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Brace Up For Better, Effective Orientation, NYSC Acting DG Charges Stakeholders

Published

2 years ago

January 5, 2023

Joel Ajayi

In preparation to have a smooth, efficient, effective and successful orientation exercises in the year 2023, the Scheme in charge of youth in the country, National Youth Service Corps NYSC has laid a good foundation for the year with commencement of Pre-Mobilization workshop.

The 2023 Batch ‘A’ Pre-Mobilization Workshop was planned to review performances and work out new strategies for better outcomes and suggesting ways of improving performance to stakeholders should not be considered an exclusive responsibility of the NYSC, but a collective one.

While Speaking at the Pre-Mobilization held on Thursday in Abuja, the Acting Director General of NYSC Mrs Christy Uba charged all the officers to brace up for better and successful exercise.

The event with the theme, “Enhancing the Performance of Stakeholders’ Role for Effective Mobilization Process,” will no doubt reflects determination to ensure that all stakeholders are more committed and effective in the discharge of their responsibilities.

According to her, as you are already aware, we have, in the last few years, introduced several measures to eliminate flaws and improve the process.

“However, there are still shortcomings, including outright infractions by some Corps Producing Institutions. Therefore, this Workshop will appraise the performance of key stakeholders with a view to coming up with ways of overcoming the observed shortcomings.

She however called on the Student Affairs Officer of institutions to always verify the data of their students before uploading it for mobilization and as well ensuring correct dates of graduation for their students.

“In our previous engagements with the Student Affairs Officers (SAOs), we have severally emphasized that they had responsibilities of supervising data entry; engaging the School Management on issues of policy implementation; briefing of final year students and maintaining constant touch with the NYSC schedule officers on matters of Mobilisation.

“This job is enormous and requires requisite knowledge and passion for quality work. This is why we keep dissuading CPIs from effecting frequent changes of SAOs.

“The high number of PCMs stranded in Camps during the 2022 Batch ‘C’ Streams I and II Orientation Courses casts serious doubt on the competence of some Data Entry Officers (DEOs). Or how could a school make a mistake on the date of graduation of all the Prospective Corps Members uploaded for the whole batch?

“This happened despite our repeated clarifications on the date of graduation and the resolutions made at previous workshops. During the peak period of Camp registration, it was disappointing to note that some SAOs relied on phone communication with their stranded graduates to reconcile the dates of graduation on Statements of Results and Certificates.

“This was a clear sign of poor record keeping by the institutions involved. It was saddening that the negligence of a few people caused untold hardship to the affected youths. Our saving grace is that the graduates are now aware that their predicaments are caused by their schools.”

Acting DG therefore called on SAOs, DEOs and other officers saddled with record keeping to be alive to their responsibilities. Let me also warn that we stand by our resolve not to either correct or register cases with disparities in dates of graduation with effect from the 2023 Batch ‘A’ Orientation Course. All corrections must be done before PCMs proceed to Camp.

In his keynote address, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory Malam Musa Bello who was represented at the occasion by the Director of Human Resources of FCTA Alhaji Muhammed Bashir expressed that, NYSC has contributed to the growth and development of Nigeria over the first five decades and must be properly nurtured to bring more growth to the scheme and to the nation at large.

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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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