The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) Women Wing hosted a one-day National Women Conference in Jos, Plateau State, on January 16, 2025. Themed “The Position of the Nigerian Women on the Controversial Tax Reform Bills,” the event brought together women leaders, activists, and stakeholders to discuss the impact of the proposed tax reforms on women.
President Bola Tinubu transmitted four tax reform bills to the National Assembly onOctober 3, 2024. The bills aim to overhaul tax administration and revenue generation in Nigeria. However, the Northern group expressed concerns about the bills, citing gray areas that need clarification, particularly the VAT derivation formula and stakeholder involvement from the North.
Speaking at the event, Comrade Nankling Pamela Nanle, National Director of Women Affairs (CNG), highlighted the need for sensitization and awareness about the tax reform bills among grassroots citizens.
“We realized that people at the grassroots do not even know what the bill is about, yet it will affect them significantly. We urge the President to hear our concerns and for the grafters of the bill to revisit the gray areas, especially those that impact northern women dominating the informal market sector,” she stated.
The event featured other notable speakers, including Hon. Caroline Panglang Dafur, Commissioner for Women Affairs and Development, Plateau State, represented by Sunday Dumbil, who encouraged women to engage in meaningful dialogue about the bill.
She noted that “Northern women should not completely write off the bill but consider how it can address issues like multiple taxation and support small-scale business owners.”
Hon. Barr. Olivia Dazyam, Acting Chairperson of the Gender and Equal Rights Commission, emphasized the broader implications of the reforms.
“The bills aim to harmonize tax laws, reducing the burden on small-scale businesses and informal traders. However, we must ensure their implementation addresses critical issues such as insecurity, gender-based violence, and illegal taxation,” she stated.
Barr Dazyam also recommended forming committees to break down the bills for better understanding and advocating for adjustments to address regional and gender-specific concerns.
In his keynote presentation, Dr. Dagwom Dang of ANAN University Kwall, Jos, described the tax reforms as “pro-poor, pro-women, and pro-business” but noted disparities in revenue allocation among regions.
“If implemented correctly, the reforms could grow Nigeria’s GDP and reduce the tax burden on low-income earners. However, there must be clarity on revenue allocation and fairness in implementation,” he explained.
Participants identified several issues with the bill, including lack of awareness, unclear tax and revenue structures, multiple taxation, and ineffective implementation. The conference urged stakeholders to engage in robust discussions to address these concerns and ensure the bill benefits all regions and stakeholders.
The Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, disclosed the partnership at the Youth Safety Summit organised by Meta on Thursday.
At the summit, held in Abuja, Meta, in partnership with NITDA and the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, also launched the Youth Online Safety Campaign and My Digital World 2.0.
The stakeholders at the summit, including government officials, civil society organisations, educators, and industry leaders, deliberated on strategies to create a safer digital environment for young people.
Represented by Ahmed Tambuwal, acting director of NITDA’s Digital Literacy and Capacity Building Department, Mr Inuwa said the agency remained committed to ensuring that young people enjoy safe, positive, and age-appropriate online experiences.
He noted that NITDA’s ongoing nationwide digital literacy programmes would receive a significant boost through its collaboration with Meta, particularly in advancing online safety education among young Nigerians.
According to him, the partnership seeks to integrate online safety education into the school system, equipping students with the knowledge, skills, and values required to use digital technologies safely, responsibly, and productively.
Stakeholders at the event emphasised the need for stronger collaboration among government agencies, technology companies, educators, and civil society groups to address emerging online risks and promote digital well-being among young people.
The initiatives are expected to enhance digital literacy, strengthen online safety awareness, and support efforts to create a more secure and inclusive digital ecosystem for Nigerian youths.
OpenAI’s release of its newest model, GPT 5.6, reportedly won’t be like its previous releases. Instead of distributing it to the public, the company plans to share it only with a select group of close partners because the Trump administration told it to, reports The Information.
At a meeting this week, CEO Sam Altman reportedly told staff that the government would be “approving access customer by customer” during a preview period. Altman reportedly added that if the limited release goes well, OpenAI hopes to follow with a general, broader release a “couple of weeks later.”
In other words, the Trump administration appears to be pressuring OpenAI to do what Anthropic is already voluntarily doing: keeping its most powerful AI models under wraps.
According to The Information, OpenAI’s new model is not only being reviewed by the administration, but its staffers also “worked closely” with the government on the upcoming release. The agencies that reportedly asked for a limited release were the Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The Trump administration — which originally positioned itself as taking a “hands off” approach to AI — has in recent months pushed for federal oversight of new models. Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order directing certain AI companies to voluntarily submit new models to the government for testing and evaluation before releasing them publicly.
Earlier this year, Anthropic sparked no small amount of controversy when it announced that its new frontier cyber model, Claude Mythos, would only be released to a small coterie of partners through a program called Project Glasswing. Anthropic argued that its model was simply too powerful and could, in the wrong hands, cause more harm than good. Observers have since debated whether Anthropic’s rhetoric is a mere marketing gimmick or a legitimate attempt to keep a powerful model from being misused. The answer may be somewhere in between.
Cybercriminals have used automated tools for a very long time, but in the age of generative AI, they now have more digital ammunition than ever before. LLMs have proven adept at writing malware, and some can even execute entire ransomware attacks autonomously.
The specific concern with frontier cyber tools like Mythos is that they are ostensibly capable of both identifying and exploiting software vulnerabilities at speeds that no human analyst could match. Since many software systems contain hidden bugs that act as entry points into enterprise networks, this obviously poses an obvious and significant problem for any organization running complex software infrastructure. That said, since these models remain closed to the public, it’s difficult to tell just how much of a threat they really are.
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