The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has apologised to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Nigerians over an Easter message that some considered offensive.
To celebrate Easter Sunday, the FIRS shared a flier via its X account that reads: “Jesus paid your debts, not your taxes.”
Reacting to the FIRS’s Easter post, CAN, the Christian body, demanded a public apology, noting that the message was offensive to the Christian faith.
This post also elicited reactions from Nigerians.
On Tuesday, April 2, Dare Adekambi, Special Adviser on Media to the FIRS Chairman, Zacch Adedeji said its intention was not to denigrate the message of Easter but to engage taxpayers and remind them of their civic duty.
The statement from FIRS read, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) about a flier posted on our social media platforms with the headline ‘Jesus paid your debts, not your taxes.’
“As a responsible government agency, we would like to say we did not put out the flier purposely to denigrate Jesus Christ or detract from the huge sacrifice He made for humanity. We are acutely aware that the essence of the Easter period is to celebrate this huge sacrifice.
“The message was our way of uniquely engaging taxpayers, to remind them of the need to prioritize payment of their taxes as a civic obligation.
“Yes, we would say the message ruffled feathers in some circles. The unintended meaning/insinuation being read into the post was not what we were out to communicate as an agency.
“Good a thing, this much is acknowledged by CAN in its statement wherein it said, ‘We recognize that the intended message may have been to creatively engage taxpayers…’ We wish to offer our unreserved apologies for this misinterpretation.
“FIRS, as a responsible agency, has no religion and will not bring down any religion or offend the sensibilities of adherents of various faiths in the country.
“Our goal is to assess, collect, and account for revenue for the wellbeing of the Federation. It is an investment in the country’s progress when citizens pay taxes. Once again, we wish to apologize to CAN and Christians who felt offended by the unintended consequence of our message on Easter Sunday.”
