Opinion

By Musa Ilallah  To begin this discussion, it is imperative that we attempt to understand what taxes are all about. Taxation is defined as the imposition of compulsory levies on individuals or entities by governments across the world. Taxation is used primarily to raise revenue to finance government expenditures among other reasons. The Nigerian government is primarily reliant on taxes as they are a significant source of revenue and a major source of income to the government to discharge its responsibilities. No one doubts the fact that the country today falls short of infrastructural development despite the unprecedented turn around…

By Dapo Okubanjo It is the norm in every society, for the authorities and the people to have what is loosely referred to as a social contract or an implicit agreement. It is a theory that is as old as humanity itself and it presupposes that a people's moral and political obligation depends on an agreement among them. Taxation is seen as one of those obligations that the citizenry in every country is expected to abide by, but in Nigeria this is one social contract that has for years been difficult to keep. We are a country with the largest…

By Hakeem Baba-Ahmed   A tree is bent when it is still wet — African proverb OUR family is very large and intensely political. Our father came from Mauritania to Nigeria in 1920 and died 1987. He was also passionate about sharing Islamic knowledge and rendering public service. Northern political and traditional establishments embraced, and trusted him to help nurture future Nigerian generations who will take over from the British with humility and sense of responsibility. Our mothers, were great Nigerian women who understood the challenges of rearing a huge brood, managing a prominent citizen in great demand who straddled…

National security is the protection of the people, preservation of national values, ensuring the protection and furtherance of the national socio-economic and political prosperity and the protection of the abstract State. No State has a life of its own distinct from the lives of the people who constitute the State. However, in Nigeria, there has always been the neglect and assault on the people who hold the empirical sovereignty. Our national security agencies focus on protecting the regime and the abstract State instead of the people. The framework of National Security has become so expanded in the 21st Century to…

"As a villager, I loathed paying taxes, or what they called revenue, in our weekly open air market," said Maitabo, the livestock trader who is now an industrialist in the big city where he established factories that turned out a basket of consumer goods, including polished rice. He said he spent the first 40 years of his life in his native village without electricity. There was no smooth, all-season motorable road to his village either. The only school in the district was in Alkarya, the district headquarters of his Karkara collection of hamlets, tiny villages, and homesteads. Maitabo said he…

It was Holly Black who said, "We don't need to be good. But let's try to be fair". Since the beginning of the current political dispensation in 1999, there is arguably any region that has been unfairly treated like the South East region of the country. It has again resonated with an age-long animosity, strife and suspicion, leading to a heightened campaign for self-determination and balkanisation in sheer contrast to the dreams of our founding fathers. Apart from being the only zone that has not produced an elected president since Independence in 1960, South East has in what some persons…

TAXES AS KEY TO NIGERIA'S ECONOMIC AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT  BY MUSA ILALLAH EMEKA ANYAOKU STREET, ABUJA  musahk123@yahoo.com  To begin this discussion,  it is imperative that we attempt to understand what taxes are all about. Taxation is defined as the imposition of compulsory levies on individuals or entities by governments across the world. Taxation is used primarily to raise revenue to finance government expenditures among other reasons. The Nigerian government is primarily reliant on taxes as they are a significant source of revenue and a major source of income to the government to discharge its responsibilities. No one doubts the fact…

Revenue Collection as a Strategic, Effective Tool to Restructure Nigeria by MUSA ILALLAH Acronymed “FIRS”, the Federal Inland Revenue Service has stood out since its rebirth in 2019 under the leadership of its Executive Chairman, Muhammad Mamman Nami as one more agency of government working hard for the benefit of all Nigerians. Indeed FIRS broke the jinx and did wonders for the country by raising the revenue collection bar every year since his coming on board. In 2021, the FIRS Chairman told Nigerians that the service collected N6.405 trillion in tax revenue for the year 2021, surpassing its target by…

When the music is good to our ears, we dance. And if we cannot dance, then we clap. Or we do both! This piece is not to sing the praises of a government agency without rhyme or reason. It is a fact based opinion piece on the historic feat of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in recording its highest ever tax collection of N10.1 trillion in a single year. The first indication that FIRS could cross the N10 trillion mark came in September last year when it collected N7.5 trillion in tax in nine months to surpass its entire…

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), government's agency responsible for assessing, collecting and accounting for tax and other revenues accruing to the Federal Government of Nigeria, have been recording tremendous successes and living up to it's mandate especially under the leadership of the Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami. Prior to the present leadership, the FIRS was seen to be limited in capacity as it could not efficiently facilitate an effective tax collection system through bringing more tax paying entities into the national tax net. And this reflected in low revenue generation for the Federal Government year in, year out. But amazingly,…