The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has clarified that the National Identification Number (NIN) issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) now automatically serves as the Tax Identification Number (TIN) for individual Nigerians.

The announcement was made on Monday as part of a public awareness campaign on the new tax laws, shared by the FIRS on X.

The Service further stated that registered businesses will no longer need a separate Tax ID. Instead, their Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) registration number will function as their official tax identifier under the revised system.

The clarification comes amid public concerns over provisions in the new tax laws requiring a Tax ID for certain transactions, including bank account ownership.

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According to the FIRS, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act (NTAA), set to take effect in January 2026, mandates the use of a Tax ID for specific transactions.

The Service emphasized that this requirement is not new, noting that it has existed since the Finance Act of 2019 and has now been reinforced under the NTAA.

“The Tax ID unifies all Tax Identification Numbers previously issued by the FIRS and State Internal Revenue Services into a single identifier,” the Service said.

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“For individuals, your NIN automatically serves as your Tax ID, while for registered companies, your CAC RC number is used. You do not need a physical card, as the Tax ID is a unique number linked directly to your identity.”

The FIRS explained that the new system aims to simplify taxpayer identification, eliminate duplication, prevent tax evasion, and ensure fairness by making sure all individuals with taxable income contribute their share.

The Service also urged the public to ignore any misinformation about the reform, assuring Nigerians that the updated tax framework is intended to enhance efficiency and transparency in tax administration.

Fuji music legendOtunba Wasiu Ayinde, popularly known as K1 De Ultimate, Fuji music legendOtunba Wasiu Ayinde, popularly known as K1 De Ultimate,

Fuji musician, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshall, popularly known as KWAM 1, has formally withdrawn from the race for the Awujale of Ijebuland, bringing an end to his legal challenge against the ongoing selection process for the revered traditional stool.

KWAM 1 filed a notice of discontinuation at the Ogun State High Court on Monday, December 22, 2025, signaling his decision to step away from the contest.

The notice was submitted by his legal team, led by Dr Wahab Shittu, SAN, effectively closing a case that had drawn public attention and sparked debate within Ijebu traditional circles.

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The withdrawal followed a ruling by Hon. Justice A. A. Omoniyi of High Court 3, Ijebu-Ode Judicial Division, who dismissed KWAM 1’s application for an interim injunction.

The application sought to restrain the Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, the Fusengbuwa Ruling House and other parties from continuing with the selection of a new Awujale pending the determination of the suit.

In his ruling, Justice Omoniyi held that the application for an interim injunction lacked merit.

However, the court ruled that the substantive suit could proceed and fixed January 14, 2026, for further hearing.

Despite this opening, KWAM 1 chose to discontinue the case altogether, effectively ending his bid for the throne through the courts.

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KWAM 1, who holds the traditional title of Olori Omooba of Ijebuland and hails from the Fidipote Ruling House, had approached the court after the Fusengbuwa Ruling House declared him ineligible to contest for the Awujale stool.

The ruling house maintained that the Fuji icon was not a bona fide member of the Fusengbuwa Ruling House and therefore could not vie for the throne under its platform.

The declaration of ineligibility had generated controversy, given KWAM 1’s prominence as one of Nigeria’s most celebrated musicians and a well-known figure in Ijebu cultural life.

By filing the notice of discontinuation, KWAM 1 appears to have accepted the court’s position on the interim application and decided not to pursue the matter further.

The Awujale of Ijebuland is one of the most influential traditional rulers in Yorubaland, and the process of selecting a new monarch often attracts keen interest from both within and outside Ogun State.

By Suyi Ayodele

Christmas is two days away. This is a season of celebration. It is a time we celebrate relations, friends and those close to us. I have a family I want to celebrate this season. I stumbled on a video clip of a comedy show by the Waffi-born master of jokes, Bovi Ugboma. In the video, Bovi said that it is profitable to ‘curse’ the head of the family of my choice to attract political patronage. Bovi is a ‘bad’ boy. He was acerbic in his jokes as he made jokes of those who criticised the head of the family and got ‘compensated’.

