Leading opposition figures have kicked against the commencement of the new tax reforms, today, as insisted by the federal government, warning that the move could worsen poverty in the country.
Those who cautioned against immediate implementation of the tax laws include African Democratic Congress, ADC, National Chairman, Senator David Mark; Labour Party, LP, Chairman, Senator Nenadi Usman; 2023 ADC Presidential Candidate, Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu; and National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS.
They spoke as a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, declined to restrain the federal government from going ahead with its January 1, timeline for the implementation of new tax laws in the country, reports Vanguard.
This was as Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele urged Nigerians to buy into the reform; as Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, assured that the new tax reforms would not result in automatic debits from bank accounts, regardless of the amount transferred or descriptions.
Fresh taxes will deepen hardship, fuel hopelessness — Mark
Senator Mark warned that the newly introduced taxes by the Federal Government will worsen Nigeria’s cost-of-living crisis and deepen public despair, saying the measures risk pushing already overburdened citizens further into hardship
The former Senate President gave the warning in a new year message in which he reviewed Nigeria’s economic, security and democratic conditions in 2025 and outlined the opposition’s concerns and expectations for 2026.
Mark said 2025 ended as a year of intense difficulty for most Nigerians, arguing that the government’s promise of renewed hope translated instead into rising prices, shrinking purchasing power and expanding poverty, with food, essential medicines and transportation increasingly beyond the reach of many households.
“The renewed hope that the government promised has yielded more misery and widespread hardship, as citizens battled with an ever-rising cost of living,” Mark said.
He said the situation was being compounded by new fiscal measures introduced at a time when citizens were already struggling to cope with daily expenses.
“These taxes will not renew hope; they will renew hopelessness,” he said.
It’s insensitive, draconian, ill-timed — Labour Party
The Senator Nenadi Usman-led Labour Party, LP, charged President Bola Tinubu to prioritise the welfare of Nigerians in 2026, describing the new tax regime that begins today as insensitive, draconian, ill-timed, and coming at a time most Nigerians are suffering extreme poverty.
In a new year message, she said: “Nigeria is currently hemorrhaging from the devastating effects of misgovernance, and the effort to rescue her from the clutches of poor leadership requires far more than passive interest in the electoral process.”
While praying for the restoration of peace and prosperity in Nigeria, she noted that Nigerians deserve good governance and urged the Federal Government to suspend the implementation of the new Tax Acts.
“I also call on those in authority to demonstrate greater empathy in leadership by pursuing policies that genuinely address the needs of the suffering masses.
“It is utterly insensitive that the government of the day is planning to roll out a new tax regime that further compounds the already scorching burden borne by Nigerians at the dawn of a new year, especially amidst widespread calls for its suspension. This policy is as draconian as it is ill-timed.
“While appealing for the immediate suspension of this anti-people policy, I wish to remind the government that the hallmark of good leadership, the world over, lies in the number of people lifted out of poverty, not those pushed deeper into it.
“How, then, does it benefit a nation to introduce a tax policy that seeks to enrich the state while impoverishing the people? Such draconian measures have no place in a developing economy like ours.”
We can’t start 2026 with more taxes —Kachikwu
Mr Dumebi Kachikwu also kicked against the commencement of the tax reforms, warning that Nigerians cannot afford to start the new year with more taxes.
Kachikwu, in a statement, stressed that if implemented as promised by President Tinubu, the tax reforms will instigate as a crisis of unprecedented proportions in Nigeria, which no one can afford especially with our current security issues.
According to him, what the President owes the nation’s struggling masses is care, compassion and support and not anything that will further compound their misery in this new year. He added that the suffering of Nigerians now can only be likened to the biblical story of the suffering of the Israelites in Egypt under Pharaoh hence many Nigerians now ask, “is our president pharaoh?
The statement read in part: “Today, many of our brothers and sisters find it increasingly difficult to clutch at the straw of hope. Through no fault of theirs life has become more precarious in our nation as the toll of economic reforms and insecurity increases. This is further exacerbated by a political leadership that appears insensitive to the plight of the people.
