*aay Agitations, attributable to social and economic inequality in the country
*** To Engage Traditional Rulers, Religious Bodies, CSOs for a common agenda to support security personnel
*** To give a breakdown of various palliatives provided by the States including cash transfers, food items, medical supplies, others
THE thirty-six state governors under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF have resolved to adapt at both the State and Regional levels, ways of engaging the teeming youths in the country to reduce restiveness among the young people.
According to the Governors, having carried out a postportem overview of protests across the country by the youths who expressed anger against the activities of the disbanded Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) and bad governance, they have come to a conclusion that the agitations are attributable to social and economic inequality in the country.
Rising from a meeting the 21st Teleconference Meeting, the governors have also resolved to engage with traditional, religious and civil society organisations to drive what they described as a common agenda that would enable them generate the required support for security personnel who play a vital role in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all Nigerians.
In a Communique signed at the end of the meeting by the NGF Chairman and Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the governors hailed CACOVID for presenting the true situation of what transpired in the light of the unfortunate misperception that attended the distribution of palliatives at the State level, just as they resolved resolving that the NGF Chair should work with the CACOVID Chairperson to address the media in addition to members speaking up in their local settings.
At the end of the meeting, the State governors agreed to give a total breakdowns to Nigerians about the various palliatives provided by the States which include cash transfers, food items, medical supplies, and tax incentives given to individual taxpayers and businesses.
The Governors have also agreed to direct their Commissioners of Finance to sign the SFTAS Subsidiary Grant Agreements with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to give effect to the principles and objectives of the programme in their States.
The Communique read, “We, members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), at our meeting held today( yesterday) deliberated on issues affecting the country, particularly on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallouts of the ENDSARS protests.
Thereafter, members of the Forum Resolved to: Engage with traditional, religious and civil society organisations to drive a common agenda and generate the required support for security personnel who play a vital role in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all Nigerians;
“Adapt at both the State and Regional levels Guidelines to be developed and issued by the NEC Sub-Committee on Engagement to reduce restiveness among young people as it is clear that these agitations are attributable to social and economic inequality in the country;
“Commend CACOVID for presenting the true situation of what transpired in the light of the unfortunate misperception that attended the distribution of palliatives at the State level resolving that the NGF Chair should work with the CACOVID Chairperson to address the media in addition to members speaking up in their local settings.
“Educate the citizenry about the various palliatives provided by the States including cash
transfers, food items, medical supplies, and tax incentives given to individual taxpayers and businesses.
“Finally, Governors are to direct their Commissioners of Finance to sign the SFTAS Subsidiary Grant Agreements with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to give effect to the principles and objectives of the program in their States.”
The Communique further said that “The NGF Chairman provided the following updates: The ENDSARS protests and emphasizing that the security situation in the country remains a priority agenda for Forum members across board;
“The meeting on Friday 30th October, 2020 with Mr. President together with the leadership of Horasis the Global Visions Community conveying to members that the partnership with Horasis is envisaged to create a long-term strategic framework for Nigeria to be the African home for Horasis Annual Meetings in addition to establishing the Horasis- Nigeria Economic Development Council to assist the Government in the actualization of its economic development goals.
“The partnership of the NGF with the Nigerian Stock Exchange to organize a virtual event on the 17th of November 2020 with the support of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) and other strategic partners in the country’s infrastructure financing space. This event will discuss the entryway for privatization in the development and performance of State economies.
“The Forum also received the following updates and presentations: The Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum and Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong provided a brief on steps taken by the governors of the 19 Northern States to address the fallouts of the EndSARS protests.
“The Vice Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal
provided an update on the work of the National Economic Council Sub-Committee mandated to engage with youths, civil society organizations, religious, political and traditional leaders with the objective of framing a new security and stability architecture for the country.
“This NEC Sub Committee was set up following the NEC Emergency meeting which held on Monday, 26th October, 2020.
“The Governor of Delta State. Dr. Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, Chairman of the NGF Sub-Committee interfacing with the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 raised concerns about the currently low testing numbers in the country especially in the light of the resurgence of COVID-19 cases globally. State Governors were enjoined to increase their testing capacity in all local governments to help prevent the start of a second wave of the pandemic in the country flowing from imported cases from abroad.