I don’t share that idea. This family is too fanciful to be ‘harassed’. It is also too powerful to be undermined. Ceteris paribus, our nearest future may as well be in the hands of the members of this family. Like they say in my place, this family has the scabies and the fingernails to scratch them (wón ní ifòn, wón ní èékánná). I am celebrating this family today with the hope that it may have mercy on us and lessen our burdens.

This is a great family as I mentioned, great in all parameters, negatively or positively. The family is like the proverbial talking drum which backs someone and faces another. The head of the family is the current President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Before then, he was governor of Lagos State for eight years. But his fortune did not start with the Lagos governorship. He was a ‘Distinguished’ Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the aborted Third Republic. Besides, he holds the title of Asiwaju (Leader) of Lagos.

I should also not forget that before becoming President, he was the self-styled National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Soon enough, my mind tells me, one smart-aleck king may confer on him the title Asiwaju of the Universe. That is highly probable in a Nigeria where anything goes, where raw cash takes the front row, while reason and morality are relegated to the background. I know someone whose name is Owonikoko, meaning money is the ultimate. I am yet to encounter a truer truth than that.

The man is not the only ‘fortunate’ member of his family. As he progresses in life, his wife also gets elevated. From being a housewife to becoming the wife of a ‘Distinguished’ senator, the woman of the house became the First Lady of Lagos, courtesy of her husband’s stint as governor. Those eight years in Alausa, Lagos State Secretariat, were colourful. Whoever needed anything in Eko Akete then must first worship at the shrine of Her Excellency. She was the mother of Lagos, and she played the role very well.

Then a time came. Madam became an ex-First Lady. The title was not befitting enough for the wife of a National Leader and a kingmaker. Something must be done. One of the leader’s lapdogs in the Senate was asked to bury his further ambition. Madam needed the prefix, senator, to up the ante of the family political hegemony. Pronto, the obedient servant complied, and Madam became Her Excellency, Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic. Trust the leader; he does not abandon his own. The boy who yielded his field for the leader to plan the seed of his wife’s senatorial ambition was adequately compensated with a ministerial slot. Loyalty pays.

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A man with ambition is always ambulant. Having successfully installed a perennial presidential candidate as the President, the National Leader decided to take a shot at the Presidency himself. He invented the Èmilókàn philosophy. While other presidential aspirants were still counting on the docile president to anoint them, the National Leader went after the presidential baton, grabbed it and ran away with it. The rest is history. Those who dared challenge the National Leader then are sent to permanent political purgatory!

Good parents do not forget their offspring. So it is with the man of the moment. He realised long ago, while his opponents were sleeping, that a good Muslim must teach his children the value of fasting from the cradle (kékeré ni Ìmàle tó ń kọ́ ọmọ rẹ̀ ní àwẹ̀). He understood that his children must grow alongside him as he progressed in life. The Benin multi-billionaire and icon, Chief Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin Kingdom, once opined that “a success without a successor is a failure.” That, indeed, is philosophy at its finest.

So, shortly after the demise of his adopted mother, the man, who at the time already had one of his godsons as the governor of Lagos State, had his first daughter installed as the Iyaloja of Lagos. That was the same title held by his late, celebrated adopted mother. Do not bother about the nature of the title or whether it is hereditary or not. We are in Nigeria. Here, a man of means can get anything he wants, by all means. With money and influence, a man without royal ancestry can become a king. Go to Ijebu Ode and ask what money and influence are doing to the revered Awujale throne. May we never run short of owó, a pé kánúkọ. Amen.

When a man has a huge ambition, he must keep servicing it. With the coming of the leader’s protege as president, the first daughter of the kingmaker transmuted from Iyaloja of Lagos to Iyaloja General of Nigeria. The simple implication is that all markets in Nigeria are under the control and management of the First Daughter of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Trust the super-rich and influential lady. She tested the waters recently in Benin when, against the traditional Iye Ekiti title of the Benin people, the Iyaloja General of Nigeria appointed an Iyaloja of Edo for all markets in Edo State.

