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2023 Presidency: Amaechi Has Shown Commitment To Serve Nigeria, Says Ayade

Published

3 years ago

May 6, 2022

Cross River State Governor, Sen. Ben Ayade has described the Transportation Minister, Rt Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as a man with outstanding qualities fit to rule Nigeria.

Ayade spoke when Amaechi paid him a courtesy visit as part of his consultations with delegates of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Cross River State, Friday.

According to him, “I agree with my brother Amaechi, totally. He comes with a lot of experience. He is one man who has shown commitment to Cross River State and Nigeria.

“We started trying to build a Deep Seaport, from the day I spoke to him about the Deep Seaport till today, he has given eight ministerial approvals. There was no day that our files stayed on his table for twenty-four hours. So, he has shown commitment to the State and to Nigeria, and I say this with all sincerity. He has also shown very outstanding sense of brotherhood. From the time I moved into APC, he said, “you are our leader, we will work with you and at any point in time we would always work together,” Ayade explained.

Governor Ayade who also recently declared his intention to run for the Presidency on the platform of the ruling party, further revealed that between him and Amaechi, there is no competition.

“I have had extensive discussions with Amaechi, and I can tell you that we are not competitors, we are co-petitors. I am comfortable with him. He is somebody that speaks his mind, he is not somebody that you cannot understand, he is somebody that you can read, and such people are far more innocent, because if they are hurt, you know that they are hurt, and few minutes after, it’s gone. He is not a trickish politician, and I think that’s a good attribute of leadership. Let me mention clearly here, that for us as as State, outside of Ayade, we are very comfortable if you secure the ticket.

“And so, I wish you well, I commend you to go before the delegates of my State, and I ask you (delegates) to judge him based on balanced fairness, because what God has destined for him, I cannot take it,” he said.

Addressing the Governor earlier, Amaechi said, “I will repeat what I tell people, I am 56 years old, so I am among the young candidates of the party. I’m not the oldest, but I am the most experienced. Of all the aspirants, both in APC and PDP, I am the most experienced. I have been Governor for eight years, Speaker for eight years, Minister for seven years now, I have not seen anybody that comes with that kind of experience for the office of the President that I come with. I was the Chairman of Governors’ Forum and I was Chairman twice when it was very contentious to vote for the office of the Chairman of that forum. The reason why it was contentious was because we stood for the people, we spoke the minds of Nigerians at that contentious time. I come with performance in every office that I have held. I had a meeting with the President two days ago, in which we had very good conversation about the Lagos-Calabar rail, and we agreed that he would launch the Lagos-Calabar rail here in Calabar. The moment we are about to sign the loan, I will tell the President to come and launch the project and will commence from Calabar.”

Amaechi, who earlier visited the Obong of Calabar, HRM Edidem Ekpo Otu V and his Council of Chiefs, assured of his commitment to provide good governance to the masses, pledging also, that he would run a transparent government if elected President.

The Presidential hopeful also met with party delegates in Calabar where he urged the people to vote for him based on his antecedents and track record and not just because he is from the South South, adding that he would deploy his wealth of experience to bear in his service to humanity.

According to him, “I am your son, but let us not vote just because I am your son. Vote for me because I have the capacity to deliver. You have heard Northern candidate, Southern candidate, Western candidate, I am not a candidate of any tribe, I am a candidate for all Nigerians. Those who are Governors and running, let them tell us what they have done in their States, how many days do they sleep in their States, let them tell us whether they are owing salaries or not. For me, judge me by my capacity. Go back to Rivers State and find out, when I was Governor, the primary schools, the secondary schools, power, water, new city, roads, and the fact that we provided security. I am the only aspirant that fought insecurity when I was Governor. So, vote for me because I have the capacity to turn the country around for good.”

In his response, Chairman of the party, Alphonsus Eba said, “Your Excellency, there is nothing I will say about you today that will not be laced with praises, with encomiums and cornucopias. You have done so much for this party, to Cross Riverians, even during the era of our former Governor, you were around, we saw the support you gave to Cross River State. When our Governor (Ayade) came on board, you have given every support. You granted eight ministerial approvals for the take-off of Bakassi Deep Seaport and a super-highway. The Governor spoke about that in the meeting we just attended.

“Today, I stand to say that in Cross River State, you are one man that we could boldly stand up and say, you are politically merchantable. You will not be a difficult product for us to sell. We have only one river to cross and that river is the fact that our leader is in this race, but he has just allayed my fears, when he said to you, that if it is not him, let it be you,” Eba said.

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Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

2 weeks 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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