There is a disturbing trend of young lawyers trying to be concise.
A 2nd-year drafted an executive summary for a banking client using bullet points and plain English.
She proudly stated that she reduced a 50-page compliance memo into a 2-page brief.
I asked her if she thought the client was paying $950 an hour for brevity.
She muttered something about respecting the CEO's time.
I explained that clients don't pay us to solve their problems quickly.
They pay us to make their problems look so incomprehensible that only we can solve them.
I made her rewrite the summary using dense, impenetrable legalese.
It took her 12 hours to bury the conclusion on page 42.
The client called me the next morning to thank us for our incredibly thorough analysis.
Clarity is a customer service concept.
We are in the business of intellectual intimidation.
Nigeriaโs VAT filing has changed.
TaxPro Max is gone.
NRS is here.
The VAT template is more complex.
If your data isnโt already clean, youโll feel the pain.
Hereโs how to file VAT properly โ and avoid overpaying๐
QAVAH: THE MYSTERY OF STAYING UNTIL LIGHT COMES
Many believers desire clarity, direction, and answers from God, but few understand the power of staying in His Presence long enough to receive them.
There is something the Holy Spirit does when a man creates an atmosphere for fellowship and remains there. The Scripture calls it Qavah: to wait, to stay, to linger with expectation. Not passively, but intentionally, as the Spirit of God broods over your heart, mind, and destiny.
The One who knows your future is the Holy Spirit. He knows the seasons ahead, the opportunities that await you, the helpers assigned to your destiny, and the steps required for your next level. As you pray, meditate, and remain in God's Presence, the Spirit of Wisdom begins to illuminate your path.
Ideas emerge. Visions become clearer. Strategies are revealed. Scriptures come alive. What once seemed confusing begins to make sense as light dawns upon your spirit. Unfortunately, many people leave too quickly. We rush out of His Presence only to repeat the same mistakes, face the same frustrations, and recycle the same patterns.
No matter the challenge before you, stay. Let the Spirit of Wisdom brood over your heart. Stay until light comes. Stay until understanding comes. Stay until the direction comes.
Watch the full sermon titled โThis Is The Way (The Power of Divine Direction)โ on our YouTube channel at Koinonia Global.
#ApostleJoshuaSelman
#ThisIsTheWay
#ThePowerOfDivineDirection
#KoinoniaAbuja
#KoinoniaGlobal
BAIL CONDITIONS SHOULD NOT UNDERMINE THE ESSENCE OF BAIL
In recent times, we have observed with growing concern a disturbing trend in the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria, where courts and law enforcement agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force, EFCC, ICPC, and other security agencies, increasingly impose bail conditions that are excessive, impractical, and difficult to satisfy. The frequent insistence on sureties who are senior civil servants of specified grade levels, coupled with demands for landed properties of extraordinary value, has in many cases transformed bail from a mechanism for securing attendance at trial into a tool of pretrial detention. The consequence is that many persons who are constitutionally presumed innocent and have ostensibly been granted bail remain incarcerated because the conditions attached to their release are beyond their reach. This troubling development undermines the constitutional right to personal liberty, weakens the presumption of innocence, and defeats the very essence and purpose of bail within our criminal justice system.
We consider it necessary to reiterate that bail is a constitutional safeguard designed to secure the attendance of an accused person at trial while preserving his or her liberty pending the determination of guilt or innocence. It is neither a punishment nor a mechanism for imposing pre-trial incarceration by indirect means. The law is settled that bail conditions must be reasonable, practical, and capable of being fulfilled by the accused person.
The Supreme Court, in Suleman & Anor v. Commissioner of Police, Plateau State (2008), emphasized that the object of bail pending trial is to grant pre-trial freedom to an accused person whose appearance in court can be secured through appropriate conditions. Bail is not intended to create insurmountable obstacles that make release impossible.
We are particularly concerned by the increasing tendency to impose conditions that are disconnected from prevailing economic realities and often impossible to satisfy. Conditions requiring sureties who are serving civil servants on specific salary grades, ownership of landed properties of extraordinary value, or other burdensome requirements effectively convert the grant of bail into a denial of bail.
Of particular concern is the continued insistence in some cases on sureties who must be senior civil servants, often on Grade Levels 16 or 17, and who must own properties worth hundreds of millions of naira. Such conditions have been strongly criticised by the appellate courts.
In Dasuki v. Director-General, State Security Service & Ors (2019) LPELR-49182 (CA), the Court of Appeal unequivocally condemned the practice of involving serving public officers as a mandatory category of sureties. The Court observed that such requirements are unknown to civilised legal systems and run contrary to public service regulations. The Court further noted that expecting a public servant on Grade Level 16 to own property worth N100 million would not only be unrealistic but could also conflict with public service rules and anti-corruption objectives.
The Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, is equally clear on this issue. Section 165(1) provides that while the grant and conditions of bail are within the discretion of the court, such conditions must not be excessive. Judicial discretion, though wide, must always be exercised judiciously, reasonably, and in a manner consistent with constitutional guarantees.
We therefore restate that bail conditions must be tailored solely to ensure attendance at trial. They must never serve as instruments of punishment prior to conviction. Conditions that cannot be met amount in substance to a refusal of bail and contribute directly to pre-trial detention and congestion in correctional facilities.
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1st photo- 1st day at paid employment
2nd photo- First solo office
3rd photo- Second solo office
4th photo- Current office
Stay consistent.
Pursue your dreams.
Trust the process.
#WomenInLitigation๐ฅ
Governments around the world take a cut of your property gains.
Here's what that looks like globally and how to prepare.
Taxes are one of the most overlooked costs in real estate investing.
And they vary dramatically across global markets.
Property Tax (Annual)
โ USA: 0.5โ2.5% of assessed property value per year
โ UK: Council tax paid by occupiers; no annual property tax for investors
โ Nigeria: Annual tenement rates and land use charges vary by state
โ South Africa: Municipal rates based on property value
Capital Gains Tax (On Sale)
โ USA: 0โ20% depending on holding period and income bracket
โ UK: 18โ28% for residential property gains
โ Australia: 50% discount on CGT if held over 12 months
โ UAE (Dubai): Currently 0% โ one reason it attracts global investors
โ South Africa: 40% of gain included in taxable income
Stamp Duty / Transfer Tax
Almost every country charges a tax on property transfer ranging from 1% to over 10%.
The key insight:
After-tax return is the only return that matters.
A deal with a 12% gross return that carries a 35% tax rate may underperform a 9% return in a low-tax jurisdiction.
Always model the tax before you close the deal.
Which country's real estate tax environment do you think is most investor-friendly?
Yes, it's true!
On Windows laptops, **Win + K** opens the casting menu to wirelessly mirror or extend your screen to compatible smart TVs (via Miracast/screen mirroring). No HDMI cable required.
Enable screen mirroring on your TV first, and keep both devices on the same Wi-Fi. Great wireless alternative, though results depend on TV compatibility.
Instead of watching an hour of Netflix, watch this 2 hour hour Stanford lecture will teach you more about how LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude are built than most people working at top AI companies learn in their entire careers.
Obtain grace to wake up in the night and pray. Every time you go to pray see yourself signing a register in the spirit.
Sermon Title: The Manifold Grace of God