The Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun O. Aganga has recommended the establishment of a council of Nigeria Financial System Regulators comprising all the key current financial regulators.

The bullish trend on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), continued, Tuesday, as the value of listed equities, despite significant decline in the four sectoral indices, appreciated by N17.28 billion.

John Holt Plc has announced the appointment of a new Managing Director — Mr. Richard Hargrave.
This. according to a statement released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Tuesday, was as a result of the retirement of its erstwhile Managing Director — Mr. Nosike Agokei.

Chairman of BGL Plc and former Minister of Finance, Dr Kalu Idika Kalu has
said that Nigerians would be favourably disposed to paying taxes if the revenues accruable from such taxes are judiciously utilised for socio_economic infrastructure development of the various parts of the country.
‘’In our nation, we have seen mounting evidence, particularly over the past forty years; of the failure of Federal; State and Local Governments to productively utilise public revenues to the optimal benefit of the citizens by providing basic needs such as clean air, potable water, sensitisation, education and health’’, he lamented.
Speaking on ‘’Taxation Without Rdepresentation’’ at the 6th AELEX (Legal practitioners and Arbitrators) Lecture in Lagos on Friday, Dr Kalu Idika Kalu, lamented the failure of the ruling class to provide a conducive business environment through a proper structure of laws and a legal system of sanctions and free recourse to judicial process without intimidation.
Rather, through rampant and pernicious use of the political power to tax, he noted with dismay that levies, taxes, tariffs and all manner of deductions are constantly imposed by unrepresentative legislative systems throughout the country at all levels of government.
The only remedy to the catalogue of multiple incidences of taxation without commensurate representation, according to Kalu, can be encapsulated in the concept of improved governance.
‘’Good governance, has to do with just, equitable, consultative and responsive governance in the public sector as well as in the corporate private sectors.
With responsive and responsible governance, he noted that social services will be provided to those being governed in the form of adequate security, access to affordable education, health, as well as a social safety net for the aged, the handicapped, the sick and the dependent members of the community.
He added that there is a cry for the redress of long lingering absence of representation stemming from a lack of openness in the political process and the endemic and ever deepening corruption in the polity.
‘’The unequal sharing of the total public revenues, both those derived from the proceeds of common assets, and revenues raised from public taxation, all show the unequal access that contributes to widening income disparities’’, he said, stressing that the extensive incidence of tax avoidance and widespread tax evasion with impunity by those who also have favoured access to the nation’s common treasury and other assets, engendered social anomie and social tension.
To redress the situation, the former World Bank expert noted that government at all levels should identify the real needs of the masses as opposed to a mentality of pet ‘’gigantic’’ projects that do not impact on the basic needs of the masses. ‘’For example, the massive eight_lane highway into and from Abuja in the face of acute shortage of housing, water, public transport, and the employment_needs of the area is one glaring case of the abject subversion of what truly ‘represents’ the people’’, he said.
He however, urged government to provide a fair tax regime, stressing that representation would contribute to optimal growth and development by creating a most conducive environment and a higher overall investment.
Speaking in the same vein, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC) Senator Udoma Udo Udoma noted that Nigerians tend to resent tax because tax is being used by people that are not representing them in government. He went down the memory lane on how his Grandmother was killed in 1929 by the British colonial masters when she led a protest against an unrepresentative tax regime.
He however, said the legislative arm of government must be truly representative of the people, adding that ‘’people don’t resent taxes when they know that the people collecting the taxes are people genuinely elected by them’’.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, will extend a €14 million loan to GRIMAS S.A. to help the group upgrade operations in Mali and expand in West Africa, increasing business opportunities in the region and promoting regional economic integration.

PROFESSOR Babs Aliyu Fafunwa, former Minister of Education seemed not satisfied with the state of Nigerian education as standard and quality keep falling.

REVOLUTION is borne out of nationalism, vision and undiluted passion for the fatherland; not a section (North or South, Christian or Muslim or ethnic nationality) of it. Not for self. It is also about sacrifice, blood and sweat.

There was tension in the Plateau State House of Assembly on Tuesday as hundreds of youths stormed the premises ostensibly to frustrate an allged attempt to remove the Speaker, Mr Istifanus Mwansat.

It is on record that the Governor has refused to endorse any of the numerous candidates who have openly declared interest or clandestinely plotting to succeed him come May, 29, 20 11 by God’s grace.

THE lawmaker representing Awgu South Constituency in Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Emmanuel Maduabum, died yesterday after two weeks in coma, following a ghastly auto crash along Enugu – Port Harcourt expressway that earlier claimed three lives, including his wife, his driver and another unidentified commuter bus driver