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Nigeria: Weeks and Days of Sporting Glory, Excellence and Medal Harvests

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From the heavily endowed coast of Ghana, to the beautiful island of Mauritius, from the plains of Agadir to the Diamond handshakes in Paris, Nigerian sports in the last number of days have been nothing short of delight, glory and glamour.


The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria started their WAFU B U-17 championship journey in Ghana with a win over the host, the Black Satelite, completing a revenge against the Ghanaians who had denied inflicted pain on the Super Eagles during the World Cup Qualifying Playoff. 


This was followed with a win over Baby Hawks of Togo last Tuesday. The sheer zeal, determination, skill and talent put on display by the Nduka Ugbade-led side gives a lot of hope, as to the grassroot system, which has kept on producing world beaters across different generations.


The Golden Eaglets will book their place at the 2023 U-17 AFCON if they surmount their semifinal hurdle against Cote D’Ivoire.


Just as the men’s cadet teams have been recording successes, the same fortunes have been the reality of the female teams. The country is witnessing a resurgence in youth football, as the unbridled passion of the Honourable Minister for Youth and Sports Development, has worked as a fossil fuel to drive youth development across all sports.

 
In a short span of time, both Nigeria’s U-17 female team (Flamingos) and the U-20 team (Falconets) qualifed for their respective FIFA World Cup events in India and Costa Rica respectively. This represent a massive victory for the teams but also mirrors a bug boost to women’s football at the grassroot level. The Senior Women’s National Team are also on course for another continental glory which would also take them to the FIFA Women’s World Cup.


Also, in the last few days, the Men’s Senior National Team, Super Eagles recorded a historic win over Sao Tome and Principe in Agadir to create a new national record for the biggest win recorded by the Super Eagles. This came on the back of the Sports Minister, Hon. Sunday Dare charge to National Team Technical Adviser, Jose Peseiro that the rebuild of the Super Eagles must be done with all sense of commitment, dedication and zeal to restore the confidence of the nation on the team.


Hon. Sunday Dare had received Peseiro upon his presentation, where he tasked him to ensure he returns the Super Eagles to the top, where it belongs, as Nigerians care so much about their football. With two wins out of as many, the Super Eagles are on track to qualify quite early to the 2023 AFCON to be staged in Cote D’Ivoire.


On the tracks and fields too, the African Senior Athletics Championship hosted by Mauritius witnessed  a successful outing for Team Nigeria. 


Even with a host of senior absentees at the event, Nigeria finished third on the final table picking up 11 Medals (5 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze medals). Chuwkuebuka Enekwechi set a new championship record, while Oyesade Olatoye made history by winning Nigeria’s first gold medal in Women’s Hammer Throw.


Nigeria’s great sporting week saw a cherry added on the iced cake by a scintillating performance from OluwaTobiloba Amusan at the Diamond League in Paris. In the 100m Women’s Hurdles, Amusan ran an amazing 12.41s to break the nine month old African record she set in Zurich.


In his congratulatory message to Tobi the minister postulated that her success is yet another testament to Nigeria’s steady rising profile in sports.


The minister has also sent a message that all athletes who would represent Nigeria at the forth-coming World Athletics Championships in Oregon and Commonwealth Games ensure they put in their best to fly the flag of the nation high in Oregon and Birmingham respectively.


It has been a terrific week for sports in Nigeria, one would only believe that the country continues to rise to the zenith, amongst the comity to nations across all sporting spheres.

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Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

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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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