Tax reform as Tinubu’s test of kariability 

The tax reform bill before the Nigerian legislative assembly, proposed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has set an agenda for him and his administration. It is a test of his resolve and a test of the strength of his character. It is also a trial of how he would navigate the tricky route his government’s desire to overhaul the Nigerian tax system has found itself on. In the Kegites Club, how President Tinubu and his government would handle such a proposition with so much opposition is surely a Test of Kariability or ToK. It would be a test of who he is as the president and commander-in-chief.

In April this year, this column discussed Test of Kariability. It was induced by a matter that demanded a follow-through and a strong resolve to stay the course. ToK came up then because Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State had expressed anger at an ugly development that concerned some workers of the state government. He spoke and we inferred what looked like a strong resolve to go after some personnel of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) who had attacked and brutalised some men the Oyo State Road Traffic Management Agency (OYRTMA) who were at their duty post, in Ibadan.

In April, Governor Makinde had threatened to sue and make the erring NIS officials pay for the reckless and rash beating and injuring the traffic management officials for no just cause. His resolve to see the matter to a reasonable end was a test of his resolve, his ‘kariability’. The issue has become something similar to diffusion in elementary Biology – from area of high concentration to area of low concentration. The matter might have been resolved, but we have not heard about it.

Kariability is a concept in the Kegites Club which borders on your dynamism, your drive, and your positive abilities. It is kariability that defines a Kegite. The lack of kariability makes one a Jànkárìwò (cobweb). I had written in April 2024 that “kariability cannot be acquired with money” and that “Kariability naturally shines through when you are imbued with it.” The totality of what you are as a Kegite is defined under kariability. These are still the same.

Test of Kariability returned to mind with the kind of opposition President Bola Tinubu’s tax reform bill is currently facing. The bill presents an opportunity for Nigerians to see how the Tinubu administration would navigate this one major test of its resolve and dynamism. The weight of opposition against the government’s darling bill has been so much that it is said to made the government to quake. A newspaper in its report on the bill, on Friday, claimed that the bill would be withdrawn, re-modelled and re-presented. In order words, the set of legislations we saw on September 3, even if withdrawn, would come back in a different mould.

Northern Nigeria rose as one to reject the bill proposing tax reforms in the country. The region simply says the law cannot work and, to see to it that this is followed through, they asked the National Assembly to reject the quartet of bills.

The 144th meeting of the National Economic Council also advised that the bills be withdrawn to make for a wider consultation and for other regions of the country which had been docile, and who have not cried out like the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), to look at them, digest them and make a decision.

Now that the bill has been entwined in controversy, it is pertinent to ask, like Professor Tekena Tamuno did in his 1998 University of Ibadan Alumni Lecture, cui bono? Professor Tamuno’s lecture was entitled “Recte Sapere Fons: Cui Bono”. The stance of the Northern Governors Forum elicits the same question: Cui bono? In whose interest are they rejecting the proposed models in tax reform via the bills before the National Assembly? In whose interest are the trying to reinforce the now trite “feeding bottle” financial life the states have been living for decades? Have they forgotten about the move started by Nyesom Wike in 2021 when he was still the governor of Rivers State? It has resurrected in a larger form. I’m sure the Northern Governors Forum also remembers that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State presented a bill in the same mould to the Lagos State House of Assembly.

On November 13, 2021, the Bauchi State government, while addressing newsmen in the state pointedly lamented that the “VAT war” between Wike and the Federal Government adversely affected the state’s 2022 budget proposals and projections. Bauchi State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Aminu Hammayo, who made the submission back then after a state executive council meeting spoke what the NGF repeated on Monday. It is simply a pointer to what the larger body of the Northern governors is saying in a more mellifluous tone in the ensuing drama. And wait for it: They are dealing with a president described by a former governor of Jigawa State and notable northern political leader, Sule Lamido, as a man that has no godfather. It is going to be interesting and it recommended that you grab your popcorn as this will be one interesting piece of drama.

The lead singer in the preceding opera has started with his ariah. As expected, the varying reactions have begun. This is a season film and we would be on a long run to the denouement and then, the curtains. But for now, some of the reactions and questions are showing that the issue is of great interest to Nigerians.

The most prominent among them is the VAT paid on consumption of alcohol. But it is not proper to narrow all about the tax bills to VAT. The Hisbah Police in Kano State has made the most drama of the enforcement of the prohibition of sale and consumption of alcohol. The Hisbah even operates in places many thought sale of alcoholic beverages was allowed. No window is open for beer and sundry alcoholic beverages in Kano State. Zamfara led the pack in the open adoption of Sharia as the law of the state, citing constitutional allowance to do so. In 2001, on arrival at Gusau, a huge signboard with a warning that alcohol was not allowed anywhere in the state welcomed the visitors. It was graphic: A huge drawing of a popular beer bottle was crossed out, and the words: “This is not allowed in this state” were boldly inscribed underneath the drawing. It was unmistakable. The message was short, succinct and sure. It was neither sublime nor surreptitious.

These same states stretch their bowls forward monthly to receive proceeds from taxes collected in the states where there are no such proscription and warning against alcoholic beverages. I also agree that there should be a reform on this. Derivation was one of the words Chief Alfred Dappa Biriye spoke so much in the days of the struggle that led to the gifting of the Niger Delta states “13 percent derivation”. Until the denouement of his glorious life, he harped on the need for ‘derivation’ and fairness in the nation’s dealings with the oil-producing states. He always told us what derivation meant, and he simplified its meaning by saying that what you get from the pot is according to what you bring to the table. That, he said was what derivation meant, and that is fair morally, religiously and economically. That makes better sense than for an entire region to just remain as leeches on the entire nation.

The farmers in northern Nigeria enjoy multiple layers of government support. They have the comparative advantage in agriculture considering the nature of government we have been running over the years. Why would they not face and develop those areas that are not haram and make the best of it and allow those whose actions are haram to bear the consequences of their actions?

This will be a test of Tinubu’s resolve. If indeed his administration is to move on the path he said was the best for Nigeria, and also make the federation fiscally better, this is a test of his Kariability. We must also not forget that the local government autonomy is currently in limbo… in a kind of disarray. It is also a test of Tinubu’s kariability. Or, could it be that the president is not karid?

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