By, Temitope Mustapha, Abuja

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, has set a target of N500 billion education tax collection for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, in 2021.

The Chairman, TETFund Board of Trustees,  Alhaji Kashim Imam disclosed this at the 2020 TETFund/FIRS Joint Interactive Forum in Ilorin, Kwara State.

Imam said the new target was necessary as the number of beneficiary public institutions has risen to 226.

Imam said the fund was on course to surpass the N277 billion mark set for 2020, that as at September, education tax collection had already hit N251 billion, and that the figure could rise up to N300 billion by the end of December 2020.

“I am happy to report that for about two to three years now we have been in the region of N250 billion. TETFund’s budget for this year was N250 billion; for this year, TETFund  gave the Federal Inland Revenue Service a target of N277 billion for the year 2020. We are very much on course not only to actualise that target but to surpass that target.

 “As at the end of September, collection was in the region of N251 billion; if we are lucky, we may actually hit N300 billion by 31st of December.

 ‘We have set a new target already for 2021 and that target is the sun of N500 billion. Considering the magnitude of the challenges facing tertiary education in Nigeria, we cannot afford to do less,” he explained.

Speaking on the theme of the forum titled, “New Trust in Sustaining the EDT Collection During Covid-19 Pandemic for Effective Service Delivery of the Mandate of the Fun,” he said TETFund was not comfortable with just sustaining collection as each year the fund makes effort to ensure improvement in its tax collection.

Imam noted that the fund has interacted with the Federal Inland Revenue Service over the 2021 target and FIRS made commitment toward meeting the N500 billion mark set by TETFund.

“The partnership between TETFund and FIRS is one that is made in heaven. And it hass worked effectively in the past nine years in addressing lunch, all the problems of tertiary institutions across the country,” he stated.

Impact more, Achieve More
He assured that TETFund’s Board of Trustees was determined to do more and prove that public agencies can deliver services to the people with integrity, that the fund was determined to impact more and achieve more.

Earlier, the Executive Chairman, FIRS, Muhammad Nami, said TETFund and FIRS have forged a relationship that has endured for 27 years since an act was enacted establishing the education tax fund.

Nami, who was represented by the FIRS Director in charge of Ondo, Ekiti and Kwara, Mr Ishola Akingbode, said the agency moved from zero tax activities to perform greatly in 2013, that the collection for 2020 will exceed what was collected previously.

He said a lot of modalities are put in place to ensure seamless collection of the 2 per cent education tax collection, and that despite being a difficult year, FIRS has put machinery in place to ensure that taxes are collected.

Increase Drive for Education Tax Collection
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof Suleiman Bogoro, stressed the need to increase the drive for education tax collection as the Covid-19 pandemic has affected economic activities and could likely effect education tax.

Bogoro said since 2013, when education tax collection rose to N279 billion, FIRS has been striving to achieve the annual 2 per cent education tax collections.

Represented by the Director Finance, TETFund, Alhaji Idris Saidu, the TETFund boss noted that over the years, the fund has performed creditably well notwithstanding the increased number of institutions and limited resources.

He said the fund was taking practical steps to put the nation on a revolutionary path of a knowledge-based economy by ensuring increase of the national research fund to N7.5, establishment of 12 centres of excellence and inauguration of a standing Committee on R&D to facilitate and accelerate the outcome of research.

The TETFund team also took time to tour TETFund projects at University of Ilorin, Kwara State Polytechnic Ilorin, Nigerian Army College of Education, Ilorin, and Kwara State University Malete .

Confidence Okwuchi

By Peter Bahago, Abuja

The National Human Rights Commission in Nigeria has called on governments in Africa to consider the use of non-custodial actions as alternatives to conventional sentencing,

The commission says that petty offences should not attract any form of sentencing.

Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mr. Tony Ojukwu stated this in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital during a consultative meeting on Road map for the Development of Action Plan on Decriminalisation of petty offences in Africa.

The consultative meeting which was organised in collaboration with the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions, NANHRI, is aimed at galvanising critical stakeholders to discuss issues of decriminalisation of petty offences in the African Region.

Minor Offences
In a statement by the  Assistant Director Public Affairs of the Commission, Fatimah Agwai Mohammed,  the Chief Human Rights Officer noted that most of the awaiting trial inmates in our correctional centers in Africa are arrested for minor offences like begging, hawking, loitering, failure to pay debts amongs others.

He said a good number of such inmates have been held in custody for longer than necessary, in flagrant violation of their human rights as guaranteed by the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights.

