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Why northern Nigeria should not reject tax reforms

Is Tax Reform against islamic law? Will VAT be charged on muslim inheritance?

May, I will refer us to the Holy Quran, the Holy Book that guides (with the support of Hadith) our actions as Muslims; Al-Qur’an is the word of Allah SUBHANAHU WA TA’ALA – incontestable, unambiguous, and undeniable. In the Holy Quran, in Surah Al-Anbiya (21:7), Allah SWT Tells Muslims to seek for knowledge and understanding on matters that are beyond their understanding. The Tafsir of Ayat as also elaborated by Hadiths, is very succinct and clear with regard to how Muslims should engage in things that are beyond our understanding or areas of specialization. To that extent, I urge our religious leaders, that when matters that have to do with economics, politics, or indeed areas that require specific specializations, which are beyond their scope or understanding, then they should contemplate and proceed with this Ayat in mind. We have very sound and intelligent Northern Nigerians who can objectively do evaluate to such specialist areas. More than that we should also be able to get multiple opinions on such matters. Indeed, I will also suggest that religious leaders and traditional rulers, should speak last on such matters or midway into the matters, such that they would have gotten full briefing from diverse opinions, which will guide their contemplations as they guide us all. Certainly, the religious leaders and traditional leaders are supposed to be the guides of the conscience of our societies, and they are also the beacons that shine the light to the right pathways we should follow. That is why in my opinion, sometimes rushing to be in the forefront to speak on sensitive matters without adequate research and contemplation, may be counterproductive. Indeed, I totally align with the fact that our Clerics (the Ulamas) need to rise to the occasion, whenever such thorny issues come up, so as to guide people’s thinking and actions to ensure peace, stability and progress.

That being said, I intend to shed some light on some grey areas in the proposed Tax Bill, in case it will help to give more perspectives that will guide the thoughts and decisions of our Ulamas, traditional rulers and also importantly the entire Muslim Ummah in northern Nigeria.

For example, the question about if the bill antithetical to Islamic injunctions? I have come across various write-ups by highly respected intellectuals and academics in northern Nigeria, erroneously referring to a section of the Bill, giving the notion that the bill will charge tax on inheritance, after the reform is done. Those respectable scholars are making specific reference to chapter 2, part 1, section 4, sub-section 3 of the National Tax Bill; titled “Income, profits or gains chargeable to tax”. This section states and I quote; “Income of a family recognized under any law or custom in Nigeria as family income in which several interests of individual members of the family cannot be separately determined”. The section is clearly referenced in error, because the section is not speaking about “inheritance”, but about “income”. In the entire Bill there is no proposal to tamper or deduct tax from inheritance which is forbidden in Islam.

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Is Tax Reform anti-north?

90% of the vulnerable Nigerians, and all low income (minimum wage) earners will be exempted from this Tax in the proposed Bill. So, as a northerner, where about 70% of the about 133 million multidimensionally poor Nigerians are residents and surviving and struggling under the vagaries of socioeconomic headwinds, the reform should be pleasing to us.

In the case of VAT. I am a strong proponent, allocation by derivation or allocation by consumption. Because that is the sharing formula that will ensure balance and equity and not the current VAT sharing arrangement which favors only Lagos and Rivers States to the disadvantage of the other 34 States and FCT. For instance, for Sokoto where BUA is producing Sokoto Cement, the current policy says because the headquarters of BUA is in Lagos, almost the entire VAT goes to Lagos. The new VAT law proposal is telling us that a chunk of VAT will be paid back to Sokoto State, and not Lagos. Is that anti-north? In my own opinion by simple arithmetic, the people of Sokoto should be happy that now they have an opportunity for them earn significant increase in income.

The same scenario applies to my state, Kano State. If you look at MTN subscriptions, as an example. According to NBS, for MTN subscribers in the first quarter of last year, 2023;

Lagos had 26 million subscribers, Ogun State was next with over 13 million, then Kano State with over 12 million, Bayelsa had 1.6million, while Ebonyi State had 1.6million subscribers. What the proposed reform is telling us, is that, MTN will now not pay the chunk of VAT that accrue from all the subscriptions in the entire Country to Lagos. But the in the new arrangement, each State will get the chunk of the VAT that accrued in that state based on the subscriber usage in State, i.e. It means that the VAT paid by those 12 million subscribers will be accounted for and prorated and be sent back to Kano State (which will increase the income). Whereas as it is today, almost all the states in Nigeria lose to Lagos just as an instance. Is that anti-north? The answer is, No.

Northeast development Commission (NEDC) is the only Development Commission in Nigeria funded with VAT

Its worthy of note that it is only North East Development Commission (NEDC) is the only Development Commission in Nigeria that is funded with VAT. 3% of the Gross annual VAT collection in the entire Country is deducted (before sharing) is paid directly to NEDC “as first line charge, to accrue to the Commission for a period of 10 years, notwithstanding the provisions of any other law” as one of its source of funding, in line with the provisions of the NEDC Act.

Interestingly, President Tinubu asked that the provision should not be tampered with, nor should the NEDC act be amended. All the other regional development commissions i.e NDDC, SEDC, and SWDC, and even the NWDC that is undergoing legislation are being funded or to be funded from the “monthly statutory allocations due to member States from the federation Account – his being contribution of the Federal Government”, in line with provisions of the respective Acts of the regional commissions.

With a Budgetary allocation of about N131bn in 2024 NEDC alone, recognizing the impact of Boko Haram insurgency to the region and the need to revitalize the region with such provision; how could we say that the reform is anti-north. This is so especially when other regions are not protesting this deduction from the VAT as a first line charge. Is this also anti-north? Certainly not!

