The Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, has clarified his position on the controversial tax reform bills, saying he was not an enemy of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Zulum, however, insisted that if the four tax bills currently undergoing review before the Green Chamber are passed into law, only one of the 36 states – Lagos – will be the major beneficiary.
The governor made the clarification when he was featured as a guest on Sunday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He said, “I am a strong member of the APC. If you are to count two governors who have been in support of Tinubu from 2019 to 2023, you can mention Prof Zulum. I was the first governor to come out publicly to say that power must go to the South.
“Unfortunately, the President was told by many that the North is against him. About 60.2 per cent of his votes came from the North. There are a lot of misconceptions about this tax issue. During the NEC, we advised the Federal Government to pause for a moment to have a deeper consultation with stakeholders. That was our own statement.
“But later on, people have turned it upside down. I want you to believe that our consultation is central to democracy, and in a democratic setting, we are begging for the right to be consulted. This is only what has happened.”
In the past few weeks, the controversial bills have pitched the 36 state governors against the Federal Government, with the former calling for the withdrawal of the bills to create room for more consultation.
But Zulum had called on his colleagues and Northern stakeholders to reject the bills, insisting that the bills would damage the region’s economy if implemented.
Similarly, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called for transparency and fairness in the ongoing review of the tax reform bills.
However, Zulum argued that the call to temporarily suspend the bills was not done out of hatred for the president.
The governor emphasised that they had run the numbers and concluded that the rush to pass the tax bills was needless as it favours only Lagos, Nigeria’s former federal capital.
He said, “I am not an economist. But based on the calculations we did, only Lagos will benefit from this scheme. However, we have had a series of consultations with the FIRS team and had a meeting with the tax team of Lagos State. Lagos told me that they would lose a lot if this were implemented. They said, ‘We did our research and concluded we will lose.’
“Then why are we in a rush? Not only Northern Nigeria but also the Southeast, South-South, and even the Southwest will be severely affected. Only Lagos will benefit from this scheme. But what we are telling them is to give us time. Why are we in a rush? Let us pause and have a deeper consultation because we are in a democracy.
“We should look at the nitty-gritty of these bills before passing into law. This is our only bone of contention. Then, people started saying that Prof Zulum and the governors were against the president. This is a democratic setting. People want us to run a garrison democracy. Most of this money will go to Lagos. We need more time.”