The investiture took place at the New Festival Hall of the Edo State Government House! After the ceremony, the Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, Oba of Benin, was merely informed of the development and asked to cooperate with the new Iyaloja of Edo! To date, Benin people are still contending with that sacrilege! But guess what: Iyaloja General of Nigeria has moved on. When your father is rich, influential and powerful, shifting ancient landmarks is as easy as drinking water and putting the cup down. Like Pastor Chris Oyakhilome is wont to pray, ‘I must be rich!’

Before you shout sacrilege, remember that when power, influence and money meet tradition, the latter becomes inconsequential. Stop being envious of this noble family. Just pray to be powerful and ask the ancestors to give you the courage to deploy your powers appropriately to suit your fancies! Only a few men know how to use power. Our man of the season numbers among them. Kudos!

Nigeria is, to a larger extent, patrilinear. Our man also knew that given the anthropological and cosmological composition of the society he lives in, his male offspring must also be in the eyes of the public. Our elders say when the fire glows to its limits, it covers itself with ashes (bí iná bá kú, áá f’eérú b’ojú). A wise man is one who eats and keeps some aside for his child. Our man wasted no time in putting his heir apparel in the subconsciousness of the people. After his inauguration as President, the first son of the powerful man had a space in the nation’s Executive Council Chambers.

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While the Federal Executive Council (FEC), held in those early days of his administration, the President’s son sat in the chambers, observing proceedings. Some ‘enemies’ of the man said that the President was giving his son the necessary tutelage in cabinet matters for a future assignment. A few of us believed that it was an honest mistake.

Even when the rumour about a Lagos governorship job for the boy broke out, we still believed that our President was too strategic to be that madcap. Thankfully, sanity prevailed. Someone who had the ears of the President spoke sense to him and he stopped his son from attending the weekly FEC meetings.

That, however, did not happen until after all ministers and other political appointees of cabinet rank had taken judicious, judicial and administrative notice of the fact that in our President’s reasoning, and as in the Holy Writs’ injunction, the father and the son are one because the President is in the son and the son is in the President. An amebo said that most ministers go through the son to reach the father, but this piece does not believe in conjectures. There should still be a few men of honour and self-worth around. Or what do you think?

The fact that government officials from different states of the Federation fall over one another to receive the President’s son whenever he visits any state would still not make us believe that the boy is being prepared for the Lagos number one job. Lagosians are not that biddable; they are not that docile. Sorry, I mean Lagos people are not that slavish to serve the god, the father; god, the mother; god, the daughter and later, the son. But money; that evil spirit called money! Whoever has it in abundance can buy anything, get anything and do anything here in Nigeria. Jesus! What an evil idea on a Tuesday, a day I should be in Digging Deep!

Why on earth should the thought of the President’s son’s convoy being longer than some governors’ convoys come to my mind today? Why should the picture of our own Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, being stranded in a hotel premises because the number one son of the Federation had to move his convoy around the same location be of significance today?

I struggled to bind the temptation of saying: ‘so WS also had a bitter taste of the bitter pills his friend, the President, and his family members have been serving Nigerians for over two years now’? WS is a world figure (forget that the US recently cancelled his Visa; who needs America in the first place?), and as such, I dare not say ‘the academic also cry!’ This is what you get when those who are supposed to talk decide to go into self-induced amnesia in the face of rudderless leadership. This generation has a way of describing the situation. The say: all of us will chop breakfast!

Our man of the season is calculating. He knows that no matter how well-integrated his family is politically, the traditional institution must also recognise that the family exists. Charity, they say, begins at home. The best way to start the traditional induction of the members of the First Family is the source itself. Without much ado, our amiable Adimula of Oodua, the Ooni of Ife, was called and instructed to do the needful.

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Two weeks or so, ago, Our First Lady of the Federation, Her Excellency, the former First Lady of Lagos State, ex-Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Ugosimba 1 of Enugu, was installed as the Yeye Asiwaju Oodua by the Ooni of Ile Ife. A senior ‘troublemaker’ asked me which is higher between Yeye Oodua title conferred on the revered matriarch of the Awolowo dynasty, Late Chief (Mrs) Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo and the recent Yeye Asiwaju Oodua title given to our President’s wife by the Ooni. You all know how much I run away from controversy. Let us all hope that the palace of the Ooni will make that clarification itself. And truly, the public needs to know if the present title is a replacement of the former or just to make the man of the moment feel good.

