I turned 83 years old on the 15^th of September 2024 and recently realised that I have outlived a substantial proportion of acquaintances whom I encountered in the active and useful years of my life. If I was able to visit Jamaica, where I spent my childhood and adolescence, I would hardly find anyone with whom I attended school or with whom I played when I enjoyed a typical Jamaican boyhood. Nevertheless, these days I find myself wishing that I could return to my natal home not necessarily to see old friends so much as to experience old sensations.

This desire I believe is actually a sign of the arrival of old age as the wish to experience juvenile memories is a function of geriatric nostalgia. As I confront daily existence, especially by trying to overcome the unfortunate circumstance of the reduction of mobility and social intercourse occasioned by the loss of my left leg to diabetes in my 79^th year, I feel compelled to reflect on various events that I have witnessed in the journey so far. However, this compulsion generates a terrifying sense of loss and anxiety over one’s own chance of survival when such reflections reveal the serial departure of scores of individuals who were either younger or not much older than myself.

This anxiety coupled with gratitude for my close family’s devotion to my welfare has rendered the consciousness of the importance of divine faith alive in my awareness. While I still entertain some misgivings about the use of religion to satisfy the opportunistic advantages of some of its practitioners I try my best to respect and honour the true belief of the advocates of the best principles of faith.

That is to say that I recognise the need for faith among the believers because my own circumstance makes me hope for divine intervention to make life be more than suffering. I reflect on this issue constantly these days because I am in need of faith as I recognise that old age has arrived.

Taxes, tariffs, duties and levies are ways the government rakes in revenue to run institutions of governance and finance provisions of physical infrastructures including social amenities.

Taxation is as old as humanity so much so that it is even in the holy books. Zacchaeus in the Bible is said to be a tax collector while Jesus himself paid tax.

Remember the popular phrase of giving unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God, what is God’s. Biblical records about tax payment can be found in Matthew 17:24-27 and 22:15-22. During the pre-colonial era, Yoruba people paid isakole and owo-ori, which are forms of taxation.

Really speaking, most people don’t want to pay taxes for different reasons. Many Nigerians believe that the government is rich enough with proceeds from crude oil and gas sales and does not need additional income to run its affairs.

Some refuse to pay because of the assumption that there is no accountability and transparency from the government on what it has done with monies paid by those who complied, especially proceeds from Pay As You Earn, which is deductible from the salaries of workers. Corruption is one of the barriers and impediments to voluntary tax compliance.

Many Nigerians are also of the opinion that they are not earning enough to enable them to pay taxes. Research has shown that many corporate organisations making super profits in Nigeria and the super-rich people in the country do not pay commensurate taxes if they pay at all.

As part of his economic restructuring, President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday, August 3, 2023, inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms with Taiwo Oyedele as its chairman.  In October last year, the President sent four tax reform bills to the National Assembly for passage.

The bills are: the  Nigeria Tax Bill, which harmonises all the major taxes, such as corporate income tax, personal income tax, VAT etc.; the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, which provides a framework for tax management covering taxpayer identification, registration, assessment, collection, enforcement, etc.; the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, which seeks to replace the FIRS with the NRS to perform a broader role of revenue administration in Nigeria and drive collaboration with subnational governments and MDAs and the  Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill meant to transform the JTB to JRB with an expanded mandate and enhanced role for cooperation and tax harmonisation.

The bill also sets up the office of the tax ombudsman to protect taxpayers and advocate for tax simplification.

A December 3, 2024 tweet on the X handle of Taiwo Oyedele (@taiwooyedele) says, “Altogether, the bills offer a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s tax framework to drive economic growth, support Nigerian households and position the country as a competitive economy within the comity of nations. These reforms reflect a commitment to equity, efficiency, and sustainable development.”

It is noteworthy that since the bills were sent by President Tinubu to NASS for passage, there has been a lot of pushback by many northern elites including governors, senators and House of Representatives members.

Among those who spoke out against the bills were Governors Bala Muhammed of Bauchi, Prof. Babagana Zulum of Borno and Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State.

Senator Ali Ndume also did not hide his disdain for the bills. The bone of contention in the bill majorly was the revised sharing formula for the distribution of the Value Added Tax.

Recall that under the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, this was very contentious to the extent that the then Governor Nyesome Wike of Rivers State had to drag the Federal Government to court over what it considered to be an inequitable sharing formula of VAT.

