25/11/2025
Dear Njoku,
Thank you for your feedback. Let me start with VAT.
In 2024, Oyo State alone contributed ₦272.41 billion to the federal purse through VAT revenue. This amount is three times the combined contributions of the five Southeastern states.
Mind you, Oyo State is the Southern state farthest from any port. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Oyo made this money from agriculture, the service industry and manufacturing.
Do note that after contributing so much, Oyo received only ₦116.83 billion back from the Federal Government.
To be exact, in 2024, the five states of Nigeria's South-East region together generated only ₦101.09 billion in Value Added Tax to the Federal Government and received ₦341.45 billion.
In terms of landmass, Oyo State alone is 28,454 square kilometres, which is equal to the land mass of the entire Southeast.
Ondo State alone produces approximately 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day, which is more than the combined total produced by the Southeast. Lagos alone also contributes more oil to the federation than the entire Southeast, of which we love our brothers and sisters from that region.
The Lukumi Yoruba also produced the first Black African Nobel laureate for an academic category (Wole Soyinka), and the first Black African military ruler to have voluntarily handed over to a civilian President (Olusegun Obasanjo), and the first Nigerian to win a Grammy Award (Sade Adu) as well as the first person born and bred in Africa to have won a Pulitzer Prize (Dele Olojede).
Additionally, Igbo only became a written language by virtue of Samuel Ajayi Crowther's book, which was the first ever book in the Igbo language, titled Isoama-Ibo: A Primer, published in 1857. Bishop Crowther also wrote the second book about the Igbo language titled 'Vocabulary of the Ibo Language', published in 1882.
And of the top ten highest-grossing movies in Nigeria's history, all are by Lukumi Yoruba, including the top three, by Funke Akindele.
Also, the most-streamed Nigerian singers are exclusively Lukumi Yoruba, except for Burna Boy, who is only partly Lukumi Yoruba.
Finally, the reason Nigeria still exists today is President Obasanjo. Along with his field officers, Alani Akinrinade and Godwin Alabi-Isama, Colonel Obasanjo defeated the rebel Republic of Biafra on Thursday, January 15, 1970, and achieved the remarkable feat of capturing their remaining leaders alive after Lt. Colonel Ojukwu fled, and forcibly bringing them to Lagos to declare unconditional surrender. In a sense, he saved Nigeria.
Njoku, we love our Igbo brothers and sisters, as well as other Nigerians, and we all contribute significantly to Nigeria's greatness.
Thanks again, and may God bless you.
Reno Omokri
Gospeller. Deep Thinker. . Ruffler of the Feathers of Obidents. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Hodophile. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year, 2022. 21st Most Talked About Person in Africa, 2024.About Person in Africa, 2024.
