The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) has condemned the recent threat by an appointee of President Bola Tinubu that he will make life unbearable for Nigerians evading tax payments.
Development Diaries reports that Peoples Gazette quoted the appointee, Taiwo Oyedele, who is the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, as suggesting that tough times lie ahead for Nigerians who do not pay their taxes.
Speaking at an event organised in conjunction with BudgIT in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, on 21 July, Oyedele said the government will use citizens’ economic transactions to determine their true worth and compute a corresponding tax levy.
He added that citizens’ daily economic activities will now be tied to their National Identity Number (NIN) or Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) registrations.
‘I will make your life impossible until you use NIN or the CAC registration’, Oyedele is quoted as saying.
‘You cannot get a job; you can’t travel abroad; you can’t get a passport; you can’t open a bank account; you can’t get a payment card’.
In a statement to Development Diaries, CHRICED described Oyedele’s statements as ‘an insensitive and draconian approach’ coming at a time citizens are enduring ‘shege’ – a street slang that means hardship or intense maltreatment.
‘For a nation with a teeming population of unemployed, underemployed, indigent, and vulnerable citizens, it is evident that the designers of the tax initiative are either not using the correct data set or are hell-bent on inflicting more suffering on Nigerians’, the statement signed by its Executive Director, Ibrahim Zikirullahi, read.
‘While CHRICED is not opposed to the government’s plans to increase its revenue, it must be done with a focus on the people. Therefore, it is insensitive to issue a generalised threat to deny essential services to all categories of citizens in the name of an imperialist and overzealous tax drive that is not based on a consultative, pro-poor and all-inclusive decision with citizens, but rather to satisfy external prescriptions by the IMF and the World Bank’.
Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate increased to 22.41 percent in May 2023, relative to April 2023 headline inflation rate, which was 22.22 percent.
Also, the NBS, in its 2022 National Multidimensional Poverty Index report, disclosed that 133 million Nigerians were poor, with many more Nigerians adding to the number following the removal of fuel subsidy in June 2023.
Therefore, Oyedele’s comments, as rightly described by CHRICED, are insensitive and draconian, especially coming at a time millions of Nigerians are facing hardship caused by the government.
Photo source: Taiwo Oyedele