The Northern Elders, Arewa Consultative Forum and many powerful northern power brokers queued behind their governors and federal lawmakers to issue subtle threats to President Tinubu, indicating that they would not support his reelection bid in 2027.

Indeed, on October 31, 2024, the National Economic Council asked President Bola Tinubu to withdraw the Tax Reforms Bills from the National Assembly to allow for wider consultations and consensus building.

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, said that formed part of resolutions reached at the 144th meeting of the National Economic Council at the State House, Abuja.

On December 3, 2024, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, in a statement said President Bola Tinubu had directed the Ministry of Justice to work with the National Assembly to address the concerns raised by different quarters on the tax reform bills.

It is important to highlight some of the salient provisions of the four tax reform bills.

According to the earlier referenced tweet by Oyedele, changes to income tax laws will attract remote work opportunities in the global business process outsourcing sector, enabling Nigerian youths to thrive in the digital economy; goods, services, and intellectual property exports will benefit from zero-rated VAT and other incentives to enhance Nigeria’s global trade competitiveness; tax exemptions, including zero per cent corporate income tax, VAT, and withholding tax, will apply to small businesses with annual turnover of N50m or less; minimum wage earners will be exempt from personal income tax, while over 90 per cent of workers across the private and public sectors will see a reduced tax burden.

Essential items such as food, education, and healthcare will enjoy zero per cent VAT while rent, public transportation, and renewable energy will be exempted, providing relief for low-income households that spend nearly 100 per cent of their income on these necessities.

Furthermore, over 50 nuisance taxes are to be repealed, with the remaining levies harmonised into a few numbers of taxes.

Corporate income tax rates will reduce from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over the next two years, and earmarked taxes on companies will be replaced with a streamlined single levy; businesses will benefit from input VAT credits on assets and services, eliminating the minimum tax on loss-making and low-margin companies.

This will lower production costs and stimulate investment; a redesigned tax framework will ensure progressive personal income tax, VAT, and capital gains tax while safeguarding low-income earners.

Taxes on foreign currency-denominated transactions will be payable in naira, easing compliance for businesses and reducing pressure on the exchange rate; VAT revenue will be distributed among states based on an equitable model to reward economic contributions, rather than the current model which is skewed in favour of states with head office locations where VAT remittances are usually made;  the introduction of tax ombudsman to improve the tax system by protecting vulnerable taxpayers and advocating for fairness and lastly,  a strategic framework for fair taxation, responsible borrowing, and sustainable spending will be established to guide the fiscal system.

In a rider to those points, Oyedele said, “These tax reforms aim to alleviate the rising cost of living, foster economic equity, and create a business-friendly environment to attract local and foreign investments.”

It is heartwarming to note that the Nigerian governors who were initially against this bill were able to meet with the Taiwo Oyedele Presidential Tax Reform Committee last week and ironed out their differences.

In a communique issued by the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the forum reiterated its strong support for the comprehensive reform of Nigeria’s archaic tax laws.

The forum endorsed a revised Value Added Tax sharing formula to ensure equitable distribution of resources:  50 per cent based on equality, 30 per cent based on derivation, and 20 per cent based on population.

Members agreed that there should be no increase in the VAT rate or reduction in Corporate Income Tax at this time, to maintain economic stability. The forum advocated for the continued exemption of essential goods and agricultural produce from VAT to safeguard the welfare of citizens and promote agricultural productivity.

The meeting recommended that there should be no terminal clause for TETFUND, NASENI, and NITDA in the sharing of development levies in the bills and lastly, the meeting supports the continuation of the legislative process at the National Assembly that will culminate in the eventual passage of the Tax Reform Bills.

This is a classic case of using political solutions to resolve economic conundrums. Commendable!

X: @jidejong

American President Gerald Ford, in a posthumous eulogy read by his son, Steve, at the funeral of another American President, Jimmy Carter, his immediate successor, affirmed, “Honesty and truth-telling were synonymous with the name Jimmy Carter.”

This assessment by a president about another president is the exact opposite of what a Nigerian would probably say about a fellow Nigerian, both knowing that “honesty and truth-telling” will be antonyms to their characters as Nigerians.

