Taxation is certainly a touchy issue, which many Nigerians are interested in discussing. This is connected with the notion among the majority that government does not use it judiciously. But in the face of many challenges, a group of young and enterprising Nigerians have resolved take up the challenge of enlightening Nigerians on the desirability of prompt tax payment. The group, Students Tax Advocacy Initiative (STAI) is put in place to educate the younger generations on taxation issues. Chief Operating Officer of STAI, Mrs. Robo Oduwole, spoke with MOHAMMED ABUBAKAR in Abuja.Students Tax Advocacy InitiativeSTAI was registered in 2010 as a non-profit organisation (NGO). It evolved from a pilot project by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in collaboration with the Society for Youth Empowerment in Nigeria (SYEN). FIRS, as part of its statutory responsibility to educate current and potential tax payers in 2009put in place Students Advocate for Tax (SAT) programme to enlist students from seven to 25 years as advocates for tax. STAI was set up primarily to oversee the SAT programme and serve as lead agency while ensuring its long-term sustainability. It also encourages career in taxation through scholarship opportunities while providing research materials and infrastructure to enhance research in the field.The immediate objectives of SAT are to educate students on tax, enlist them as advocates of taxation to engage them as participants in nation building through change projects.It actually started as a project by the FIRS in collaboration with the Society for Youths Empowerment. In 2008, FIRS thought it was its responsibility not just to sensitise the adult-tax-paying population but also the young people. It felt it was its responsibility towards educating current and the future taxpayers about taxation matters. Over time, we observed that the message that has been passed across was geared towards the current taxpayers and that not much has been done by the agency towards educating the future tax payers.One of the major projects STAI runs is the students advocate for tax. Why do we call it so' Young people are good communicators and as we speak, they have relationship with current taxpayers, either as parents, aunties, uncles or schoolteachers.Has it been tested anywhere'We did a pilot test in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) between 2008 and 2009. After the pilot, we continued the post-pilot activities with the schools in the FCT. The students have been involved in sensitisation campaigns, rallies, drama, article writing. They have even come up with an album, a collection of tax songs.When do you intend to embark on the expansion project'We are trying to get other NGOs that share similar values to partner with us in establishing chapters in the 36 states of the federation. Now, we have requested for proposal from groups that would partner with us, and we hope that by the end of the year, we should have concluded recruiting our partners. By January, we are kicking-off in 12 states across the six geopolitical zones.How would you assess the feedback'We conducted the pilot exercise in three schools in the FCT. From our pre-assessment and post-assessment, many of the young people didn't know anything about taxation but there was an amazing feedback in terms of results after the programme. In fact, our students have appeared on taxation matters a couple of times. They sit down and talk authoritatively on issues pertaining to taxation. They have written a couple of articles; some have been published in magazines and FIRS internal journal.How do you intend to address the current notion that taxes do not benefit payers'I would like to answer this question in two folds. First, the issue of tax money going into private pockets and people not getting values for taxes paid, has been an on-going issue for long. But I would say that having been in this system for the past two and half years, FIRS is doing a lot to put an effective tax system in place and ensure that we have a contemporary tax system, a system that work.
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