The Yoruba Youth Socio-Cultural Association (YYSA), on Sunday, appealed to the people of northern Nigeria to see President Tinubu’s tax reforms as a crucial step to turnaround revenue generation in Nigeria and the economy generally.

The National President of the group, Olalekan Hammed, made the call in a chat with The Guardian in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Hammed stated that the bill contains creative ideas that should be unanimously supported by all Nigerians.

He said: “The people of northern Nigeria see President Tinubu’s tax reforms as a crucial step to turnaround revenue generation in Nigeria. The items in the bill are creative ideas that should be unanimously supported by all Nigerians. According to the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, ‘these bills aim to simplify the tax landscape, reduce the burden on small businesses, and streamline tax collection.’

“Moreover, the aspect of the bills that seem unfriendly to northern people is the proposed shift in value-added tax (VAT) revenue distribution, allocating revenues based on states where goods and services are consumed rather than pooling them centrally for redistribution. Whereas, there is nothing panicking about this because only change is constant. We cannot continue doing things the same way and expect development.”

He said there should be a paradigm shift, and every region should be ready to face challenges; if not, there would be no room for creativity and advanced thinking.

He said: “There should be a paradigm shift, and every region should be ready to face challenges; if not, there will be no room for creativity and advanced thinking.

“It is disheartening that many northern states have stayed too long in their comfort zones, relying on the outdated feeding-bottle arrangements.”

The youth leader emphasised the need for a bold and decisive step in support of tax reforms and to begin brainstorming.

“For the sake of coming generations and unforeseen circumstances, the North should take a bold and decisive step of supporting tax reforms and begin to brainstorm, look inward on how to immediately increase revenue generation in their various states.

“Furthermore, it is better they accept the fact that change has come and adapt to the present-day reality or continue living in yesterday when the world itself has gone beyond imagination,” he added.