It is akin to a revolution: welcome to the big paradigm shift in Nigeria’s tax collection. The shift is from consistently low, inadequate and below targeted tax collection to a record-setting collection of N10.1 trillion in 2022. And the trend of raking in more revenue to finance people-oriented projects continues.
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In a dynamic world where interconnectivity and collaboration are of great importance, the travels of Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago of Niger State should be commended as a proactive step towards attracting partnerships and the much-needed funding to the state as it is no longer news that the state is struggling financially and with how low state’s Internally Generated Revenue is, if funding and collaborations are not sourced from outside the state, the blueprint of His Excellency might not see the light of the day.
Professor Tahir Mamman has just been nominated by President Bola Tinubu as one of his ministers. The academic luminary was successfully screened and confirmed by the National Assembly. A well-deserved nomination as it is, when I tuned in to the live broadcast of the ministerial screening, a captivating scene unfolded. What was supposed to be academic grilling of some sort, turned out be a moment encomium showering. The atmosphere was charged with admiration and respect by the lawmakers, including former students of Prof. Mamman, who stepped forward for testimonies. Their heartfelt testimonials painted a vivid portrait of a dedicated mentor and visionary educator.
In recent history we can remember with every iota of reason how military intervention in some parts of the world ended in a devastating reality. The damages done to the social, economic and political structures of these countries could take generations to be revive.
Former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai’s rumored withdrawal from consideration as a minister in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government because high-tensile inter-elite intrigues torpedoed his senate confirmation and caused the president to sour on him is the bluntest, crudest, most double-dyed political treachery I’ve seen in a long time.
For any one who has paid more than a passing attention to the activities of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in the last four years, the agency’s tax collection receipt in the first six months of 2023 would certainly not be surprising.
For President Bola Ahmed Tinubu it is so easy to stretch our minds back to January 2022 when word went round about his desire to become Nigeria’s next chief helmsman and the vitriol that followed from certain quarters. Indeed while refusing to acknowledge his wonderful and productive eight year reign as governor of Lagos State, some of them totally vilified Ashiwaju at that time and pronounced him as ill, unhealthy and incapable of cohesive thinking and elocution. Even while he tended to his knee challenges and other mild natural health issues he was written off as totally inebriated. At some point some announced that he was dead.
On March 15 2023, Nigerian voters trooped out en masse to offer a verdict for their future by comprehensively trusting Bola Ahmed Tinubu to lead the country through and out of its current limitations around security and the economy, into a future in which people will live secure lives and pursue livelihoods in a united Nigeria whose resources will be protected by leaders.
We join the Nigerian Government, the Authority of Heads of State of ECOWAS and the peoples of West Africa in condemning the coup of 26th July in the Republic of Niger that detained and sought to overthrow the Constitutional order in the Republic of Niger and illegally detained the legitimate Head of State, His Excellency President Mohamed Bazoum as well as members of his family and government;
Roughly three years ago, I penned my thoughts on the impending coup culture in Africa in the pages of this Daily Trust column, dated August 23, 2020, with the title, ‘A Warning Shot from Bamako’. In those lines, I underlined the implications of the coup that had just unfolded in Mali, casting a discerning gaze towards the far-reaching consequences for democracies delicately woven across the continent. “Africa must prepare for the shockwave of the coup,” I wrote, and that it “transmits signals capable of disrupting the continent’s fragile democracy.”