 Properties of persons who defy sit-at-home order destroyed in some parts of the southeast, despite iPops reports its suspension of the order. And the Federal Inland Revenue Service loses bid to stop states from collecting value-added tax. And today is the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. We'll find out why that is important and why residents of Rivers State are worried about sooth in their air. Welcome to the Breakfast and Plot, CV Africa. I am Annette Felix. And I almost have them. Thanks for joining us and welcome to Tuesday morning. Alright, so top trending stories this morning. We saw the headlines. It says, VAT collection saga again, Rivers bids FIRS in court as WK Cushions taxpayers. So we know that this whole story began when River State government took this matter to court, saying that they're supposed to be receiving the value-added taxes in their states and that it was an aberration for the Federal Inland Revenue Service to go ahead and do that. They took this matter to court and the judgment was in their favour. They caught the clip that it was the constitutional right of states to go ahead and collect value-added tax. But we know that the FIRS didn't take this line down. They lashed out saying they were going to appeal and they went ahead to appeal. But again, the River State bit them in court as a Federal High Court in Port Hackett as dismissed the case, the application by the FIRS that was seeking to stop the River State government from enforcing the earlier judgment of the courts, which is for them to collect VAT. Now, this links to the stories that we've seen in recent time and the story we talked about yesterday on the breakfast with Mr. Paul and Ananda, a senior advocate of Nigeria, regarding courts giving deferring and contradictory judgments. So we could say that maybe this was the judge trying to sit up based on the invitation of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanka Muhammad, yesterday to make sure that, like Ms. Ananda Mba said, there is sanity through the courts and not chaos. Yeah, so yeah, that's the point that I wanted to start with. But I don't want to discredit that judge. He might have also looked at the details of the case and thought it was wise to give that ruling, not necessarily because of the influence of the Chief Justice of the Federation, CJN. So there is that. But I understand the fears that people have when there's some confusion like this in certain issues across the country. They always expect that there would be another court somewhere in Kirby or somewhere in Cross River or in Katsina, wherever that would give a conflicting judgment. The conversation really, you know, assigns that part is what exactly is the FIRS fighting for? If the court says it is not constitutional and the constitution is interpreted perfectly, then what exactly is the FIRS fighting for? What's your challenge with what the court has said? I understand that they have maybe a quota that they need to meet up with with regards to their collection of taxes across the country, which is remitted to the federal government. But, you know, there's also need for the FIRS to understand that there's still a Nigerian constitution that needs to be followed. This is also a good time to once again speak about the idea of restructuring that people have been mentioning. At what point are states going to be independent and become responsible for their own finances and for their own revenue? At what point are states going to be able to take certain decisions for themselves? You know, certain things that people have said they need to be taken off the exclusive list for a very, very long time. Nigeria seems to just ignore some of these challenges. The country itself, the government itself, knows that there are certain things that are just not really right. If you're running, you know, the system that we're meant to be running, this thing shouldn't be this way. But we've ignored this for so long, you know, for decades. And just thrown our face the other way and act like we don't understand. And so it's a great thing that the River State has started this. I think Lagos State, I believe, has also taken similar steps. And I hope that other states across the country, and that's very likely where our next top trending story is going to. I hope that other states across the country will be able to see that, yes, they should be able to collect value-added tax for themselves. It is not a federal tax. It should be kept for the states and not submitted to the federal government every month. I still would love to understand better what the FRRS is fighting for here. If this is unconstitutional and the court has interpreted it perfectly to say that, is there going to be another court that would see the constitution different or read the constitution different? I don't know and I hope not. But once again, great move by the River State government. And I'm hoping that other states will follow. Let's move into our next top trending story, which is Governor Masari, who has said that he doesn't agree with River State collecting their value-added tax. And according to him, he says that this means that everybody, when you move to a different state, you're going to be paying a value-added tax. In Rivers, you're going to move to Canada, you're paying a different value-added tax. You're going to move to Bainway and different states and the value-added tax will be different. Yes, and so what? That's the way that it should be, I believe. And I believe that what he's fighting for, and this is the narrative that I've seen a lot of people point out, is the fact that some, actually a lot, not some, a lot of states across Nigeria, cannot really generate income for themselves. His state was only able to generate, I think it was 2020-2019, 8 billion Naira, but received 136 billion Naira from the Federation account that year. So how are you? And this is one of the things that has been mentioned many times about how we put people in power that are just completely lazy with ideas on how to develop their states, with ideas on how to make their states better, with ideas on how to improve on the revenue of their states. They are completely lazy. So you have governors who vie for these