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The Unfortunate Hijack Of Enugu Endsars Protest And Its Backlash.

Published

4 years ago

November 5, 2020

By Jeff Ejiofor

Enugu State, known for its peace and tranquility was recently plunged into the worst crisis in the history of its creation by hoodlums under the guise of EndSARS protest. The city, which is peaceful and accommodating to people from all walks of life was turned into a theatre of war in a most devastating manner by miscreants who unleashed unprecedented mayhem on the people. It was indeed unfortunate that what started on a sound note as a peaceful protest snowballed into full-scale violence of unimaginable proportion. It is however believed that the dangerous dimension it took was as a result of its hijack by political opportunists who changed the initial objective out of sheer mischief to serve their parochial selfish interest.

EndSARS protest was a noble initiative by the elitist arm of Nigerian youths to seek justice in the entire Nigerian system. It was a collectively articulated agenda by the Nigerian youths to agitate for their rights in a restructured federation where justice and equity prevail. A move to push for a Nigeria where opportunities abound for the youths irrespective of tribe, section, or religion. It was a call for a country where an institutional framework for good governance will be entrenched from the top to the bottom. Hence, the title EndSARS was simply a platform to anchor the agitation considering the glaring enormity of police brutality through the SARS unit of its command. This, largely informed the all-inclusive 23 point demand presented by the organizers.

Obviously and without mincing words, it is clear that the bulk of what the movement sought to achieve rest on the shoulders of the central government which by virtue of the 1999 constitution, is the custodian of Nigeria’s political destiny and future. As a matter of fact, most states, especially the ones in the southern and central parts of the country have never hidden their displeasure over the structural defect of the current Nigerian political system as imposed by the faulty 1999 military constitution. This probably informed the lopsided dimension taken by the EndSARS solidarity protest which was mainly observed in southern and central Nigeria. It, therefore, suffices to say that even the political class in these disadvantaged parts of Nigeria, who are in the system probably because of political expediency, were actually on the same page with the youths in that noble cause.

It’s therefore unfortunate that some unpatriotic political elements in the society saw it as an opportunity to further their selfish political interest by politicizing and localizing it to the detriment of the original aim. This group of fifth columnists saw in it an opportunity to invite the people against their home governments and perceived political enemies in order to demonize them before the masses. They hired and paid some prominent youths to infiltrate the ranks of protesters with a view to polarizing their minds. That was exactly the case with Enugu State when some sponsored popular artists sought to change the direction of the protest to cause disaffection between Ndi Enugu and their government. It was on this premise that they almost ruined and disrupted the well-intended peaceful protest in Enugu in line with the dictates of their paymasters and in justification of the money they collected. Just as the saying that the guilty are afraid, some of them even went as far as alleging threats to their lives.

Ironically, the same Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State who they intended running down, was among the first governors to respond to EndSARS agitation by setting up a commission of inquiry with adequate representation of the youths. He never confronted them but chose the part of peace to find a lasting solution to the problem. This is in addition to making out time to constantly address them throughout the peaceful processions. He was unarguably one of the few governors that adopted that measure irrespective of his tight schedules. On each occasion, he interacted with them and promised to take actions that will address their grievances. For example, when SARS was disbanded by the federal government, Ugwuanyi did not hesitate in visiting their office to ensure compliance. He personally supervised it to make sure nothing is left undone. All these he did as a responsible and responsive leader to reassure the youths that their voice had been heard loud and clear. My question now is; where did he err?

Well, it’s unfortunate that the Lekki Toll Gate shootings in Lagos provided the needed opportunity for them to actualize their evil intention of hijacking the process. Unknown to them, it took a more dangerous dimension as hoodlums turned against the entire political and economic structure, a situation that would have equally consumed them as well. They had thought that instigating hate against the governor by recruiting people to wage campaigns of calumny would exonerate them and increase their popularity.

