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SOUTH-EAST APC PRESIDENCY PROJECT 2023: THAT SAVAGE ATTACK ON APC BY PDP

Our attention has been drawn to the mischievous and regrettable savage attack by Kola Ologbondiyan’s PDP on our party, All Progressives Congress (APC), which is also an attack on a key objective of South-East APC Presidency Project 2023, that is, to use the promise of Nigeria’s President of South-East extraction on APC platform in 2023 to attract decent and progressive individuals still in PDP and other parties to APC.
According to Ologbondiyan, National Publicity Secretary of PDP, “Nigerians expect a few credible individuals still trapped in the APC to immediately leave that pirate ship before it is too late.”
We beg to differ from the PDP on this, as we disagree with them on many of their other jaundiced views. Contrary to the false picture they have painted, the predatory elements in the President Buhari administration are not APC.
They are persons known or unknown to President Buhari who are either PDP or have no known party allegiance. Their mission in the administration is simply to pillage and vicariously give APC a bad name. They are mercenaries in the administration – soldiers of fortune committing atrocities outside APC’s progressive manifesto and ethos.
What APC should do and must do with President of Nigeria of South-East extraction on APC platform from 29th May 2023, would be to sanitize the party by expelling the sort of PDP elements and other mercenaries who from 2015 to date have posed as APC members or sympathizers just to partake in a supposed APC-controlled Federal Government.
We say “supposed” because APC cannot be said to exert any influence in Government policies and actions that our detractors mischievously credit to APC.
That is what Dr Salihu Lukman, Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, alluded to when he said that some so-called APC leaders behaved like “criminal bandits”.
A true progressive does not shy away from the truth, even if an opportunistic anti-people party like the PDP would quickly take advantage of our sincerity and desire to change-the-change in-house.
PDP is not a change agent and should not attempt to deceive Nigerians that it can ever be one; unless it is to change from bad to worst.
APC has a manifesto (a very fine one at that) and PDP should apologize to Nigerians for detailing its mercenaries in the Buhari administration – including Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Agency CEOs, Board Chairmen, Directors, Security and Intelligence Chiefs – to ensure that policies, programmes, projects and practices of the Buhari administration are not reflective of the APC manifesto.
The agenda of South-East APC Presidency Project 2023 is also to religiously implement APC manifesto using only true APC members as government functionaries. APC has a clear progressive ideology and that would manifest in the lives of all Nigerians with Nigeria’s President of South-East extraction from 29th May 2023.
Contrary to PDP mischief, it is the few progressive persons still in PDP (like Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, Governor Nyesom Nwike of Rivers State, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, and Kola Ologbondiyan himself) who should abandon that ship of notorious pirates and roguish characters for the progressive train of our great party, the APC.
Soon, very soon, APC-controlled Federal Government will not have any PDP or non-APC members anywhere near our corridor of power. The sanitization should start in the remaining lap of the Buhari administration but its full implementation would be guaranteed with President of South-East extraction on APC platform from 29th May 2023.
Signed:
Dr. Chinedu Jideofo-Ogbuagu
National Coordinator
South-East APC Presidency Project 2023.
09052910866, 08023163451
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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