The recent disclosure by the chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, that despite several overtures made to the 36 state governors across the federation, only Governors Uba Sani and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Kaduna and Lagos states, respectively, honoured the committee’s appointments, is quite unfortunate.
This undesirable posture is not only dishonourable but also smacks of disrespect for the Office of the President and Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Oyedele faulting claims in some quarters that the panel was not all-inclusive and didn’t consult widely with the governors. He said that at different times the committee scheduled appointments to meet with the governors at both the individual and group levels, but they didn’t honour their invitations.
The tax expert said: “We have more than 20 government institutions represented. We have the private sector, whether it’s manufacturers, whether it’s women in business. We have 45 students from 22 universities across Nigeria.
“In addition to that, we had extensive engagement with the governors. I went to the governors’ forum. We wrote and wanted to meet with six governors, one from each of the six geopolitical zones. Up until this moment, it’s only the governor of Lagos state we were able to see.”
He said the other governor who was willing to welcome the committee was the governor of Kaduna state. And after all the logistics, a date was agreed but the governor was not able to attend. “It was the deputy governor that hosted us. I will not name the other governors, but I can actually if I need to. They didn’t have time for us.
“The governors’ forum themselves invited us four times and canceled four times. The fifth time, we were kept waiting until 1:30 a.m., in the middle of the night. By the time they had time for us, they said we had 15 minutes.
“And I said, Your Excellencies, we have a lot to talk about. They said, tell us how our revenues will go up. Even that, we couldn’t say in 15 minutes. We had a half-day engagement with the finance commissioners from across Nigeria. We’ve had more than four engagements with the heads of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from all over Nigeria”.
Oyedele said his committee had engagements with different groups, more than 40 sectors, from manufacturers to SMEs to FinTech, over 120 northern clerics and other northern groups including the League of Northern Democrats.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had set up the committee to look into grey areas of the bills as well as engage with the populace on the bills. This followed stiff opposition to the tax reform bills by some prominent northern groups and major stakeholders including the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), among others.
The bills which are presently before the National Assembly are: the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, the Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill, all forwarded by President Tinubu.
But the NEF, through its management board chairman, Al-Amin Daggash, had said: “…Nigerians in general and northerners in particular are not really against the introduction of any form of good and meaningful reforms by those in positions of authority, at the federal, state or local government levels.
“Even though, we shall remain very implacable in reaffirming that, our practical experiences teach us that, going by global best practices, successful reforms are known to be underpinned by strict adherence to certain common cardinal characteristics of the public policy-making process.
“For convenience of exposition, these similarities include, but, not limited to the under listed basic essentials: Extensive pre-reforms early engagements with experts and critical stakeholders, in order to secure their buy-in;
“Establishing a very well-defined media/communication strategy, that clearly articulates the full import of the reforms and disseminates public awareness and mass enlightenment on a nationwide scale;
“Designing a robust, transparent and inclusive implementation mechanism, pro-actively putting in place a well-sequenced process, in order to ensure that the meticulously planned reforms really meet the society’s desired and anticipated outcomes.
“The Northern Elders’ Forum make bold to say that the recently proposed Tax Reform Bills by the federal government were clearly in the breach, with regards to adhering to the above listed common characteristics of reforms and public policy-making process all over the world and in conformity with the global best practices”.
In the same vein, a notable northern politician, Buba Galadima, alleged that the tax committee failed to consult with governors, and that the legislative document was only fair to Ogun and Lagos states.
Blueprint is miffed by the rebuff of the recalcitrant governors, considering the fact that they prompted the setting up of the committee in the first place as well as President Tinubu’s assurance of his administration’s readiness to make concessions on the tax reform bills.
In his recent maiden media chat, President Tinubu admitted the fact that the reform might not be embraced by everybody, but insisted it has come to stay because of its significance to the poor and, indeed, the nation’s economy.
We urge all stakeholders in the Nigeria project, especially the governors, to actively participate in the ongoing process towards reforming the nation’s tax administration, which has become obsolete, anachronistic and consequently ineffective in achieving Nigeria’s developmental goals and aspirations.
By setting up the tax reforms committee and agreeing to make concessions, Tinubu has proved beyond reasonable doubt that he is a listening president. It, therefore, behooves all and sundry to explore the window offered by the president to make their inputs in the tax reform bills.