James Anam, Mayor of Calabar Municipality, says “it is outrageous for a market as big as the Marian market in Calabar, to be bringing in N40,000 (forty thousand naira) monthly as cumulative revenue to government.”
Anam who made this disclosure while speaking as guest on local radio station, HIT 95.9 FM, Calabar, added that “even a blind man can see that this paltry sum cannot be an acceptable figure when you consider the population of traders in the market and the volume of commercial transactions that take place in the market on a daily basis.”
“What has simply happened is that, several individuals, personalised the collection of tolls in the market, remitting to government pittance and putting to personal use, the bulk of what should go to government and help us upgrade facilities in the market and further use what is left to address teething infrastructure issues in the municipality.”
As a first step towards addressing this unacceptable situation, Anam disclosed that, all revenue contracts within the market have been cancelled and the automation of payment of taxies and levies put in place to ensure that government revenue from the market will appreciate to fiscally acceptable figures. “A consultant has been brought in who is making sure that payments hit government accounts directly and no more private accounts. A financial platform has also been activated so that every kobo that enters the account remains appreciably there instead of the practice in the past where political acolytes feed fat on government revenue.”
Additionally, “we have commissioned a market decongestion task force, to ensure that traders who leave stalls inside the market and display things outside, blocking in the process, the right of passage in and out of the market, do not do that again. Enforcement is ongoing and will not stop until we return everybody into the market and compliance is achieved”, he said.
In instances where some traders have refused to move, “wares have been seized and these category of persons made to pay for violating this directive, aimed at bringing sanity to the market. Go to Marian market and see that even designated spots for parking cars have been taken over by these traders, making it difficult for paid parking of vehicles, which is also a source of revenue to government.”
Anam appealed to the leadership of the market and other markets in the municipality, like the one at 8 Miles, to also collaborate with his administration in making sure that sanity is restored in these markets, government revenue is not tampered with, so that this revenue can be ploughed back into improving infrastructure.
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