positions. They campaign. They do whatever they possibly can to get to that position only just to sit down there for four years and, you know, of course, get re-elected for another four years to really just be governors and not actually know what it takes or, you know, look after what it takes to develop the state. Look after what it takes to invest in infrastructure in the state to generate more revenue. Internet-generated revenue for many states is embarrassing across 36 states of Nigeria. There's probably only about five or six states that you can look at. For eight years, the idea actually makes sense. Lagos state is mountains above, you know, other states across the country. But if you look at states in the north, you know, Katsina, and some of all those and for all those states, the Internet-generated revenue is embarrassing. And you wonder what these governors really do for eight years, aside just be there. And then at the end of those eight years, they get benefits, they get allowances, they get, you know, they get pensions. That's a way above people who have gotten to the peak of their careers and spent 30, 35 years working for the federal government. You've been governor for four years, and suddenly you have these entitlements that are just hard to imagine. But in those four or eight years, you couldn't, in any way, develop new ideas with which to make your state more fruitful, or generate more revenue. And that's where, I believe, that is where Governor Massari is coming from. One other thing that people have pointed out with this is how do you want to collect value out of the tax for things that people in your state are not even allowed to enjoy? You want to collect value out of the tax for alcohol? Because yes, some of the money that gets to be spread to some of these states is from the sale of alcohol in states in the south. But you want to collect that fund, that money from them when you don't even allow the sale of alcohol in your state because of religious concerns, obviously. And so Governor Massari, I'm not sure what battle is fighting, really, but it makes absolutely no sense. And this should be one step before the next one concerning restructuring. So you know what's ironical for me regarding the story? Katsuna State Governor Amino Massari reacted to the river state ruling that basically went ahead to say that river state government can go ahead and collect VAT. His response to this was opposition. He said he would go ahead and appeal the court judgment to say that he wants the FIRS to collect taxes, not state government. He said, you know, just like you said, oh, when you move to Lagos, you pay different VAT, when you move to Katsuna, you pay different VAT. So you see what's ironical for me? He made this statement when he was speaking to the RMAFC committee yesterday. And in that same breath where he said states should not collect internally generated states should not collect VAT. In that same breath, he went ahead to challenge the current revenue sharing formula in Nigeria and said that it was wrong for federal government to collect 50% allocation and for states and local governments to have to share the rest. Now listen, he wants states' governments to get more money so that they can do more things in the state. Then he goes ahead to oppose one way for states to make more money, which is collecting value added tax. How does that even work? How do you say state government should get more revenue allocation? But one way for you to get revenue allocation is through taxes and you say no, states should not collect taxes. Is it because, you know, like many activists here, like Libor Soshoma have said, you know, people go cap in hand to get federal allocation. You want that. You want to collect allocation, you know, just handed down to you. But when you have to actually do the work, putting infrastructures in place for you to go ahead and collect those value added taxes and things that, you know, would go ahead and create more revenue for the state, it then becomes a challenge. So how then do you reconcile both thoughts? Do you really want more money or you don't? So I think Governor Masari is focusing on the wrong things. I think he also needs to be reminded. Oh, he lacks clarity on what VAT and taxes can do for a state. I think he does. You know, he does understand what value added taxes. He understands perfectly. He just is part of those people who have basically been governors to receive revenue from the federal government every month and spread it as far and wide as they possibly want to and then, you know, just be there for 80 years without any critical thinking, without investing in critical infrastructure, without investing in agriculture, without investing in education and anything. They're just there to exist as governor for 80 years. And once again, I think he should be reminded that the biggest challenge for cuts in the state right now is not value added tax. It is the insecurity that has ravaged his state to its knees. And it currently has made the news for the last few weeks every day with the worst stories. It's kidnapping. It's murder. It's killings. It's everything you can imagine. I think it was yesterday or on Friday that I said it, that there was a video in the Cassinus State House of Assembly of their lawmakers crying, you know, to their speaker and seeking solutions to the insecurity. Members of their State House of Assembly and their family members are being kidnapped. Wives, girlfriends, whoever, cousins are being kidnapped left and right. That should be governor Masari's problem, not whether a reverse state wants to collect value added tax or not. And it's embarrassing that we have not gotten to a place where some of these states really, you know, should be able to say, you are not working as a governor. You have no relevance as a governor. You've really just been there for the last four years. That's true. That's true. I'm glad for them to swallow. All right. Let's move on to our final top trending story this morning. And, you know, it's about security. We know Sheikh Gumi. He's been a very vocal voice when it comes to security. And he's been very controversial. We know his stance regarding amnesty for bandits and the federal