“The Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki provided an update on the status of the World Bank’s State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme. The assessment of States’ amended budgets published at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has been completed while the verification exercise for the implementation of tax relief programmes in all States is underway. The Governor enjoined all State governments to immediately direct the signing of the new SFTAS Subsidiary Grant Agreement to give effect to the principles and objectives of the new additions to the program.”
Vanguard News Nigeria
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ActionAid to govt: Use taxes in resuscitating critical industries to tackle unemployment
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Home » News » ActionAid to govt: Use taxes in resuscitating critical industries to tackle unemployment
ActionAid to govt: Use taxes in resuscitating critical industries to tackle unemployment
ON NOVEMBER 5, 20204:42 PMIN NEWS
Calls for transparency in tax payment, utilization
Poverty, inequality could be tamed with taxes — NLC
By Gabriel Ewepu – Abuja
An international Civil Society Organisation, CSO, ActionAid Nigeria, AAN, Wednesday, tasked government at all levels in utilizing taxes to resuscitate critical industries to tackle alarming unemployment in the country.
This was stated by the Country Director, AAN, Ene Obi, in an opening remark, at a 2-day National Tax Summit with theme, ‘Taxation and Development’ convened by ActionAid and its partners, including the Tax Justice and Governance Platform, TJ&GP; Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC; OXFAM; and Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, which held from November 4-5, 2020, in Abuja, and had 17 States in attendance along with CSOs and media.
Obi said undeniably, the tax remains the most sustainable avenue for mobilizing the needed resources for effective gender-responsive public service delivery and redistribution of the collective wealth of a country, as well as a tool for social justice and human rights.
She further stated that a functioning state that can meet the basic needs of its people must rely ultimately on its tax revenue to meet development objectives, especially the Sustainable Development Goals.
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According to her following success of 2019 Tax Summit, the organization deemed it fit to convene the 2020 Tax Summit to consolidate citizens’ engagements and influence on tax policies, address other emerging issues especially in the face of continuing change in the fiscal architecture of the country, occasioned by the COVID-19 Pandemic. “Succinctly, the 2020 summit will present enabling environment to facilitate periodic dialogue and reflection, among the government, tax authorities, the private sector, and the citizens.”
She also explained that AAN and the TJ and GP recognize the need for government to mobilise resources to fund development and the efforts to build a strong, equitable, and progressive tax system in the country. While we advocate for progressive taxation, and they believe that the government’s efforts seem to be largely reactive with limited engagement of citizens, inadequate policy content information in the public domain, that is eventually contributing to citizens’ apathy to their tax obligations.
She said: “A minimal tax to GDP of up to 18 per cent will help to drive such development initiatives. However, this pre-supposes putting effective tax structures in place and simultaneously creating incentives to improve governance, strengthen channels of political representations, and reduce corruption.
“Unfortunately, in Nigeria and in some other African states, the tax to GDP ratio remains low. This low tax revenue trend is among the factors that necessitated the eventual Report of the High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows ( IFFs) from Africa that was commissioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in 2011 and chaired by the former South Africa President, Thabo Mbeki, which estimates that more than $50 billion leaves the African shores annually.
“As long as you are contributing to paying taxes and see tax utilized beautifully, when I was in Lagos I saw how revenue was utilized for the people, which improved the lives of the people.
“I pay tax regularly so I can challenge anybody on tax and every staff of ActionAid pays a heavy tax.
“One of the areas Nigeria is losing heavy tax is in the area of textile. Growing up in Nigeria, I saw how textile industries employed people and also clothing Nigerians, a lot of West Africans, and so many people in different parts of the world.
“In Lagos, every Tuesday in Aswani Market we had the whole of West Africa in the market trying to pick the different textile materials Nigeria is producing, but today the market is a ghost place.
“When a government keeps industries going all the workers pay taxes, even when you think you are losing by giving that money out you are still benefiting because you are keeping the health of your nation, young people employed.