That is a sad, but true, commentary on the character of the average Nigerian that prompted former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, to say that “Nigeria and Afghanistan are possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world”, to the hearing of Muhammadu Buhari, a sitting President of Nigeria, who hardly knew how to react to a biting insult.

The best that former President Buhari could muster was his trademark wide Cheshire cat grin, a “Yes” that Nigeria was “fantastically corrupt” and the underwhelming comment that he “was shocked and embarrassed” and would rather “demand… a return of (Nigeria’s) stolen assets (hidden in Britain), than “demand an apology” from ex-Prime Minister Cameron. 

And to appear to be pushing what is no more than a half-hearted demand of his boss, the then Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu. revealed that at that time, $37bn of stolen Nigerian money had been routed through Britain.

A joke that made the rounds in Lagos in the mid-1980s stated that when it looked as if an aircraft on an international flight was about to crash, the flight stewards thought of the most effective way to persuade the frightened passengers to don the parachute and dive into the sky.

To the gambling Americans, they said it was a 50-50 chance of survival. The Americans weighed their options, took the parachute and jumped out. The Japanese took the parachute when they were told that it was a matter of honour to be brave and jump out with the parachute.

It became a royal problem to persuade Nigerians to dive. No one knew how to get them to accept the parachutes. Until a retired pilot, who had lived in Lagos, offered to help. When he got the all-clear, he simply walked into the fuselage and announced, “Nigerians. It is illegal to jump out!”

In less than a jiffy, all the Nigerians on the aircraft jumped the queue, collected and wore the parachutes and saw to it that they all jumped out ahead of other nationals, who stood puzzled that the motivator for Nigerians was the zest to breach rules.

Following is another interesting story. A video gone viral showed a young lady, presumably a Diaspora Nigerian, in a rented boat trying to appease some gods by throwing US dollars into a lagoon. After the ritual, she was asked what she liked about Nigeria. She answered, “I like that I can pay my way through anything,” in the most casual manner.

These stories are probably a summary of the disdain that Nigerians have for orderliness, ethical guardrails and the rule of law. It also shows that any Nigerian state actor, in any official capacity, can be bought to compromise on any rule or policy.

To quote the character, Basi, in Ken Sawo-Wiwa’s TV series, “Basi & Company”, “It’s a matter of cash.” More uncouth Nigerians would use the phrase, “Cash for hand, back for ground,” in the capsule of transactions between a prostitute and her clients.

What all these negatives say of Nigeria is that there are no referees to call out those who engage in wrongdoing. If anything, it is those who are expected to caution and make Nigerians obey the rules that invite them to disobey the laws.

It was rumoured that a Nigerian estate developer who died under the rubble of one of his buildings was encouraged by Lagos State officials to raise the building beyond the level that was originally approved for him.

A referee maintains fair play by interpreting and enforcing rules, making impartial decisions on infractions, keeping stock of scores of the game, and ensuring that a player’s behaviour complies with laid-down rules and guidelines.

In today’s Nigeria, no one seems to be responsible for compliance, and those who should maintain the rules are the culprit-in-chief in the disgraceful act of breaching laid-down rules and regulations. Indeed, the average Nigerian seems to think that rules are to be breached.

When a boss restrained a company driver from driving against the traffic, the driver told him that no one obeyed highway codes anymore and continued breaking the highway codes. When the boss asked the unruly driver to be fired, the HR Manager was interceding on behalf of the errant driver.

You may not be too surprised that Nigeria endures so much impunity, with the two referee organs, the judiciary and the media, created by the Nigerian Constitution for dispensing justice and ensuring fair play, are hamstrung by the same Constitution!

Section 6 (6,c) absolves the government of responsibilities to Nigerians by saying, “The judicial powers… (that) shall be vested in the courts… shall not… extend to any issue or question as to why any act… or any judicial decision is in conformity with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy… in (Chapter II of the Constitution).”

What this convoluted jabber is saying is that the Constitution, grundnorm of Nigeria, gives no guarantees that the government shall provide security, welfare, an efficient economy, adequate educational and health services, and safeguard the air, land, forest and wildlife to Nigerians. In other words, the judiciary cannot compel the executive arm to perform its constitutional duties.

The Father Christmas Section 22 of the Constitution gave the Nigerian media the power “to uphold the Fundamental Objectives… and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people”.

