Featured
CSAR Validation: AU delegation thumbs Nigeria’s Commitment To Self-Assessment
Joel Ajayi
The African Union AU team on Country Review Mission (CRM) on the Peer Review process has described Nigeria’s self-assessment report of its second peer review as impressive, excellent and amazing.
The Head Panelist on AU CRM, Prof. Janneh Abdoulie, stated this on Friday in Abuja, at an interactive session with critical stakeholders, Civil Society Organisations as well as media organisations.
The assessment process is on the ongoing Peer Review of member states of the African Union Development Agency and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA/NEPAD), across the continent.
It will be recalled that AU CRM team arrived in Nigeria to further assess the country’s self-assessment record, following the approval of the reports by President Muhammadu Buhari for validation.
The APRM is an instrument voluntarily acceded to by AU member states as an African self-monitoring mechanism.
While briefing the newsmen, Abdoulie appreciated President Buhari for the approval given to Nigeria’s self-assessment record to go ahead with the peer review process in the country.
According to him, the review process in Nigeria is very professional, transparent, and impartial manner.
“It’s important that we do this and we just want to salute Nigeria for what we’ve seen so far, that the degree of inclusiveness has been very high, it’s an amazing process,” he said.
In her addressed, National Coordinator AUDA/NEPAD,Princess Gloria Akobundu thanked Nigerians and all stakeholders for their contributions to the successful outcome of the reports approved by the President.
She said: “The review will address economic challenges, good governance, food sufficiency, health challenge, security as well as political activities in Nigeria.
“We are here to inform you that the AU team is here in the country and also to inform you that we are set for validation exercise and this exercise will take us across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
“So, we are happy to have you here today because there is no way we can carry out such exercise without the respected group of society, so you are important, ” she explained.
Also, Mr Austin Aigbe, Programme Officer, Centre for Democracy and Development, appealed to the AU team to urge the government to address the issue of youth restiveness in the country.
Aigbe expressed that, the government is doing well in the area of infrastructure, but not adequately paid attention to human development, which has resulted in violence and criminality by the youths across the country.
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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