Governors of the six southwestern states will need to introduce a security tax of about N1,000 per month to fund Amotekun

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) As the debate about Amotekun rages on, I have been doing the number crunching and no matter how you look at it, a tax needs to be introduced to fund the operation. Just like anything else, if we want security we have to be prepared to pay for it

(2) To make Amotekun effective, I believe it will need about 100,000 operatives across the six states. Oyo, with the largest landmass will require the most. If we are to pay them a minimum wage of N50,000 each, that is N500m ($14m) a month. This simply cannot come from the existing budget

(3) Ogun State for instance has an annual budget of N450bn ($1.2bn). Now this works out at $100m a month. I do not see how Ogun State can afford to contribute say $2m a month towards Amotekun from its meagre budget bearing in mind that 60% of its current budget is for capital projects and 40% goes towards existing recurrent expenditure like salaries and pensions

(4) I have just used Ogun State as an example but its situation could be reflected across any of the other six states. Bear in mind that Ogun has the second largest economy after Lagos State, so the economic situation is more precarious in Oyo, Osun, Ondo or Ekiti states

(5) Bear in mind Amotekun is not just about staff wages, it includes vehicle maintenance, logistics, purchasing equipment, training, uniforms, public enlightenment campaigns, propaganda, bereavement payments, etc. Funding the project simply cannot come from the existing security budgets

(6) If every of the say 20m economically active adults across the southwest is charged a monthly security fee of N1,000, this will add up to N20bn ($56.3m). Now that should be enough to fund Amotekun

(7) Nigerians moan a lot about the lack of public services but are reluctant to pay for them. Whey percentage of Nigerians currently pays income tax for instance? How then do you expect roads, railway lines, power plants, etc to be funded?

(8) Nigeria is actually one of the most under-taxed nations on earth. Our tax-to-GDP ratio is only 6%, one of the lowest in earth, so we cannot complain about new taxes

(9) Across southwest Nigeria, people are desperate for security, so cannot complain when they are being asked to pay for it. I do not think N1,000 a month is too much to pay for security

(10) Bearing in mind that Amotekun will also create prosperity by protecting investment across southwest Nigeria, I think funding it is a worthwhile investment. It will charge a business levy for commercial concerns too, which will go towards creating more prosperity