Zacch Adedeji: A Technocrat With A Big Assignment

By Abiodun KOMOLAFE

There is nothing wrong with a very big dream. What is wrong is not having a dream at all. But with a dream, there’s also the possibility of a deluge of hindrances to its actualization. So, dreamers don’t go to the office to sleep. They go to the office to work.

Actually, the dream that motivated President Bola Tinubu to appoint Zacchaeus Adedeji as the Acting Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) must be big and vibrant. But how much the Iwo Ate, Oyo State-born technocrat can achieve will depend on the environment and society. Why did I say so? Generally in any hostile society, there is always a force to contend with. While no one is trying to manufacture excuses for poor performance, the dangerous truth is that it is real. So, one cannot but wish Adedeji the very best in his new assignment.

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For sure, Zacch, as the new FIRS boss is fondly called, will need all the humility in the world to maneuver the onerous tasks before him. The praise-singers, party loyalists and the ever-known critical political ‘yes’ Sayers may be in the way. So, this man of very considerable renown and wonderful patience has to be careful. Towards the discharge of his responsibilities, all he needs to possess are commendable acts of compassion, uncomplicatedness and will-power virtue – and his antecedents have shown that he has them in abundance – and people will show him the way. They may even be prepared to work double-shift, just to help him. Yes, they may not be many, but they are always there. They may not even be bothered about promotion, but they will always want him to succeed.

Discreet investigations have shown that FIRS is currently an over-bloated humongous entity with over 80% non-professionals in the field of Accounting and/or Taxation as a result of which over 60% of its 4% collection fees go to staff salary alone, i.e., recurrent expenditure, thereby leaving nothing for capital expenditure. So, it behooves Adedeji to spearhead a holistic constitutional review of the Service’s operations to make them the real and soul of the Federal Government’s treasury collection. 

Through the ages, haphazard promotion has been a means of rubbishing productivity. So, this amazing star must do all in his power to address staff recruitment and promotion which, according to information, are currently lopsided and abused. Provision of working tools, training programmes and other benefits must also be merit-based as contrary is a recipe for zero-level morale.

May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!

*KOMOLAFE wrote in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria ([email protected])