But Section 45(1) withdrew that, along with a slew of other fundamental human rights, like the right to life, personal liberty, freedom of thought, association, and right to live or own property in any part of Nigeria, “in the interest of (the generally ill-defined) public safety, public order, public morality, or public health, or for the purpose of protecting the rights of other persons”.

Where the hands of the judiciary and the media have been tied behind their backs by the Constitution that created them, they would hardly make any impact, especially when you consider how much the military culture impacted the socio-cultural lives of Nigerians.

The military ruled Nigeria, for 29 of the first 39 formative years of the Nigerian state- from 1960 to 1999- when the military packed their baggage of impunity and disrespect for the rule of law and returned to their barracks.

When a predator Nigerian tells his victim to go to court or gets his less connected compatriot beaten up by friends in the military barracks, he is simply boarding the time-machine, back to the days when a connected Nigerian gets what is not due to him by associating with a senior brass of the military government.

To borrow a phrase from Lasisi Olagunju, a columnist with Nigerian Tribune newspaper, “We cannot become (like the countries that are prospering so well) until we have blind laws that recognise no class (and) no ethnicity.”

When the politics-administration dichotomy inaugurated the practice of public administration, what was intended was a critical need to bifurcate the logic of the two in ways that will extend the relationship between the politicians and the administrator and make it more efficient. The politician is then, within the logic of the dichotomy, restricted to policy formulation while the administrator is confined to the realm of policy implementation. Reality however defeats the neat boundary between the two. Politics and administration, in practical reality, are almost inseparable. And one would expect that the relationship between political science and public administration discourse will reflect this inseparability. Unfortunately, it does not. The separation undermines the fundamental urgency of addressing the political foundation of administrative research and practices, especially as they relate with the issues of power, governance, politics and democracy.

Political science descriptively and critically studies political phenomena and how they contribute to our understanding of the political community. Significantly, political science analyzes the fundamental role that power plays in the articulation of politics especially in the attempt to unravel the dynamics of the political community and its social and political circumferences and trajectories. Public administration is the very embodiment of the state as the most critical embodiment of politics. The state is made most visible within the frameworks and institutional workings of public administration, especially through the public sector and the public services. The straightforward argument is that the political and administrative reality of any state cannot be studied in isolation of each other. This seems obvious enough given that each of political science and public administration reinforces each other in terms of shedding light on the complex and intricate workings of the state and its response to the citizens and the commonwealth. In other words, there is no way the concepts of power and governance, for example, would not intersect political and administrative questions, and complicate them. The issues of democratic governance and innovation, and collaborative governance demand thinking of the interplay between politics science and administration.

In my many years as a deep insider career bureaucrat in the public service, I have been aware not only of the role that politics play in administrative matters, and vice versa. I have also been apprised of how political acts of commission and omission actively promote or undermine the public service. Indeed, my theoretical and practical researches into the dynamics of government business and institutional reforms highlights how political and administrative factors interact. My deep worry however is that political science and public administration discourses in Nigeria carry on as if these interactions and interrelations are at best trivial or at worst non-existence. For instance, in institutional terms, there is nothing to write home about in the existence and possible cross-fertilizing relationship between the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA) and the National Association for Public Administration and Management (NAPAM). Indeed, there cannot be such a cross-fertilization because while NPSA is active, NAPAM has remained comatose. And the vision and mission statement of NPSA is not broad enough to take in administrative matters and concerns, or the interplay of politics and administration.

The most fundamental observation that my status as a scholar-bureaucrat in the federal civil service afforded me is a practical understanding of the nature of the fundamental disconnections in public administration practices and the consequences on the state’s responsibility to her citizens, all due to crucial assumptions and principles that have been left lying fallow and unattended to in an interdisciplinary discourse and cross fertilization between political science scholarship and public administration theories and practice. A few examples suffice. In 1966, Nigeria shifted away from the parliamentary system of government and, after the long interregnum of military administrations, resumed with the presidential system, enshrined in the 1979 Constitution. This move was preceded by the Dotun Phillips studies report of 1985, and the Civil Service Reorganization Decree of 1988, which aligned the civil service with the presidential system of government. However, even with the reversal of the reform frameworks by the Ayida reform of 1995, it is still clear that many of Nigeria’s administrative practices still retain aspects of parliamentary elements that could be one source of unresolved structural troubles necessitating performance inefficiency.  

