As the plane made its way into the Abuja skies, weeks back, I made a quick count of the luxury birds sunbathing to the right of the runway. This was a Saturday, the private jets were there in the tens, waiting to ferry Nigeria's luxury class to the next stop in their ever-busy schedules. I wondered about the cost of acquiring one of those toys, maintenance costs and all that. Then settled on what the Aviation authorities could be charging for licensing and parking fees. I couldn't get reliable information on that from my contacts in the Sector.

A few hours after, I was at Ikoyi. I pulled apart the curtains to take in the sight from the neighbouring lagoon. Seated majestically before me are the twins. They have been my neighbours for almost three months. I cannot recollect them moving, at any point, from the spot in which they are moored in the last 3 months. These are Yachts or possibly Superyachts said to belong to two of Nigeria's richest men - Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola.

Streettalk estimates each of the boats at @$40 million. I wondered if and what they pay to have the yachts moored (parked) on our waterway all these months. I wondered how much was paid as tax on the yachts at the time of acquisition. I wondered about how much Nigeria might be indulging or subsidising luxury.

Nigeria, though faced with an acute revenue problem, has been struggling for almost 10 years now with implementing or executing luxury tax. The Jonathan administration had in 2014 unveiled plans for the introduction of tax on a number of Luxury goods. Targeted were private jets, yachts, luxury cars, first class tickets on airlines, champagnes, wines and spirits.

For some reason, the implementation process has never been able to find wings. The three Finance Ministers who have served since 2014 have offered us reasons this has yet to take off, even with the national treasury in dire straits. Over the years, there is no record of implementation or collection.

Whereas the 2019 Budget had a projection of N2.5 billion, there is no record that even One Kobo was collected. I do not know if the Budgets for subsequent years carried this budget hole. But from what I have seen, there is still no record of implementation.

It is the way it is. We are overwhelmed in our sea of contradictions. We are not willing to let go of our indulgences and luxuries, but ever generous with tears over the fruits from our plantation of contradictions. We are chasing Dollars with our Naira, to stockpile and speculate, with politicians buying up to fund elections, then wondering why Naira is on a freefall. We are in a rat race to buy dollars to fund our foreign travels, education for the children, health check and holiday abroad, yet wondering how come Naira is not holding firm.

We buy up PTA to offload. We are bingeing on all forms of foreign goods and services, without improving on local productivity, yet we want an exchange of One Naira to Dollar. In fact, we want One Naira to a Dollar so that we can travel the world and import all sorts of dregs, growing other economies while destroying ours.

As with politics and leadership, so is it with the economy, it is difficult to figure out what the Elite Consensus is. We are too impatient to grow from the bottom? As we must eat foreign rice, we flood neighbouring ports, and find ways to smuggle them in, putting local production in jeopardy. We cannot even agree on what exactly to do with whatever.

Experts argue for Naira devaluation, then complain that there is a freefall. Oh, they want the CBN to let its hands off the official window to do away with the arbitrage window. But is that all that there is to it? Would that not lead to a further free fall of the Naira even beyond the level people are already complaining of? How will manufacturers who need foreign equipment and inputs cope? Contradictions. People want a total removal of 'subsidy' on Petrol, yet complaining about the cost of Diesel! Contradictions.

The dots around our desires, wants, indulgences, luxuries, contradictions and lack of consensus on where to go, what to do, and how to do it are not that difficult to connect. We have an acute revenue problem, but cutting on our luxuries and excesses and growing the revenue basket, with the luxury tax being a low-hanging pick, is not a pill we are ready to swallow. We must reconcile with the contradictions in our choices to get ourselves out of the mess we have put ourselves.