Do Nigerian leaders pay tax? By Reuben Abati ON Wednesday, April 15, the White House released the details of the tax filings by President and Mrs. Barack Obama and Vice President and Mrs. Joe Biden. Tax payments are taken seriously in developed and organised societies. To evade tax either overtly or covertly, is to court a jail term and public condemnation. But the Obamas and the Bidens filing their tax returns for 2008 and making same public, is not merely the fulfillment of a routine civic obligation, these are lessons here in leadership, especially for Nigerian leaders, living in a country where tax evasion is almost a cultural norm, and the leaders prefer to collect rent, rather than pay tax and contribute to the development and growth of society. Do Nigerian leaders pay tax? When last did any Nigerian leader publish his personal income tax returns? One of the major areas of reform in the past 10 years has been ...
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