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Isi-Uzo LGA: The Most Politically Oppressed People In The History Of Enugu State

Published

4 years ago

September 29, 2020

By Jeff Ejiofor

One of the foremost Greek philosophers, Plato said that there may be times we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

The above quote by the great Plato captures the plight of Isi-Uzo people of Enugu State who obviously have been marginalized in the scheme of things since the inception of the current political dispensation but have remained calm in the face of such outright injustice. I am of the imperative opinion that the time for self-appraisal tailored towards achieving political liberation and justice has come.

Isi-Uzo is one of the six local governments that constitute the present Enugu East Senatorial Zone of Enugu State. Though Isi-Uzo was formerly under Nsukka Zone in the old political order, the creation of Ebonyi State in 1996 made it politically exigent for it to be included in what is known today as Enugu East Zone for senatorial balancing in the state.

For a better understanding, it will be recalled that before the creation of Ebonyi State, Enugu had Nsukka, Enugu, and Abakiliki zones in its senatorial structure. In that arrangement, Isi-Uzo was under Nsukka Zone.

However, when Abakiliki left in 1996, Isi-Uzo was carved out from Nsukka to form Enugu East Senatorial Zone with Nkanu and Nike people at the behest of the elders of Nkanu land owing to their cultural/historical affiliation which predates the advent of colonial government. As a result, the other remaining part of the old Enugu zone formed what is today known as Enugu West Senatorial Zone. Currently, Enugu stands on a political tripod, Enugu East, Enugu West, and Enugu North.

Unfortunately, this new order signaled the beginning of the current ordeal of Isi-Uzo political marginalization.

Considering a gentleman agreement reached by the stakeholders of Enugu State on sharing of political offices at various levels, the three new senatorial structure was adopted as the formula for positions involving the state as a whole.

Federal constituencies in each senatorial zone became the basis within which offices are zoned, while LGAs rotate offices due for them at the federal constituency level. This sharing formular continues up to the community and ward levels to gaurantee equity, justice and fairplay in the system.

Having provided the background information on the genesis of the current political structure of Enugu State vis a vis sharing of political offices as agreed upon by the elders of the state in principle, I would narrow my contributions in this article to Enugu East Zone as it affects the Isi-Uzo question.

From the above explanations, Isi-Uzo people no doubt are bonafide members of Enugu East Zone, and therefore are qualified to aspire to any position zoned to the senatorial district. Whatever political aspirations by Isi-Uzo people must be within the confines of Enugu East senatorial zonal structure which is their constitutionally recognized senatorial zone.

Unfortunately, however, these rights of the Isi-Uzo people have been flagrantly trampled upon over the years, right from the inception of the current political dispensation in 1999. All offices zoned to Enugu East Senatorial District had eluded them in an orchestrated manner designed to perpetually keep and relegate them to the background for coming from a different political structure in the past. Even though it is on record that the cultural/historical ties between the Nkanu/Nike people and Isi-Uzo predates the advent of colonialism, these later days political naysayers within the senatorial zone, out of mere mischief, had always thrown up the inclusion of Isi-Uzo in old Nsukka zone for administrative convenience as an excuse to deny them political opportunities currently.

The promoters of these oppressive tendencies have forgotten the genesis of Isi-Uzo joining the Enugu East zone which was at the behest of Nkanu elders who said they were their brothers in the diaspora.

Nonetheless, whichever way anybody wants to look at it, Isi-Uzo currently belongs to Enugu East Senatorial Zone and must be politically accommodated in all facets of political engagement. The divisive narratives usually propped up against them by some political merchandisers do not have any place in the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. Isi-Uzo people are not lesser political beings in their fatherland, Enugu State, and must have equal opportunity in the scheme of things within their constitutionally recognized zone and the state at large for peace and justice to prevail.

Turning the LGA into a political orphan that cannot represent its zone in any capacity of governance is repugnant to natural justice, equity, and good conscience.

The current situation where Isi-Uzo is the only local government in Enugu East Zone that has not represented the zone in any government capacity is quite unfortunate. It is a statement of fact that all other local government areas in the zone have represented the senatorial zone in different capacities. Nkanu West has produced governor, senator, and minister, Nkanu East has been deputy governor for 8 years and even produced a minister. Enugu South had senators and even a governor in the past, while Enugu North LGA, with a predominantly non-native population, has produced a minister and a governor as well. Enugu East on its part produced a senator for 8 yrs, speaker of the house of assembly, chief judge of Enugu State, and ESUT VC for 5 yrs respectively. It is only Isi-Uzo LGA that has been left in the political wilderness to date.