Conclusion

The integrity of the process is a critical success factor. Therefore, the parliamentary process must be proper and it must follow due process. Therefore, the Federal Government should not give the impression that the bill is being forced down the throats of Nigerians. To that extent, I commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for directing the Ministry of Justice to engage stakeholders and ensure that all the necessary inputs are made. I advocate that the consultations should on pari passu the legislative process; because time is of essence.

I strongly advise all well-meaning Nigerians to read the Bill, and not to wait until they are told about the bill by politicians. We need to go through the proposal and where we don’t understand, we should seek understanding from those who may be subject matter experts.

I am of the view that the Bill is worth a review and evaluation by northern Nigerians. There are areas that we need to look at and address critical issues and negotiate where necessary. However, I believe that allowing politicians to push us to reject the bill will not be in the interest of Muslims, northern Nigerians, and Nigerians in general. We should go through the bill so that we can consult, engage, debate and negotiate (if need be). That is the essence of democracy.

God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

December 6, 2024
The inevitable renewal agenda for NAHCON

In perfect confirmation of the Islamic perception of indecent people who lack shame and are always ready to act out their recklessness, the propagandists are again at work. They wanted to skew the information about the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, such that the leadership that is just berthing is bedeviled? In what worse manner could the immediacy and virality of online information be optimally exploited for deceit and ironically for matters relating to the deen of Islam? The alleged sleaze, so saddening, of the immediate past NAHCON leadership was rather too humongous and too recent to be easily swept under the carpet, its worth noting.

Alhamdulilah for the reassuring divine assertion of the Almighty Allah to the effect that that after hardship shall come relief. Certainly, the wish of every sincere Muslim in Nigeria with a fair knowledge of the situation with Hajj management is the restoration of wisdom and even enhancement of same. Only Allah has the capacity to make good things happen.

It was almost a completely hopeless situation until the Federal Government finally took the renewed hope agenda to the National Hajj Commission, NAHCON after suddenly retiring the versatile hajj management czar, Ustaz Zikrullah Hassan. Till date, Polyglot Hassan is the only Chairman of NAHCON who has had a most respectable mix of experience of managing hajj successfully in both the private and public sectors. Indeed, he managed Osun State Hajj Board without any board constituted for eight years and the pilgrims all over the state remain in awe of Ustaz till date. Beyond the Osun pilgrims, Hassan’s fellow chairmen of hajj boards in all the 36 states of the federation and Abuja also conceded leadership to him on account of visible sterling qualities

While at NAHCON therefore, Ustaz Hassan had commenced institutionalizing structures that should endure for ages. As a thoroughbred professional (he’s a lawyer and business management expert) with strong inclination for creativity as well as continuity where necessary, he ran 2022 and 2023 hajj operations harmoniously. Such was the glowing performance that the leadership of the hajj boards of all participating West African countries adopted him as their leader! (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/546419-the-nahcon-intervention-in-nigerias-diplomatic-profiling-by-tunde-akanni.html?tztc=1)

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Resplendent in sheer exhibitionism of a bad salesman, the succeeding regime took off on a lousy note characteristic of toddlers learning to tread with large army of idlers anxious to flaunt their pathfinding role. The path they found turned out to be the road to perdition with the detailed disservice done the ummah playing out till date.

The choice of a professor therefore was a most fitting reinforcement to the glorious era of Ustaz Zikrullah Hassan which ended abruptly just when the preparation for 2024 Hajj started gathering momentum.

Why should Professor Saleh Usman Pakistan not glorify professorship further by replicating the performance of the brother Professor at the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Is-haq Oloyede described by their shared principal, President Bola Tinubu, as an uncommon scholar and an icon of integrity? Like Oloyede of JAMB, Pakistan’s academic affiliation is Arabic and Islamic Studies. Pakistan’s fortune is probably stronger with the presence on the NAHCON board, a heavily credentialed scholar and two-time vice chancellor of impeccable integrity, Prof Mahfouz Adedimeji, ably representing the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA.

What will Pakistan do wrong by emulating his contemporary’s good qualities to earn himself and families, earthly applause as well as Allah’s favours confidently and most importantly present Islam in the best mould to the world?

Transparency matters a lot. As is the case with Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, of JAMB, operators in the Hajj sector are quick to tell anyone interested that the preparations for the next Hajj commences almost immediately the one just concluded was over. Annually, JAMB is never contented with keeping mum over its trials and triumphs. It presents the scorecard of her performance to the world for proper understanding. The world can therefore comment competently on JAMB matters even as some comments are informed and some others may not be necessary at all being unfounded and completely irrelevant.

Transparency pays all stakeholders and enables all to aspire to act right and promptly too. It signals accountability and attracts a lot of respect to those officials who are compliant. The ummah in Nigeria is anxious to see NAHCON rise gloriously back to the path of honour.

As a public trust, the commission should endeavour to earn the confidence of pilgrims from all parts of the country in ways most harmonious. The President has unmistakably demonstrated the importance of this most convincingly. What with the recent ‘transplanting’ of whole council team of the Federal University Oye Ekiti to Federal University, Lokoja and that of Lokoja to Oye Ekiti? The idea was to ensure a pan-Nigerian outlook for the leadership of the two universities, the press statement announcing the change stated.

The Saleh Usman leadership should be able to build on the sincere growth and developmental efforts of Ustaz Hassan especially now that Hassan stands vindicated in spite of blackmailers campaign against him like they are already up in hostility against Saleh Usman even before seeing him settle.

Though not a media professional, Hassan appreciated the need for a code of practice for journos that may be enlisted to cover hajj for NAHCON. For the first time in 2023, the code was introduced. The code may need to be updated and perfected but will surely help substantially in the coverage of hajj beyond sheer casual stringing. This is particularly necessary because of the need for authenticated information on the sacred exercise as different from any social, political or ceremonial facet of human life. This may therefore call for a thorough and coordinated orientation for all journos from across all state boards and even the private tour operators. Thankfully, there is ample technology to make this happen if NAHCON endorses this.

