Bauchi state government’s plan to tax churches and mosques is a precarious venture that will generate discontent among the religious if it is implemented.
The Commissioner for Religious Affairs and Community Relations, Baba Madugu had announced that the state “intends to undertake the survey of all places of worship (mosques and churches) throughout the state, including their addresses and contacts for security, economic and political reasons.”
By the commissioner’s admission “the ministry intends to solicit the centralisation of all religious activities so as to achieve maximum service delivery to the people through religious bodies.”
Bauchi state government should understand that religious organisations in Nigeria can be formidable allies or opposition to any government. Thus, an attempt to tax or regulate them will definitely pit two strong institutions against each other, and this is not the kind of distraction that the government can afford at the moment.
Taxing religious organisations is a debate that has raged for a long time. A former Minister of State for Interior, Chief Demolan Seriki, who advocated for taxation of religious bodies explained that “in the face of the dwindling price of crude oil, churches and mosques that own businesses should pay tax to the government.” He also explained that religious bodies, especially churches, had built large business empires, including universities, but many of them were not paying tax, adding that “the wealth being made from these businesses was used in buying private jets with the government losing out.”
The other argument is that religious organisations through their activities and investments help the less privileged among them. Consequently, taxing them will mean curtailing the extent to which they are able to help the poor. The massive following that religious groups command allow for an objective assessment.
With Nigeria slowly coming out of recession, there is no doubt that the government needs money to fund developmental projects. But are churches and mosques the only source for these finances? The state should explore other available means of revenue creation that will also create jobs. For instance, Bauchi state has Kaolin, Clay, Quartz, Natural Gas, Iron ore and Hydrocarbon in commercial quantity. These can be explored to generate revenue for the state.
If the state government decides to push ahead then it is a foregone conclusion that religious groups will challenge the decision to not only tax them, but to regulate them for security, economic and political reasons.
The state needs to thread with caution when dealing with a delicate issue such as religion. Over the years, Bauchi state has come under attack from the Boko Haram terrorist sect- a group which started as a religious group that developed a political and terrorist agenda.
This decision to tax churches might be a response to accusations of ostentatious lifestyle and ownership of multiple business ventures leveled against religious leaders. If the state government insists that it is necessary to tax them, it has to consult widely and seek support from religious leaders to douse the tension that may follow.
Clearly, both state and religion are important to the people, and so a clash of interest should be avoided by all parties. It is the government’s responsibility to improve the overall standard of living while religious groups are responsible for the spiritual needs of the people. Both groups need to focus on their functions in order to better the lives of the people they guide.
