Babatunde Fowler’s Job As FIRS Boss Hanging On The Balance, As President Buhari Queries Him ….The Bola Tinubu’s Angle.

Buahri, Tinubu & Fowler.

There are very strong indications that the fight for the soul of Nigerian come 2023 may have started and the need to stop the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu may have been fully hatched as the plan to struggle and take over the political space, is currently ongoing and every ambition the musketeer of Nigerian politics may have would be completely demystified.

This fight started with the president refusing completely to accept any of the recommendations made by Tinubu for Ministerial appointment, and now, there is news that one of his political sons who was appointed Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, is on his way out, with his tenure expiring and there is no hope of his returning.

Stories have it that there are a few misgivings by the president about his stewardship, especially on where his loyalty lie, if it is with the President or the National Leader of APC, Tinubu, through whose recommendation he was appointed in the first instance, coupled with the fact that a few figures in the revenue collection under his watch are not coming out well.

The President’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, had in a letter circulating widely on social media and dated August 8, 2019, Abba Kyari, and queried Mr. Fowler over issues surround some collected revenue figures and was given up till August 19 to respond to the query, that is, two days after his tenure would have expired.

He was expected to have handed over to the next most senior person in FIRS having been appointed for a renewable term of four years on August 18, 2015.

In the query, Kyari wrote: “Your attached letter (FIRS/EC/CWP/0249/19/027 dated 26 July 2019) on the above subject matter, refers.

“We observed significant variances between the budgeted collections and actual collections for the period 2015 to 2018. Accordingly, you are kindly invited to submit a comprehensive variance analysis explaining the reasons for the variances between budgeted and actual collections for each main tax item for each of the years 2015 to 2018.

“Furthermore, we observed that the actual collections for the period 2015 to 2017 were significantly worse than what was collected between 2012 and 2014. Accordingly, you are kindly to explain the reasons for the poor collections.

“You are kindly invited to respond by 19 August 2019.

The fight has started and one wonders how long and far the fight will go.