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NBMA Boss Writes Attorney General Over Misuse of Fredoom of Information Act

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… Calls for sanity in the use of the Act
 
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The Director-General/ Chief Executive Officer of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr Rufus Ebegba has written a letter of complaint to the Attorney General of the Federation and the Honorable Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami over the misuse of the freedom of information act by the International Institute of investigative reporting (ICIR).
 
 
The DG/CEO in a letter with the title “complaint against the International centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) for malicious and abusive use of information obtained from the National Biosafety Management Agency under the provisions of the freedom of information act: call for investigation and prosecution”, became necessary as a result of the misuse of information provided by the NBMA to the ICIR.
 
Dr Ebegba said there was the need to bring the attention of the Attorney General to the malicious publication by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) which was calculated to tarnish the image of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA).
 
He said “this kind of sensational journalism that is hasty to castigate and founded on fallacy is considered to be most unfair and uncharitable to the NBMA since the information upon which the said report is based was obtained from the NBMA in its meticulous compliance to a Freedom of Information Request as provided for by the Section 3 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2015”.
 
“The ICIR by its publication constituted itself into an investigator, prosecutor and judge where it further adjudged the NBMA to be guilty and proceeded to publish its highly flawed conclusion to the world in what seems to be a hatchet job that is  carried out on behalf of the detractors of the NBMA who in their manner to, by all means publish damaging contents about the NBMA”.
 
“The NBMA, in humble terms, is one agency of Government that has striven against all odds to comply with the extant standards and public procurement procedures as laid down by the Federal Government of Nigeria in accordance with the Public Procurement Act. Therefore, it has nothing to hide with regards its procurements”.
 
“However, it will not serve the interest of good governance where unscrupulous persons capitalize on the transparency of an agency of Government like the NBMA to publish cheap and unsubstantiated conclusions in order to serve interests, who work against the interest of the government and people of Nigeria. The idea of government offices and officials been demonized will not go well for the interest of the nation. There is need to stop this practice for us to have a sane nation, impunity must be stopped. 
 
Dr Ebegba said the NBMA stands by the contract figures in the records it made available, being the result of a painstaking exercise by its Procurement Committee. 
 
He requested that an investigation be initiated against the ICIR with regards to its intention, considering its deliberate misrepresentation of facts which it obtained through a Freedom of Information Request.
 
The DG/CEO said it is important that this growing practice of misusing and abusing government information especially by online media publishers be discouraged in order to save the responsible application of the Freedom of Information Act.
 
 
 
 
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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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