While we await that clarification, the ugly rivalry between the Ooni and the Alaafin of Oyo reared its hydra-head. Pardon my manners. We are talking about Oriades here. Before the dust of the Yeye Asiwaju Oodua and the drama of our First Lady chasing a sitting governor away from the state podium for wasting the Lady of means’ time settled down, Oyo Alaafin responded to Ile Ife’s audacity to give a Yoruba universal title to an individual. By the way, how do we get Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State to learn to sing less when Mother Nigeria is around? He was lucky the First Lady did not take away his prepared speech. The governor might not be lucky next time! May God give us power (Amen).

Our Ikú Bàbá Yèyé, the Alaafin decided to go a step further by conferring on the President’s son the title of Òkanlomo of Yorubaland. Ask me what Òkanlomo means. How do I translate this? Or would a transliteration suffice? Ok, let’s do it this way. Òkanlomo, by closest definition, means, the primus inter pares non secundum- first among equals, equal to non – child of Yorubaland. I should think that is correct enough. But if you are confused here, note that I am equally confused about the Òkanlomo title.

What Alaafin is saying here is that every other child in Yorubaland, (including the princes and princesses in the Alaafin Palace), is secondary to the President’s son. By that title, the fortunate boy is the only and number one child of Yoruba Race! That is what the Alaafin said. And in case you don’t know, you can’t dispute whatever Alaafin says. He is a Kábíyèsí (the one that cannot be questioned). The law is what the judge says it is, so says Legal Realism. So it is with the Alaafin; a child is what Ikú Bàbá Yèyé says he is!

I am a child of culture. I value the Yoruba traditional system. Alaafin does not need to explain that he is the only king in Yorubaland who has the right to give a Yoruba universal title to anybody. His forebears held that position. All Ààre Ònà Kakanfo (the Generalissimo) of Yorubaland are appointed by the Alaafin. The Alaafin’s prime position among Yoruba monarchs is a given. So, why the struggle to justify the conferment of a universal title by the Alaafin?

Nobody is allowed to question any king in Yorubaland over his actions or inactions. When the people are tired of their kings, there is a traditional way of settling that. I don’t question the Alaafin over the title he dashed the President’s son. I cannot even, in my wildest imagination, ask Kábíyèsí what informed the title. I dare not, as a Yoruba, ask what pedigree qualified the President’s son for the title. The Alaafin knows how he arrived at that title. My only worry is the implication of the Alaafin making Oyo princes and princesses inferior to the Òkanlomo of Yorubaland. That itself is understandable. When your father is the president, kings don’t regard culture anymore!

Yes, it is true that the elders of Yorubaland say that ká tó fi ènìyàn j’oyè, ó ní lâti jé eni rere (for a man to be given a chieftaincy, he must have proven to be worthy of it). How worthy is the Òkanlomo of Yorubaland? What are the parameters used by the Alaafin? Apart from being the son of the president, what else has the guy brought to the table? If the Òkanlomo and the Àrèmo Alaafin (heir apparent) stand together, who is superior now? Or is it that since the Ooni gave the mother a title, the Alaafin must also give the son? Oh, no! This is Alaafin. Nobody questions him! I rest.

Hate them or love them, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s family is the luckiest family of this era. It is rare for fortune to smile on a family continuously and in multiple folds the way the Tinubus are experiencing it. Their diviner must be a strong one. Whoever gave the àféká layé ńfé’ná (love inducing charm) must also be strong.

I am not Bovi. I am not the Ambassador-in-waiting, Reno Omokri. Yet, I am in no way close to Buoda Femi Fani- Kayode. The latter duo are members of the nation’s egbé bú mi kó o gba’ke (abuse me and be compensated club). I am just a simple Nigerian wishing the most powerful family in the country today, MERRY CHRISTMAS!