APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the Court of the Economic Community of West African States sitting in Abuja had declared that the Nigerian Broadcasting Code used by the National Broadcasting Commission to impose sanctions and fines on broadcast stations violates freedom of expression is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Punch reports that the Court of the Economic Community of West African States sitting in Abuja had declared that the Nigerian Broadcasting Code used by the National Broadcasting Commission to impose sanctions and fines on broadcast stations violates freedom of expression.
The ECOWAS court made the declaration on October 23, in a judgment delivered in a suit filed by a non-governmental organisation, Expression Now Human Rights Initiative, against the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The court held that the Nigerian government had failed in its responsibility to align its domestic legislation with its international obligations.
The applicant had challenged the use of the NBC Code by the Nigerian government to arbitrarily impose sanctions including fines against broadcast stations.
The court presided by Justice Dupe Atoki observed that in enacting laws “member states must give due consideration to its alignment with international guarantees and obligations like those under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.”
The newspaper says that President Bola Tinubu has assured international investors from G20 nations that their money is safe within the borders of the country.
The president disclosed this during a panel discussion titled “Fostering Local Value Chains and Investments in Africa — The Role of the German Private Sector at the G20 Compact with Africa Economic Conference, hosted by German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin, on Monday.
He highlighted to the investors that Nigeria has a large market and is ready to leverage all its advantages to become successful.
While the president is trying to woo investors in Germany, the Federation Account Allocation Committee is mulling plans to take decisive actions against multiple taxation in the country.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, stated this at the opening of FAAC’s retreat on Monday in Delta. He announced that the government is not set to overburden taxpayers with many new taxes but will rather broaden its tax base while simplifying and streamlining tax administration in the country.
In Germany on Monday, Tinubu said, “Your money is safe… We are eager and ready to partner with you…We have the youngest, largest, and most vibrant youth population in Africa…equally, we have…a well-educated population, a massive market, and the political will to bring it all together under my leadership.”
The Guardian reports that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, said democracy has not been working as a system of government in Africa because it was forced on the continent.
Obasanjo stated this, yesterday, in his address at a high-level consultation on ‘Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy for Africa’, held in Abeokuta.
The former president said Western style of democracy failed in Africa because it did not take into consideration the views of majority of the people.
Describing Western liberal democracy as a “government of a few people over all the people or population”, Obasanjo said: “These few people are representatives of only some of the people and not full representatives of all the people.
“Invariably, majority of the people were wittingly or unwittingly kept out. This is why we should have ‘Afro democracy’ in place of Western liberal democracy.” Obasanjo said African countries have no business operating a system of government, which definition and design they have no hands in.
“The weakness and failure of liberal democracy, as it is practised, stem from its history, content, context and its practice. Once you move from all the people to representatives of the people, you start to encounter troubles and problems.
“For those who define it as the rule of majority, should the minority be ignored, neglected and excluded? In short, we have a system of government in which we have no hands to define and design. And we continue with it, even when we know that it is not working for us.
“Those who brought it to us are now questioning the rightness of their invention, its deliverability and its relevance today without reform,” he said. Obasanjo explained that the essence of any system of government should be the welfare and well-being of the people.
“Here, we must interrogate performance of democracy in the West — where it originated — and with us the inheritors of what we are left with by our colonial powers.”
The newspaper says that the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, has said the Federation Account is witnessing improved revenue inflow since the removal of subsidy, from an average of N650 billion monthly to over N1 trillion in the last four months.
The minister stated, yesterday, in Asaba at the opening ceremony of a four-day retreat organised for members of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
The minister, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Finance, Special Duties, Okokon Udo, said the government had, for long, realised that petroleum subsidy was not sustainable.
According to him, the subsidy regime eroded revenues that should have been available to fund viable expenditures that were critical to the well-being of the populace.
The minister said the present administration was mindful of the needs and welfare of Nigerians and assured that it would continue to implement peoples oriented policies.
“We all know that achieving the tax revenue to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) target of 22 per cent and tax to GDP of 18 per cent by 2026 are parts of the cardinal objectives of this administration. “What is necessary to be done is to broaden the tax base, simplify and streamline tax administration for ease of collection,” he said.
On the theme of the Retreat, “Creating a Resilient Economic through Diversification of the Nation’s Revenue”, the minister commended the choice, stressing that it was suitable.
GIK/APA