The scholar that Saleh Usman is should even up the stake as someone familiar with research and development especially as applicable to the trend of radicalisation of the communication sector changing by the day with possibilities bourgeoning. Documentation of hajj should enjoy trendy technological skills including livestreaming such that the media team should be made to realise that the new leadership will encourage team members to update skills as NAHCON may only patronize only the trendy ones. No media organisation should be made to believe that NAHCON cannot make any choice different from them as had been the practice over the years.

The logic that Prof Saleh Usman should reckon with is that this is the same way digital media innovations have been multiplying and manifesting novel capacities to endear themselves to users fanning up stiff competitions with newer possibilities.

Prof Saleh Usman hardly needs be told that hajj, with little or no subsidy as may be the case this year, calls for high grade prudence but this could even be done with more honour if NAHCON can simply adopt the stipulations of the protocols of Open Government Parnership, OGP, long signed by President Buhari, which will signal to the world that indeed this new leadership signals a very clear departure from that of the corruption ridden and grossly incompetent immediate past leadership.

With Prof Saleh Usman’s pedigree, one may simply conclude that NAHCON will head for greater performance.

But how soon will this be? He has my best wishes.

Akanni, PhD, associate professor of journalism at LASU, is a veteran hajj reporter.

December 6, 2024
Worst of times for global security and stability

When we read Charles Dickens’ “A tale of two cities” in 1960 as one of our West African literature examination books for that year, we did not quite appreciate what picture the author was painting about Europe towards the end of the 18th century when he wrote it was the best of times and it was the worst of times, we were all going to heaven and we were all going to hell and so on and so forth in contrasting images of those times.

Our knowledge of pre- French revolutionary Europe was not quite deep. In any case, how could we in the backwoods of the world understand what happened in European history unless we were students of history? Like most of our subjects in pre and post-independence Nigeria, we were poorly taught including not only the sciences and mathematics, but also the liberal arts especially literature in English. We made do with memorizing whatever we didn’t understand because some of our teachers probably didn’t understand what they were teaching us. One teacher of mine trying to explain “cross gartered” stockings started twisting one leg on top of the other like a Yoruba masquerade until he fell to the ground to the embarrassment of everyone. Explaining the pattern on the stockings of a noble man was simply beyond his ken!

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Our English literature teachers in secondary schools in Nigeria in 1960 were Africans who had never stepped out of Africa before. Some schools were lucky to have English teachers teaching English language and literature. People reading our scripts after examinations probably would not have known about how superficial our knowledge of the subjects we offered was. But later on, from our travels, we understood the interface between most of our school subjects and lived experiences in Europe and this may be why many of our children nowadays do very well in foreign countries when exposed to better facilities, museums ,libraries, laboratories, mass media and appropriate pedagogy. My generation and those before us struggled gallantly to acquire Western education despite the inappropriateness and inadequacies of it as we now find it.

I hope my readers will permit this diversion from the core of my message. All I can say for these times is that we are living in the worst of times at least in most underdeveloped countries but most in particular, in Africa. We have never had it so bad! In my life time up to date, we have seen our country become independent and a sovereign nation. Those of us young at that time inherited the deep state so to say. Our generation became professors, captains of industry and commerce, administrators, governors of states, permanent secretaries, military generals, state ministers and commissioners and even presidents before the whole state structure collapsed on us because of poor management, greed, corruption, roguery, selfishness lack of patriotic fervour and other negative things that can pull a country down.

We have now thrown our country into economic downturn and doldrums and reduced our countries to playthings in the hands of operators of international finance and manipulators of racist global pecking order in which the fairer skin you possess, the better chance you have for personal and national survival and advancement.

I read an article in an English paper that seriously said that the problems facing mankind is due to overpopulation, overdependence on governments, indulgence and too much freedom which we have taken for license and that only wars can solve our current global problems. The cynical writer went through several episodes of global revolutionary changes and catastrophes leading to drastic reductions of population by direct consequence of wars and collateral damages and through diseases and pandemics like the Spanish influenza that came after the human wastage of the First World War and recently the Covid-19 which killed seven million approximately in the world. Even though the writer welcomed advances in medicine that have cut the deleterious effects of diseases, he nevertheless suggested that reduction in deaths was not necessarily good unless accompanied by controlled population increases and not the geometric rise we have seen in global population which has become a ticking bomb that is waiting to explode anytime soon. The writer was convinced that unless we go through such global cataclysmic population reductions as experienced in wars and pandemics, we would continue to have the challenge of growth and development occasioning environmental abuse and serious and threatening climate change as we have in today’s world.

The question then is should we welcome and embrace the civic and humane collapse of international order in which stronger nations attack weaker ones with all the ferociousness that modern weapons short of nuclear weapons can inflict? The war of Russia on Ukraine, a smaller country just wanting to survive is a case in point. Russia may justifiably feel threatened by an ever expanding NATO but unleashing ferocious war on a smaller and hitherto fraternal neighbour is not and cannot be justified under international law and protocol. The same goes for the genocidal war of Israel on Gaza and Lebanon and the unrestrained Russian bombing of Arabs in Syria in aid of so-called Syrian regime, whether provoked or not cannot be justified on human level.

The internal violence in Myanmar between the government and rebel forces cannot be justified solely on preservation of national unity. How many people deserve to be killed because of the struggle for national unity? Does the dead unite with the living in this case? Thank God we don’t have many of these wars in Africa but we have ethnic wars fuelled by the search for precious metals needed in developed countries for electric vehicles’ butteries and mobile phones and other gadgets needed in the technological world. The DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) for almost two decades has suffered because of such wars leading to loss of millions of souls there and neighbouring countries like Central African Republic CAR, Angola, Chad, Southern Sudan and Sudan itself. Even though Africa’s borders are poorly defined leading to feeling of irredentism in parts of the Maghreb and the Horn of Africa, for now, Africa has been largely spared of such wars that have sometimes ruined relations in Europe and South America. This does not permit smugness on the part of Africans that we are spared the destructive wars of other lands because Africa was not only drawn to both the first and second world wars, it will surely be drawn to any major breakdown of international order whose origin may be far from the African continent because the world is a global village.

