Featured
MNDA Seeks Collaboration With United Nations To Sustain Development In N’delta Region

JOEL AJAYI
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, CON, stated that Niger Delta region remains the most peaceful region in Nigeria andseeks collaboration with United Nations to maintain peace and development in the Niger Delta region.
Sen. Akpabio made this statement when the United Nations, Deputy Secretary General, Hajia Amina Mohammed, paid a courtesy visit to his office on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 in Abuja.
The Minister explained that the Ministry is developing a programme “Catch them young” were young people in primary and secondary schools are enlightened on the importance of peace and the dangers of destroying oil installations, which has serious impact on the ecosystem and the nation’s economy.
He said that since the discovery of Crude Oil in the region 1956, several interventionist agencies had been set up to address the social and environmental degradation of the area, but they all failed to provide the needed succor to the people. In other to address the situation, the present Administration decided to set up a forensic auditing process to access and evaluate the achievements that has been made by NDDC in the region since its existence.
According to the Minister, “Interim reports of the forensic verification exercise has been revealing. The process has been transparent, we listed 9,080 projects to be considered in the verification process but in less than three months the report so far shows that 12,128 projects has been discovered as abandoned projects with no specific ownership attached to them”
“Most of these abandoned projects have become sanctuaries to criminals. Projects were embarked on without consultations. There was no initial coordination. So, as part of its mandate the Ministry has adopted a program called “Strategic Implementation Work plan” which will coordinate the activities of development partners and stakeholders to prevent duplication of projects in the region”, he added.
Speaking further, the Minister acknowledged that Hajia Mohammed was a frontrunner in championing the course of the Niger Delta region and the Ogoni Clean-up during her tenure as Minister of Environment.
In her response, the United Nations, Deputy Secretary General, Hajia Amina Mohammed, stated that issues bordering on the Niger Delta region are peculiar to the heart of the UN and would do everything within UN programmes to address all issues of disillusionment in people’s expectation.
She commended the efforts of the Federal Government and the Ministry in the way they have handled the Niger Delta affairs and laid emphasis on the need to maintain peace and stability in the region, because without peace there cannot be any meaningful development especially when the aspirations and rights of the people are not recognized.
In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, MNDA, Dr. Babayo Ardo, stated that the Ministry is charged with the responsibility of ensuring developmental programmes and supervises the NDDC. Adding that the Ministry as part of its mandate over the years has provided infrastructure and high impact programmes for youths and women, and the Ministry is willing to collaborate with the UN system in actualizing its programmes to improve living standard.
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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