government accepting them, saying they're repentant. He basically is a fan of the carrot. He says the stick wouldn't work. And he put this in a post on Facebook yesterday. He titled this Zanfarah, the Flaring of Crisis. So in that post, Sheikh Gumi went ahead to say that the military action in Nigeria by the federal government would not succeed in eliminating bandits. He said that these killer herdsmen, these Boko Haram terrorists are here to stay and that the only way to basically ameliorate the situation is to whine and dine with bandits, is to give them amnesty, is to forgive them, you know. And he says, no official pardon, no end to banditry. Well, how does that make sense? If I do something bad and you forgive me, there is a tendency that I would do that again because your forgiveness is easy to get. So how do you, like how, make it make sense to me to say that people kill other people and then you forgive them. Isn't that not license for other people to go ahead and commit crime? How does an official pardon work to checkmate bad behavior? Please help me. Sorry again. Well, it obviously doesn't. But all of this is coming from, you know, the foundations of this conversation where, you know, the Nigerian government and, you know, leaders in the north, including Shegumi have not, you know, I think have been deceitful with the nomenclature with which they describe these terrorists. And that's why for a long time we had unknown gunmen, we had bandits, we had killer herdsmen, we had different names for people that should have simply just been called terrorists. Terrorists. With the same speed that the IPOB was proscribed years ago, even before they, you know, became violent now, like we're going to talk about today. The ESNM and all of that. Yes. Before they got that way, when they were simply just having their rallies and being peaceful, they were immediately declared terrorists. I remember that day very well. So we've continued, you know, to live in that lie for obvious reasons, for personal reasons, because, oh, not personal reasons, but obvious reasons of certain characters in government and, you know, in positions of power who do not want to completely, you know, name these people terrorists. And of course, they immediately then know that the Nigerian government needs to do what it needs to do, what should be done with regards to eliminating terrorists from the country. So that's where all of this is coming from. If you're talking about amnesty, and every time they bring up this conversation, they always would, you know, look back at the Niger Delta Avengers and say, oh, you know, since the Niger Delta, and men were given amnesty, you know, then, you know, these people should be. But it's very, very different. And the reason is, the Niger Delta, you know, persons, militants, had a cause that they were fighting for. There was something that they were fighting for. They believed in a certain cause, and that's the reason they were carrying out their, you know, pipeline vandalism back then, kidnapping here and there. It would be very, very unfair. It would be very, very unfair to put these two situations, you know, at par. It would be very unfair because everybody lived through the period of the Niger Delta militancy, and it was never, not even 5% as bad as what we have today, from these terrorists. If we're being honest with ourselves, it's only a person who decides to be honest with himself and every other person that would equate them. So they're both crimes, but they were on totally different levels. The atrocities were totally different. Once again, those people had a cause that they were fighting for. Can Sheikh Umi tell Nigerians what the bandits are fighting? What's their cause? What's their grievance with the Nigerian government? What exactly is the challenge that they have with the Nigerian state or the Nigerian station that has led them to commit these atrocities for the last couple of years? They have killed thousands. They have displaced thousands. They have kidnapped thousands, even. 2021 alone, if you look at the figures of people who have been kidnapped, it is shocking for just 2021. So I want you to then look at or imagine what the figures will be like since 2015 to date. What exactly is their grievance that you should now say, okay, let's have a conversation with them. Maybe we've been unfair to them in this regard and we should grant them honesty. There's no clarity concerning some of all this. It's just trying. Which the military law enforcement agencies were formulated and mandated to check? That's simply what it is. It's crime that should be punished. I don't completely... So I want to give a space where we can actually have a carrot and stick possibility that there is some level that we can say, okay, let's not completely use military tactics to deal with this. There's that possibility in a tiny way. But the body language of the Nigerian government concerning the life and property and the value of life in Nigeria should be one way. There's no okay... I know you killed 12 people. I know you wiped out the whole village in this way. Okay, let's pardon you. And then this one doesn't get the same pardon. It should be the same way that the Nigerian government and the Nigerian people and the Nigerian criminals, terrorists, bandits, everybody should know what the Nigerian government stance is with regard to murder of Nigerian citizens. And when you don't have that stance, it creates a space for people to commit these atrocities and expect that there will be somebody who will speak on their behalf and say, oh, let's grant them pardon and grant them amnesty. Until we take that step, until we have a government that knows and tells the Nigerian people this is going to be the Nigerian government stance with regards to taking the Nigerian life, the value of the Nigerian life, until we have that government who will continue to see these things crop up every now and then. And there's always space for five people to name themselves a particular group, carry AK-47s and commit atrocities against the state. That's it on Top Trending this morning, but guess what, there's more on the papers across the national dailies. Let's take a break here and we'll return with Off The Press.