This has some other implications for the practice of federalism and the stabilization of Nigeria’s governance structure. Since the intervention of the military in 1966 and the subsequent militarization of Nigeria’s political and governance structure of the Nigerian state, the federal arrangement that ought to have been the natural remedy for the unruly ethnonational diversity became compromised. For instance, inter-governmental relations and the critical need for fiscal federalism became caught in the cracks of constitutional and institutional dysfunction. The Babangida administration, through the recommendation of the IBB’s Presidential Advisory Committee, established the National Council for Inter-Governmental Relations (NCIS) as one in a series of government’s efforts—like the Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS), National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, etc.—to rehabilitate Nigeria’s governance and administrative structures.   

All this goes to demonstrate a cogent reason why the political and the administrative in Nigeria’s governance context cannot be separated, even in terms of theoretical argumentation. Political science scholarship, in longing for an interdisciplinary relationship with public administration, must recognize how the latter has evolved first as a sub-discipline of political science, and later as a multidisciplinary endeavor that encompasses insights drawn from management science, organizational psychology, sociology, statistics, industrial engineering, computer science, etc. from which it draws to invigorate its curriculum and pedagogy. This point is still not demonstrated in the disciplinary silos that define the existence of political science on the one hand and public administration on the other in Nigerian universities. In some universities, public administration functions in a different faculty, or is its own faculty, as different from the faculty of the social sciences. And so, scholars carry out their scholarly discourses in different contexts, oblivious of the grave challenges that the Nigerian administrative and governance predicament pose to their theoretical and practical separation. In what follows, I will point attention at a few contentious institutional matters to which I have gestured in many of my works, but which I contend require the critical interrogation of political scientists.

First, there is the recurrent issue of the need to keep clarifying the nature and the role of the state in terms of administrative efficiency. While the state is central to the analysis of power, and constitutes one of the central thematic focus of political science scholarship, the fundamental need to redefine the role of the state has often not been taken up in terms of its significance for the restructuring of the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that are the critical engine room for measuring the developmental successes of the state. Aligning the role of the state to the understanding of the MDA becomes crucial as it facilitates the reform of the MDAs in terms of the need to remodel and strengthen their core vis-à-vis their non-core functions as both relate to the service delivery function of government. This could also instigate the urgency of conducting institutional audit that is crucial not only to determining the performance status of many state agencies, but to also jumpstart organizational development dynamics that are meant to motivate the movement of structures to institutions. It is institutions, rather than mere structures that government requires to undermine governance failure.      

Second, political science scholarship in Nigeria is necessarily confronted by the need to clarify and explicate the thorny issue of the relationship between the administrative operational dynamics of the executive arm of government in terms of its apparatuses—like the Federal Executive Council—and the working of the American-styled presidential system of government. This is a key concern given that Nigeria’s adoption of many institutional dynamics has remained problematic in terms of relating them to her political and administrative realities. For instance, acute and critical attention need to be paid also to the political economy involved in the executive-legislature relations, and the implications deriving from the planning and budgeting processes from legislative oversight to appropriation and budget implementation. Peter Ekeh’s analysis of migrated structures alert us to the danger of adopting these structures without paying critical attention to their value orientation and the political realities of where they are coming from.    

Democratic governance and all its ancillary structural and administrative apparatuses encompass a host of issues that require critical analyses. Since the notion of the public good and the commonwealth, in the idea of good democratic governance, constitute the formidable core of the relationship between politics, public management and public administration, then the discourse around stakeholder management, participatory governance, performance management and accountability become key and critical core issues that interact with the way we see politics, administration and citizenship. The recent discourse on the resuscitation of local governance, through the landmark decision of the Supreme Court to legally reinvigorate the constitutional strength of local government in Nigeria, points at the significance of connecting community development structures and traditional institutions to the state systems and democratic enablement through the principle of social capital and subsidiarity.

To reiterate, the predicament of the postcolonial Nigerian state demands that political science scholarship must necessarily and urgently signal an interdisciplinary collaboration that will instigate a ferment of theoretical, practical and institutional discourses from which both can expect not only to refresh their internal discursive vibrancy, but also collectively contribute to the understanding of the working of the Nigerian state and her capacity to induce participatory democratic governance.     

⁠

Geneva, 21 January 2025 - The World Health Organization regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the Organization.

