Arewa groups, HURIWA, Sani nudge North to accept Tinubu’s tax reform

Some Northern elite may be ‘on their own’ in their aversion to President Bola Tinubu’s tax reform, as many groups and personalities from the region are not buying their arguments on the issue.

The latest support from the region came yesterday, from the Coalition of Arewa Groups (CAG), comprising 300 organisations across the 19 Northern states, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and Senator Shehu Sani.

While CAG backed the tax reform bills, HURIWA told the Northern elite to decide the bills on merits and benefits, not regional politics. On his part, Sani cautioned Northerners to embrace the economic reform agenda under Tinubu, as not doing so would be at their peril.

Tinubu’s tax reform bills include the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, the Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill, meant to repeal the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Act and create the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill.

But Northern traditional rulers, Northern States’ Governors Forum (NSGF) and other leaders in the region opposed the Nigeria Tax Bill, claiming it would impoverish the North.

A prominent northern senator, Ali Ndume (APC Borno South), had declared the bills dead on arrival, further insisting that the National Assembly did not need to study the proposed legislation before throwing it out.

Ndume noted that the timing of the bills, considering the economic situation in the country, did not make sense to him.  He said, “I can tell you that it will be dead on arrival. We don’t need to study the bill. The general thing is that Nigerians are not willing to talk, hear or pay any tax now considering the situation we have faced because this is the government of the people.

“Right now, people can’t even afford to feed. People are struggling to survive. Let people live first before you start asking them for tax.” However, CAG endorsed the bill after a thorough examination and exhaustive consideration of the proposed legislation at a meeting in Kaduna on Friday.

In a statement jointly signed by Usman Abubakar and Obadiah Amos, yesterday, the coalition commended Tinubu’s vision to reshape Nigeria’s fiscal framework.  According to them, the tax reforms will promote economic growth and sustainability.

They also lauded the chairman of FIRS, Zacch Adedeji, for clarifying the bills’ details through media engagements. The group urged the National Assembly to expedite the passage of the Nigeria Tax Bills 2024 to ensure timely implementation.

LENDING its voice to the issue, HURIWA urged the Northern governors and senators to focus on economically liberating, and empowering the Northern masses to become producers of goods and services, so there would be no need to cry over sharing formula of revenues from taxation, especially from the value-added taxation.

HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, yesterday, appealed to federal lawmakers to engage in merit-based debates around the new tax reform bills to ascertain the long-term impact, merit or demerit or otherwise and not to continue to ignite ethnic and regional tensions over reforming the tax system that is scientific, evidence-based, empirical and therefore logical.

The rights group stated, “Those who oppose the bills should list out their reasons backed up by a scientific body of evidence and with statistics and not on ethnic or regional sentiments.

“As for us in the organised human rights community in Nigeria, we sincerely hope that the debates should be healthy, robustly focused on evidence, benefits, merits and demerits. And whereby any aspect of the proposed tax reform bills would undermine the existence of the impoverished Nigerians, then those aspects can be tinkered with, so the people aren’t taxed to their untimely deaths.”

According to HURIWA, opposing the tax reform bills based on regional interest and not on national interest is uncalled for. “We must emphasise things that unite us than often going back to our mundane political cleavage in pursuit of ethnic aggrandisement.”
SANI, also a civil rights activist, said the North should not be afraid of any economic reform, especially the ones pushing it to look inward and develop and depend on its resources.

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On his Facebook handle at the weekend, Sani posted, “If you study the science of life generally, anyone pushing you to stand on your feet and not to lean on others is pushing you to greatness that you have been unwilling to embrace. Whether with good intent or mischief, pushing you out of your comfort zone is directly propelling you to walk with pride, and confidence and with that independence you existentially and eternally.

“The dignified and moral answer to anyone who challenges you to stand alone is to stand alone. There will be problems, huddles, storms and turbulence in the beginning; but with courage, tenacity and resilience, you will learn to overcome them and emerge stronger.”

According to Sani, the North is a treasure of hidden wealth waiting for its people to be frustrated with their sleepy dependence on manna and dig up their gold and diamonds in the depths of their endowed and blessed soil.