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When Next You Come To Adamawa, You’ll Come As President Of Nigeria – Lamido Of Adamawa To Amaechi

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…Amaechi respects and support the people of Northern Nigeria – Ex-Gov Bindow

The Lamido of Adamawa, Muhammadu Barkindo Mustapha, has tipped Presidential Aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Rt Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as the next President of Nigeria.

The Lamido, prayed for Amaechi and pledged to continually pray for him to emerge victorious as President, stating that Nigerians need to enjoy the dividends of good governance like the people of Rivers State enjoyed during Amaechi’s 8-year tenure as Governor of Rivers State.

Lamido Mustapha made the statement when Amaechi paid him a courtesy visit on the sidelines of his consultative visit to APC delegates in Adamawa State, Monday.

He said, “Thank you very much for the courtesy visit. I pray to Almighty Allah, to help with your efforts to become the President of this country, so that we’ll enjoy what Rivers people enjoyed when you were Governor for eight years.

“I hope everything Will be alright for you and I hope that when next you come to Yola, you will come as President of this country. I will continue to pray for you to achieve your objective, easily and quickly.”

At the meeting with the delegates in Yola, leader of the APC in the State, immediate past Governor of Adamawa and associate of Amaechi, Sen. Jubrilla Bindow, told the delegates that Amaechi would be the best candidate for the APC as he understands the plight of Nigerians and respects the yearnings of every region of the country including the North.

According to Bindow, “The delegates are members of the APC family, and as a former Governor of this State, I am proud to bring someone that knows you, someone who has feelings for you, someone who respects you, someone who loves you. That person is Amaechi.

“I was praying as a Governor then, to know and meet and work with this gentleman called Amaechi, simply because his antecedents, his reputation precedes him. He respects and supports the people of the entire Northern Nigeria.”

“Amaechi was the commander of the movement at that particular time to engage five governors (to the APC), without them today, there’s no APC, because we were at the red chamber at the time, we were coordinating with them and we know what really happened. Your Excellency (Amaechi), I want to seize this opportunity to thank you for all the sacrifices and your love for our father, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. For because of that love, you came out, all the way from Port Harcourt to save APC, even though your life was in danger at that time,” Bindow said.

He urged all Adamawa delegates to vote for Amaechi at the party primaries for the good of the State and for Nigeria.

During his address to the delegates, Amaechi charged them to judge him by his antecedents and performance in every position he has handled, and make the right choice by voting for him to emerge candidate of the APC for the 2023 presidential election.

He said, “If there’s a place I’m expecting hundred percent of votes, Adamawa is one of those States. We cannot win without your votes. The problem of Nigeria is numerous, but the greatest problem is the followership. If you choose the right leader, things won’t go bad. Judge me by my past records, do research. There’s a history book of Nigeria written by Richard Bourne, go and check, my name is there, enumerating the things I did.

“If I was not a good leader, my colleagues wouldn’t have voted me a second time to be Chaiman of the Conference of Speakers. Don’t forget I was Chairman of Governors’ Forum, and when I was running for a second term, I was opposed by then President, Goodluck Jonathan, and my colleagues stood by me and I won. There must be something in me that is making my colleagues push me forward,” Amaechi said.

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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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