“The suffering of Nigerians in present day Nigeria can only be likened to the biblical story of the suffering of the Israelites in Egypt under Pharaoh hence many Nigerians now ask, “is our president pharaoh?” Surely President Tinubu doesn’t want to go down in history as the President who precipitated an Exodus from Nigeria.
“Any reasonable Nigerian understands that upon assumption of office our President was confronted with a comatose economy that needed urgent surgery, but this surgery has now decapitated the legs and arms of Nigerians who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the economic resuscitation.
“Our president must understand that the major beneficiaries of his policies are the legal robbers who instigate government policies that mostly benefit their companies to the detriment of most Nigerians. We understand the need for tax reforms, but an already overburdened populace can’t afford any more taxation especially when they mostly believe the government does nothing meaningful with its current revenues.
“This tax reform will further erode the ranks of the Nigerian middle-class who have resorted to paying exorbitant fees for quality education, healthcare and other social services because of our failed public institutions.
“My fear is that if implemented as promised by our president, the tax reforms will instigate a crisis of unprecedented proportions in our nation which no one can afford especially with our current security issues. What our president owes our struggling masses is care, compassion and support and not anything that will further compound their misery in this new year.”
NANS mobilises against implementation, faults FIRS
Meanwhile, the NANS is mobilising students across the country to protest against the implementation of the tax reforms.
The leadership of the student body has faulted the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, over its stance on the implementation of the new law from today when a lot of issues in the gazetted law are yet to be resolved.
The position of the association is contained in a statement by its National President, Olushola Oladoja
“NANS expresses its profound disappointment and total lack of confidence in the fiscal and economic advisers surrounding President Bola Tinubu, whose misguided counsel has continued to push the administration toward an avoidable national confrontation over the controversial Tax Reform Law,” it said and accused the management of FIRS of failing to engage the necessary stakeholders and the general public about the nitty-gritty of the law.
“The decision to proceed with implementing the Tax Reform Law from January 1, 2026, is not only unfortunate but a dangerous precedence for a government that claims commitment to participatory reforms and democratic values.
“Nigeria is a constitutional democracy, not a dictatorship. No policy, no matter how well intentioned, can be forcefully implemented without the consent and confidence of the majority of the people. It is therefore disturbing and unacceptable that Mr. President is being advised to proceed with implementing this law, even when the National Assembly, the constitutionally recognized representatives of the Nigerian people, has raised fundamental questions regarding discrepancies in the gazetted version of the law. It is a shame that the government has decided to proceed with this misstep, regardless of the painful economic consequences that it would portend for many Nigerians.
“More concerning is the fact that civil society organisations, youth groups, and students’ bodies across the country have openly expressed strong reservations, calling for the suspension of implementation until all grey areas are resolved, particularly issues bordering on constitutional integrity, transparency, and comprehensive public education and sensitization of the Nigerian populace.
“The Government must understand that there can be no government without the governed and that while power may reside in offices, the power of the people is always greater than the people in power. It is against this backdrop that NANS declares January 14, 2026 , as a National Day of Action against the implementation of the controversial Tax Reform Law.
“As the NANS President, I, therefore, call on all NANS structures – campus chapters, state joints zonal coordinators, and the national secretariat – to commence immediate a massive mobilisation for a peaceful mass protest and march to the Presidential Villa Gate in Abuja on the said date. The convergence point shall be Unity Fountain, Abuja. Further operational details will be communicated in due course.”
Nobody’ll debit your bank account – Oyedele assures Nigerians
However, Mr. Oyedele, speaking on Channels Television’s end-of-year special, said no tax authority anywhere in the world has the capacity to pursue every individual, noting that tax enforcement typically targets high income earners rather than low income bank users.
“Nobody will debit your account. Any amount of money you transfer, whether it is N1billion, or N1,000, it doesn’t matter how you describe it. Nobody will debit your bank account,” the chairman said.