The United States increases its already overwhelming arsenal on the grounds of need to defend democracy in Taiwan against China while the Chinese are doing the same on the grounds of the need to bring Taiwan into union with the people on the Mainland of Peoples Republic of China. The Chinese wants to dominate the South China Sea and rightly sees the Americans as interlopers. The Americans would resist the emergence of China as a global and economic power.

The point to make is that the sky is big enough for all birds small and big to fly. Why should America arrogate to itself the role of global gendarme? The America of Donald Trump and its Make America Great Again (MAGA) mission of going it alone and doing whatever pleases it on global issues of the economy and the environment does not augur well for global peace. International order since 1945 has been maintained by well attested global system based on international law and justice and no one country should change it, because as fragile as it is, it has worked reasonably well all these years. North Korea even though demographically smaller than South Korea is building a nuclear arsenal to force a richer South Korea with its poorer self without asking the crucial question of what the people want. At the rate the world is becoming unsafe for non-nuclear powers, it is only a question of time before Japan, Germany, Brazil, Iran, Turkey, Argentina, Ukraine and possibly Saudi Arabia force themselves into the nuclear club. Already, nuclear India is poised on jumping on nuclear state Pakistan in a war of mutual annihilation.

If we are not careful, what we will have is a strategy of the grave in which the whole world unites to self-destruct. Unfortunately, even though we seem to foresee this scenario, it will take superhuman efforts and intelligence and international movement and willpower to summon the political courage and effort necessary to prevent global self-destruction. That is if before that time the environment has not collapsed because of the present sustained level of abuse and degradation leading to eventual self-destruction.

December 5, 2024
Tale of 753 duplexes and ‘ghost owner’

Things cannot get foggier than this. The people asked for the identity of the owner or owners of the sprawling 753 duplexes in the Lokogoma area of Abuja recovered by the anti-graft agency only to be hit by a long and windy explanation. I am sorry to say that the people have yet to get the much-sought clarification from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Its explanation left much to be desired.

It beats my imagination the sort of theory that the EFCC propounded over the ownership of the eye-popping estate. When it celebrated what it called the single-largest recovery ever in its 21-year history on Monday, it did so with relish. It hailed itself for doing what had never been done before. It should also have berated itself for not naming the owner of the property in its euphoria. Its explanation the next day, I beg to say, begs the issue. Who is the owner of the estate? Why is it difficult for EFCC to tell Nigerians who he is?

It evaded these questions in a legal mumbo-jumbo under which it attempted to explain why it failed to discharge the simple task of telling the public what they have the right to know. EFCC is a public institution funded with tax payers’ money. Its loyalty is to the public and not to any tiny group of powerful people whose activities have been detrimental to the well-being of the country. It is this same group that it is trying to shield. It is a big surprise that EFCC will celebrate such a landmark recovery without considering it important to name and shame the owner of the property.

I do not understand the game that EFCC is playing. Its statement and the affidavit in support of the motion it filed in court on November 25 are at variance. In the statement, it claimed that the owners of the property are not known, but in the affidavit, it linked former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele to the estate. In law, an action in rem such as the one under which it brought the forfeiture application does not usually contain names of an individual or organisation since it is assumed that the parties are unknown. This is why it is a legal proceeding against a thing and not a person, as in the case of action in personam.

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The purpose of an action in rem is defeated where the defendant/s is/are known. This is exactly what happened in this instant case in which EFCC wants the world to applaud it for making the single-largest recovery in its history. It would have been something to applaud if it had gone the whole hog and named the property owner, without recourse to any legal machination to becloud the issue. Its affidavit says it all, but its statement is an art in being economical with the truth. Why hold back in the statement after making full disclosure in the court papers? What is EFCC afraid of? There are no other deductions to be made from the affidavit than to link the 753 duplexes to Emefiele and his gang.

I do not believe though that the agency is involved in a cover up. It could be that it is only being careful. I however hold strongly that, that care should have been exhibited in the affidavit and not in the statement. To me, as a layman, and taking the affidavit at its face-value, everything points at Emefiele as having a link to those duplexes. The affidavit said inter-alia: “the commission, while investigating the alleged monumental fraud carried out by the immediate past CBN governor and his cronies, traced and discovered several properties reasonably suspected to have been acquired and or developed with proceeds of unlawful activities.

“The property highlighted in Schedule A to this application (Plot 109 Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja, measuring 150,468.86sqm), the said duplexes (italics mine), is one of the said properties recovered…” What is there more to say about the ownership of the property? The facts speak for themselves (ipso facto). If these averments have not spoken for themselves about the ownership of those duplexes, then I do not know what will. How can an individual own 753 duplexes in a land where many sleep under the bridge? It is insane.

December 5, 2024
Much ado about tax reforms

The Tax Reform Bills continue to generate heat because of the position of some that they are meant to pauperise them and their people. I do not wish to reduce the debate to ‘us against them’ or ‘one region versus the other’, which obviously is the intent of many opposed to the bills. They want to pitch one section of the country against the other over an issue which can be ironed out without rancour or calling themselves out. There are gains in the bills. It is just for those opposed to them to cool down and see the positive sides. The bills may not be perfect, but they are a good place to start from to revitalise and rejuvenate the tax system.

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The truth is the payment of tax is lopsided against the poor. Many of the rich evade tax. You only see them rushing to pay, often in arrears, when the need arises. This must stop. The poor cannot continue to carry the rich. It is the other way round in developed economies. Also, there is no need for the row over value added tax (VAT), whether it is shared on the basis of consumption or production. What is important is that no part of the country will go empty handed. More details on this topic in future.

