The Tax Reform Bills that President Bólá Ahmed Tinubu is using to divide not just the National Assembly but the entire country -it is what it is. It is yet another sadistic device to continue to inflict his oppressive, feudal, sadist, oppressive and anti-people revenue generation drive on his “conquered” Nigerians.
It is not intended to cut taxes for the poor but to increase taxes for those who are struggling. It is also intended as a means to increase taxes on all income earners and to expand the net to include the income earners below the average income level. The goal of the President is to increase in proportion the revenue generation of the Federal Government by increasing the prices of fuel, devalue the Naira and increase taxes on the essential commodities.
Subsidy removal and import taxes on foreign goods are the main causes behind inflation in this country. And since the intention of the President is to fulfill his promises to the IMF and the World Bank. He intends meeting the conditions and requirements set by the international financial institutions. Thus, there can be no stopping our escalating Tinubu-imposed inflation in all sectors of our economy. This will definitely impact the low income people who are struggling to make ends meet in this country.
This is a regrettable tax adjustment model and definitely not a tax reform plan in any sense of the word, shape or form. This is nothing but a distraction from the conversation about the current economic crisis we are facing right now in this country. The proposed tax adjustment model is not going to solve the current economic downturn. Neither will it solve our problems of inequality and poverty. It has simply generated a division by ethnicity, which is a digression from the realities of our substandard lifestyle since the last decade and made worse by the administration of President Bólá Tinubu in less than two years.
This tax proposal will only worsen our suffering by increasing the number of unemployed people. It will also create more inequality for people who have been forced into poverty.
We are all suffering in this country, North or South. Medical care is not affordable and people are dying every hour for lack of healthcare.
Hunger is ravaging the country because of the high cost of food. Education is not affordable for most families because they can no longer afford to pay their children’s school fees. Naira’s value has dropped to less than one-third of what it was just less than two years ago.
These are just to mention a few of some of the agonizing pains of the people in this country since the resumption day of this government. The President’s price to his people is this unscrupulous political stunt to keep his administration in power perpetually. Very wrong.
I suggest Bola and his team go back to their drawing board to figure out where they missed it. For now, what they have on that drawing board will escalate the unprecedented suffering Nigerian masses have been groaning under since APC took power in 2015 and Bola Tinubu in 2023.
RAHMAN OWOKONIRAN, FORMER HOUSING COMMISSIONER UNDER GOVERNOR TINUBU, WROTE FROM LAGOS