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President Buhari Inaugurates Presidential Steering Committee On Alternate School Programme

Published

4 years ago

January 26, 2021

Joel Ajayi

President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated an 18-member Presidential Steering Committee on Alternate School Programme ASP.

At the inauguration which took place at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday in Aso Villa, President Buhari charged the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to coordinate and lead the deployment of a National Plan which will address the issue of out-of-school children in the country.

In a press statement issued by the Senior Assistant to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management & Social Development, Nneka Ikem Anibeze on Tuesday expressed that it was unacceptable to see children abandoning formal school to engage in menial jobs and child labour in the markets, streets and workshops.

“While we continue to sustain our efforts on providing formal and conventional education through the activities of the Universal Basic Education Commission under the Federal Ministry of Education, it is still a common sight to notice children abandoning formal school to become apprentices in shops, workshops and markets, whilst many others choose to loiter at markets, become cart pushers and hawkers. These are not acceptable.

President Buhari implored all members of the committee to take the assignment with utmost seriousness adding that “the future of our young people is at stake”.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee Umar Farouq thanked the President for his support to the Ministry and for granting the approval for the Alternate School Programme.

The minister noted that the number of Out-of -School children was increasing at an alarming rate, adding that there is urgent need to address the problem with deft response required of such an exigent matter.

“Education serves as a catalyst for the all-round growth and development of any individual. Thus, for any nation to thrive, adequate investment in human capital, by increasing access to quality education, must be prioritized. The United Nations identifies quality education as one of the most powerful and proven vehicles for attaining sustainable development”.

The Minister lamented the challenges facing the country due to the growing number of out of school children which cuts across the entire nation.

“Those mostly affected by this scourge include the girl-child, predominantly in the North, Almajiri-children in the North, children of nomadic pastoralists spread across the country, incidence of boy child drop-out mainly in the South-East and South-South regions, street children in the South-West, commonly referred to as area boys, particularly around the Lagos axis, children of migrant fishermen in the South-South, and more recently the internally displaced children in the North-East, occasioned by the Boko Haram insurgency and insecurity”.

Umar Farouq assured the President that the Committee will leverage on the Ministry’s social protection instruments including N-Power, the Conditional Cash Transfer and the Home-Grown School Feeding Programmes to provide tailored delivery mechanisms targeted at the country’s out of school children.

“By integrating basic education with religious education and vocational training, the Alternate School Programme will increase access to education without altering social norms and cultures. Consequently, every child, including those in the most peculiar of circumstances, will have access to learning opportunities”.

According to UNICEF, Nigeria currently has the highest number of out of school children globally, while it is estimated that approximately 10.5 million children aged 5 to 14 years are not in school. Statistics also show that only 61 per cent of children within the 6 to 11-year age bracket regularly attend primary school while the North has an abysmal net attendance rate of 35.6 per cent.

The Alternate School Programme, is an innovative and flexible approach to learning and skills development, ensuring that education is designed to specifically address the needs of the target beneficiaries and is delivered conveniently, without unnecessary encumbrances. By targeting out of school children, the program will ensure that more children are equipped with basic literacy skills, reasoning capabilities and technical and vocational expertise that will enable them to live fulfilled lives.

It is also expected to significantly reduce the number of out of school children in Nigeria, provide access to inclusive and equitable quality education, eliminate child labour, facilitate the effective integration of religious discipline and vocational training with basic education, provide opportunities for children to develop life supporting skills from vocational and entrepreneurship training to improve their chances of future success, improve the quality and outcome of basic education in the country and foster tolerance, unity, and integration of all children with diverse backgrounds into the larger society.

The Presidential Steering Committee has been mandated to Refine the vision of the initiative.

Ensure engagement and effective uptake of the ASP initiative across the country, Review and approve all work, implementation plan, expected deliverables, feedbacks and reports as proposed and

Undertake any other task that can enhance the effective delivery of the initiative by the Ministry.

Members include: Minister, Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development who will Chairman the committee.

Others members are; Minister of Education Co-Chairman; Minister of State of Education Member; Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Sustainable Development Goals – Member; Minister of State, Budget and National Planning – Member; Chairman, Northern Governors’ Forum – Member; Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC)-Member.

Also, the Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) – Member; National President, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) – Member; Representative, United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Representative – Member; Representative, United Nations’ International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) – Member; Representative, Global Partnership for Education – Member; Chair, Private Sector Advisory Group (SDGs) – Member; Chair, Civil Society Coalition on Sustainable Development – Member; Chair, Senate Committee on Basic Education –Member; Chair, House Committee on Basic Education – Member; Hon. Dr. Shehu Balarabe Kakale – Member and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Bashir Nura Alkali- Secretary included.

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Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

2 weeks 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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