“Great leaders check their ego at the door and empower others to excel” – Deborah Gilles
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna state, consistently makes very fundamental statements by words and actions that the most important legacy for any leader desirous of achieving extraordinary results, is to inspire confidence and trust in his appointees that they have the capacity to deliver services to the people. The indefatigable El-Rufai is, undoubtedly, an apostle of C. Everett Koop, a key proponent of the school of thought that believes that “Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation.” This is precisely what El-Rufai in the last five years has been doing- imbibing in Kaduna state youths the sense of responsibility and independence to excel in public service. It’s to El-Rufai’s credit that no young person from Kaduna state can hide behind the banner of “no opportunity”, because the reality is that El-Rufai has over-patronised them.
El-Rufai’s singular ambition is to internally generate annually a minimum of N70bn that would cover wages and administrative costs, without having to wait for the “miserable” allocation from the Federation Account, which hardly covers salaries and leaves nothing for infrastructure development. All indications point to the realisation of the objective, as the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS) has consistently been generating well over N2bn from the paltry N600m a month that was standard during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administrations. Key to the successes recorded in increasing the IGR, are the reforms embarked by El-Rufai, which frontally attacked leakages, made cash collection a crime and the revenue service the sole collecting and accounting authority, though all taxes and fees continue to be assessed by the relevant ministries and agencies.
In 2015 when El-Rufai assumed office, he had two stark options – to either reform or perish- because government revenues were already beginning to decline due to low demand for crude oil, Nigeria’s major foreign exchange earner. The governor chose the path of reforms, making Kaduna state the only state that wasn’t prodded by the federal government into embarking on long over-due reforms. Working with Ifueko Omoigui, former Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), El-Rufai embarked on a radical restructuring of the KADIRS, into a service capable of effectively raising the much needed finances for the myriads of projects he has on his table. To give legal backing to the reforms, the Kaduna State Tax (Codification & Consolidation) Law, 2016 was signed into law, ushering in a new era in tax administration in Kaduna state. Highlights of the law include making KADIRS the sole revenue collection agency, harmonisation and centralisation of all revenue collection and the prohibition of cash collection, which makes cash collection a crime. The blockage of leakages was the killer punch and in no time the desired results started rolling in, such that by 2017 the revenue had increased from N11.8bn in 2015 to N26.53bn and to N30bn by 2018.The half year results (January to June) for 2019 looks impressive.
Mukhtar Ahmed, the pioneer chairman has no doubt laid a solid foundation, but there are still some challenges that must be addressed for the Service to attain the desired level. And the man on whose very lean shoulders El-Rufai has placed this huge responsibility on is 35-year-old Zaid Abubakar, a 2008 graduate of Accounting from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Abubakar comes with impressive credentials that include a Ph.D. in Accounting, from the Al-Madina International University (MEDIU), Malaysia.
Abubakar has several advantages, chief being his background as a core “tax man” and the fact that he is coming from the FIRS where as a tax auditor he had the duty of ensuring compliance by taxpayers. The good people of Kaduna state, and companies operating in the state are hereby put on notice that a Daniel or is it Zacchaeus the tax collector has come to judgement. Abubakar breathes tax compliance and so understandably so much is expected from him. And there is absolutely nothing Abubakar can do about the huge expectation to replicate the Omoigui Midas touch that changed the fortunes of the FIRS – it would always be there- a reference point.
Abubakar is a worthy member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) UK, associate member, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), and associate chartered accountant, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). As in school where he easily picked up the M.K Lawal Foundation Merit Award for the best graduating student with distinction in commerce, he was to repeat the feat by picking ICAN merit award, for the second overall best result. El-Rufai has provided Abubakar with a platform to prove himself as a public administrator, and if he succeeds, which he is determined to, there are so many future possibilities considering his age. Luckily, the humble Abubakar has some experience managing older colleagues, having been ICAN secretary-general.
Before his appointment as executive chairman, Abubakar was a lecturer at Shehu Idris College of Advanced Studies (CAS), Zaria where he taught auditing and investigation. Obviously his teaching experience during his compulsory National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC) came in handy. What teaching lost seems to have become the gain of the corporate world. First, it was Bitmas Integrated Farms, Zaria that hired him as supervising accountant to midwife their multimillion enterprise. In search of further challenges, he staged a second missionary journey to teaching as he joined the Department of Accounting, ABU, Zaria with the responsibility of teaching tax management and planning. Like they say, a gold fish has no hiding place, as Abubakar was once again snatched from the ABU by FIRS as tax auditor with the responsibility of ensuring compliance, monitoring of taxable individuals, matching returns with payments, an assignment that has adequately prepared him for his current assignment.
Post script: Definitely the last has not been heard about Abubakar who has always left his mark on the footprint in sands of time wherever he found himself.
Ado writes from Kaduna.
