Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, on Sunday, explained why the northern governors advised President Bola Tinubu to hold on before pushing the controversial tax reform bills.
The governor who appeared as a guest on Channels Tv Sunday Politics, said the Northern Governors Forum only needs time for consultation.
“On this tax issue, there are a lot of misconceptions. We felt that the VAT provision in the tax law based on the calculations that we did, only Lagos and Rivers States will benefit from this scheme. We did our own research and concluded that we would lose,” Zulum said.
“Why are we in a rush? We advised the Federal Government to take a pause and expunge some of the clauses that are inimical to Northern Nigeria.
“What we are saying is that give more time, let us do a deeper consultation to understand the nitty-gritty of this tax regime before passing it into law.”
Zulum explained that if the bill scales through the National Assembly, states would be shortchanged as only Lagos State would be the main beneficiary of the policy.
In October, President Tinubu asked the National Assembly to assent to pass the bills into law.
The bills are the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2024 -SB.583;
The Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) BILL, 2024- SB.584; The Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, 2024-SB.585; and the Nigeria Tax Bill, 2024 – SB.586.
But on November 28, the tax reform bills passed a second reading in the Senate.
He argued that contrary to some insinuations in some quarters, the northern governors are not against President Tinubu’s administration.
Zulum recalled that before the 2023 general election, he was one of the few governors who insisted that power must be rotated to the south.
The governor explained that as a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he backed Tinubu’s presidential ambition.
According to him, the north cannot be against Tinubu as over 60 per cent of his votes in the 2023 general elections came from the region. He regretted that some people were passing a negative narrative that the north is against Tinubu’s government.
“I am a strong member of APC. If you can count two governors before 2019 and 2023 who were in support of Tinubu, you can mention Governor Zulum. I was the first governor to come out publicly and say that power must go to the South.
“Unfortunately, the President was told by many that the North was against him. 60.2 per cent of his votes came from the north,” he added.
(Channels TV)