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Death: Enugu Youths Want Gov. Ugwuanyi To Extend Developmental Strives To ETTE Community

Published

4 years ago

November 9, 2020

Editor

Following the recent outbreak of yellow fever which claimed more than 50 lives within some community in Igbo Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu state youths of Ette community and stakeholders have calls His excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to extend his stewardship to the community to stall future occurrences.

According to the Convener, Ette Youth Advocacy for Change, Comrade Dannis Ewaoche Ufene it can’t be the logical or excusable reason why the community has experienced decades of government neglect and with the recent death of young people in the community which the State Ministry of Health has confirmed to be Yellow Fever infection which has claimed more lives in Ette and other neighboring communities within the Local Government.

In order not to regale the public with the stories of Ette history and struggle, Ette community which is part of Igbo Eze North LGA of Enugu state sadly have not received enough attention from Federal, State and Local government of any serious functional government provision or facility, and this has left her people in a hopeless and backward state.

How do you explain a situation where all neighboring communities surrounding Ette having well equip Medical centers with adequate personnel to respond to cases of a health emergency, schools, police station, road, water, and at least a functional Modern market that will boost the socio-economic wellbeing of the community? but that responsibility of government at all levels stops at the boundary of Ette from Umoupu, a neighboring community.

At the moment, scores of people have died in Ette due to an outbreak of yellow fever illness, according to a press release on the 5th of November 2020 by the Enugu state ministry of health stated that “the state ministry of health rapid response team has visited the Igbo Eze North LGA of Enugu state and met with the LGA response team. On the spot check and find a possible measure to mitigate the outbreak.

An investigation has revealed a number of deaths from an illness with symptoms suggestive of a disease of public health importance. Samples have been collected from patients and sent to the national reference laboratory.

The National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has been informed and is collaborating with the Enugu state ministers of health at the LGA to investigate and control the reports.”

We thank the Enugu state government for their prompt response and will want to advocate that an urgent measure be put in place to prevent more infections and deaths.

One cannot turn a blind eye to the laudable strides of the current government of Enugu state under the able leadership of His excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration. Ette community is by virtue of its location under Igboeze North LGA of Enugu state – even though it shares a boundary with Kogi state and predominantly Has Idoma, Igala, and Igbo speaking population, we want to appeal to the Governor to extend his good plans to the people of Ette.

If Enugu state is in God’s hands, then Ette must benefit from the Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration’s achievements, the speedy completion of the road project that stops at Umoupu will positively impact on the wellbeing of our people and restore confidence that Ette people were not neglected.

The community should also benefit from the distribution of “Africa inputs to 2,000 vulnerable farmers which were flagged up on November 6th, 2020.

The security of life and properties of Ette people should also be considered at this time because at the moment there isn’t any police post in Ette.

Ette community should also benefit from “Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi administration’s health care agenda for rural populace” if it is truly focused on providing quality, accessible and affordable health care services in the rural areas which Ette community also fall into.

At the moment, the few health care centers in the Ette community have no capacity to respond to emergency health issues due to inadequate manpower and lack of modern equipment. The hospital in Enugu-Ezeike is too far from Ette that houses more than 33 communities.

The people of Ette can see the great work the government of Enugu state is doing in terms of providing good roads in all parts of the state, the road to Ette is in a deplorable condition and is begging for the intervention of the state government.

If health issues such as yellow fever and other infectious diseases must be tackled effectively, the need for the provision of clean drinkable water must be given urgent attention.

In this 21st century, a community like Ette will still depend on rainwater which will be stored in a reservoir from season to season will not guarantee a healthy life.

You need to see the Ette center when is raining. No drainage system to channel all the water that is coming from other communities, how can you prevent mosquitos in such kind of environment and the Local government never see the need to do something about it.

Ette Youths Advocacy for Change is calling on all stakeholders to speak to the Enugu state government, Federal Government, and the International Community to carry the Ette community into God’s hands like other communities in the state.

We call on all Indigenous People of Ette to sink their teeth into advocating for a better life for our people, we must jettison everything that hasn’t taken us to where we desire to be and join hands with the government to protect public asset and support government effort to end this death waves for the good of the state.

We commend His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for his visionary leadership and pray that the enablement to alleviate the sufferings of Ette people will be on the front burner of his agenda for the state.

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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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