December 5, 2024
Banks and their funny game

What have I not seen in the hands of Guaranty Trust Bank, now known as GTCO in the past few days? I reported last week that the bank credited my account with N20000 out of the N30000 failed transaction for which I was debited on November 4. I did not write about another N100000 failed transaction which I had earlier reported to Sterling Bank as I was awaiting their finding. Upon investigation, GTCO was again blamed for the problem.

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Armed with a document from Sterling, I took up the issue with GTCO on November 28. The bank denied any wrongdoing, only for it to credit my account on the night of the same day to the tune of that amount. Meanwhile, it is saying nothing about my N10000 balance. I am writing this on December 4, a whole 31 days after the failed N30000 transaction. I am tired of writing about this week in, week out, but if it is what it takes to get my money bank, why not?

December 5, 2024
Bankers or bandits?

Money is a promise. It binds dreams both to the tangible and intangible, yet in finance, this covenant is often betrayed. The banking halls, once the sanctuaries of trust, thus become arenas of exploitation where poor, unsuspecting depositors are fleeced by systems as ravenous as they are opaque.

Beneath the glitter of marble countertops and varnished boardrooms, subsists a rot so pervasive it calls into question the very foundations of Nigeria’s financial edifice.

It is against this backdrop that the Nigerian House of Representatives sought to enact a glimmer of accountability. In October 2024, lawmakers deliberated on a bill to amend the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act, targeting the pervasive plague of fraudulent deductions from customers’ accounts. But within banking boardrooms, this attempt at reform was welcomed with sneers.

A prominent banker quipped that the bill was “dead on arrival,” while others in polished suits laughed knowingly. History lends weight to their cynicism—similar legislative huffs have resulted in no meaningful curb on the excesses of these financial institutions. Lawmakers have lamented the predatory practices of commercial banks in 2020, 2022, and now in 2024, in the tenor of armchair Trotskys with a hankering to mount the soapbox just to spout off and be seen. The bankers, in their private theatre, deride them knowing that the Nigerian state, so fond of its regulatory theatre, will eventually bow to moneyed interests.

This cynical certainty is not misplaced. The Nigerian state has often barked at corruption, only to succumb to the seductive whistle of compromise. Due to its impotence,

bankers engage in exploitative practices more brazenly – further burnishing a system designed to siphon wealth from the vulnerable to fete the powerful.

The poor and the working class bear the brunt, trapped in a web of illegal deductions, exorbitant loan interest rates, and a lack of transparency. For them, survival is a daily negotiation, and the banks have mastered the art of weaponizing this desperation.

The litany of abuses begins with illegal charges. For years, Nigerian banks have perfected the art of surreptitiously deducting funds from customers’ accounts under the guise of service fees. These deductions often go unnoticed, their cumulative effect devastating to the small depositors who rely on every naira to survive. When questioned, the banks offer convoluted justifications, or worse, silence. This malpractice feeds a cycle of distrust, yet most Nigerians, shackled by economic dependency, find themselves unable to sever ties with these institutions.

Compounding this is the suffocating weight of high-interest loans. In 2024, as the Central Bank of Nigeria raised benchmark rates to combat soaring inflation, banks gleefully passed on the burden to borrowers. Interest rates on loans now climb as high as 35%, with hidden fees inflating the effective rates even further. Small business owners, farmers, and middle-class Nigerians seeking to sustain their enterprises or cover emergencies are caught in a financial stranglehold. These loans, far from being a lifeline, often become chains, dragging borrowers deeper into poverty while enriching executives with bonuses tied to bank profits.

Beyond the predatory interest rates lies a darker underbelly: outright theft and embezzlement. The recent revelation of a former bank manager orchestrating a digital N40 billion fraud underscores the systemic vulnerabilities. For years, this individual exploited his position to siphon funds into personal accounts, his audacity matched only by the institution’s negligence. It was only the persistence of an aggrieved customer that unraveled the scheme.

Across the banking sector, insider borrowing has equally become an endemic problem. Executives grant themselves and their associates loans under favourable terms, often with no intention of repayment. These loans, euphemistically classified as “non-performing,” are eventually written off, the losses absorbed by depositors or the public purse. The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), designed to protect depositors, frequently steps in to bail out these institutions, effectively socializing the losses while privatizing the profits.

Nowhere is the rot more glaring than in the intersection of banking and politics. A certain former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) serves as a cautionary tale of unchecked power. Allegations of “monumental fraud” and his alleged linkage to the acquisition of a sprawling estate of about 753 properties in Abuja exemplify the nexus between financial malfeasance and political impunity. These assets, reportedly funded through illicit forex transactions, reveal the ease with which public trust can be converted into private gain. While the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission touts the recovery of these properties as a landmark victory, it does little to alleviate the systemic corruption that allowed such accumulation in the first place.

The consequences of these malpractices are not abstract. They are borne by everyday Nigerians whose lives are entwined with a banking system that views them as prey. For the single mother trying to keep her children in school, the illegal deductions might mean a day without food. For the farmer seeking a loan to expand operations, the exorbitant interest rates could spell the end of a generational livelihood. For the entrepreneur, the opaque charges could be the difference between growth and bankruptcy.

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The ripple effects extend beyond individuals. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which form the backbone of the Nigerian economy, are stifled by a lack of affordable credit. Agricultural projects languish as funds intended for their support are siphoned off by corrupt officials and bank insiders. The resulting stagnation perpetuates a cycle of poverty, unemployment, and underdevelopment.

The persistence of these issues is a testament to the failure of Nigeria’s regulatory and judicial systems. The CBN, ostensibly the guardian of financial probity, has often been complicit, either through inaction or deliberate neglect. Regulatory bodies lack the teeth to enforce compliance, while a culture of political patronage ensures that influential offenders face no consequences.