The chairman said concerns over bank debits have largely been driven by misinformation, adding that many Nigerians opposing the reforms are not in the income bracket targeted by the policy.
“The people that are fighting us the most are the people who don’t have N1 million in their bank account.
“You know that the NDIC said 98 percent of bank holders in Nigeria can’t boast of N500,000 in their bank account. Those are the people fighting.
“I think something we underestimated in this reform, we said the current system is regressive, taxing the vulnerable more. Let us make it progressive. In fact, there was one of our meetings where we were saying it is going to be hard for these rich people to go out and be protesting because they don’t want people to know that they are rich.
“We underestimated how these guys can manipulate the average person to fight the fights on their behalf. Even against their own interests, that was what played out and it is totally unbelievable.
“There are content creators who admitted they make up to $10,000 a month. They don’t want to pay tax. You think they will go and create a content that says they want to tax $10,000 a month? They say they are going to debit your bank account so you can help them fight the reform.”
Senator Bamidele urges support for reform
In like manner, Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, appealed to his compatriots to buy into what he described as the realistic and foreseeable projections of the new tax obligations.
Bamidele, in a new year statement described the enactment of the 2025 Tax Reforms Act as perhaps the most consequential of all reforms of 2025.
He said: “The new tax law was not initiated to inflict economic hardship on ordinary people as being misconstrued in the public space. Rather, it aims to bring more resources to the footsteps of the government at various levels for the delivery of more strategic infrastructure that will translate to economic prosperity for generations to come.
“Nigerians will recall how it took the current National Assembly several months of painstaking scrutiny and late night meetings before the eventual passage of the proposed tax reform bills.
“The import of this is that our dual objectives of ensuring that the interest of ordinary Nigerians are adequately protected and that Nigeria is not lagging behind in modern tax administration were ultimately achieved at the end of the exercise. Rather than falling hook, line and sinker for the deliberate misinformation being peddled about the new reforms by the opposition, I urge every Nigerian to get adequately informed about their ambitious goals and advantages for our collective good, aiming to take more from the rich to cater for the poor in our midst.”
Court declines motion to stop implementation
Meanwhile, a High Court of the FCT has declined to restrain the federal government from going ahead with today’s timeline for the implemen-tation of new tax laws in the country.
The court, in a ruling delivered by Justice Bello Kawu, turned down an ex-parte motion by the Incorporated Trustees of African Initiative for Abuse of Public Trust.
Justice Kawu held that the court lacked the power to stop the implementation of a legislation already signed by the appropriate authority, without concrete evidence of any wrongdoing.
He stressed that the litigant failed to adduce any evidence to warrant the grant of a restraining order against FG.
“I have considered the application together with the affidavit in support. I have also considered the submission of the learned counsel for the claimant/applicant together with the judicial authorities cited and I am of the strong view that the court lacks power to stop implementation of a law already signed by the appropriate authority without concrete evidence of any wrongdoing.
“At this preliminary stage, it will be difficult if not impossible to prove any wrong doing because at this stage, the court should be careful not to touch on the main issue.
“It is my considered opinion that granting injunction at this preliminary stage will be touching the subject matter in the main suit.
“It should be noted that once an Act is signed into law, it can only be repealed by the lawmakers or any offending section set aside by the court of law; be that as it may, ex-parte application cannot be used to set aside the coming into force any Act already signed into law or gazetted.
“In view of the above, the implementation of the Tax Act 2025 and other related Acts will commence on January 1, 2026, and continue to be in force pending the hearing and determination of the originating motion before this court, “ Justice Kawu held in a certified true copy of the ruling that was delivered on December 23, but made available, yesterday.
The court deferred further hearing in the case till January 9, 2026.
Specifically, the group had in the suit, prayed the court to halt the planned implementation of the new tax laws, pending the resolution of controversies surrounding it.
Cited as defendants in the matter were; the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Attorney General of the Federation, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the National Assembly.
