Listen To NEC, NGF, Withdraw Tax Reform Bills, Ndume Tells Tinubu

Ali Ndume, a federal lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District in the National Assembly (NASS), has advised President Bola Tinubu to listen to the National Economic Council (NEC) and the Northern Governors’ Forum and immediately withdraw the tax reform bills.

This is even as he disclosed that the tax reform bills sent to the legislative arm of government by the President are dead on arrival.

“If it goes on like that, I can tell you that it will be dead on arrival. We don’t need to study the bills,” the unsparingly blunt lawmaker known for his unconventional stance said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.

Let people live first before you start asking for taxes.

Ndume, one of the longest lawmakers in the National Assembly, said the Federal Government should be looking at ways to reduce the tax burden on Nigerians and not increase it.

“The general thing is that Nigerians are not willing to talk about or pay any tax now considering the (economic) situation we are in now,” he said.

“Nigerians are willing to pay taxes but they can only pay taxes when they can afford it. Right now, people are struggling to survive. Let people live first before you start asking them for taxes,” he added.

Continuing, he said, “What he (Tinubu) needs to do is to withdraw the bill, educate Nigerians and make us understand it. We are representing the people and the people that we are representing have already spoken.

“The governors, the traditional rulers have said that the bill is not good. So, the best thing to do is to immediately withdraw it.

“Right now, what our people are saying is that they don’t want VAT bill, they don’t even want to hear about it. That is why we are going to make it dead on arrival.”