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2023 Presidential Primaries: Don’t waste your votes, Amaechi tells APC delegates

Published

3 years ago

May 8, 2022

With the swelling number of presidential aspirants from the All Progressives Congress (APC), frontline Presidential aspirant, Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has advised party delegates to vote wisely and not to waste their votes at the upcoming presidential primary.

Addressing delegates in Edo State, weekend, Amaechi urged them not to be carried away with the bevy of aspirants from the ruling party, but to stay focused on the goal of voting a credible, experienced and performing aspirant like himself to fly the party flag at the 2023 presidential elections.

He said, “Politicians will come to ask for your votes, but please, as South South people, as politicians, as good people of Nigeria, don’t waste your votes. The problem with politicians is you. The elites have shown you that they are here to ‘chop money’ and you allow them. They will bring money here and say you should vote for them, and nobody will care to ask ‘what was he before now, what is his performance?’ The economy they want to come and manage, how have they performed?

“Ask me as Minister for Transport, I’m working hard to make sure that Lagos-Calabar rail line begins and it will come through Benin. I can account for my part. So when those in charge of the economy come to you for votes, ask them how they have managed the economy. As I’m here, ask me. If you ask these kind of questions, they will not come forward. Me, I come with experience, let them come with that experience. I come with the experience of being a Speaker for eight years and I managed my colleagues without being impeached. First time in the history of Nigeria that a Speaker will serve for eight years without being impeached. It was me. And I was Chairman, Speakers Forum, twice. You understand what it means to manage your equals? I was elected Chairman of Governors Forum, twice. If I didn’t manage the Governor’s Forum well, would my colleagues have voted for me?” He asked.

Amaechi also harped on the importance of having an electable candidate on the ballot for the APC to win the presidency.

“The electability of a candidate is essential for you, if not, the APC will lose the election. For now, I think I’m the most electable. I’m tried, tested and trusted,” Amaechi said, adding that he has a wealth of experience and history of project delivery to show, from his time as Governor of Rivers State and now as Minister of Transportation.

He said, “if they ask me, I have huge evidences, Model Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, Primary Health Care Centres, Hospitals, Roads, 750 megawatts of power in Rivers State. Children were sent overseas to study, 13,200 teachers were employed, and other achievements as Governor. As Minister for Transportation, I finished the Kaduna-Abuja rail, Lagos-Ibadan is running. For those of you who say, ‘what has he done in the South South?’ There’s Warri-Itakpe rail line, only two communities are in Kogi, the rest are in Edo and Delta. States. We have started Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail, and we will start the Lagos-Calabar rail. So when they say ‘he has not done anything in the South South,’ are they saying Delta and Edo are not part of the Niger Delta? So I have evidence of what my contributions are to APC and to Nigeria. I can account for the period I have been in office. So if they bring money, you take it, but let us rise, vote right and defend our votes.”

Amaechi was also at the Palace of the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare 2, who told the Minister that he would have been surprised if he wasn’t running, as he is well positioned to lead the country.

“If you didn’t come out, we would have been surprised. We have heard you, we have been watching all you have been doing as the Minister of Transportation. We commend you for what you have done for the railway lines, but the security agencies need to be involved considering what happened the last time on Abuja-Kaduna railway line. Benin throne is non-partisan, however, we endeavor to follow our ancestors directives to guide and pray,” the Oba 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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