Apparently, the unruly conduct of their paid agents which embarrassed the governor at the protest ground may have possibly influenced the reaction of the youths against the government and the good people of Enugu State. The level of damage recorded in the Enugu metropolis is an indication of this instigated resentment against the state. We all know how they struggled to malign the government of Enugu State in their bid to incite the masses against the governor. Like I pointed out earlier, some of them even accused the governor of plotting against their lives just to attract public sympathy and cause resentment.

What played out before the protest turned violent could give an insight into the instigated resentment. That also explains the decision of Gov. Ugwuanyi to remain calm and unruffled throughout the provocative conducts of the hoodlums. He refused to be drawn into open confrontation with the arsonists and miscreants in order to avoid possible loss of lives. This singular action of His Excellency unsettled the naysayers who had wanted Enugu to collapse under his watch. Even in the case of flagrant disobedience of the 24 hrs curfew imposed to control the situation, Ugwuanyi still maintained emotional decorum. However, this his calm disposition was simply to avoid clashes between the hoodlums and security agents that would have led to heavy casualties.

Despite all these, people still struggled to accuse him of high-handedness and indifference. High handed for deploying security agents to quell the crisis and indifferent for allowing the hoodlums to operate unhindered. For God’s sake, what can one do to please human beings? Quite unfortunate!

The same Ugwuanyi is unarguably one of the few governors in Nigeria today that shows enormous concern and interest in the youths. His policies and actions are geared towards youth empowerment and human capital development. He pays so much attention to education and has transformed the sector unimaginably in Enugu State. A peep into the giant strides recorded so far shows that he has turned around the condition of both primary and secondary education in the state with modern facilities of an impeccable standard. It takes a careful appraisal for people to understand the depth of his efforts towards repositioning the state tertiary education and the sector in general.

In the area of the welfare of the youths, Ugwuanyi has outperformed all previous governors of Enugu State put together. He has many schemes tailored to the promotion of entrepreneurship development and youth empowerment. He has been organizing many programs that focus on skill acquisition training and trader empowerment scheme including the ongoing partnership with World Bank where 2000 youths of Enugu State will get a grant of 2m naira each to carry out any business of their choice. He also instituted many scholarship schemes for both domestic and foreign studies, among which were the recent sending of over 30 students of Enugu State extraction to India for ICT training. Award of scholarship to over 500 indigent students of Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo was one of such magnanimous gestures. It will also interest the youths to know that Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s elevation of Enugu workers’ salary is to their benefit as such will empower their parents and guardians to send them to school with ease, unlike in the past when they were the least paid in Nigeria.

Furthermore, he opened up rural roads to connect agrarian communities as another avenue of encouraging youths’ participation in agriculture and this will in turn reposition them economically. Honestly, only a few governors in this country invest in the youths as Ugwuanyi is doing even before the EndSARS uprising. So, I do not in all honesty see the youths of Enugu rising against him for any reason and that was why the plot by political jobbers to sustain their disaffection failed. The outpour of youths to the streets of Enugu to carry out general clean up after the crisis was convincing evidence of their love for Ugwuanyi.

Finally, may I draw the attention of the public to the current efforts being made by the governor to fully restore normalcy and get Enugu State back on track again? He has directed the relevant agencies to identify all critical infrastructure damaged during the crisis and fix them immediately. In keeping with his philosophy of welfarism, he has also constituted a judicial panel of inquiry to evaluate all private property affected by the violent protest including lives lost for adequate compensation by the government. He is obviously one of the few governors that have taken such steps and should be commended rather than vilified. There is nowhere youths will hold him accountable that he has not displayed sufficient interest to handle. The truth is that he lives above board irrespective of a politically orchestrated campaign of calumny by detractors with their eyes on 2023. Indeed I agree that politics is a dirty game if a person with this heart of gold can still be hunted this way. For want of space, I will not dabble into the Enugu palliative hoax and it’s attended false accusations by this same group of seeming outlaws. Full details of what transpired will soon be published for the public to judge. In conclusion, I appeal to agents of destabilization to know that Enugu belongs to all of us, and must be guarded jealously. The uninformed youths who think public assets belong to the governor should be made to understand that it’s not true. The properties belong to all of us and we have a collective duty to protect them.

I rest my case.

Enugu remains in the hands of God!

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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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