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Double Your Effort To Sustain NYSC’s Positive Image, DG Charges PR Officers

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Joel Ajayi

The Director General of National Youth Service Corps NYSC Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim has asked the Scheme’s Public Relations Officers to re-double their effort toward sustaining its positive image adding that, their proactive engagement with general public has made the Scheme more visible.

NYSC Boss stated this at the opening ceremony of the scheme Press and Public Relations Officers’ Workshop on Wednesday in Abuja with the theme: “Entrenching New Techniques for Reputation Management in the New Normal.”

The Associate Professor Brig. Gen. Ibrahim who was represented at the occasion by NYSC’s Director of Ventures Mr. Muhammed Momoh commended the NYSC’s mouth-piece for their commitment and dedication to duty which has in no measure contribute to the developmental strides of the Scheme and the positive impact in the Country.

According to him, your proactive engagement with stakeholders and the general public has made the Scheme more visible while sustaining its positive image.

“As you are all aware, the role of Public Relations Officers in any organization is crucial given the fact that they are the image makers of such organizations. The training and retraining of this very important category of officers in the NYSC therefore is significant for the sustenance of the good image of the Scheme.

“It is also in line with Management’s desire to continuously motivate the Scheme’s workforce for better output.

“This workshop is organized to further improve the knowledge of our Public Relations Officers on how to manage the reputation of the Scheme and positively improve its image. Consequently, I implore you to use the forum to identify and address areas of challenges associated with the discharge of your work.

“Specifically, you are to continuously publicize the activities of the corps members in the area of rendering support in containing the spread of COVID-19, the Healthcare Initiative for Rural Dwellers, (HIRD), group and personal Community Development Services of the Corps members, as well as other areas of intervention in national development. You should also sensitize and inform the general public about the inclusion of the NYSC as member of the Federal Government’s Committee on Alternate School programme and the Technical Working Group on Local Content for the Mambilla Hydro-power project among other numerous achievements.

“In line with our quest to improve our operations, Management has commenced the construction of a state-of the-art ICT Center at the National Directorate Headquarters of the Scheme. It is expected that you will bring this, and other developmental strides of the Scheme to the notice of the general public.

He applauded the Public Relation Officers for their prompt responses to false stories concerning the NYSC; “Just as the new media can be deployed to enhance our job of sustaining the visibility for the Scheme, it can equally become a tool for mischief makers. It is therefore imperative that we must always be vigilant to monitor promptly, and refute or correct misconceptions about our operations often circulated by people who use the social media to achieve dubious objectives.

DG therefore, assured the management support and provision of enabling environment to enable them discharge their responsibilities optimally.

Cross section of Participants

In her welcome addressed the Director of Press and Public Publications Mrs Adenike Adeyemi expressed that the Workshop is an annual programme which affords the PR officers a veritable platform to evaluate the Strategies, processes and challenges of managing the image of the Scheme.

She said: “This training therefore seeks to arm the PR officers with the aptitude to deploy effective PR strategies and media technologies required to discharge their mandate successfully in the new normal orchestrated by the current global pandemic.

“I therefore encourage all Workshop participants, to take advantage of this training to retool yourselves for optimum performance in your schedules.

Mrs, Adeyemi equally thanked the Director General for approving the purchase of communication equipment’s for the Orientation Broadcasting Service in our Camps across the nation. “This gesture has certainly enhanced effective and efficient dissemination of information during Orientation programmes.

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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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