The height of this oppression came into fore in the case of Professor Denchrist Onah, an indigene of Isi-Uzo who sought to be VC of ESUT in 2010 when it was zoned to Enugu North Senatorial District, but was told to wait for the turn of Enugu East where he comes from.

Ironically, in 2015 when it was the turn of Enugu East Senatorial Zone to produce the VC, Prof. Denchrist Onah re-applied and emerged the best of all the candidates that went for the interview, and his name was announced as ESUT VC designate. Surprisingly, overnight, the same forces bent on denying ndi Isi-Uzo their rights, prevailed on Mr. Sullivan Chime to replace him on grounds that he is of Nsukka extraction. It was a disappointing outing by Sullivan Chime which was condemned by all well-meaning citizens of Enugu State.

What an irony! The person previously denied the opportunity to contest because he is from Enugu East Zone was replaced after winning on account of his Isi-Uzo origin. What can be more wicked and divisive than that? Are Isi-Uzo people not equal stakeholders in their fatherland again? Are they not Igbos of Enugu State extraction?

As I write this, no Isi-Uzo man has to date, been allowed to occupy any tangible position under the current arrangement in Enugu State. No Isi-Uzo man has been found worthy enough to occupy the position of governor, senator, or any office of equal status zoned to Enugu East, in a state collectively owned by all of us. Even the party chairman given to Isi-Uzo was fiercely contested by those who felt their sense of entitlement should not be challenged.

As a matter of fact, no article can contain the list of complaints arising from the marginalization Isi-Uzo people are currently going through in Enugu East Senatorial Zone. They are too numerous to mention, hence, I would like to pause here, and appeal to all men of goodwill in Enugu State to come to their rescue and look into the matter with a view to addressing it once and for all.

Let us remember that injustice to one is an injustice to all. We cannot be talking of equity, justice, and Fairplay while we’re folding our hands and watching a particular section of our society go through the worst marginalization in the history of Nigerian politics. What the people of Isi-Uzo are being subjected to is simply akin to political annihilation. A situation where the people are not allowed to aspire to any political position outside the confines of their local government is the height of injustice, marginalization, and political wickedness.

In conclusion, this political exclusion should not be allowed to continue if the Enugu people are interested in peace and stability. It has to be addressed before it gets out of hand and attracts severe reactions from other sections of the Igbo society. Making Isi-Uzo look like a political bat that belongs to nowhere is unacceptable. Isi-Uzo is a lawful part of an existing political structure under the Enugu East Senatorial Zone.

The narrative of core Nkanu, periphery Nkanu, or whatever they concert to whip unnecessary sentiment against Isi-Uzo is baseless and has no place in Nigeria’s political structure. 2023 should be a golden opportunity for men of good conscience in the senatorial district and Enugu State in general to right the wrong and give all sections of the society a political sense of belonging. According to Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a kingdom founded on injustice never lasts. Elders of Enugu State should preserve the current chapter of equity embedded in the zoning of political offices for a peaceful transition of power in the state and address the plight of Isi-Uzo people now.

A stitch in time saves nine.

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Business

Tinubu’s People-Centric Tax Reforms and Ndume’s Threat

Published

4 days ago

November 10, 2024

The Gleamer

By Sunday Dare

“We cannot continue to tax poverty when we are supposed to promote prosperity” – President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Senator Alli Ndume. Controversial. Outspoken, brilliant and engaging. Of all his attributes I did not find a place for ‘willful ignorance’ as one of his attributes or did I miss something? His Channels Television Interview was at once interesting and absurd coming from a person of his status : ranking Senator of the Federal Republic.

If his attack of Tinubu Tax Bills now before the Parliament was understandable, his open admission that he has not read the Tax bill he was so vehemently opposed to is unpardonable.

In plain sight Senator Ndume displayed his ignorance. That ignorance will be best cured by facts and not bluster. The Tax bill is not dead on arrival. The tax bill is well and alive and that is why we are having this conversation.

