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GOVERNOR UGWUANYI BREAKS ANOTHER RECORD: THICKENING HIS BOND WITH THE JUDICIARY, THE LEGAL PROFESSION.

Published

4 years ago

October 2, 2020

It was Robert Schuller the German author of the award-winning bestseller ‘Tough Times Never Last But Tough People Do’ who famously postulated that tough times no matter how harsh would always come and go when tough people are in charge. This admirable witticism becomes even more pertinent when tough leaders presiding over tough times are also endowed with rare humanitarian attributes such as milk of human kindness, fear of God, love, altruism, empathy and open-handedness.

To such leaders, tough times neither provide excuses for nonperformance nor embolden them to shirk their otherwise sacred obligations and responsibilities to their people. Rather, it provides a historic opportunity to touch lives in a very special way and in a manner that stands them out as go-getters, trailblazers, and lords over their tough situations.

Barely six months after the silent archiving Governor of Enugu State Rt. Hon. Lawrence Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi broke a continental record by being the first African pillar of sports to fund a football club’s life assurance scheme to the extent of dolling out a whooping life assurance package of #20 million( through Rangers International) to its maiden beneficiary, the welfarist Governor has scored yet another first. He has this time approved and released a staggering sum of #24.6 million to as many as 246 law students of Enugu state origin at the Nigeria Law School. Under the novel humongous package, each benefitting student received the sum of #100,000( one hundred thousand naira only) to cushion the hardship he or she undergoes while in the nation’s elite school of jurisprudence.

By this gesture, Governor Ugwuanyi has once again gone down in history as the very first occupant of the lion building to offer such a lifeline to law students and the second after Chief Jim Nwobodo as Governor of the old Anambra state to pay bursary to students.

It would be recalled that both the Rangers’ life assurance feat earlier referred to as well as the law students’ novel intervention, took place between the months of June and July this year when the Coroner pandemic was at its peak, virtually crippling the entire world economy. A very critical time when some oil-producing states joined many other states to owe workers’ salaries thereby compounding the misery in a countless number of homes.

Not so for Enugu state by courtesy of a tenderhearted and empathetic leader in the person of Governor Lawrence Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi who God brought just at the right time to save his people from anguish. No wonder the slogan that Enugu state under Governor Ugwuanyi is in the hands of God is hardly ever controvertible. Aside from paying regularly the most decent new minimum wage East of the Niger despite the pandemic meltdown and with paltry receipts from low oil revenue, the amiable Governor also found it necessary to remember as many as 246 indigent law students of Enugu state origin some of whom would have dropped out and ended their dreams of becoming lawyers had he not graciously and providentially intervened.

Those conversant with the environment of the law school would readily attest to the fact that the knowledge-intensive, highly revered, and the regimented institution has always been systemically programmed to prevent poor students from gaining access( or graduating even after admission) as it is often the mantra of law lecturers right from the university that the legal profession is jealously reserved for the noble and not for everybody.

To ensure that the exclusion and elimination conspiracy is sustained, it now takes a minimum of #2 million or thereabouts for a law school student to graduate from the yearlong professional programme. That excludes books and materials of different colorations and which is in fact the student’s business and no one else’s. Many law graduates for that reason do not bother to apply for admission into the institution to obtain a professional certificate and make do with their law degrees( LLB Hons.) which at best makes them academic lawyers.

It is against this background that many forward-looking people see what Governor Ugwuanyi did for the law students of Enugu state origin as highly remarkable, legendary, and humanitarian in ramifications. The 246 law students favoured will forever remain grateful to the tender-hearted Governor who God placed on the saddle during their own time to enjoy a privilege their predecessors never had.

The questions many have been asking since the Governor’s landmark gesture include: how come all the previous Governors before Ugwuanyi turned deaf ears to the hearty supplications of the poor law school students over the years despite the huge oil revenues at their disposal compared to the pitiable situation today? Did they not take into account the fact that such strategic intervention was absolutely necessary to beef up the state’s judicial manpower thereby placing it in a position of strength to compete for federal judicial appointments?
That’s a matter for another day.

Nevertheless, this gives credence to the protestations by well-meaning people that good governance goes beyond the mere provision of basic physical infrastructure( such as roads and bridges) but extends most importantly to the development of the human capital and without which both the government, the road or bridge contractor as well as laborers hired, all labour in vain as the human capital is indispensable to the management and continuous enjoyment of whatever is provided.

This latest welfarist intervention has therefore not only added to Governor Ugwuanyi’s many firsts in many areas but also singled him out as one of the greatest pillars of the judiciary not only in the state but also the country at large. From the unprecedented mass construction of judicial complexes in all the local government areas( being completed at the same time) of the state including brand new ultra-modern High and Magistrate court buildings, state-of-the-art Customary Court of Appeal complex situated at the three arms zone of the coal city, ongoing renovation of the state judicial headquarters, to the engagement of many new High Court judges and magistrates as well as over 150 law officers to quicken the dispensation of criminal justice and decongest the prisons, the Enugu state judiciary, in particular, has never had it so good.

From Josephat Omeke Esq. Writing from Enugu

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Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

1 week 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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