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2020 World Refuge Day:AUXANO Fountain, Partners Takes Advocacy To IDPs At Kuchingoro Camp

Published

5 years ago

June 20, 2020

…Distributes food, gifts item

Cyril Ogar

As part of its determinations to raising awareness no the plights of displaced Persons in Nigeria, Auxano Foundation for Empowerment and Development (AFED), a non governmental organisation and the partners have taken advocacy to Kuchingoro IDP camp in commemoration of the 2020 World Refugee Day.

The partners which Teach for Change Nigeria, Yudee Foundation and Healthy and Smart Children Foundation as well as some Nigerians at home and those Diaspora; US, UK and Turkey.

AFED who is more concerned about the deploring situations endured by IDPs across the nation were motivated to bring the issues of IDP to the world considering the many similarities they share with Refugees even though they live in their own country.

Based on this the group stormed the IDP camp Kuchingoro in Abuja on Saturday to commemorate this day with the United Nations under the theme “Every Action Counts”.

Speaking at the event the current Chevening Scholar in the UK Ms. Igoh Lawrenta Igoh applauded Team Auxano and partners for their foresight to visit the IDP camp.

She informed that in February 2019 while on a Research mission she and the Team visited camp for a situation and need assessment analysis and discovered with dismay that apart from the traumatic legacies of been attacked by terrorist, driven from communities of origin and robbed of loved one that led to their displacement in the first place, displaced person suffer even more trauma from social exclusion, poor living standards, sexual abuse, at the camp.

“As the world commemorate the 2020 world Refugee Day today, our minds are drawn to hundreds of thousands of people across the world who have been forcibly displaced (Refugees, Asylum-Seekers and Internally Displaced Persons); those who have found durable solution (Returnees) and those who are Stateless that touches on every country across the world in different ways and with different faces” she said.

Also, on May last Month, the Team were in Niger State on a project called Pandemic Commicare taking food, sensitization and hope to a secluded community called the Leper Colony in Niger State at the heat of COVID-19.

One of the inspiration behind this project, Ms. Stephanie Agba who is Team member and currently a PhD student based in the US told our Reporter that the thought of people dying from hunger in an attempt to save their lives from a virus during the covid-19 enforced lockdown in Nigeria was daunting to me especially as a young girl who understands very well, from experience, what it means to have no food at home, and who can imagine how difficult this period would be for families whose source of livelihood have been either compromised or cut off totally due to regulations surrounding the covid-19 breakout, not to talk of individuals who generally just have no livelihood at all due to life circumstances.

And this is what encouraged me to reach out to the founder of the
Auxano foundation and discuss ways we can work together to reach families in impoverished communities in Nigeria, and I am excited that this has become a reality not only on the “world refugee day” when we reach out to refugees in IDP camps in Abuja but also on other projects we’ve worked on together for the same course.

She commended the Team and volunteers of Auxano Foundation for their active citizenry and commitment to development in Nigeria.

According to her “Auxano Foundation is a great platform through which people with the dream and desire to, have been able to reach out to the less privileged in impoverished communities, and so kudos to the Auxano team members and facilitators, for making it their duty to try to make the world a better place for everyone one day at a time, as they work towards changing the lives of many for the better.

on his own, founder of YUDEE Foundation Chevening Scholar, Uduak Akpanedet, encouraged the Internally Displaced Persons to never give up no matter their current situation, with a positive mental attitude they will overcome. “considering all the tragedies in my life to have been gifted in order to empower me to make a difference to others. I have been on the road with many thorns, but by the Grace of God those thorns could not overwhelm me and consequently, my life has become beautiful, and I could give beauty to people’s lives. Using her own example, she informed.

“I started seeing myself as an agent of change who is passionate about making positive change and bringing about the imperativeness in society following my experiences in life. I discovered that the problems and challenges of humanity are mostly caused by poor orientations given to children and youths while growing up. I have been through tough times in life but today I am in the UK because I did not let my situation define me”.

Another Partner, the founder of Teach for Change Nigeria (TFCN) Ms. Jennifer Chinenye Emelife currently in the UK undertaking a research on refugees and education for the IDPs informed our correspondence that.

“There has been a global focus on refugees and this is understandable. Involving a large number of people frequently risking their lives by crossing borders sometimes with no legal permission, refugees – particularly the children, are highly vulnerable. While this is true, the international prominence of the issue of refugees has resulted to a sort of neglect of those who are internally displaced. UNHCR, the UN agency for Refugees, records that about 65 million people around the world have lost their homes due to conflicts or disasters. 21 million are refugees, 42 million are internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Speaking further, she shares that as the world and the UN agency for Refugees centre on the refugees, it’s important to equally focus on the IDPs. They may not have crossed borders, but their experiences of loss, trauma and displacement are valid. IDps, just as the refugees, are in need of human rights protection and humanitarian assistance.

She thanks her team member, Ajifa Rachel, for representing TFCN at the mentoring session for the IDPs while calling on the society and government, “as we mark the World Refugee Day today, we are calling on the governments, NGOs, international bodies and indeed the public to not relent on meeting the needs of IDPs all over the world. These include access to food, education and livelihood opportunities, security and right to movement and property. What can you do for the IDPs today?

However, IDPs lamented a complete social exclusion by the government; absence of food, water, good housing, school, good road, portable drinking, telecommunication networks, electricity, hospital, police station, etc characterized this community. They are highly impoverished and thus at-risk community to human trafficking activities and terrorism and the women are constantly abused sexualkly and giving out to early marriages.

Highlights of the event was the mentoring session, skills acquisition including hair braiding for those who indicated interest to professionalize their skills in the last visit, presentation of humanitarian gifts, food, clothing, and household items by the groups.

Reacting to this visit, the IDP Leader thanked the Auxano Foundation, and partners home and diaspora for travelling long distance to get to them.

Shee further stated that the government should come to their rescue and make them feel like they matter in the country. As they have not enjoyed any dividends of civilization as the people despite their contribution to electoral process they presently suffer lack of accessible road, school,. Clinic, electricity and good water.

According to her, “Today is a call to all persons in authorities at the national and international fronts, neighbouring states, local communities, families and you, to pause and think for a moment what it means when HOME IS NOWHERE and make and take ONE ACTION that you’d have loved to be made or taken on your behalf if you were the one in the situation of displacements, seeking local and international protection, forced to leave your home, communities or places of residents or just fleeing situations of conflicts, civil unrest, and gross violations of human rights.”

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Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

1 week ago

March 6, 2025

The Gleamer

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D

The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.

The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.

In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”

The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.

The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.

Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.

In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.

Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.

Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.

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