When Lagos State hosted its Revenue Recovery Summit in Ikeja over the weekend, EKO HOT BLOG observed that it wasn’t just another government workshop, it was a declaration of intent on revenue justice.
With the theme “Speedy Dispensation of Revenue Cases in Court,” the summit reflected a growing urgency: to fix the bottlenecks that delay revenue collection, undermine public service delivery, and erode trust in governance.
The message from every speaker, from the judiciary to tax authorities, was clear: revenue is not merely about money, it is the lifeline of development, and the longer it stays locked in litigation, the harder it becomes for government to meet its obligations.
Cost of delay in revenue cases
The Lagos State judiciary, represented by Justice Hakeem Oshodi on behalf of the Chief Judge, Justice Kazeem Alogba, acknowledged the system’s flaws. Oshodi announced that the judiciary would designate specialised judges and deploy technology to improve the speed and quality of revenue case adjudication.
The real cost of delay, he warned, is not just legal, it’s developmental. “Justice delayed is indeed revenue denied,” Oshodi said, offering a rare judicial admission that legal process inefficiency directly harms state coffers.
Essentially, delays in tax cases aren’t just a nuisance for the legal system, they choke off funding for education, healthcare, security, sanitation, and infrastructure.
Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Lawal Pedro, SAN, captured it bluntly: “Delay in revenue cases is a delay in governance.”
Legal Reform as Revenue Policy
Beyond rhetoric, the Lagos State Government is putting institutional frameworks in place to tackle this issue. Pedro outlined key reforms: a Commercial Courts Complex in Tapa now functions as the state’s dedicated Revenue Court. A Revenue Recovery Unit has been created within the Ministry of Justice. And statutory tools like the Lagos State High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019 and the newly enacted Tax Administration Act 2025 offer legal backing to speed up tax enforcement.
The Lagos Solicitor General, Mr. Hameed Oyenuga, made an even broader point: these delays don’t just hurt finances, they damage the credibility of governance itself. If citizens see tax disputes dragging for years, confidence in the system fades.
From the Lagos Internal Revenue Service’s (LIRS) standpoint, the problem is no longer theoretical. Represented by Director of Legal Services, Mr. Seyi Alade, LIRS Chairman Ayodele Subair called the slow pace of court proceedings a “major challenge” to revenue administration.
Even as LIRS invests in modern tools like the e-Tax platform, tax intelligence, and improved enforcement, its efforts stall when cases get buried in judicial backlogs. Alade’s proposal for specialist training for revenue judges and the creation of a Revenue Justice Working Group signals a burning desire to collaborate with the judiciary for progress.
As Alade concluded, “Justice delayed in revenue matters is not only justice denied, it is development deferred.”
