-Text of an address by Chairman of Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Kabir Mashi, at the
Leadership Training Program for chairmen of State Boards of the Service, in Abuja on Wednesday, May 23, 2013.
IT is indeed an honour and privilege to be here this morning to officially declare open this training programme organised by the Joint Tax Board in collaboration with ReStraL Consulting.
While we are all still leaders in our own rights and in our various institutions, one may be tempted to ask the question, why leadership or another leadership training programme.
Well, this is not out of place, as today’s families, organisations and nations are yearning for not just leaders, but the right type of leaders… Leadership has now become the glue that brings and holds it all together for institutions that works effectively and efficiently. It has transformed groups to prosper and actualise their full potential.
Bernard Mongomery, the distinguished British Field Marshal, described Leadership as “The Capacity and the Will to rally men and women to a common purpose and character which inspires confidence”.
It is on this note that I like to welcome you all back to Abuja after the 127th meeting of the Board which took place in April this year. Let me state that as Chief Accounting Officers of our respective tax authorities, the need for continuous capacity building programmes cannot be over emphasised.
You are all quite aware that we are constantly faced with the challenge of how to effectively and adequately manage both human and material resources at our disposal for optimum revenue collection. While we strive for perfection, we equally need avenues like this share and compare notes of the goods and not too pleasant situations around us.
To return to Montgomery’s definition of Leadership, one word jumps out and that is capacity. Capacity can be described as the inherent ability to do something. It could be capacity to contain, to rule or to direct.
Capacity building is ‘after vision’ and this perhaps the most the important challenge that leaders face in modern societies. Hence problems are not solved at the same level of awareness or knowledge that created them.
As leaders, we owe ourselves a duty, our organisation and our country the duty to ensure that we continue to develop our capacity to dream and to articulate visions and objectives as well as strategies to actualise them.
Capacities building in leadership remains a major tool in helping chief executives develop essential skills necessary for achieving organisational goals and objectives. In realisation of this fact therefore, we decided to organise this 3-day leadership training programme for all members of the Joint Tax Board. As I mentioned earlier on, some of us may have gone through this kind of training in the past, but you will agree with me that the programme will definitely provide an opportunity for interaction among members and refreshing to our memory.
Given the experience and calibre of the resource persons involved in conducting this training, I believe that this training exercise will not only be interesting but capable of influencing our thoughts on key matters relating to operations and management of our respective organisations. I like to therefore, urge you to participate actively throughout the programme. Let us freely share knowledge, opinions and experiences so that working together with our facilitators we can derive maximum benefits from this programme over the next three days.
Let me, on behalf of the entire members of the Joint Tax Board, express our appreciation to the management of ReStraL for this in-depth thought of bringing the members together for top management and leadership training course such as this.
Finally, I like to thank all of you for the relentless support and cooperation extended to me since my assumption of office as Acting Chairman of the Board.
I wish you all a rewarding exercise as I formally declare the training open.
Thank you and May Allah bless.