Despite the consensus that a fair, equitable and business-friendly taxation regime is pivotal to Nigeria’s drive for economic growth and sustainable development, the requisite will to pursue the reforms needed for achieving this has, unfortunately, either not been there on the part of the leadership, or where efforts have been made, it has not produced significant results. Nigeria has consistently ranked as one of the countries with the lowest revenue-to-GDP ratios in the world, which, according to Il Jung, “makes its fiscal position vulnerable to shocks”.
This from the IMF staff who prepared Nigeria’s revenue mobilisation report 2023. President Tinubu understands this clearly.

Such is the situation that “general government revenue in Nigeria was 7.3 percent of GDP for 2021—less than half of the average in countries belonging to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and nearly a third of the average of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)—and ranked as 191st out of 193 countries in the world.”

At 9.4% in 2023, Nigeria’s tax revenue to GDP ratio was not only among the lowest in the world but also on the continent, according to Axel Schimmelpfennig, the IMF mission Chief for Nigeria. To Il Jung, “Nigeria’s low tax revenue has been mainly driven by the narrow bases of its indirect taxes, low tax compliance, large amount of tax exemptions as well as low rates. Tax compliance and tax morale are still very low. Nigeria’s VAT collection efficiency (C-efficiency ratio)—the ratio of actual revenues to potential revenue—is the lowest among peer African countries.” The result is “…that the government has too few resources for social and development spending on health, on education, on infrastructure, etc.,” Schimmelpfennig says.

This age-long challenge of narrow revenue base, huge debt burden and high demand for social and development spending, which successive administrations have been confronted with, is what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu decided to tackle head-long through a Root Cause Analysis in order to identify and resolve underlying issues in Nigeria’s tax system to enable it proffer appropriate solutions. President Tinubu had been upfront about tackling this challenge before assuming office, and in his inauguration speech, he assured local and foreign investors that his “government shall review all their complaints about multiple taxations and various anti-investment inhibitions.”

Less than 2 months in office, he announced the setting up of the Presidential Committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms, headed by former Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Taiwo Oyedele, comprising of experts from both the private and public sectors to undertake comprehensive law reforms, fiscal policy design and coordination, harmonization of taxes, and revenue administration. At the inauguration of the committee in August last year, the President restated his commitment to reforms to ensure a more enabling environment and relief for small businesses and those at the bottom of the pyramid. “We cannot continue to tax poverty when we are supposed to promote prosperity,” he said.

The President’s vision and clear mandate is evident in what the Fiscal policy and tax reforms Committee delivered as recommendations to the government, and became a part of the Economic Stabilisation Bills (ESB) approved by the Federal Executive Council in September, as part of the Accelerated Stability and Advancement Plan (ASAP) of the government. The ESB which seeks to amend about 15 different tax, fiscal, and establishment laws to facilitate economic stability and set the country on the path for sustained inclusive growth, has as some of its objectives: inflation reduction and price stability; complementing monetary policy measures with appropriate fiscal interventions to strengthen the naira and sustain exchange rates convergence; promotion of fiscal discipline and consolidation; enhancement of job creation and poverty alleviation; as well as export promotion and diversification.

It was in furtherance to a realisation of these objectives that President Bola Tinubu sent a letter to the 2 chambers of the National Assembly, requesting for the approval of 4 tax reform bills, which are: “The Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill”, “The Nigeria Tax Bill”, “The Nigeria Tax Administration Bill,” and “The Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill.” These Bills seek to provide a consolidated fiscal framework for taxation in Nigeria, a clear and concise legal framework for the fair, consistent and efficient administration of all the tax laws to facilitate ease of tax compliance, reduce tax disputes and optimize revenue, among others.

While investors and the business community have welcomed this development, there has been a pushback from some quarters from those who have apparently not familiarised themselves with the contents of the Bills. The concern by the Northern Governors Forum about the proposed amendment in one of the bills is the distribution model for Value Added Tax (VAT) which has been addressed by Mr Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Fiscal Reforms Committee. He assured them that the aim of the proposal is “to create a fairer system by devising a different form of derivation which takes into account the place of supply or consumption for relevant goods and services whether they are zero rated, exempt or taxable at the standard rate”.

The surprise, though, is the response from Senator Ali Ndume who has declared that the bills “will be dead on arrival”, even as he confessed that he is yet to read the bills, which we presume should be available to him, having been received by the National Assembly, as the Senate President announced on the floor of the Senate. I refuse to believe that any Senator, and definitely not one of Senator Ndume’s standing will say, “We don’t need to study the bill”, as he was quoted to have said. Senator Ndume can’t be that flippant, as the legislative business is serious business.

