Nigeria Revenue Service appointments: Recent review by Daily Trust
By Charles Onwunali
The suggestion that appointments to critical national institutions such as the Nigerian Revenue Service should be determined by the alphabetical order of states is not only deeply flawed, it is fundamentally hostile to meritocracy, excellence, and inclusive national development. Alphabetical sequencing is an administrative convenience not a governance philosophy and has no place whatsoever in determining leadership for institutions entrusted with safeguarding Nigeria’s fiscal sovereignty.
Even assuming, without conceding, that such a provision appeared in the version of the Act circulated by the National Assembly, it would represent one of the most perverse insertions ever contemplated in public administration. To subordinate competence, experience, integrity, gender balance, and institutional continuity to the accident of alphabetic order is to deliberately undermine state capacity. It reduces public service to chance and mediocrity and actively punishes excellence. Any individual or group responsible for inserting such a provision should indeed be ashamed, as it betrays either a profound misunderstanding of governance or a wilful attempt to sabotage institutional effectiveness.
More importantly, there is credible reason to believe that this clause did not exist in the version of the Bill assented to by the President, reinforcing long-standing concerns about post-assent alterations and legislative recklessness. If so, the real scandal is not the appointments themselves, but the apparent manipulation of statutory texts after presidential assent, a practice that strikes at the heart of constitutional order and legislative integrity.
Finally, it must be stated clearly: equity does not mean arbitrariness. Federal character, inclusion, and geopolitical balance were never intended to negate merit; they exist to ensure fairness alongside competence. The profiles of the appointed Executive Directors drawn from deep pools of tax administration, finance, technology, policy, and institutional reform demonstrate that merit, diversity, and regional balance can and must coexist. Nigeria does not need alphabetical governance; it needs capable institutions led by the best minds available, irrespective of the spelling of their states.
Anything less is not reform, it is self-inflicted sabotage.
- Chief Charles Onwunali, an economist, entrepreneur and financial consultant, writes from Lagos