WHO plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans, by addressing the root causes of disease, building stronger health systems, and detecting, preventing and responding to health emergencies, including disease outbreaks, often in dangerous places where others cannot go.

The United States was a founding member of WHO in 1948 and has participated in shaping and governing WHO’s work ever since, alongside 193 other Member States, including through its active participation in the World Health Assembly and Executive Board. For over seven decades, WHO and the USA have saved countless lives and protected Americans and all people from health threats. Together, we ended smallpox, and together we have brought polio to the brink of eradication. American institutions have contributed to and benefited from membership in WHO.

With the participation of the United States and other Member States, WHO has over the past 7 years implemented the largest set of reforms in its history, to transform our accountability, cost-effectiveness, and impact in countries. This work continues.

We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe.

The 28-year-old midfielder has emerged as one of the standout players for Fulham in the highly competitive Premier League, contributing significantly to the team’s efforts on the pitch.

Iwobi has been in exceptional form this season, netting seven goals and providing three assists for Marco Silva’s side. This marks Iwobi’s most prolific campaign in the English top flight since he began his professional journey with Arsenal a decade ago, highlighting his development and growth as a player.

In a recent interview with Lagos Talks FM, Okocha shared his pride in Iwobi’s achievements, affectionately referring to him as his nephew. He remarked, “I am very happy with him (Iwobi) and his progress.”

Notably, Iwobi has been a consistent presence in the Fulham squad, featuring in all 22 of their Premier League matches this season, demonstrating both his fitness and reliability.

Meanwhile, Washington Egor has been appointed as the new head coach of Ikorodu City Academy. The announcement of Egor’s appointment was made official by the club on Tuesday, signalling a new chapter for the academy.

Egor, a rising coach in the football scene, will be supported by Emmanuel Otupe as his assistant.

In his first statements as head coach, Egor expressed his eagerness to make a meaningful impact at the Lagos-based club. “I’m delighted to work with the Oga Boys,” Egor stated in an interview with Ikorodu City Academy media. He also mentioned that he has been closely following the development and progression of the team, indicating his familiarity with the club’s dynamics.

Egor emphasized his commitment to the team’s success, saying, “I’m dedicated and ready to continue the good work with the help of the Almighty God and the support of the Management.”

Under his leadership, Ikorodu City Academy will compete in the Nationwide League One, where Egor aims to foster talent and drive the team towards achieving greater heights.

[NaijaNews]

Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) of University Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres (FMCs) have raised the alarm that tertiary health hospitals are facing threats of becoming empty as doctors, nurses and other skilled health workers leave in droves due to poor remuneration.

They lamented that despite the federal government investment in health infrastructure, the trend has continued unabated and affecting healthcare delivery in the country.

The Chief Medical Director (CMD), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Professor Wasiu Adeyemo and the Chief Medical Director (CMD), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Professor Jesse Abiodun and others raised the alarm at the 2025 budget defence session before the House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions.

LUTH CMD, Professor Adeyemo, informed the committee that the rate at which medical workers are leaving the country is alarming, hence the need to act fast to address the situation.

He said, “People resign, retire not even retirement, resignation almost every day. Yes. In the next one or two years, we are going to have all our hospitals empty. We need to do something about remuneration of all the health care workers.

“Otherwise, government is putting a lot of money in infrastructure, and we are going to have empty hospitals. The major reason why people leave is for economic reasons. Consultants are earning less than $1,000”.

Giving details of the Hospital’s 2024 budget performance, the CMD informed that, they had a total budget of N19.2 billion out of which personnel has N13.57 billio and a total overhead of N33.2 million.

He added, “In terms of performance and utilization total overhead was 100 percent as of December. For the total personnel, 91 percent performance but for the capital project 45 percent. So outstanding is 55 percent. November and December are released today we would cover maybe about 85 percent”.

Prof. Adeyemo while responding to an observation by members of the committee on personnel performance said that the hospital had 95 percent personnel performance because of payment of benefits and other activities due to resignation and retirements in the year.

The CMD added, “For the proposal for 2025, a total budget of 32.7 billion, out of which a total overhead which is better than that of last year. Personnel is 20.3. I think it’s 13 last year”.

Similarly, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Prof. Abiodun, lamented the delay in the release of budgeted funds to the hospital which he said had adversely affected its operations.

