Nigeria desperately needs to tax religion

By Ayo Akinfe

Over the last week, it was revealed that the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) acquired a new aircraft for N4bn ($28m). To allow its leader Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye carry out his calling more efficiently, the church bought a Gulfstream 4XP that has the capacity of about 15 depending on its configuration.

It was flown into Lagos from Bahamas last Sunday and puts RCCG on a par with one of its main rivals, the Living Faith Worldwide church, whose general overseer Bishop David Oyedepo, flies around in a Challenger aircraft. Apparently, Bishop Oyedepo has ordered another aircraft bigger than the one acquired by Pastor Adeboye.

Apart from purchase costs, a lot of money is spent maintaining these aircrafts and paying the crew, in addition to the landing and parking charges. Unlike a commercial aircraft that is always in the air, private jets spend more time on the ground and must be checked before taking off.

One aeronautical engineer at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos, said: “The same with refitting parts. These are parts that are changed after every 12 or 15 calendar months whether you are flying or not, so, acquiring a private aircraft means that you are ready to be spending money to keep it going.”

A former official of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, added: “ This is unbelievable. You know the amount of poverty in this land, which I know is widespread. How can he acquire such aircraft when he knows that members of his church are suffering? Even the Pope does not have a private jet. I am a Catholic. It is true that the Catholic church is the richest church in the world in terms of artefacts but the Pope flies Alitalia. How can the Pope tell the church that he wants a private jet?"

What we are witnessing with RCCG and Living Faith Worldwide are not isolated incidents. Across Nigeria, religious organisations simply have too much money. They account for such a high percentage of our gross national product (GDP) that Nigeria cannot afford the luxury of granting them charitable status. It is time to tax our churches and mosques.

We do not have precise figures but I would not be surprised if churches and mosques account for as much as 10% of Nigeria's GDP. Economically, Nigeria simply cannot afford to let them go. We have to deal with the economic realities on the ground and in Nigeria it means that religion must be levied.

Do you know that in 2008 Nigerians spent a total N34.63bn on pilgrimages to holy sites in Saudi Arabia and Israel? Of this amount, the Muslim annual pilgrimage cost the nation a total N29.7073bn, while that of Christians cost the national economy N4.93bn.

Figures obtained from the Central Bank and the federal and states pilgrims boards showed that in October 2008, a total 84,878 Nigerians went to Mecca to perform the annual hajj, in which a total N29.7073bn was spent on a package that amounted to N350,000 per person. Tickets for the airlift of the Muslim pilgrims alone amounted to N24.275bn.

In December, a total 17,000 pilgrims were approved by the federal government to perform the annual Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem at a cost of N290,000 per person. Tickets for the airlift of the Christian pilgrims amounted to N174m. This brought the total amount spent on air tickets for the two pilgrimages in 2008 to N24.449bn.

In October 2008, 84,878 Nigerians performed the hajj to Mecca and a maximum of $1,500 was approved as personal travelling allowance for each of the Muslim pilgrims, thus resulting in total foreign exchange procurement of $127.21m per person.

If I were to list the top 10 sectors in the Nigerian economy, it would look something like this - oil and gas, agriculture, banking, religion, telecommunications, insurance, retailing, manufacturing, services and leisure & hospitality All the other sectors are being taxed, so why should religion be spared? A religious tax could provide funding for education, healthcare, transport and a lot of our infrastructural problems.

With oil prices perilously low and none of the other sectors robust enough to generate sufficient revenue, religion is the only industry that can provide an immediate respite to our plethora of current problems. Whether we like it or not, finance minister Mukhtar Mansur simply has to levy churches and mosque to balance his books during 2009.

With President Yar’Adua declaring that the 2009 budget is over-optimistic and unlikely to match the goals for which it was originally drafted due to the onset of the global economic recession, it is time to think outside the box. We simply need to start thinking in a lateral manner and this means considering what was hitherto regarded as sacrosanct.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and believe you me, these are difficult moments. Not only does religion not bring in a penny to the Nigerian treasury, it actually acts as a drain on it, milking our poor export earnings of funds that are desperately needed to resolve our plethora of socio-economic woes.

There will never be a better time for Dr Mansur to bite the bullet and scrap the charitable status churches and mosques enjoy. A little bit of political courage is needed here.

