The Northern Redemption Coalition, NRC, has hit out at Borno South senator, Ali Ndume, for opposing the tax reform bills forwarded to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu.
The tax reform bills include the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, the Tax Administration Bill; the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill, meant to repeal the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Act and create the Nigeria Revenue Service, NRS; and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill.
Northern leaders, including traditional rulers and the Northern Governors Forum, NGF, had opposed the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, claiming it would impoverish the North.
Further emphasizing the position of the Northern leaders, Ndume, during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday, declared that the bills are dead on arrival.
He said the National Assembly should throw them out.
The senator stressed that the Federal Government should be looking at ways to reduce the tax burden on Nigerians, instead of increasing it.
“If it goes on like that, I can tell you that it will be dead on arrival. We don’t need to study the bills. Let people live first before you start asking for taxes.
“The general thing is that Nigerians are not willing to talk about or pay any tax now considering the (economic) situation we are in now.
“Nigerians are willing to pay taxes but they can only pay taxes when they can afford it. Right now, people are struggling to survive. Let people live first before you start asking them for taxes,” Ndume added.
He insisted that the Tinubu administration needs to reform itself and not increase taxes paid by Nigerians.
Responding to Ndume’s comments in a statement on Wednesday, President of the Northern Redemption Coalition, NRC, Comrade Adamu Bashir, warned Ndume against over-inflating his political worth and following.
Bashir said Ndume’s comments does not reflect the position of Nigerians on the tax bills.
“It is the failure of leaders like Ndume to develop the North that has left them with the phobia. They have for the tax bills, which President Tinubu have demonstrated, can turn the economy around.
“While he claimed to be speaking for the poor in the country, it turned out he cannot even speak for the North, and certainly, he appears disconnected from his constituency because all Ndume’s years in the Senate have been wasted as he has refused to uplift his constituents.
“Instead of his tenuous attempt at cheap populism, Ndume should reassess his position relative to the reality of the time by reviewing his errant stance to refocus his activity in a way that justifies his supposed love for the North.”
Bashir further observed that Ndume, through his position on the bills, was perpetrating the wrong notion of a lazy and entitled North.
According to him, the North is not known for being resistant to taxes.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the North is not afraid of the new tax bills. The North rather fears leaders like Ndume and our governors, who have refused to distribute wealth evenly, build schools for our teeming population of young people out of school, and empower our vulnerable women.
“We envisage that the people of Borno South Senatorial District would eventually realise that it is time to recall Ndume as he has proven that he would always sabotage their interest in the pursuit of his populist posturing.”
