How Tinubu caused tax bill pushbacks – Segun Sowunmi

Segun Sowunmi, the convener of The Alternative and member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has caused all the pushback and criticisms the tax reform bill has been getting since.

Sowunmi opined that although the tax reform bill was good, it was generating a lot of controversies, particularly from non-state actors who had no knowledge about it.

“The government is coming up with a tax bill, rather than discuss the sense or otherwise of it, they are almost making it into non-state actors having a conversation. Emirs talking, Afenifere talking. if those organisations want to join politics they should go and join political parties,” said Sowunmi.

He attributed these controversies to the appointment of Yoruba tribesmen as finance minister, revenue boss, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and tax reform chair.

“They (Tinubu and his team) created it by themselves. You can’t have FIRS chairman Yoruba, finance (minister) Yoruba, Customs (boss) Yoruba, CBN (governor) Yoruba. You can’t do that. And then suddenly, the Yoruba people came and said we have a new tax regime. They (people of other tribes) will be nervous.

“People are not in the National Assembly or the Senate not to protect the interest of their people; that’s why they are there. They are representatives of their people. That’s why the push backs will come,” said Sowunmi.

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He added that if the appointments were not skewed towards the southwest and the president appointed people from other tribes, they would have been able to convince their tribesmen that the bill was a step in the right direction. But since the reverse was the case, the tax reforms bill is causing a tribal war, says Sowunmi.

“It does not make sense that it is skewed towards the Southwest. If he had balanced it and there were people from other tribes who would have said I have looked at it and it is okay.

“Tax is a serious issue. Your duty is to take your time and ensure that critical stakeholders understand. We are trying to reform taxes and it is risking us to becoming North vs South and Yoruba vs them.”

Since the tax reform bill was introduced, it has sparked widespread controversies among different groups. The 19 governors in northern Nigeria have openly rejected the bill