Moreover, the structure of the Nigerian economy creates a near-total dependency on banks. For most citizens, alternatives are nonexistent. Digital transactions, foreign transfers, and access to credit bind customers to these institutions, making the prospect of a boycott or systemic reform seem almost unattainable. In a nation where digital transactions and loans have become lifelines, the suggestion of a banking boycott is akin to asking a starving man to forsake food.

To restore faith in the banking sector, Nigeria must embark on a comprehensive overhaul – a measure the incumbent CBN governor, Yemi Cardoso, isn’t too timid to adopt perhaps. This begins with enforcing transparency in bank charges and interest rates. Regulatory bodies must adopt zero tolerance for illegal deductions and establish mechanisms for swift redress. Loan terms should be standardized to protect borrowers from exploitative practices, and interest rate spreads must be capped to reflect economic realities.

Equally important is addressing insider corruption. Bank executives and board members found guilty of embezzlement should face the full weight of the law, with personal assets seized to compensate victims. Political influences must be curtailed through legislative reforms that insulate financial institutions from external pressures. Public awareness campaigns can also empower citizens to hold banks accountable, fostering a culture of vigilance and advocacy.

The Nigerian banking sector stands at a crossroads. It can continue down its current path, perpetuating cycles of exploitation and distrust, or it can choose reform, rebuilding itself as a bastion of transparency and equity. The choice, however, is not solely the banks’ to make. It requires collective action from regulators, lawmakers, and the public to demand a system that serves the people rather than preys upon them.

Until then, the promise of money as a covenant of trust will remain, in Nigeria, a bitterly broken dream.

December 5, 2024
NOA cartoons; ‘Pensions before palliatives’, Pls

Nigeria needs Argentinian style cuts in its political posts.

At least 27/200 Nigerians dead in Kogi boat accident. Can Nigerian garment factories not make 10,000 life jackets? Even discarded empty water bottles can be made into rafts and life jackets. Should adults kill their children through such neglect? WEAR A LIFE JACKET TODAY!

There was a wonderfully cartoon super boy in a motivational skit where one person ruined the work of many, on TV – commendable. The end credit read ‘Powered by National Orientation Agency’. Hurray, NOA, congratulations for championing the ‘morally clean’ Nigeria First cartoon drive. However blanket banning foreign cartoons, unless morally illegal, is overkill, draconian. Talking of film credits, other governments, even Ghana, Senegal and South Africa, are frequently credited for grants supporting their home film industries. Nigerian governments must include film making in their budgets and give similar film grants at LGAs, state and federal government level.

Nigerian writers, designers and film location experts need to consciously create Nairaphilic costumes, emblazoned with Nigerian fashion brands and places, ‘I Love Lagos’ or ‘…Bodija’ or ‘…Barkin Ladi’ with African/Nigeria pictures and symbols and Nigerian colours on their walls, bags, hats, T shirts and clothing.

There are a growing number of great Nigerian cartoons around. Cartoons are costly to make and then, purchase expensive airtime, expected to compete with commercial product advertising. Moral cartoon and social messaging space should be better negotiated, helped by NOA, to reduce access cost to give adequate space and time to ‘Youth Motivational and Empowerment Messaging’.

Moral decay is all around. Moral enlightenment should be in ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Time and Space’ of the electronic and print media which is uncriticised when it comes to assessment for CSR commitment. For 30 years we at Educare Trust have fought for and got 1% OF PRETAX PROFIT IDENTIFIED AS THE GOLD STANDARD FOR CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. Ask MTN. Few corporate bodies live up to 1% CSR. Educare Trust also recommends that every large or small company CSR TRACK RECORD SHOULD BE A SPECIFIC REQUIREMENT submitted for evaluation and grading along with the professional competence grading as qualifying criteria for private and public sector contractors and partners. We also fought during the same 30 years for 10% OF DAILY ADVERT TIME IN RADIO, TV, AND 10% ADVERTISING SPACE OF EVERY ADVERT IN PRINT AND SOCIAL MEDIA TO BE ALLOCATED TO SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT MESSAGING. These steps are urgent countermeasures to the moral and social decay today! NOA can help with laws and honours to achieve these.

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Government asks itself: ‘Pay Pensions or Palliatives?’ Citizens demand ‘Pay Arrears of Pensions before Palliatives’.

The federal government just announced that pension arrears for 2023 to date will be paid ‘subject to the availability of funds’. In contrast, government distributed billions as palliatives to people they do not know or owe and who have never worked for government. Government ‘which cannot eliminate pension arrears accumulated through systemic failure of its own party from nine years in office’ offers to pay ‘palliatives/incentives for out-of-school children’ to go to and stay in school. Free education for the few by the back door?

JUST MAKE EDUCATION TO SS3 FREE-FOR-ALL! Remember Awolowo? A wise man pays his debts to his former staff before asking their successor staff to ignore those same hungry predecessors and give their money to passers-by. A recipe for disillusionment and further moral decay. This is another needless discussion which needs urgent reversal, like the despicable 18year minimum age to enter university, thankfully reversed with sack of the offending minister.

Has government thought through this ‘pension payment subject to availability of funds’? It is outright ‘Breach of International Human Rights Law and Contract’, an insult to our heroic retired workers, especially the majority who refused to self-enrich-in-office. Millions of koboless, penniless parents or grandparents have been turned from provider to a pariah, dependent on handouts. Remember their pension funds have been looted repeatedly by unsupervised government officials and appointees during this and past governments which also failed to pay all employer contributions pension funds. Governments should accept responsibility to replace stolen and shortfall employer contribution funds in the pension funds.

