The call for the withdrawal of the allegedly altered tax reforms law is growing with the Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) other legal experts on tax matters, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have joined the fray.
According to the lawyers, the National Assembly (BASS)’s order to re-gazette the tax laws amidst allegations of alterations was illegal.
Speaking on the matter, the president of the NBA, Mazi Afam Osigwe SAN, said “I don’t think it (re-gazetting) is illegal as the legality of the process depends entirely on the specific legal framework and context in which it occurs.
“If the re-gazetting is to correctly gazette the law that was crackly passed and assented to by the president, then it would not be unlawful. If, however, a law different from what the legislature passed was assented to by the president, then re-gazetting will not cure any insertion, deletion or modification in such laws.”
Other lawyers who expressed their opinions on the controversy, said the NASS has no power to re-gazette the laws.
Senior Advocate of Nigerian, Taiye Oniyide, SAN, decried the procedural lapses surrounding the tax laws, saying where it has been observed and a committee set up to look into it, due process requires that such a committee should first conclude its assignment before any further steps are taken.
He said, “As we speak, it is not even clear whether that committee has submitted its findings. If the leadership of the House is already talking about re-gazetting the matter while the investigation is still ongoing, does that not amount to preempting the outcome of the investigation itself?
“Whichever way one looks at it, the entire process appears to be making a mockery of the system. Once a process reaches a stage where decisions taken raise serious procedural and even criminal concerns, including issues that could affect clarity and judicial interpretation, the entire exercise becomes questionable and inadvisable.”
The senior advocate argued that the most reasonable step in such circumstances would be to start afresh.
According to Barrister Liborous Oshoma, re-gazetting the tax laws was out of the powers of the legislature.
“I think the National Assembly is overreaching itself. It should understand the scope of separation of powers. If a law, as passed by them, was uttered, what it means is that such a law was doctored. What was gazetted was different from what the National Assembly passed. And that is a serious criminal offence,” he stated.
Another SAN, Kunle Rasheed Adegoke, said “the National Assembly is not re-gazetting the law. That term is incorrect and a mischaractisation. What the legislature is doing is gazetting the law as it was actually passed. Whatever was earlier gazetted, if it did not reflect the duly passed law, is not a law at all.
“As enacted by the National Assembly, is contrary to what is currently in the public domain, then it simply means that what is in the public domain is not the law that was enacted. No other organ, body or institution anywhere in the world, has the power to tamper with what the legislature has duly passed.
“Anything done outside or contrary to what the National Assembly duly passed is a nullity in law. Whatever documents are circulating that do not reflect what was actually passed by the legislature are legally worthless.”
Similarly, the minority caucus of the House of Representatives has told the Federal Government to immediately suspend the implementation of the tax laws until the “high powered” committee inaugurated by the House to investigate the allegations concludes its assignemnt and there is “clarity and certainty on the laws to be implemented.”
The Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda; Minority Whip, Ali Isa J.C.; the Deputy Minority Leader, Aliyu Madaki; and the Deputy Minority Whip, George Ozodinobi, in a statement they all signed, expressed alarm at a “storm brewing” over the tax reforms, adding that though controversies around new laws are not unusual, the present situation has led to serious constitutional and legal concerns.
The Minority Caucus said the allegations are grave because it breached due legislative process and the integrity of Nigeria’s lawmaking system.
“We are aware of the legitimate procedures towards the gazetting of laws, and it starts with the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA) transmitting the actual copies of the laws to the relevant federal agency that gazettes all government documents, which means, the National Assembly is always the custodian of the genuine documents of the laws of the federation that have been passed, and, therefore, we will always make sure that it is the truth that prevails in moments of controversy such as this.
“We therefore call on Nigerians to disregard any purported tax laws being circulated without the signature of the CNA and the President and Commander-in-Chief, such did not originate from the National Assembly, and neither do they reflect the true character of what were actually passed by the legislature and signed by the president.
“Any attempt to foist fake laws on Nigerians is an attack on the independence and constitutional role of the National Assembly in safeguarding our democracy, and the Caucus will unconditionally protect the independence of the Legislature and our democracy.”
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for the second time has told the Federal Government not to proceed with implementation of the tax laws until all the issues surrounding them are addressed.
The Acting General Secretary of NLC, Benson Upah, said, “We can’t change our position except if the president has done the needful. First and foremost, there was inadequate consultation right from the beginning.”
He recalled that the NLC wrote to members of the committee, but that was struck off, and then there was also inadequate public enlightenment.
“For instance, we are the biggest tax-paying community in the country, there has been no public education, and I’m sure quite a number of people and communities have not been educated on what these tax laws are all about.
“Thirdly, we have the issue of gazetted outcomes. Nigerians know that the National Assembly has cried out that what they legislated and agreed upon was not what they gazetted.
“That raises big issues about the credibility, acceptability and ownership of the laws even at the level of the executive and legislature.
“So, these three issues stand for a lot. The fourth one is the effects of these tax laws on ordinary Nigerians. We heard the government officials saying it will benefit ordinary Nigerians, but here we have ordinary people saying it doesn’t.
“Here we have Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria raising their concerns. There is a need to sit down, and be on the same page about what the government wants to do for the interest of everybody.”
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), has warned the Federal Government not to implement the controversial law in its present form, saying it was likely to deepen resentment and distrust between citizens and government authorities.
NANS president, Olushola Oladoja, said “first, the modalities for creating national orientation about this law are problematic, as Nigerians are grossly ill-informed and insufficiently enlightened about the content, scope, breadth, impacts and long-term implications of the new tax reform law.
“Across the country, there is palpable fear and widespread suspicion that this law, if implemented without proper understanding, will further burden citizens who are already struggling under severe economic hardship.
“It will weaken the viability and capacity of many businesses and individual Nigerians to cope with the economic shocks that will accompany this policy, particularly when poor public understanding of the law affects the planning and execution of financial projects in the coming year.”
It would be recalled that a member of the House of Representatives, Abdussamad Dasuki, had raised a matter of privilege in the House of Representatives, alleging discrepancies between the versions of the tax bills passed by lawmakers and the copies subsequently gazetted.
This led the House to set up a committee to investigate the allegations.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE reports that despite the raging controversy and growing calls for the withdrawal of the laws, the FG is hell bent on commencing implementation of the tax reforms from Thursday January 1, 2026.
The four laws forming the tax reform framework are the National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act and the Nigeria Tax Act.