“I therefore called on key stakeholders in the criminal justice system to be committed in pushing for best practices in the administration of criminal justice, bearing in mind that petty offences have a strong link with poverty as well as social and economic issues that affect the dignity of the human person,” he said.

Reforms in Correctional Service Centers
He reiterated that the National Human Rights Commission in Nigeria, as a key stakeholder in the criminal justice system has been involved in initiatives geared towards reforms in correctional service centers in the county and that it will continue to highlight and push for more initiative and best practices in the criminal justice system.

Meanwhile, the Chairman, House Committee on Human Rights in Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Mr. John Dyegh, represented by his Deputy, Mr. Kawu Simon Elisha, stated that petty offences grossly violate the rights and freedom of the perpetrators.

He said the degree of offences are not sufficient for confinement in correctional centers or restriction of movement whatsoever.

According to the Lawmaker, “sensitisation of law enforcement agencies as well as correctional service personnel on offences sufficient for arrest in order to reduce prison congestion is necessary.”

Speaking on behalf of NANHRI, the Programme Officer NANRI, Phanice Akinyi Odhacha stated that her organisation has a great interest in decriminalisation of petty offences in Africa.

She was also optimistic of major reforms in the justice system, saying that the commission is empowered to champion the course.

Confidence Okwuchi

By Solomon Chung, Ogbomosho

Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has challenged the Nigerian broadcast media to take the lead in telling the Nigerian story in order to guard against distortion of facts by a section of the foreign media.

The Minister gave the challenge in Oko, Oyo State, while commissioning the 89.3 FM Station of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria on Saturday.

“Please permit me to use the occasion of this commissioning to challenge broadcast media in Nigeria to take the lead in telling the Nigerian story, especially by informing the people about the various projects of government and their impact on the people.

“A situation in which foreign broadcast stations arrogate to themselves the power to tell our own story gives room for distortion of facts, the type of which we saw recently when CNN reported that 38 people were killed at the Lekki Toll Gate during the EndSARS crisis, only to backtrack and review the number to one – after 35 days of what it called exclusive investigation,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed noted that had the local broadcast media lived up to their billing, CNN would have relied on them for news about EndSARS in particular and other happenings in Nigeria, in general.

He stressed that the broadcast media would have saved Nigeria from the one-sided, unfair, unbalanced and jaundiced narrative that CNN foisted on the world under the guise of exclusive investigation.

“A situation in which the local media will rely and quote a foreign broadcast media, for an event that happened in Nigeria, is an anomaly. It has to stop,” hthe minister said.

While quoting a website www.lifelineenergy.org, to underscore the critical role of radio in public communication in particular, the Minister said ”radio goes where newer technologies can’t. – Beyond electricity, beyond a mobile signal, beyond literacy. It’s the most effective way of delivering information in remote corners where having the right knowledge can mean the difference between a harvest and hunger, between feeling confident or humiliated, or even between life and death.”

He commended the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Value, Mr. Olusegun Odebunmi, for initiating the project, adding that this is the first time ever that a Federal Lawmaker is initiating the construction and equipping of a radio station as his constituency project.

Alhaji Mohammed implored the people of Oko and its environs to take ownership of the radio Station, guard it jealously and ensure its viability.

In his remarks, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Value, Mr. Odebunmi, said information is power but that it will be less effective without the means to transmit it in order to counter fake news and hate speech that are threatening the peace and unity of the country and the world in general.

The Director General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Dr. Mansur Liman, and the management staff of the Corporation, traditional rulers as well as religious and community leaders attended the inauguration of the radio station.

The Minister and Mr. Odebunmi were the first guests to feature on the live discussion programme on 89.3 FM ‘Ogo Ilu’ station

Confidence Okwuchi

By Golfa Franccis

The Nigerian Government has strategies to reactivate and complete three major Power projects, located in Abia Northern senatorial district in the first quarter of next year.

Minister of Power, Sale Mamman who gave the assurance said that the 2×30/40MVA substations 132 KVA transmission lines, which are located in Arochukwu, Ohafia and Ubur-Ihechiowa were awarded since 2001 but abandoned more than ten years ago at about ninety five percent completion.

Mamman during an inspection visit to the three projects, expressed disbelief that such projects would be abandoned at such levels, pledged that the contracts would be reviewed and rewarded for immediate completion.

He noted that the Power projects were of immense importance to the people because they would not only boast their electricity supply but give room for expansion to cover the entire Abia Senatorial district.

The Minister who was accompanied on the inspection by Senator Orji Uzo Kalu of Abia North, addressed crowds at the project locations that their long wait was over.

Both Senators Kalu and leaders of the host communities expressed appreciation for the Minister’s visit.

Confidence Okwuchi