Nigerian governments, federal, state and LGA, have turned an International Standard Retirement Scheme into a Nigerian financial nightmare with citizens unable to access rightful returns after 10-35 years of work – an arrogant political crime, breach of legal and morally obligatory economically indexed monthly pension. The emotional trauma to adult citizens, falling from breadwinner to beggar, destroys the economic bedrock steady historically oldest bank in Nigeria, ‘The Extended Family Bank’, the first social security safety net in Nigeria, but it depended on regular salaries and pensions, which enabled the elderly to always fulfil their leadership role and financial obligations. Grandparents no longer have coins or sweets of biscuits for the grandchildren. Now, broke grandparents, but pension-owed, rely on their children for survive. The nature of our greedy political class has brazenly denied millions of their legal pensions. But even worse, is the fact that our ‘survival only’ minimum wage structure has guaranteed that our elderly have never earned enough to save or set up any income after retirement.

Let us not forget lost pensions for the millions displaced from their ancestral homes by war, terrorism, banditry and environmental hazards. Do we give the IDPs the dignity to be paid to work and use their skills within the IDP camps?

December 4, 2024
What Orunmila wanted me to do to my new car

In order to understand the story I am about to tell, it is important for readers to have an idea of my background. Briefly, I was brought up in the Ifa tradition, and the first school I attended was an Ifa divination school. Neither of my parents could read or write. But they were very successful farmers. True, my father eventually bought the Bible and Catechism, neither of which he could read, and attended church on Sundays, the remaining weekdays were devoted to Ifa worship. No child was taken to the church or the pastor for being sick or for needing help in any way. Rather, it was to the Babalawo (Ifa diviner) my father took us. He alone had the authority to diagnose our problems and seek Orunmila’s help in prescribing the right sacrifice and necessary antidote.

I had many memorable encounters with the Babalawo, because my father would take me to him at every turn in my health situation or career. And so, we went in 1972 to seek protection for me and my new car on the roads. I had just bought a new Volkswagen Beetle from Mandilas and Karaberis, located at Oke-Bola in Ibadan. The discounted price of the car was £900. The discount was in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the M&K dealership in Nigeria.

My father had given the Babalawo advance notice. He knew about the car already and had prepared the necessary etùtù to ward off danger. So, as we stepped into his divining paraphernalia-filled room, he consulted Ifa again to reconfirm what Orunmila had told told him earlier. He thereafter beckoned to me to kneel down before him. Very quickly, he grabbed my head and made seven small cuts, known as gbere, across the top. He then robbed some concoction into it, mixing it with blood from the cuts. I had had gbebefore. So, it was not strange to me.

The next activity moved to the car outside. With some powdery substance in one of his palms, the Babalawo began some esoteric incantation, followed by prayers in Idanre dialect: oko yí e ní kolu’gi. oko yí e ní kol’ope. oko yí e ní kol’òkúta. oko yí e ní kol’ènìyàn. oko yí e ní kol’oko ’loko. okomúen e den níí kolù ú. (May this car never collide with a tree. May this car never collide with a palm-tree. May this car never collide with a rock. May this car never collide with a person. May this car never collide with another car. And may another car never collide with this car). To every prayer, we said Àse (So shall it be). He blew the powdery stuff across the car, leaving some portion for the four wheels.

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I had thought that was all. But no. The Babalawo beckoned us inside. It was time he told us the sacrifice Ifa had prescribed in order to fully protect my life and safeguard my car. Instead of speaking directly to me, the diviner turned to my father. Ifa says your son should remove all the four tyres of his car and burn them before nightfall tomorrow.

I had thought to myself at the time that the sacrifice was a punishment too severe for my purse. How much was I earning as a young lecturer at the University of Ife at the time? I later complained to my father but he said I should not worry. My life was more important than my worries. He then told me that the diviner confided in him that jealous and envious eyes had settled on the tyres, wishing them to burst in motion and derail.

I did not believe in the connection between jealous and envious eyes and the tyres of my car. But then, my father had made it possible to get a car loan from the Cooperative Society, by standing as my guarantor. When he sensed my hesitation about the loan payments, he offered to pay it off. He was a highly productive cocoa farmer.

I decided to offer the sacrifice to please him. So, off to a known vulcanizer in Akure I went. I negotiated with him to remove my four new tyres and keep them until I came back for them. In the meantime, however, he would give me eight from his pile of used tyres. He agreed for a small fee. So, he removed the four new tyres and replaced them with old ones. The remaining four old tyres were kept in my car.

My father and I went back to the diviner in the village to offer the sacrifice. To the diviner and my father, we had removed the hands of the devil. To me, it was an uncomfortable experience.

But, as fate would have it, the whole experience played out in real time about five weeks later. I experienced my first major car accident on my way back from Abeokuta, where I had gone to spend a weekend with a close friend. I was trying to remove a cassette from the player and insert another one in its place. Unfortunately, I took my eyes off the road for a moment and the car veered off the road into a roadside ditch. The car was stopped by a log of wood at the base of the ditch, which dented the front fender. In the confusion, I quickly got out of the car and left it running. Three other drivers had stopped their vehicles to help me. We managed to get the car out of the ditch, and I was able to continue my journey. My two hands were on the steering wheel and there was no music whatsoever until I got to Akure. I left the car with a mechanic there and went to Idanre in public transport.

When I later told my father the story of the accident, I was surprised that he quickly got up dancing and praising Ifa for saving my life. And where is your car now? He asked. It is outside, and it has been repaired. I was not used to arguing with my father. You couldn’t even argue with your father when I was growing up. But I told him Ifa was not there to save me and that kind passersby helped me out. He laughed! My son, what if you did not offer the sacrifice? But I still had an accident in spite of the sacrifice, I responded. My son, you don’t understand.

Fellow anthropologists later replicated my father’s analysis of the situation, when I narrated the experience at an international conference. Many agreed with my father that my skepticism notwithstanding, my compliance meant that the sacrifice worked, and Ifa was justified. His belief in the system, not necessarily mine, made it work.