“Looking at the leaders I was wondering what they were doing; they allowed the textile industries to die one by one. Kaduna that used to have thousands of industries, but now how many industries are there. These were industries that employed thousands of Nigerians.”
She also pointed out that, “Now about 4 million Nigerians released into the job market and no place for them, and national parliamentarians who are best paid in the world. How can you be collecting N30 million in a month, and if they are collecting that amount what policies are they making? If Professors in the universities are to earn such amount they have to work for 100 years and those are professors producing people.”
She also called on the government to look inwards and see how taxes will be transparently paid by those who are appointed, elected into government offices, and multinationals including the utilization of taxpayers’ money to develop human capacity towards sustainable economic growth and development.
“Looking at this because we need to use our taxes, look at young Nigerians, how to create a place for them, and when you are not investing in the human capital then you are not thinking of your economy. Taking loans from abroad and what is it used for, what is the place for young people?”, she queried.
Also speaking was the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Ayuba Waba, represented by deputy President, NLC, Joe Ajaero, in a keynote address titled, ‘Taxation and the Funding of Gender Responsive Public Service in Nigeria’, said the way to tame poverty and inequality in Nigeria remains a fair tax system.
“We have affirmed that a fair tax system and engineering imaginative and responsive governance are some of the ways to tame poverty and inequality. Given that effective financing is critical to the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we need alternative resource mobilisation possibilities that a fair system of taxation can provide.
“Of course, we know that this campaign is like a marathon given the nature and the roles of ‘vested interests’. Thus, a well-resourced campaign in ideas, commitment, goodwill, materials, and doggedness will be required. For us at the NLC, we have placed our hands on the plough and we shall not look back.
“We commend this initiative aimed at contributing to the national agenda on expanding the tax net and harnessing tax revenue in the most sustainable manner to fund development in the country and contribute to the global demand for fair taxation.
“Also, we support all efforts to strengthen the understanding of stakeholders on the tax justice that links to public service delivery, especially gender-responsive policies and the actualisation of the decent work agenda”, Ajaero stated.
However, one of the resource persons, Eze Onyekpere, in a presentation titled, ‘Nigeria: Rising Public Debt Profile and the Challenge of Funding National Budgets 2020-2021’, pointed outperformance of the 2020 Budget based on his assessment.
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“A total of N5.365trn is expected yearly revenue prorated for January to August at N3.576.95trn, out of which the only N2.522.08 accrued and this is a -29 performance.
“Out of this 2.137trn has been used for debt service comprising N1.189trn in domestic debt; 333.37bn in foreign debt and N622.78 in Ways and Means.
“This means 84.7% of actual revenue was used for debt service within the period.
“Note the fact that Ways and Means is the second most important debt service spending and recall what the CBN said about this. Ways and Means is also not part of extant debt calculation by the DMO.
“This to a great extent means we are borrowing to pay salaries, overheads, and even capital expenditure; Nigeria is broke; The implication is that all other expenditure above the actual revenue of N2.522 was financed through a deficit; Actual revenue (2.522trn) as a percentage of actual expenditure (N6.245trn) is 40.3%; As at the end of August, only N761.79bn has been spent on capital expenditure; Capital expenditure as a percentage of debt service is a paltry 35.6% as at August 2020.”
Meanwhile, on his analysis about 2021 budget projection, he expressed worry and said, “The 2021 FGN budget deficit is in the sum of N5.196tn which represents 3.64% of GDP.
“This is in excess of the 3% rule in section 12 of the FRA which states that aggregate expenditure can only exceed the ceiling imposed by the FRA when there is a clear and present threat to national security or sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“It is doubtful if it can be stated that there are clear and present threats to national security and sovereignty of Nigeria of the magnitude required to trigger a deficit in excess of the 3% ceiling. This can be the case if the threat to national security is interpreted from the economic angle.”
However, in his conclusion, he said, “Transparency and accountability are key to sustainable funding of our national budgets; Leakages should be plugged and new resources taped; A moratorium on new borrowing; In exceptional cases, meeting the strict conditions of the FRA; Set the debt limits provided in section 42 of the FRA, and we can fund our developmental needs without excessive borrowing.”
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