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Minister of Youth and Sports didn’t Abandons NYG-Ministry

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Minister of Youth and Sports didn’t Abandons NYG-Ministry
Joel Ajayi
The truth is far from the rumour emanate from some section of media that the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare was not in Ilorin, Kwara state for the National Youth Games.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Director of Press Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development Mrs Adam Lere revealed that Minister did not abandoned youth games for any event.
Shown by the Minister itinerary and confirmed by photographic and video evidence minister arrived Ilorin on Monday ahead of the Tuesday’s opening of the games and visited the state Deputy Governor, Mr. Kayode Alabi.
He later met the Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin, Professor Sulyman Age Abdulkareem, with whom he had productive discussions on how NYG should be exploited for spotting talents. The Minister presented the official kits of NYG 2019 to both men.
Minister equally visited the Multipurpose Hall, venue of the accreditation,  and had chats with over 3,000 participants.
The Minister subsequently had an interactive session with the Directors of sports of 15 states well into the early hours of Tuesday morning before returning to Abuja to attend the launch of a book focused on youth using new digital technology to create wealth where he delivered a speech on skills gap among the youth and what government is doing in this regard.
Meanwhile, the Minister also released eight (8) Directors of the Ministry to fully participate at the NYG.
Below are the tweets from Mr Dare’s @SundayDareSD handle after meeting the participants:
“I arrived Ilorin this evening for the 5th National Youth Games organized by the Youth and Sports Ministry.  Over 4,000 children ages 15 and below. 34 sports. One venue. At the University of Ilorin Sports Complex today, I saw the next generation of sporting stars shining.”
“A big thank you to the parents of thousands of our young children gathered in iliorin to participate in the 5th National Youth Games. Their decision to release their kids from 33 states is a point for patriotism and a good omen to the rebirth of grassroots sports development.”
This was contained in a statement issued by the Director of Press
Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development Mrs Adam Lere revealed that Minister did not abandoned youth games for any event.
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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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