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Principles Guiding The Nigerian Youth Parliament Must Be Adhere To-Sunday Dare

Joel Ajayi
Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare has stated that the principles guiding the creation of the Nigerian Youth Parliament must be adhering to in order to achieve the desired outcome.
He Stated this at the Opening Session of the 1st Sitting of the 4th Session of the Nigerian Youth Parliament in Kano.
The Minister represented by the Permanent Secretary Mr. Gabriel Aduda expressed appreciation to the Government and people of Kano State for collaborating with the Ministry is hosting the event.
It will be recalled that the Nigerian Youth Parliament was formally inaugurated in 2008 in line with the United Nations call on member states to establish a platform through which Young people can adequately contribute to decision making processes on issues that concern them as well as inculcate in them democratic principles and leadership qualities.
According to him, with the inauguration of the 4th Session of the Nigerian Youth Parliament, the Ministry and its stakeholders have been working to ensure that the Parliament begins sittings, concludes elections of its principal officers and begins deliberations on important issues affecting our youthful population.
“The activities of the Ministry for the youth such as the one-week leadership training for Parliamentarians at the Sea school in Apapa in collaboration with the Citizenship and Leadership Training Center (CLTC). This bothers on required leadership qualities, self-discipline, teamwork, and the ability to offer selfless services to their constituencies amongst others.
“The packages for the youth such as DEEL is a flagship initiative and explained that the acronym stands for D – Digital skill acquisition E – Entrepreneurship E – Employability L – Leadership and mentoring.
“This initiative the Ministry will train as many youths as possible in a space of ten (10) years.
“To realize this initiative, the Ministry will work with blue-chip companies. The Ministry is also collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to upgrade six youth development Centers in the country. This effort is being made by the Ministry to meet with the Nigerian Development Bank who has shown great interest in funding these laudable and impactful ideas that will get the attention of youths. A meeting with the AFDB comes up in January 2020 for accessing grants for the youth.”
However, Minister intimated the gathering of the Ministry’s intention to introduce an online platform tagged “NOYA” which is Nigeria Online Youth Assembly. “This platform will showcase opportunities open and available to Nigerian youth both locally and internationally, also relevant links and information will be provided. It could be education, employment, business, political opportunities etc.
“The area of Sports is not left out as the Hon Minister is introducing the Adopt Campaign which has four models viz Adopt an Athlete, Adopt a Pitch, Adopt a Sport and Adopt a Sports center.
“All these are geared towards the development of the youth. Dare admonished the Parliamentarians that the Ministry hopes on them to drive the Engine of growth in the Nation where ethnicity, tribalism, and vices will be a thing of the past.”
In his Opening Address, the current Speaker Nigeria Youth Parliament Rt Hon Mubarak Mijiyawa enumerated the achievements of the Nigerian Youth Parliament since inception such as the organization of Youth conference in Lagos for youth to discuss salient issues and organization of a symposium on climate change in Abuja where trees were planted.
“Nigerian Youth Parliament will continue to advocate against child abuse and sexual harassment and advised delegates to interact with their constituencies to know their problems for discussion as the sitting starts and not to be concerned only on the financial benefits they will derive from the event.
On his own, National speaker children Parliament Rt. Hon Maisara Abdulkadir Abass reiterated the evil of child abuse and said that more than one billion children are abused globally. He called on all to fight and protect our children. He reminded the youth that they are the leaders of tomorrow and wondered why the Nigerian Youth Parliament has not been participating in global events.
On his part the Governor of Kano state,Abdullahi Umar Ganduje represented by the Acting/Deputy Governor of the state Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Dawuna in declaring the session open said the potentials of youths should be tapped for the growth of the nation and advised them to take up the challenge/ responsibility for them to be trusted as Leaders hence the Not Too Young to run Bill. He enjoined them to criticize responsibly especially in the social media and reiterated that the state will create opportunities for the youth to be self-reliant.
A total of One hundred and six (106) delegates from across all the states of the Federation attended the event. Also in attendance is the Kano state commissioner of Youth amongst others.
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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