For the benefit of Senator Ndume and others who might be of the mind that they do not need to study a document before speaking to it, here are some of the changes proposed in the bills:

1.Changes to the income tax laws to facilitate remote work opportunities for Nigerians in Nigeria within the global business process outsourcing. This will empower our youths to play a key role in the digital economy space.
2.Zero rated VAT and other incentives to promote exports in goods, services, and intellectual property.
3.Tax exemptions for small businesses including WHT, VAT, and 0% CIT.
4.Exemption from personal income tax for minimum wage earners and reduced tax burden for over 90% of private and public sector workers
5.VAT at 0% for food, education, health, and exemption for rent and public transportation. These items constitute an average of 82% of household consumption and nearly 100% for low-income households to ameliorate the rising cost of living for the masses.
6.Introduction of the Tax Ombudsman to advocate for improved tax system and protect vulnerable taxpayers
7.Reduction of corporate income tax rate from 30% to 25% over the next 2 years and elimination of earmarked taxes on companies to be replaced with a harmonised single levy at a reduced rate.
8.Elimination of minimum tax on loss-making companies and those with low margins
9. Grant of input VAT credit to businesses on assets and services to reduce cost of investment and improve competitiveness
10.Redesign of the personal income tax band and rates, VAT and Capital Gains Tax to be progressive while protecting the poor
11.Changes to permit the payment of taxes on foreign currency denominated transactions in naira to reduce the pressure on the exchange rate and simplify compliance for businesses.
12.Proposal to repeal over 50 nuisance taxes and levies, and harmonise the remaining taxes to a single digit
13.Equitable basis for VAT revenue sharing to ensure that states without many headquarter companies are fairly treated and recognised for their economic contributions
14.Rationalisation of tax incentives to reduce uncertainty and provide a level playing field for all investors
15.A new National Fiscal Policy to set the framework for fair taxation, responsible borrowing and sustainable spending.

Without a doubt, these Tax-reform Bills have been thoughtfully and carefully designed in alignment with President Tinubu’s agenda to remove all obstacles impeding business growth in the country, promote small businesses and the poor, it is strange that Senator Ali Ndume, who purports to be speaking for the people will stand in opposition to them, even when he confessed to having not read them. If he has not read the bills, I doubt that he read a newspaper editorial, which quoted the Chairman of the Reforms Committee to have explained that “the reforms are geared towards correcting the structural imbalances in the tax system which has seen the poor overburdened with taxes while the elite and middle class routinely evade, avoid, or underpay taxes”.

Senator Ndume might need to familiarise himself with what is driving the reforms and the proposals that have been laid out, which include consolidating the different ‘nuisance taxes’ taxes and levies, which some have put at 62 official and 200 unofficial taxes into a streamlined system of 8 taxes to eliminate unnecessary financial strain on citizens while ensuring a more efficient revenue collection process. The committee is also pushing for a constitutional amendment to limit the total number of taxes on individuals and businesses to a single-digit. The objective, it says, to provide greater financial stability and predictability for taxpayers, fostering a more conducive business environment. Apart from that are the amendments to the withholding tax regulation, with businesses earning below 50 million Naira exempted from this tax, to provide relief for small companies and reduce the tax burden on emerging enterprises to engender growth of SMES, which play a central role in providing employment and the development of the economy.

Estimates from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) a few years back had it that out of 70 million taxable adults in Nigeria, only 14 million pay tax, with 96 percent of those who do so through the Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) system, which is an indication that most of those outside the formal system don’t pay tax. Yet, a report listed Nigeria as home to almost a thousand billionaires (computed in naira), out of which only 214 pay taxes of N20 million and above. If any proof is needed for allegations of evasion and gross underpayment of personal income taxes, that must be it. President Tinubu’s bold decision to resolve the challenges that confront the tax administration system to improve Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio, increase non-oil revenue generation, attract investment, support businesses and strengthen the economy deserves all the support it can get, especially from the Governors and the National Assembly. Senator Ndume will do well to rally support for the bold initiatives of President Tinubu, study the Tax Reform Bills and work with his colleagues for speedy passage so that Nigerians can take advantage of the opportunities they are designed to unlock.

Sunday Dare
Special Adviser to the President
(Public Communication & Orientation)

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