Featured
Gara Gombe Lambasts NFF’s Technical Department For Nigeria’s Football Gloom

Joel Ajayi
Following the recent miserable performance of the country’s national teams, the Former Chairman of Gombe State Football Association, Ahmed Shuaibu Gara Gombe, has ridiculed the technical department of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over the absence of their technical input on the teams.
He attributed the continued shameful performance of the Nigerian teams to the incompetence and inefficiency of the personnel in the technical department of the NFF, saying the Amaju Pinnick-led board is not interested in the development of the round leather game in the country and lack a blueprint.
The former NFF reform committee member said as far as the appointment of coaches for the national teams are based on political consideration instead of competence and development, Nigeria will go nowhere in the development of football.
According to him, “You will agree with me that in recent times, Nigeria’s football has been witnessing embarrassing performances from both the national teams and club level in continental competitions. These are happening because NFF has no plans to develop the game. Their main focus is on competitions because of the money involved. Well, that is a story for another day.
“I have said severally that as much NFF continues to appoint coaches based on political consideration for competitions instead of development, we are going nowhere in football development. In the last 15 years, I do not think there is a blueprint or roadmap that was produced that was sustainable or implemented by NFF. It has been trial and error.
“Now, let’s look at it one after the other, we saw what happened between the Super Eagle and Sierra Leone, we also saw what happened to Flying Eagles and Golden Eaglets in WAFU tournaments in Benin and Lomé respectively, and also how our clubs except Rivers United were dumped out of continental competitions.
“I have always said that we don’t have a league, we only have teams playing amongst themselves. Look at how Al-Merrikh of Sudan dealt with Enyimba that we were hoping on for a good outing on the continent. That is, it because you can’t plant onion and expect to harvest watermelon. It is not possible; you can only get what you plant,” Gara lamented.
The renowned administrator and fearless sports critic said policy somersault and unabated corruption in NFF would not allow knowledgeable people that have a genuine interest to get involved in the development of football in Nigeria.
“About five year ago, Amaju Pinnick took Sunday Oliseh to Nigerian Stock Exchange, saying he is the face of Nigeria’s football and the Guardiola of Africa, and gave him the responsibility to produce a roadmap for Nigeria’s football but at the end, he was not allowed to implement the plan. Late Amodu Shuaibu also came up with a developmental plan but they didn’t allow him to implement it.
“We have to look at the quality of the people in the NFF technical department. Who are these people? NFF has never had a functional technical department. We have people who are knowledgeable, but they can’t come closer because of the corruption and policy somersault in NFF.
“For instance, Ladan Bosso was the coach of the U-20 national to Canada 2007 World Cup, and 13 years later, you brought the same Bosso to coach the U-20 team. Also, Fatai Amoo, coached the U-23 team at the 2003 All African Games, and 17 years after, you appoint the same Amoo to coach the U-17 team. So, are we progressing or retrogressing?” Gara asked.
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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