By Francis Sadhere

In the face of dwindling oil revenue, the Nigerian government has among other options, increased the drive for tax compliance.

It is to this end that the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) is focusing on the theme, “Tax education, national development and the seminal role of the media”, for its 8th media lecture series which holds on Wednesday 13 July, 2016 by 10am at the main hall of NECA House, Hakeem Balogun Street, Off Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos.

Whole Soyinka.

According to a statement by the Centre Coordinator, Motunrayo Alaka, the first female President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Adebimpe Balogun, will deliver the lecture commemorating the 82nd birthday of Wole Soyinka.

The statement further said that discussing alongside Balogun will be, Auwal Musa (Rafsanjani), Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Modupe Oyekunle, President of NECA’s Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW), Simon Kolawole, Publisher of The Cable Newspaper, Emuesiri Agbeyi, Tax Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Deremi Atanda, Executive Director of Systemspecs.

“Opeyemi Agbaje, Managing Director of Resources and Trust Company will moderate the event. Tunde Fowler, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has also confirmed the agency’s participation,” the centre stated further.

The centre coordinator noted that as the 30th July due date for filing outstanding tax returns by companies to the FIRS draws near, the WSCIJ intends to use the lecture to contribute to strategic thinking and provide a veritable opportunity to raise critical questions for national debate on issues surrounding taxation.

It added that these will include the importance of taxation to development, evaluating the compliance rate, technology driven payment, the lack of trust for wise use of funds generated by the government, the level of reportage of the issue in the media and many more.

“The lecture is an annual programme of the organisation designed to examine varying topical issues that have a reverberating effect on the perceived performance of the media on the health of Nigeria, and its democracy. It has since 2009 held on 13 July, to honour Soyinka, while also drawing attention to critical national issues.

“Admittance to the event is open to journalists, accountants, lawyers, tax experts and agencies, pressure groups, policy makers, members of the diplomatic corps and other stakeholders in the civil society,” Alaska noted.