• Dr Goroh made the remark during an appearance on 90MinutesAfrica hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo on Sunday.
Singer and good governance advocate, Dr. Haruna Goroh has said that the greatness of the average elite in northern Nigeria is judged by the number of people they have who are paying homage to them.
He made the remark during an appearance on 90MinutesAfrica hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo on Sunday.
“Your greatness is seen in how many people you have paying homage to you, how many people are ignorant of what you know, or how many people depend on you,” the gospel preacher stated.
“The northern elites need to impoverish their people, keep them poor and ignorant so that they will continue to be subservient.”
He argued that, that was how the northern elites operated and that they would vehemently oppose any government policy that threatened to take away their privileges.
There has been an outcry of opposition, especially from the North, against the revised redistribution formula for value-added tax (VAT) among the states being proposed by President Tinubu to the legislature for passage.
Most northern state governors and traditional rulers oppose the legislation because they believe it will reduce the revenue from the federation account.
However, Dr. Haruna Goroh feels that their opposition to the tax bill may have nothing to do with the people but a fear that it will reduce the resources available for them to pilfer.
“It is these same elites that are fighting against the tax bill because they feel that their interests will be affected because the resources that they have been stealing will no longer come to them,” the public speaker stated.
Acknowledging that not everyone opposing the bill may be doing so out of ulterior motives, Dr. Goroh agreed that some have genuine reasons for saying no. However, he advises that proper consultation should be carried out before it is passed into law.
“That’s why I said before you withdraw something from people, it’s important that you empower them. The North used to produce cotton, groundnuts, and other things that brought revenue.
“But today, insecurity has taken over, and the people are unable to go to their farms. So it is important to really study this bill so that it doesn’t look like what was done when fuel subsidy was removed without anything in place to cushion the effects on people.”