•Segun Sowunmi
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Segun Sowunmi, says President Bola Tinubu is responsible for the stiff opposition that has greeted the tax bills introduced by his administration.
Sowunmi, who was a guest on Channels Television, faulted Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for appointing his tribesmen as finance minister, revenue boss, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and tax reform chair.
The PDP chieftain said that though the tax bills were good, the President created distrust among northerners by allegedly excluding their kinsmen from his economic and tax teams.
Sowunmi said, “They (Tinubu and his team) created it by themselves. You can’t have FIRS chairman Yoruba, finance (minister) Yoruba, Customs (boss) Yoruba, CBN (governor) Yoruba. You can’t do that. And then suddenly, the Yoruba people came and said we have a new tax regime. They (people of other tribes) will be nervous.
“People are not in the National Assembly or the Senate not to protect the interest of their people; that’s why they are there. They are representatives of their people. That’s why the pushbacks will come.”
He said there is no bill without grey areas but the Tinubu government “caused it by itself”.
“You may mean well but let me have some of my own seated at the table to be sure that you mean well. Nobody will sit at the table and cause injury to his tribe,” he said.
The new tax bills introduced by the Tinubu administration have been enveloped in widespread controversy and sparked scathing criticisms and stiff opposition from many including the 36 state governors under the aegis of the National Economic Council (NEC). The 19 governors in northern Nigeria have also unequivocally rejected sections of the bills.
Sowunmi said, “I think the president needs to tell them in very clear language that I won’t be sitting here as president and refusing to do the right thing for the country only because you want to threaten me with elections. When we get to the bridge of election, we will cross it.”