Robot  # 1 | 14.03.2009 09:47

With oil prices perilously low and none of the other sectors robust enough to generate sufficient revenue, religion is the only industry that can provide an immediate respite to our plethora of current problems. Whether we like it or not, finance minister Mukhtar Mansur simply has to levy churches and mosque to balance his books during 2009....Read the full article.

peterosa  # 2 | 14.03.2009 11:03

Should we place a curse on our selfs because we need money?i quess no,when the oil market where booming what were we able to do with those money realise from it apart from stealing. this is what i called total jealousy,if they start imposing taxes on religion it means the country is at his pick of drowning fully. touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm.LET GOD BE THEIR JUDGE FOR WE HAVE NO WRIGHT TO JUDGE THEM.:no:

peterosa  # 3 | 14.03.2009 11:10

Should we place a curse on our selfs because we need money?i quess no,when the oil market where booming what was we able to do with those money realise from it apart from stealing. this is what i called total jealousy,if they start imposing taxes on religion it means the count is at his pick of drowning. touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm.LET GOD BE THEIR JUDGE FOR WE HAVE NO WRIGHT TO JUDGE THEM.:no:

Eja  # 4 | 14.03.2009 11:29

Yes!! Tax all noise-making churches, mosques and even egungun. Anyone who intends to invade public spaces with their ritual behaviour should be prepared to pay for the privilege. The closer you are to being a nuisance (i.e. bell-ringing night-vigilists and those megaphone wielding early morning yellers of alao-wa-mu-dundun-nla-yi), the more money you pay. Imagine, if instead of disturbing people's sleep, the insomniac night-vigilists would instead pick up a shovel and fill in some of the pot-holes on the roads that leads to their temples. Nothing stopping you from praying as you carry sand and gravel. After all, na mout dem dey take pray. "Do something constructive while you pray and the Almighty is more likely to look with favour upon your requests." Na so me ah dey tell my parishioners...oh yes, I am a registered messiah...:wink:

ajimoh  # 5 | 14.03.2009 11:30

Nice one Ayo Akinfe; however, I don't think Nigeria has the political will to do what you propose. In substitution, I would propose that the government stop spending money on religious matters, e.g. hajj and Christian pilgrimage. Embarking on pilgrimages is no religious compulsion and it is a waste of scarce resources to continuing funding religion when our health services is in such shambles ; education is below par , etc.

Danmeka  # 6 | 14.03.2009 11:43

It's about time,"Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.Matthew 22:21 (King James Version)With the deception and confusion among our churches,it about time we tax these churches but unfortunately the money will end in private pockets

Law Mefor  # 7 | 14.03.2009 12:25

The greatest suckers of the masses in Nigeria today are the churches. Taxing them is not enough. They ought to be forced to take up some public responsibilities - free education, running of orphanages, championing of widows' cause and so on. That is the original essence of the church. But today, church schools are the most expensive. Do know Living Faith David Oyedepo changed his private jet few days ago? The cost? Billions! I have tried to compute the number of boreholes that whooping sum could sink in gueneaworm -infested communities in Nigeria.

Ajo Anu  # 8 | 14.03.2009 12:41

How much can you get from taxing the churches? We should come up with something more dramatic. Like pray to God to purnish pastors who live larger than the median income of his congregation.

Kay Soyemi (Esq.)  # 9 | 14.03.2009 13:39

Ayo, You may be right, but direct taxing should not be the way. Accepted, that the religious bodies are Nigeria's noveau riché outside of the oil industry and its leaders; among the seriously affluent in the country. In my opinion, I feel these bodies should have conditions attached to them retaining their charitable and tax-exempt status. Among such conditions, I would list a lot of social responsibilities to be supported by a percentage of their audited income, inasmuch as these do not take away the responsibilities of the executive arm of government. Our religious organisations should be compelled to be partners in providing such amenities like qualitative education, qualitative health care, communal self-help projects and the development of micro-funding for small and medium scale economic enterprises (interest free). Once they fall foul of meeting the set and agreed standard / percentage, then they should be made to pay corporation tax. The above, in my opinion would prevent politicians from dipping into such funds and at the same time, still leave them responsible for the reasons they hold power. In the meantime, :pray:

thisworld  # 10 | 14.03.2009 14:01

One must continue to question the "place" of these religions in the Nigerian society where so-called "men of God" now patrol the skies in private jets. The revolutionising day of the emancipation from many false prophesies and prophets of the day, is surely the day I've would've thought that we've truly come of the mental age of advanced and critical thinking. The last time I checked, it hasn't happened. I'm waiting!:D

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