• Says North will benefit from tax reform
Lawyer and activist, Mike Ozekhome, has asserted that former President Muhammadu Buhari’s seeming ‘Fulanisation’ of his government should be blamed for the preference by his successor, Bola Tinubu, to appoint persons from his Yoruba ethnic bloc into key positions of government.
In his address at a symposium on human rights organised by the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in Abuja, yesterday, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) also threw his weight behind the proposed tax reforms, saying “it is in the best interest of the country, including the North”.
He noted that Tinubu’s trajectory was not surprising, since it was tolerated by gullible Nigerians when Buhari was at the helm .
Ozhekhome stated: “Today, I hear the Northerners complain that Tinubu has Yorubanised Nigeria, having so many Yoruba in the highest places in Nigeria. It is true, they are making a point. But where were they when Buhari, for eight years, literally Northernised every position in Nigeria? You were either a Northerner or a Muslim.
“I cried and I wrote tonnes of articles. One of the 50 books I presented on my 67th birthday was entitled ‘How Buhari mismanaged Nigeria’. Some people said ‘this is our man that is here; even if he is riding roughshod on all of us, it does not matter. Hear no evil, see no evil because he is our man. Even if it is not benefitting us, the fact that he is our man is sufficient. Once it is no longer our man, we take up arms. No country grows like that.”
At the event with the theme ‘Unity in Diversity: Embracing Freedom, Equality and Dignity for All’, the senior lawyer warned those in position of authority against sacrificing the unity of Nigeria on the altar of tribalism and sectionalism.
He described the 1999 constitution as flawed, stressing the need for a new constitution with inputs from Nigerians irrespective of their ethnic and religious differences on the way forward for the country.
The Commission’s Ambassador-at-Large and Head of Diplomatic Mission in Nigeria, Dr Duru Hezekiah, emphasised that the symposium’s theme presented a significant opportunity, thereby drawing attention to the complexity of human rights linked to the multicultural and multi-ethnic composition of over 250 ethnic groups and more than 500 languages spoken in Nigeria.
According to Ozekhome, the opposition on the proposed tax reforms by Nigerians of northern extraction is uncalled for, in view of the agricultural and vast mineral resources spread across the 19 states in the northern part of the country.
He said, “The Value-Added Tax (VAT) debate is on. Most of the opponents are Northerners. I have just written an article entitled: ‘Voting VAT’. The question you ask yourself is, what is this VAT? It is the tax that you pay for consumption of goods. Is it really right that you should share money based on the headquarters of a company? If you do so, some people won’t get anything.
“So what are these points of consumption, for example beer. Where do they consume it? Hides and skin, cattle, where do they consume it most? Groundnuts, cocoa, timber, where do they consume them most? A situation where, for example, a state like Lagos would produce about trillions in VAT and is made to share about N235 billion is not a just system.”
The Edo State-born activist urged those angry to the bills to read the provisions carefully.
He, however, faulted the federal character principle entrenched in the constitution, arguing that it would not only dampen the morale of hardworking Nigerians but encourage inefficiency and mediocrity in the polity.
