A Chartered Accountant/tax expert, Chief Okwudili Ijezie, has called on President Bola Tinubu, to immediately sack the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, due to his inability to oversee such a critical sector efficiently.
Ijezie made the call last Thursday in his Keynote Address on “The Way Forward,’’ at the eighth edition/grand finale of the bi-monthly pro bono Blakey’s National Conference with the theme; “Unlock the Benefits of the New Tax Regime in Nigeria,” held in Lagos.
Ijezie, who is the convener of Blakey’s National Conference, said for the 12th time since the beginning of this year, Nigeria’s national electricity grid suffered another collapse last Wednesday, throwing the country into darkness.
According to Ijezie, the grid collapsed the same day the Minister assured Nigerians that the country’s power grid would achieve significant stability with the completion of Phase one of the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI), also known as the Siemens project.
He urged government to put the right people in the right positions in order to give the taxpayer value for their money or to encourage Nigerians to pay their taxes voluntarily, through provision of quality public goods and services.
Ijezie, who said enhancing power supply was critical to widening the tax base, as it will bring more people into profitable economic activities, wondered what an accountant would be doing as Minister of Power ‘when Prof Barth Nnaji, founder of Geometric Power, is still alive and healthy’.
“I am calling on President Tinubu to sack the Power minister immediately. What does an accountant know about power? Why can’t the President go and bring Prof Nnaji, let another person be managing his (Nnaji’s) Aba Plant (Geometric) for him?”, Ijezie stated.
Commending President Tinubu for the choice of Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, as chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, describing Oyedele as a round peg in a round hole, Ijezie was optimistic that with Oyedele leading the implementation of the reforms, Nigeria’s target of 18 per cent tax-GDP from the current 10.5 per cent in the next three years would be achievable.
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