Tax reform: Tinubu not against North, says Senator Wadada

Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada (SDP, Nasarawa West) has dismissed claims suggesting that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is fighting the North by introducing his tax reforms bills. Senator Wadada stated this while chatting with journalists in Abuja on Thursday. According to the lawmaker, with all the positive interventions by the Tinubu administration in the North, such […]

Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada (SDP, Nasarawa West) has dismissed claims suggesting that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is fighting the North by introducing his tax reforms bills.

Senator Wadada stated this while chatting with journalists in Abuja on Thursday.

According to the lawmaker, with all the positive interventions by the Tinubu administration in the North, such as the AKK, revocation and re-awarding of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road, Sokoto-Badagri superhighway, commitment in tackling insecurity, amongst others, the President can not be fighting the same North simply because he is introducing tax reforms.

Besides, Wadada, who doubles as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, maintained that the fears emanating from the intended reforms are unnecessary, especially that even if President Tinubu is fighting the North, the North has the requisite capacity to fight back.

“First and foremost, no Northerner should be afraid of tax or taxes, we set the pace in this country through community taxes, cattle tax. Some citizens of this country were educated with that. We were ahead of everybody. We were paying taxes when other citizens of Nigeria were not paying taxes because the Southern part of Nigeria had no cattle tax or community tax. We set the pace. We are not afraid of the tax reforms because so long as we desire the much we want from government, it cannot happen without the needed level of resources been gotten,” he said.

He pointed out that even though there are grey areas in the tax reforms bills laying before the Senate, which could be addressed through consultations, President Tinubu has no any ulterior intention against the North.

Senator Wadada attributed the outcries against the reforms to the general tendency to resist change.

“Let’s see, I think anybody that comes to fight the North, the North has the requisite capacity to fight back. We will always fight for our people. But me, I wouldn’t be carried away by street talk, I will always talk based on my understanding of the situation.

“There are the areas that are yet to be cleared. Permit me to say, I don’t think in any way at all President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration mean bad to any part of Nigeria. But when you are introducing something new to the people, there must be deeper or wider consultation,” he added.

Wadada also dismissed insinuations that the tax reforms may affect the second term ambition of the President simply because Tinubu, in his characteristic leadership style, is introducing some unprecidented and unexpected changes in the economy of the country.

“You see, life is dynamic, if because of the tax reforms bills we are quick to pass judgement on 2027, we may be wrong. What if before 2025 he introduced something that the entire North jumps into it.

“I don’t want to go to 2027, let’s confine ourselves to now. As far as the administration of President Tinubu is concerned, my dear Nigerians, I have this to say and I will take from the quote of our famous Comrade Balarabe Musa second republic governor of Kaduna State and I quote, “We are today living in times of great changes, the old orders are crumbling fast, while new systems of life and activities are emerging. Our task is to understand these changes and utilize them for human progress.

“The link is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is today the President of Nigeria and he is introducing some unprecidented and unexpected changes and these changes are rolling out the old orders, introducing new orders and contemporariness in governance. Our task is to understand these changes and utilize them for the betterment of Nigeria,” he said.

He explained that some of the interventions by the Tinubu administration in the North mentioned above have capacity to maximally transform the North and to further emancipate the region economically.

“If President Tinubu truly as wrongly conveyed by some people, is detrimental or is out to be against the North; there are things also happening in the North that credit should be given to him.

“The last administration awarded contract of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road which wasn’t completed up till the time the administration left office. In the history of Nigeria, never was any project revoked from Julius Berger. But Asiwaju revoked that contract from Julius Berger. The contract was re-awarded to a different company for Abuja to Kaduna to be a reality. The AKK the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano is on. Sokoto-Badagri superhighway was conceptualized during President Shagari but President Bola Ahmed Tinubu turned it around to start from Sokoto to Badagri. Within that stretch, there are about 40 dams that are not put into full utilization. The idea is to open that corridor so that these dams can be better utilized for irrigation programmes and what have you.

“On that stretch, recently, he was in Brazil and some understanding were signed on livestock. If that road is constructed, silos would also be constructed within that corridor at various points so that what is being obtained today, with cattle being conveyed from Sokoto to Lagos, Port Hacourt, with vehicles breaking down along the road that will all stop. There will be ranches. Brazilians will come in partnership with Nigeria establish ranches in that corridor,” he added.

He however agreed that the tax reforms bills as presently laying before the Senate are not perfect as there are still grey areas that needed to be addressed.

The lawmaker called for wider consultations in order for the President to achieve his desire for fairness in the sharing of VAT which has been the major bone of contention.

“When you are introducing something new to the people, there must be deeper or wider consultation. What is happening between the Attorney-General of the Federation and the legislators should have happened before introducing the tax reforms bills. I am not his spokesperson but I am the spokesperson of my people of Nasarawa West Senatorial District. I will always say it the way it is to the best of my knowledge,” he said.

He noted that the fairness envisaged by the President which propelled him to undertake the reforms of the country’s tax systems could only be achieved through consultations.

“The most controversial and ambiguous aspect of the tax reforms bills is the VAT aspect of it and my understanding of it, rightly or wrongly, is that the President envisages fairness as he packages it, as he portrays it based on what is contained in the document but the practicability of it is the difficult aspect of the value added tax. If VAT is value added tax, what is the crux of the matter? VAT is consumption tax, what part of the country has the highest population, the North. So we are VAT because we consume more than any other part of the country,” he stated.