The raging controversy over the Tax Reforms Bills doesn’t appear to be abating as the chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, faulted claims in some quarters that the panel was not all-inclusive and didn’t consult widely with the governors.
He said despite several overtures made to the governors, only Kaduna state Governor Uba Sani and his Lagos counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, honoured the committee’s appointments.
…Opposition to the reforms
Prominent northern groups and major stakeholders including the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), as well as the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), among others, have consistently expressed their opposition to the bills.
Before the National Assembly for legislative works are the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, the Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill, all forwarded by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
For instance, the NEF, through its management board chairman, Al-Amin Daggash, had said: “…Nigerians in general and Northerners in particular, are not really against the introduction of any form of good and meaningful reforms by those in positions of authority, at the federal, state or local government levels.
“Even though, we shall remain very implacable in reaffirming that, our practical experiences teach us, that, going by global best practices, successful reforms are known to be underpinned by strict adherence to certain common cardinal characteristics of the public policy-making process.
“For convenience of exposition, these similarities include, but, not limited to the under listed basic essentials: Extensive pre-reforms early engagements with experts and critical stakeholders, in order to secure their buy-in.
“Establishing a very well-defined media/communication strategy, that clearly articulates the full import of the reforms and disseminates public awareness and mass enlightenment on a nationwide scale.
“Designing a robust, transparent and inclusive implementation mechanism. Pro-actively putting in place a well-sequenced process, in order to ensure that the meticulously planned reforms, really meet the society’s desired and anticipated outcomes.”
“The Northern Elders’ Forum make bold to say that the recently proposed Tax Reform Bills by the Federal Government were clearly in the breach, with regards to adhering to the above listed common characteristics of reforms and public policy-making process, all over the world and in conformity with the global best practices,” it added.
Similarly, another opposition came from a notable northern politician, Buba Galadima, who alleged that the tax committee failed to consult with governors, and that the legislative document was only fair to Ogun and Lagos states.
..Oyedele clarifies
In a counter position, however, Oyedele, while featuring Sunday on Arise TV, insisted that at different times the committee scheduled appointments to meet with the governors at both the individual and group levels, but they didn’t honour their invitations.
The tax expert said: “We have more than 20 government institutions represented. We have the private sector, whether it’s manufacturers, whether it’s women in business. We have 45 students from 22 universities across Nigeria.
“In addition to that, we had extensive engagement with the governors. I went to the governors’ forum. We wrote and wanted to meet with six governors, one from each of the six geopolitical zones. Up until this moment, it’s only the governor of Lagos state we were able to see.”
“The other governor who was willing to welcome us was the governor of Kaduna state. And after all the logistics, we agreed on the date, on that day he wasn’t able to attend. It was the deputy governor that hosted us. I will not name the other governors, but I can actually if I need to. They didn’t have time for us.
“The governors’ forum themselves invited us four times and canceled four times. The fifth time, we were kept waiting until 1:30 a.m., in the middle of the night. By the time they had time for us, they said we had 15 minutes.
“And I said, Your Excellencies, we have a lot to talk about. They said, tell us how our revenues will go up. Even that, we couldn’t say in 15 minutes. We had a half-day engagement with the finance commissioners from across Nigeria. We’ve had more than four engagements with the heads of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from all over Nigeria.
“We’ve had engagements with different groups, more than 40 sectors, from manufacturers to SMEs to FinTech. And these things were published,” he added.
He further said his committee severally met with over 120 northern clerics and regularly engaged with northern groups including the League of Northern Democrats.
“I’ll tell you that we had an interesting meeting with the Ulamas. They are the clerics, mostly from the north. There were over 120. We had to explain everything to them. And many of them, when we were done, were praying for the work we had done because there was a lot of misinformation previously.
“We had meetings also with some sections of the north. I was with the League of Northern Democrats. So if they call me today, most times I get less than a 24-hour notice. I have to fly around to go to different places. So we are happy to discuss. We are willing to discuss,” he added.