Giving the details of UCH’s 2024 budget, he said it has a capital appropriation of N5,593,110,394. He however informed that only 38 percent of the funds was released leaving a balance of 72 percent left.

He said, “We have the 72% left. Yes, we actually were among the last people to be batched for payment, and the payment started coming in actually in this December. We were able to even utilize this 38 percent because we had already done the cash plan before the release.

“For 2025, we are proposing N4,387,763,661 for capital. This is a bit less than what we had in 2024. And that’s because of this envelope system, what we’re given, we have to work with it.

“The overhead, we have N690,006,464 only. There’s a bit of increase over that of 2024 because of the outrageous bills we are getting from Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company”.

In his remark earlier, the Chairman, House Committee on Health Institutions, Hon. Patrick Umoh, charged the CMDs of University Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres (FMCs) to be thorough in their presentations in order to provide a clear picture of their situations.

He said, “The reality is that you must extract the proposal made by Mr. President as it affects your medical centre. It should be part of your budget, your presentation. The report of the 2024 budget performance and 2025 budget proposal is given provisional approval for now”.

Hon. Umeh lamented the precarious situation facing tertiary health institutions in the country.

The chairman ruled that while committee could not attend to all the health institutions on the same day, it would collect all their correspondences and submissions from the outstanding teaching hospitals to work on for further deliberations.

[DailyTrust]

The Nigerian Senate has suspended the 2025 budget defence for the Officemof Auditor General for the Federation

The development may result to zero allocation to the OAGF as the Senate has earlier scheduled Wednesday 22nd January, 2025 as deadline for budget defences to pave way for Committee on Appropriation to harmonise reports from various Committes.

Chairman of Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Ahmed Wadada sent the Auditor General, S.K Chira and his team packing due to ill-preparation and lack of diligent handling of his documents.

Chira appeared before the Commutree unprepared and could not answer questions posed to him concerning the 2024 budget performance his office.

Anger stirred up as a copy of budget documents being read by the Auditor General was different from copies made available to the Committee members.

But allying fears of missing the budget chances, Wadada told the press after the Committee meeting that: “It is left for the Auditor General for the Federation to go get prepared and return, even in two hours now that he has been told that Wednesday is the deadline.

“He is the Auditoe General auditing government agencies, Senate Public Accounts Committee is statutorily empowered to audit his office.

[DailyPost]

Members of the Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Regional Development on Tuesday questioned the Minister of Regional Development, Abubakar Momoh, over alleged lopsidedness in the Ministry’s 2024 budget.

The queries were raised when the Minister, accompanied by the Minister of State, Uba Maigari, appeared before the committee to defend the 2024 budget performance and present the 2025 proposal.

Lawmakers pointed out that the Ministry’s budget disproportionately favored Edo State, with 70% of the 2024 projects allocated to the state, to the detriment of other states meant to benefit from its projects.

The committee also criticized the Ministry’s failure to adhere to the federal character principle in the distribution of projects.

During the session, Hon. Matthew Nwogu of the House of Representatives demanded an explanation for the concentration of projects in Edo State.

“Mr. Minister, tell us why most of these 2024 budget projects are situated in Edo State,” Nwogu asked, expressing concern over the exclusion of other states under the Ministry’s purview.

Similarly, another member, Hon. Chinedu Ogar questioned why 70% of the proposed 2025 projects were also allocated to Edo State.

“Honorable Minister, I am happy that you are a product of the National Assembly. However, my constituents are unhappy with this budget because it negates the constitutional principle of federal character. About 70% of your projects are located in Edo State. Why?” Ogar queried.

In response to the heated discussions, Chairman of the House Committee on Regional Development, Eugene Okechukwu, called for the matter to be discussed in an executive session, and the committee dissolved into a closed-door meeting with the Minister.

Earlier, the Minister presented the 2024 budget performance, revealing that N20 billion was allocated for the Ministry’s capital budget. 

He said of this amount, N2 billion was earmarked for zonal intervention projects by the House Leader, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, who is from Edo State.

The Minister said that the Ministry’s total 2025 budget proposal stands at N28.9 billion, comprising N24 billion for capital projects, N2.7 billion for personnel costs, and N1.6 billion for overhead. 

He explained that N2 billion of this amount was also reserved for zonal intervention projects for the House Leader.

