{"id":13456,"date":"2026-11-09T16:00:45","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T16:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/pat-utomi-blasts-tinubus-govt-asks-what-nigerians-pay-taxes-for\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T16:00:45","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T16:00:45","slug":"pat-utomi-blasts-tinubus-govt-asks-what-nigerians-pay-taxes-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/pat-utomi-blasts-tinubus-govt-asks-what-nigerians-pay-taxes-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Utomi blasts Tinubu\u2019s govt, asks what Nigerians pay taxes for"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img width=\"550\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Pat-Utomi-blasts-Tinubus-govt-asks-what-Nigerians-pay-taxes-for.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Professor-Pat-Utomi\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Pat-Utomi-blasts-Tinubus-govt-asks-what-Nigerians-pay-taxes-for.jpg 550w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Professor-Pat-Utomi-300x164.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Adegboyega Adeleye<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Political economist Pat Utomi has accused the APC-led government of abandoning its responsibilities while Nigerians pay out of pocket for basic services, from electricity and water to roads, healthcare and education.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a post on his X handle on Monday, Utomi questioned what citizens receive in return for paying taxes when households and communities must fund services that government is expected to provide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe only thing this APC-led government is good at doing is making your life worse,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Utomi said Nigerians buy generators to cope with unreliable electricity, sink boreholes for water and contribute money to repair roads. He also cited private security, healthcare and schools as costs families increasingly bear because public institutions have been neglected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He added that waste disposal, drainage, streetlights and transformers had also become private financial responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThen what exactly are we paying this APC-led government to do?\u201d he asked, arguing that governments elsewhere invest public resources in education, healthcare, infrastructure and social welfare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Utomi also criticised the government\u2019s appeals for patience and sacrifice amid economic hardship. He cited the removal of petrol subsidies and increases in electricity tariffs and university fees, alongside rising healthcare costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut how much more must the people sacrifice while those in power continue to enjoy the privileges of office?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Utomi argued that taxation obliges government to provide public services, describing it as more than a contribution from citizens to politicians.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe government cannot collect from the people, abandon its responsibilities and then demand applause from the people they\u2019re making their lives difficult,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He concluded with a challenge to the government: \u201cIf Nigerians must finance their own survival, what exactly is the purpose of government?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a separate post on Sunday, Utomi said the APC government had made the daily struggle to earn a living an unbearable burden for hardworking Nigerians. He described the hardship as a tragedy for a richly endowed nation that he believes is poorly governed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said: \u201cThe incompetence of the APC government has turned the daily struggle for survival into an unbearable burden for hardworking Nigerians. Those who labour honestly to earn a living are being punished by a system that should be making their lives easier. What a tragedy for a nation so richly endowed yet so poorly governed!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/2026\/11\/pat-utomi-blasts-tinubus-govt-asks-what-nigerians-pay-taxes-for\/\">Pat Utomi blasts Tinubu\u2019s govt, asks what Nigerians pay taxes for<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/\">Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adegboyega Adeleye Political economist Pat Utomi has accused the APC-led government of abandoning its responsibilities while Nigerians pay out of pocket for basic services, from electricity and water to&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}