There is one thing that you can't miss about Johnson Tunde Ogunsakin, retired Assistant Inspector General of Police and a reputed financial crime buster, is that you can't miss him in a crowd.
Standing at 6.4 feet on bare feet, the light skinned Ikere Ekiti born, Interpol trained retired police detective and administrator is a man born to be a cop.
So when it was said he had written a book, it was assumed that it would be an autobiography, maybe some juicy titbits about his life as a policeman, his ICPC days, his SFU achievements, his Rivers/Zone 6 postings
and other landmarks in his illustrious career.
and other landmarks in his illustrious career.
You can therefore imagine the surprise when it was revealed that he had written on tax!
You know, Tax, that fundermetal bedrock of government revenue in a sane society, the process of providing basic amenities based on effective taxation.
That was the first question we threw at him when we finally had time to discuss the book.
His answer was both pungent and revealing
His answer was both pungent and revealing
"Every rich society has a great tax administration, all poor countries have poor tax administration "
He recalled his training at Hedon Detective School in the UK, where he learnt that to be a great detective, you must know a little bit about everything, especially the psychological profile of those you are investigating.
It was this mindset he took to his assignments, especially when he was a member of the Presidential Panel on Education Tax (3 percent of gross profit) during the Obasanjo regime , that yielded N7.8billion in a single year!
It was also this strategy that he used as the Chairman of the committee on AFC during the YarAdua administration,, which led to the recovery of over $434million that was being traded with by those entrusted with it, despite having a presidential order but was not in the budget approved by the National Assembly.
Once he pointed out the anomaly, the money was returned under 24 hours!
So, based on his belief that it is only an effective and efficient tax policy that will liberate the country from chronic poverty and cancerous corruption, he puts his thoughts, based on many years as a financial crime buster, into a book form.
Titled A Review of Effective Tax Regime in Nigeria, the book will be launched tomorrow, Saturday, October 14,2017, at the NIIA Auditorium, Victoria Island, from 10.00am.
The chairman is former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, while the special guest of honour is the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osibajo.
It promises to be a day to remember.
My Ten Kobo.
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