Tax Bills: North Trying To Bargain With Tinubu–Daniel Bwala

Daniel Bwala, the president’s special adviser on policy communication, says the proposed tax reform bills will favour the poor in northern Nigeria.

Bwala spoke on Tuesday when he appeared on Prime Time, an Arise Television programme.

There have been criticisms against the tax reform bills since President Bola Tinubu dispatched them to the national assembly.

On October 3, Tinubu asked the national assembly to consider and pass the bills.

The legislations comprise the Nigeria tax bill, Nigeria tax administration bill, Nigeria Revenue Service establishment bill, and the Joint Revenue Board establishment bill.

The president is also seeking to repeal the law establishing the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and replace it with the Nigeria Revenue Service.

However, the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) has kicked against the bills after a joint meeting with the northern traditional rulers’ council at the Kaduna government house on October 28.

The governors asked the national assembly to reject any legislation that may harm the region’s interests, calling for equitable and fair implementation of policies and programmes to prevent marginalisation of any geopolitical zone.

On October 31, the presidency assured the northern governors that the tax reform bills were not recommended by Tinubu to shortchange any part of the country.

On Monday, Yakubu Dogara, a former speaker of the house of representatives, asked northerners not to condemn Tinubu over the bills.

Dogara advised that they should view the reforms as an opportunity rather than a disadvantage, noting that the north can survive on its own without value-added tax (VAT).

However, Bwala, who hails from Borno, said contrary to the widespread fear, the bills would not impoverish the north.

“I am from the north, and I am really saddened by the notion generated in the media that it is a north versus the south thing and not from the media in the sense of media people but people creating the narrative and that the tax reform bills are built or designed to afflict the north,” he said.

“I have seen lots of northerners who supported the bill, lots of them from different parts of the north, north-central and north-west.

“The very opposite is the point of the bill, because if you say that the bill is going to impoverish the north or is going to afflict poor people, it is actually this proposed bill that is addressing the problem that the poor people encounter.

“But the reason why I’m very emphatic about this issue of poverty is because I come from the north and the conversation in the north is that this will bring poverty to you, or this one will impoverish you. The tax is in favour of the poor.

“I have a feeling that this whole opposition thing, I see it even more of playing the politics for negotiation.

“They want to bargain. They want to have a bargaining stand with the president on whatever issue. I don’t know.”

The presidential spokesperson also dismissed a purported report claiming that Tinubu has signed a contract with French President Emmanuel Macron for recolonisation of the north.