It is a pity that people in positions of authority in Nigeria are not doing what is expected of them.This is why we are having problems in administering this nation and paddling its canoe safely to the bank of development.This is a country where law is made to be flouted with impunity. This is a country where those who are supposed to guide the law, ensure compliance and prevent it from being violated are the first set of people that will rape it in broad day light.Is it not a shame for the Tourism minister, whose hotel was caught in the cobweb of tax evasion to have said that 'it was an hatchet job' as if he does not know the meaning of a hatchet job'Chief Edem Duke is not an illiterate. He is one of the best Nigerians who understand perfectly well the English language and has one of the best dictions ever.And this has been one of his credentials in getting plum jobs and recognition, right from his days as a baritone newscaster with the Federal Radio Corporation, and at the NNPC.Making allegations of hatchet jobs is part of the charade that those in authority employ to pull the wool over the generality of the people when they or their proxy are caught in a cobweb of fraud.Tax evasion is tax evasion; there is no sentimentality about it. It is the corrupt nature and tendencies in Nigeria that always lead to a situation of scapegoatism whenever our big men are caught napping. In a sane clime , the minister would have resigned his appointment immediately on the day his hotel was sealed.This is one of the hotels which Chief Edem Duke used to bamboozled the senators who confirmed his nomination as a minister, as his contribution to the tourism development of Cross River State . He flaunted this credential in his CV, which was distributed to all the senators, as the man behind the Mirage Hotel, Calabar .What I was expecting the intelligent minister to hide under when the shameful story hit the town was to say ' There is different between me and the hotel being an entity .' But our minister never denied the ownership of the hotel; instead, he fell woefully to the bait of ' a hatchet job.'Then the question is , If it was a hatchet job ,why did his manager , a lawyer , seek for a million naira to placate the men of the Federal Inland Revenue Service'And, second ,why has the hotel refused to remit the VAT collected on behalf of the Federal Government in the last fours years 'But should we blame the minister who has refused the nation its due revenue and was even appointed a minister to oversee affairs at the very place where he has prevented the nation from making money'Like one Nigerian on facebook commented,' we should not be surprised if, tomorrow, the minister whose hotel was sealed for tax evasion is nominated and decorated with a national honour.'And since that time when the shameful news di d the rounds , the minister has been carrying on as if nothing happened.Wonders shall never end in Nigeria.Ride on Minister Edem Duke and continue to pave the way for your company to evade taxes in Nigeria.One day, Nigerians shall lift the veil off some of you who walked into positions of authority with soiled hands.
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