Taxation and the trust gap

Nigerians may be more willing to pay for public services than is sometimes assumed. An Afrobarometer survey released this month found that 64 per cent of Nigerians support universal access to healthcare even if it means paying higher taxes.
There is another figure worth putting beside it. In an earlier Afrobarometer survey, only 34 per cent of Nigerians believed government usually used tax revenues for the well-being of citizens. A majority also said it was difficult to find information about the taxes they were expected to pay and how government used the money collected.
The two findings were recorded several years apart and measure different things, but together they raise an intere...