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Certificate of Origin Issuance: Nigerians Alarmed Over Widespread Fraud

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… urge Govt to beam searchlight on corruption at subnational

Federal and state governments in Nigeria have been alerted following a spate of forgery cases and disregard of due process in certificate of origin issuance at Local Government Area (LGA) offices across the country.

The alarm was raised by the Executive Director, Partners West Africa-Nigeria, Kemi Okenyodo, during an anti-corruption radio programme, PUBLIC CONSCIENCE, produced by PRIMORG, Wednesday in Abuja.

Investigations published by TheCable recently exposed how officials at LGAs in Lagos, Ogun, Nasarawa states and Abuja jettison due process for bribes in issuing certificates of origin to the people.

Speaking during the radio programme, Okenyodo, who was not surprised at the absence of integrity in the local government system, noted that the development is a breeding ground for security and transparency challenges the country continues to grapple with.

She called on the government to beam the searchlight on corruption at LGAs and introduce reforms geared towards strengthening the anti-corruption fight at the subnational. She added that the government should devise means of better informing and sensitizing the people about the process of obtaining a certificate of origin to save the unsuspecting public from extortion.

“The duty of the government is to make obvious and put into the public space the process for getting certificates of origin, the cost and the duration.

“The information should be out there in a dialect that people would understand and in a form that is easy and accessible to them so that those who do not avail themselves of the information have the responsibility to get the information and follow through and know where to report what is wrong.

“The government should make things transparent. They should make the process for not only for a certificate of origin but other services at the local government level open and transparent.” She stated.

Okenyodo also urged the government to strengthen the National Identity Management Commission and leverage data from National Identification Number (NIN) in building a national data bank while calling on massive awareness of the citizens on the dangers of certificate forgery.

Speaking on the report, investigative and multimedia journalist at TheCable, Samad Uthman, lamented the lack of a proper national database while revealing that massive trading of certificates of origin and other documents for money was going on at local government offices across Nigeria.

Uthman revealed that applicants of certificate of origin in Kokona LGA, Nasarawa state, pay up to N10,000 to get the document without due process; At Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAc), applicants pay between N20,000 to N25,000 to obtain the same certificate at the council office without submitting necessary prerequisite documents, adding that the scenario is not different from their findings in Lagos and Ogun states.

He lamented that further research on the issuance of certificate of origin on Twitter shows that lack of due process is prevalent in every part of the country and could be worse at border towns in northern Nigeria.

“The investigation took place in Abuja, Nasarawa, Lagos and Ogun states. In Abuja, we visited AMAC and Bwari Area Council; in Nasarawa state, Kokona and Keffi LGAs; in Ogun, we visited Ife and Shagamu LGAs; while in Lagos, we went to Ikeja, Olumosho, Oshodi-Isolo LGAs and we realized that only in Ikeja that officials insisted on due process when it comes to issuing the certificates.

“We realized that the situation is prevalent in all parts of the country, especially the north and the southern part of the country; when the story was published, we received tons of evidence from the public, even when we had a Twitter space meeting on certificate issuance people spoke on it,” Uthman explained.

Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio program PRIMORG uses to draw government and citizens’ attention to corruption and integrity issues in Nigeria.

The program has the support of the MacArthur Foundation.

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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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