicated to taxing High Net Worth Individuals (HNIs) living in Abuja.
Ango says that this move from the agency is geared towards closing the revenue gap in the FCT and supporting ongoing infrastructural projects by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
What are the details of this development?
According to the Acting Chairman of the FCT-IRS, this new unit is still within the organisation; however, its major focus would be the assessment and collection of income and other taxes of HNIs in the FCT, overseeing compliance and enforcement of their tax obligations, as well as interfacing with government and private organisations within and outside of the FCT concerning the taxation of HNIs residing in the nation’s capital.
The FCT-IRS will additionally work hard at identifying, profiling and taxing HNIs within its territories to ensure total compliance. The agency classifies HNIs as “any individual whether in paid employment, self-employed, carrying on business or having passive annual income of N25,000,000.00 (Twenty-Five Million Naira) and above in any financial year.”
The agency has already identified over 10,000 individuals who fall within the HNI category and has sent them notices to pay all outstanding liabilities in two weeks or face the consequences.
Why is this important?
Pretty sure we have mentioned this before, but rich people in Nigeria do not like paying taxes. We are not just going on a limb to say this– an actual study confirms it.
A 2024 study done by Oxfam, an NGO that addresses poverty and inequality in Nigeria, shows that poor people pay more taxes than the rich, and not just that; out of the 130,000 Nigerians found to be under the HNI category, only 40 of them were regular taxpayers while the rest were evaders who got away with it by only paying taxes on their salaries (which are just fractions of their income, mind you), and then hiding the rest.
Nigeria currently suffers an inequality crisis that is deepened by things like tax evasion from rich people– at the moment, taxes only make up a meagre 6% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but the World Bank-recommended amount for all countries is 15% or higher. With the country unable to make more than it should, this affects the economy and guess who the first victims of unstable economies are
Oxfam’s study made a number of solid recommendations to remedy the country’s tax evasion problem, but at the center of them all was the suggestion for the creation of a separate tax unit within the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). It’s nice to see that a state is doing this. Hopefully, others follow suit.
This Week’s Big Question
“If you could have one thing for Christmas, what would it be?”
Ayo’s response– “To leave Nigeria, actually. I won’t be explaining.”
You can also share your response here, and if it’s as interesting as Ayo’s, we’ll feature it in the next edition.
The Big Picks
Court Fixes December 12 To Hear Emefiele’s Application Challenging Jurisdiction: On December 12, a court sitting in Lagos State will hear an application filed by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, challenging its jurisdiction over his case.
2025 budget: Senate threatens zero allocation for defaulting MDAs: The Senate has threatened to withhold the allocation of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies that fail to appear before it to explain how it expended allocated funds in the 2024 fiscal year.
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