Featured
Badminton Federation of Nigeria rolls out new plans

The board of the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) has now attained a cruising altitude after some turbulences that prevented it from taking off last October when it was initially scheduled to be inaugurated along with the other national sports Federations.
The initial problem occasioned by litigations came to an abrupt end last month leading to reconciliation and consolidation of interests and programmes. The board has since had an inaugural meeting in which their 2022 calendar was rolled out.
The BFN president, Francis Orbih urged all to sheath their sword as reconciliation of aggrieve parties has taken place.
The board was further strengthened with the drafting of co-opted members such as Yahaya Faruk, Sam Addingi and Gabriel Gbayan.
Also, a suspended player, Abdulfatai Salaudeen who hitherto headed the Players’ Association was pardoned following the acceptance of a letter of apology from him.
His suspension as well as that of the other executive members of the Players’ Association was lifted. At the inaugural meeting of the BFN, existing subcommittees were reconstituted while some new ones were created.
The Women Development Committee, Welfare Committee and Ethics and Disciplinary Committee were the newly created arms of BFN.
According to the president, the Women Development Committee was created to provide solutions to the dearth of women players and administrators as well as to encourage more participation of the feminine gender in badminton.
The committee is to also assist in discovering and developing female players for better performance. Another addition to the arm of government is the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee which is saddled with the responsibility of instilling discipline among players and officials as well as the review of the existing Code of Conduct.
The Welfare committee is to cater for the welfare needs of stakeholders especially the players.
The list of the new Committee Chairmen and Chairperson are:
- Mrs Esther Gidado – Chairperson, Women Development Committee
- Mr Gabriel Gbayan Chairman, Welfare Committee
- Mr. Yusuf Lawal Bello
Chairman, Ethics and Disciplinary Committee
The president, Francis Orbih, rolled out the BFN’s programmes and called on all to support it having its core thrust to grassroots sports development, women and disabled persons inclusions as well as expanding the frontiers for national and international participation.
To achieve the objectives, he pointed at the legacy project of a Badminton Complex which has to be given prime attention as the BFN is collaborating with the Chinese partners and the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to deliver the project which will be the first of its kind in Africa.
Business
Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

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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