Good morning, Mr President. I am addressing this morning two troubling issues. These are the reported manipulations of the Nigerian tax laws and the payout of a shocking $9 million to the DCI Group and other United States-based lobbyists under your watch.

In what is evidently a breach of constitutional procedure, a House of Representatives member, Abdulsammad Dasuki, alerted the nation to the executive arm’s meddling with the tax laws after the National Assembly had passed them into law.

Several concerns have been highlighted in the laws comprising the Nigeria Tax Act, 2025; the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025; the National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, 2025; and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act, 2025. One is the shift in thresholds for individuals from N50 million to N25 million and for companies, from 250 million to N100 million. In consequence, more entities are drawn into the tax net.

Two, increased Coercive Powers that compel taxpayers to deposit 20 per cent of a disputed sum before an appeal against the Tax Appeal Tribunal in the court of law.  Three is the enforcement and power of arrest. This, in effect, vests the power of arrest through law enforcement agencies and the power to sell property without a court order on tax authorities. Two and three constitute an authoritarian intrusion that undermines the institutional judicial review process.

Four is the National Assembly Oversight Provisions. This demands quarterly and annual reporting to parliament regarding the Nigeria Revenue Service.

This oversight clause has been expunged. Implicit in this is the defanging of the National Assembly, the guts of democracy, its oversight powers over the tax agency. Five is the categorisation of taxes, especially those within the ambit of federal taxes. Whereas the National Assembly engrossed bill categorises federal taxes to include income tax, petroleum income tax, stamp duties, and VAT, the altered version expunges petroleum income tax and VAT from the definition of taxes under the federal government’s administration.  Point four and five above rudely undermines the legislative independence and checks and balances essential to the rule of law. Six is the alteration of the provision on tax computation that states that tax calculations should be done in the currency of the transaction. The counterfeit reads that tax computations for petroleum operations be made in U.S. Dollars. Implication is the conscious dollarisation of the national economy in a global fad of de-dollarisation as a new global order incubates.

The implications of this dubiety for a democratic order have been underscored by the House minority caucus thus: “Given the anomalies, illegalities, and impunity observed, which clearly undermine the National Assembly’s constitutional powers and democracy, the Committee finds the current evidence sufficient to warrant a deeper investigation.

This will ensure accountability for the affront against the legislature.” In this instance, the presidency ought to relieve somebody of his job for failing due diligence, as Salva Kiir, President of South Sudan, has done to presidential aides who included a dead name in a government-constituted electoral committee.

This, perhaps, is impossible in our country, one that celebrates sleaze. It is sad. By now, the laws should have come into effect (January 1, 2026). One hopes that remediation should happen if it has not been done. Mr President, eat your humble pie and apologise to the nation. It will go a long way to enhance public trust in your administration.

In the twilight of 2025, the U.S. government designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” and alleged that Christian genocide was being perpetrated in Nigeria. This development, as it were, provoked official refutation of the obvious. In every ill-situation in Nigeria, its governing class seeks out opportunity for self-aggrandisement instead of national edification.

Washington’s interference in the affairs of our country was auspicious for free riders on the national coffers. Reportedly, documents filed with the U.S. Department of Justice show that DCI Group, a Washington-based public affairs and lobbying firm, had been contracted to engage U.S. officials on Nigeria’s counter-terrorism efforts and its handling of religiously motivated violence.

The contract was executed on December 17, 2025, through Aster Legal, a Kaduna-based law firm acting on behalf of Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu. The sum involved is a whopping $9 million with a monthly retainership of $750, 000 in an arrangement spanning a six-month period that would end in June 2026. By 12 December 2025, the sum of $4.5 million had been made according to the payment schedule covering an initial six months renewable. The provisions of the contract also include an automatic extension of the contract subject to termination by either party with two months notification.

The development has generated its own controversy in ways that paint your administration in a bad light. The manifest function for which this humongous sum was paid is to counter the information about town on an obvious prevailing genocide in the country.   Yet the latent function may well be that someone in government is being aggrandised by the very nature of the contract.  It is a case of the government, as always, living a lie. When will trust in government be nurtured?

Mr President, the commentary by Mr Erasmus Ikhide, a compatriot, approximates the public perception of this wasteful venture of your administration. As he puts it: “The most damning indictment of the current administration is not found in the pages of the New York Times, but in the ledgers of Washington lobbying firms.

Recent reports have exposed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, through the Office of the National Security Adviser and private intermediaries, has committed a staggering $9 million to the DCI Group and other U.S.-based lobbyists.

This ‘scandalous’ expenditure, as described by opposition voices and civic leaders, is a master class in misplaced priorities. At a time when the Nigerian security architecture has effectively collapsed, leaving millions of citizens at the mercy of terrorists and bandits, the government is choosing to ‘outsource diplomacy’ to foreign PR firms to launder its battered image.”

He further notes: “President Tinubu’s administration should be advised to use these humongous sums to facilitate the safe return of the millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Benue, Plateau, and throughout the Middle Belt to their ancestral homes.

Instead of paying foreigners to “explain” the protection of Christians and Muslims, the government should invest in the actual protection of these lives. No amount of expensive lobbying can substitute for the visceral reality of insecurity faced by Nigerians on the ground.”

Mr President, integrity in governance breeds public trust and accords legitimacy to the government of the day. So prioritise integrity in governance output.

Akhaine, a Professor of Political Science, is with the Lagos State University.