By Akin Olukiran

I read in the UK The Independent newspaper with no small measure of admiration a few weeks ago that Gary Lineker, the former English footballer, joined more than 100 British millionaires in making what can only be described as an extraordinary appeal to the British Government. Their petition was neither for tax relief nor for additional fiscal concessions. Quite the contrary. They voluntarily requested that they be taxed more because, in their considered judgement, they possess both the means and the moral obligation to contribute a greater proportion of their wealth towards the common good. I was incredulous.

Yes, they asked to pay higher taxes! At first blush, such a proposition appears almost quixotic in an era where sophisticated tax avoidance schemes have become the preferred pastime of many of the world’s affluent. Yet the significance of this remarkable intervention lies not merely in the substance of their request, but in the provenance of their wealth. These are not individuals whose fortunes were conjured from political patronage, regulatory capture or privileged access to the public treasury. Their wealth is, by and large, the cumulative product of enterprise, ingenuity, intellectual capital, disciplined investment and decades of relentless endeavour.

Gary Lineker and Richard Curtis, two of the signatories to this remarkable patriotic initiative, are estimated to possess fortunes of approximately £30 million and £24 million respectively. Indeed, there are ordinary Nigerian public servants whose accumulated wealth is reputed to exceed that of these British millionaires by considerable margins. Yet, these men have demonstrated a level of civic consciousness and social responsibility that ought to occasion profound introspection in a country such as Nigeria. A country where the acquisition of extraordinary wealth by those entrusted with public authority is too often accompanied by an extraordinary reluctance to discharge even the most elementary obligations to the society from which that wealth is presumed to have been corruptly extracted.

In a letter endorsed by over 100 of Britain’s wealthiest citizens, they declared: “We want you to tax us. We can afford it. We’re not talking about higher taxes on those who get up and go to work for their income every day, but on the very richest whose income is derived from the wealth they hold.”

They continued with an even more compelling declaration:”As we embrace this new road, please consider taxing us properly as our contribution to it. We love this country. It’s time for a better Britain. It’s time for everyone here to feel Great Britain. It’s time to tax us, the super rich.”

Embedded within those few sentences is a profound appreciation of the social contract upon which every successful civilisation rests. Wealth is seldom created in a vacuum. It is nurtured by functioning institutions, protected by the rule of law, facilitated by public infrastructure, sustained by macroeconomic stability and ultimately made possible by a society, whose collective enterprise provides the ecosystem within which private prosperity flourishes. It therefore follows that those who have benefited most disproportionately from that ecosystem bear a commensurately greater obligation to preserve and strengthen it.

One is therefore compelled to juxtapose this exemplary demonstration of enlightened patriotism with the deeply disquieting realities that have become almost banal within Nigeria’s political economy.

How does one reconcile such noble civic virtue with the grotesque spectacle of public office holders who emerge from a single ministerial appointment, possessing fortunes in excess of N200 billion? How does one explain the mathematical impossibility of individuals whose legitimate emoluments could never, even under the most generous assumptions, justify such astronomical accumulations of wealth? The arithmetic is not merely questionable, it is intellectually insulting.

Even more lamentable is the conspicuous vulgarity with which such inexplicable affluence is frequently exhibited. Convoys lengthen with almost imperial grandeur, palatial residences proliferate across continents, private aircrafts become symbols not of commercial necessity but of personal vanity, whilst over 230 million of our fellow compatriots grapple daily with the indignities of multidimensional poverty, failing infrastructure, chronic unemployment and an increasingly elusive hope for social mobility.

The tragedy, however, extends beyond the mere accumulation of illicit wealth. More pernicious still is its systematic expatriation. Rather than being deployed towards productive investment capable of catalysing industrialisation, technological innovation, agricultural modernisation or employment generation, colossal sums are surreptitiously transferred into foreign jurisdictions, concealed within offshore financial havens or immobilised in luxury assets whose principal economic contribution is to stimulate the prosperity of other nations.

No economy can sustainably prosper under such a dispensation. Capital flight impoverishes domestic investment. Tax evasion debilitates government revenues. Corruption distorts resource allocation. Rent-seeking suffocates entrepreneurship. The inevitable consequence is an economy in which wealth becomes increasingly concentrated whilst opportunity becomes progressively scarce.

This is not, it must be emphasised, an indictment of wealth itself. Wealth honestly acquired through entrepreneurship, innovation, manufacturing, agriculture, technology or productive enterprise deserves both admiration and encouragement. Nigeria is fortunate to possess numerous industrialists and business leaders who have built globally competitive enterprises, generated hundreds of thousands of jobs, paid substantial taxes and invested generously in education, healthcare and philanthropy. Such individuals exemplify capitalism at its noblest.

The true object of criticism is a pernicious culture that has elevated value extraction above value creation. A culture that has normalised the acquisition of colossal fortunes through political proximity rather than productive ingenuity and that increasingly measures success not by the wealth one creates for society but by the wealth one succeeds in appropriating from it.

There exists an immeasurable distinction between the billionaire whose fortune is forged through the creation of factories, technologies, export industries and productive enterprises and the billionaire whose wealth is accumulated through inflated contracts, regulatory manipulation, public sector rent extraction and the systematic plunder of the commonwealth. The former enlarges the nation’s economic frontier. The latter merely redistributes national poverty whilst privatising public wealth.

Patriotism cannot be reduced to eloquent speeches delivered on Independence Day, flamboyant displays of the national colours or ritualistic declarations of national pride. Genuine patriotism manifests itself in an unwavering commitment to the public good, in the conscientious payment of taxes, in the creation of sustainable employment, in investments that expand national productive capacity and above all, in the recognition that extraordinary privilege carries with it extraordinary responsibility.

When some of Britain’s wealthiest citizens voluntarily petition their government to tax them more, they remind us that authentic wealth is measured not merely by the magnitude of one’s bank balance but by the breadth of one’s public conscience.

Nigeria’s renaissance will not be secured simply by producing more billionaires. It will be secured when more of our affluent citizens, particularly those who have benefited most from the nation’s abundant opportunities, come to appreciate that the highest expression of wealth is not conspicuous consumption but enlightened stewardship. It is not the accumulation of private opulence amidst public squalor, but the deliberate deployment of private prosperity in the service of national development.

For a nation is ultimately not diminished by the poverty of its poor, but by the moral impoverishment of those who possess the means to alleviate it and consciously choose not to.

May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria and may He stir the conscience of our billionaires to recognise that extraordinary wealth carries with it an equally extraordinary responsibility to the society within which that wealth was created.

Olukiran is a social and political analyst and he wrots from London. He can be reached via:[email protected]