He lamented that the funds allocated to the Ministry were insufficient to address the developmental needs of the five regional commissions under its mandate.

“The amount allocated to the Ministry for Regional Development is inadequate to meet the development needs of the regions,” the Minister said. 

He highlighted challenges such as abandoned projects, delays in project completion, and contractor noncompliance due to price variations caused by limited funding.

The Minister detailed the scale of challenges facing the Ministry, noting that projects initially requiring N5 billion for completion now demand up to N70 billion due to inflation and delayed funding.

“When we took over, the first assignment I gave was to assess ongoing projects. It was alarming to find that projects requiring N5 billion or less had escalated to N70 billion. Contractors have since refused to return to sites until their debts are paid,” he said.

He emphasized the need for increased funding to address these challenges and deliver on President Bola Tinubu’s mandate for regional development.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Olajide Ipinsagba, described the transformation of the former Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs into the Ministry of Regional Development as a landmark decision. 

He commended the Federal Government for expanding the Ministry’s mandate to include regional development across the entire country while still prioritizing the Niger Delta.

“This broader scope reflects a commitment to inclusive national development, addressing inequalities, and fostering economic empowerment across all regions,” Ipinsagba stated.

Chairman, House Committee Eugene Okechukwu urged the Ministry to ensure equitable distribution of projects among states and regions, cautioning against favoritism.

“A situation where some states benefit more than others will cause disaffection and undermine the President’s vision for regional development,” he warned.

He commended President Tinubu for creating the Ministry of Regional Development and pledged the support of both Senate and House Committees to ensure the Ministry is adequately funded.

“The only way the Ministry can achieve its mandate is through equitable project distribution and adequate funding. We are here to support you in delivering on your objectives,” Okechukwu concluded.

[TheNation]

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria has opposed the proposed increase in the Value Added Tax rate, as outlined in the Federal Government’s Tax Reform Bills, warning that the move could worsen the economic hardship faced by Nigerians.

The Federal Government had proposed a phased VAT hike from the current 7.5% to 10%, 12.5%, and ultimately 15%, a move the TUC described as ill-timed and detrimental to the welfare of citizens already grappling with inflation, unemployment, and a soaring cost of living.

Speaking during a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, following the union’s National Executive Council meeting held on November 26, 2024, TUC President Festus Osifo said maintaining the VAT rate at 7.5 per cent was crucial to safeguarding Nigerians from additional financial pressure.

“Allowing the Value Added Tax rate to remain at 7.5 per cent is in the best interest of the nation. Increasing it now would impose an additional burden on households and businesses already struggling with economic challenges,” Osifo said.

He added, “With inflation, unemployment, and the cost of living on the rise, higher taxes could stifle economic growth and erode consumer purchasing power.”

The TUC called for a review of the tax exemption threshold, urging the government to raise it from N800,000 to N2.5 million per annum to ease the financial strain on low-income earners.

“This measure would increase disposable income, stimulate economic activity, and provide relief to struggling Nigerians,” Osifo explained.

He said, “The threshold for tax exemptions should be increased to N2,500,000 per annum. This adjustment would offer much-needed relief to low-income earners, enabling them to cope with the current economic challenges.”

The TUC also expressed reservations about the proposed transfer of royalty collection from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission to the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), citing risks of revenue losses and inefficiencies.

“Royalty determination and reconciliation require specialised technical expertise in oil and gas operations, which the NUPRC possesses but the NRS lacks. This shift could result in inaccurate assessments, enforcement challenges, and reduced investor confidence,” Osifo warned.

The union commended the government’s decision to retain the Tertiary Education Trust Fund and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, describing their roles as pivotal to the country’s education and technological advancement.

“These institutions have significantly contributed to improving tertiary education and fostering homegrown technologies. Their continued existence is vital for sustained progress in education, technology, and national development,” Osifo said.

Osifo called on the Federal Government to adopt tax policies that prioritise the welfare of citizens and promote equitable economic growth.

“As discussions on the Tax Reform Bill continue, it is our hope that the focus will remain on fostering economic growth and improving living conditions for all Nigerians,” he said.

The TUC reaffirmed its commitment to advocating for policies that enhance the well-being of Nigerians, emphasising that proactive and citizen-centred reforms reflect true leadership.

[Punch]