My father belonged to the age when the belief system that Ifa worked was at its peak. I belong to the transition period, when some of us believed in Ifa and some didn’t. Those of us who went to school had gone to Christian schools and adopted Christian ways. But my skepticism was not about Ifa alone. I later dropped the Christian baptismal name my father got bestowed on me in his church.

Today, Ifa has been relegated to near oblivion by Islamic fanaticism, evangelical Christianity with unbridled prosperity gospels, and a youth population lost to cultism, cyber fraud, and irredeemable materialism.

Yet, Ifa is a major repository of Yoruba knowledge, epistemology, philosophy, and precepts for the omoluabi ethos. It is for these reasons I have gone back to Ifa again and again as an anchour of Yoruba values and good behaviour. This is the context within which I later reinterpreted Orunmila’s prescription of sacrifice and my father’s joy at following through on the sacrifice.

December 4, 2024
Season of bad faith

Much to its credit, one burden that the current leadership of the National Assembly has somewhat managed to discharge quite admirably, is standing firm in the face of what is inarguably orchestrated but certainly uninformed opposition to the four fiscal bills sent by President Bola Tinubu to the National Assembly for consideration. Interesting how four different bills – the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2024; The Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, 2024; The Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, 2024 and the Nigeria Tax Bill, 2024 are being presented as one in moments of expediency.

For the Senate in particular, save for the noisome few like Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno) and Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi), last week’s session could be said to be remarkable both for the eagerness of the distinguished members to be open to all shades of opinion on the four bills but also the uncommon resolve of the members to dive deep into its nitty gritty particularly after the club of the so-called northern governors had pronounced a fatwa on them.

The same, quite interestingly, could be said of the House of Representatives; while the latter may not have proceeded with the same speed, it’s not hard to discern the inclination of the body to doing justice as would be expected in the circumstance. Both of them, have apparently gone beyond accepting that the current tax laws are obsolete but have come to share with the executive branch the conviction that the broad reforms which the bills are anchored on are such that the country could not afford further delay.

The same, most certainly, could not be said of the state governors with their cheap, opportunistic gamesmanship. For the most part, theirs has been a revelation in executive chicanery, bad faith and, as one might imagine, inverted nationalism. For the northern governors in particular, most, it would seem, would prefer to hold on to the old, unimaginative, parasitic, do-nothing, development paradigm that has bred destitution and the poverty currently ravaging the region. Little wonder the communique, which came from their Kaduna meeting on the issue, read more like a declaration of war on the presidency than a sober call for reason and engagement. Said Governor Yahaya of Gombe State on their behalf: the tax bills are against the interests of the North and so northern lawmakers should reject them; period!

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Such directives to parliamentarians, though unhelpful, would seem a familiar territory. Majority of them, after all, control, not just their parliaments but the purse and everything else – although through means that the constitution neither donated nor conferred under conventions known to modern governance. The best one could say of the powers is that these were assumed in moments of unquestioning acquiescence by an oftentimes ignorant, pliant and/or pauperised citizenry.

In this particular instance, what must have come across as new and which Nigerians could not have imagined is the governors’ attempt to export their brazen contempt for their state lawmakers to their elected representatives in the National Assembly; so also is the resort to cheap blackmail and raw threats that would trail the president’s simple but corrective call on those opposed to the bills to follow the route prescribed by the constitution to push their dissent.

For while it is understandably in the character of the out-of-control governors to seek to control the presidency through the back door –such as the so-called resolution by the National Economic Council (NEC), directing the president to withdraw his bill for further consultations, it seems unlikely that they bargained for the subtle lecture or shading on due process and constitutionalism.

The issue is, it is not an open secret that the northern governors had, before this time, taken a position to reject the bill, (whether they took time to read and digest the provisions of the four bills is a different question). As for the issue of how the governors managed to persuade their southern counterparts to adopt their position at NEC–we can only hope for a full accounting in no distant time. And also the bit about a NEC meeting presided over by the vice president, whose FEC not only initiated the tax reforms but ensured that the bill which emerged from the work of the expert committee set up by the administration was transmitted to the National Assembly for consideration, could effortlessly rubber-stamp the wish of the governors without any known record of dissension. Never mind the manifestation of bad faith and opportunism in full colours, all of them, to be sure, elements of the history in the making.

This is where the president was right, in my view, to have pointed out that the National Assembly, whose responsibility it is to enact it into law, remained the best place to table whatever concerns anyone might have, on the bill. It is the path of due process and constitutionalism. And that is precisely what the two chambers of parliament are set to do. Anything outside of that would have been out of order.

Will that settle anything? That seems unlikely. True, the governors and their NEC may have beaten a strategic retreat; the battle has only shifted with a certain Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State coming along to lead the charge. Along with his fellow Borno native, Senator Ndume, the government not only thinks that the timing of the four bills is inauspicious, he has apparently convinced himself, if not his Borno people, that that the entire tax reform is anti-North, a scheme to further impoverish their region – a section of the country current lagging behind its counterparts in the federation.

That, coming from an academic, a supposedly scientific mind, an acclaimed agricultural engineer, an individual that was once touted as representing the new face of northern leadership, is what makes the latest development truly sad.

To conclude: I do not claim to know what the future holds for the four bills. The best that one can hope for is that reason prevails in the end. Whether passed or dropped, what is certain is that things would never remain the same.

As they say, there is nothing new under the sun. Today, it is 19 governors driving a hard bargain. In 2021, it was Nyesom Wike, then Rivers State governor taking on the federal might. In 2024, the government seeks to overhaul the whole gamut of the tax system to ensure its simplicity, fairness and equity. For Wike in 2021, it was all about fair and equitable distribution of VAT. He actually sought the order of a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State to restrain the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) from collecting value-added tax (VAT) and personal income tax (PIT) from his state. Today, the government seeks a better way to collect tax dues and to ensure that everyone benefits under a more transparent system. Nigerians wait to see who wins.

December 3, 2024