News
BREAKING: Northern Groups List Conditions To Accept Tinubu’s Tax Reform Bills
Amid strong opposition to the proposed Tax Reform Bills in the National Assembly, leading northern groups have outlined key conditions for withdrawing their resistance, citing concerns over the potential economic impact on the North.
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), and Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in a chat with Vanguard have demanded accountability, transparency, expanded consultations, and trust-building as prerequisites for their support of the fiscal reforms.
The proposed laws, which include the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill, and Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill, aim to overhaul Nigeria’s tax system.
Despite passing Second Reading in the Senate, the bills have faced significant pushback, particularly from the North.
The spokesman for the NEF, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, emphasized the importance of addressing historical inequalities to achieve sustainable peace.
He said, “In my opinion, a ceasefire on the controversy surrounding President Tinubu’s tax reform bills is achievable, but only through a concerted effort towards genuine negotiation.
“This necessitates inclusivity, transparency, accountability, and a commitment to addressing the underlying socio-economic challenges of Northern Nigeria.
“It requires walking a tightrope between the need for fiscal responsibility and the imperative of social justice.
“The path to resolution is fraught with complexities, requiring a nuanced understanding of the diverse perspectives at play and a commitment to dialogue.
“A simple cessation of hostilities is insufficient; rather, a sustainable peace requires addressing the underlying grievances and building trust.”
Poverty
“The core of the opposition stems from concerns regarding the potential impact of these reforms on the already strained economic conditions of Northern Nigeria.
“The region grapples with significant challenges – from poverty and unemployment to limited access to education and healthcare.
“Many fear that the proposed tax increases, without accompanying measures to alleviate these existing pressures, will disproportionately burden the most vulnerable populations, exacerbating existing inequalities and fueling social unrest. This fear is not unfounded.
“The lack of transparency in the initial presentation of the bills, coupled with the perceived absence of adequate consultation with regional stakeholders, has further inflamed these concerns.
“This has led to a perception that the reforms are being imposed rather than negotiated, feeding into existing anxieties about marginalization and unequal distribution of resources.
“The call for negotiation, therefore, is not merely a tactical manoeuvre but a fundamental requirement for restoring confidence and achieving a lasting ceasefire.”
Inclusivity
“The first crucial condition for successful negotiation is genuine inclusivity.
“The dialogue must not be limited to a select group of elites but must actively involve representatives from all segments of Northern society – from farmers and traders to professionals and religious leaders.
“Their diverse perspectives and concerns must be actively sought and integrated into the process. “This demands a conscious effort to bridge the communication gap between the federal government and the Northern populace, ensuring that information is disseminated transparently and that concerns are addressed directly and honestly.
“Furthermore, any meaningful negotiation must be predicated on a commitment to transparency and accountability.
“The government must provide clear, detailed explanations of the rationale behind the proposed tax reforms, outlining how the revenue generated will be utilized to benefit the northern region specifically. “This includes outlining clear plans for the improved provision of public services like healthcare,r education, and infrastructure.
“Simply stating that the reforms are necessary for national development is insufficient; a concrete plan demonstrating tangible benefits for the North is essential.”
Inequality
“This transparency should also extend to the process of revenue allocation and expenditure, ensuring that the people see the direct benefits of their contributions.
“Equally important is the establishment of independent monitoring mechanisms to ensure accountability and transparency throughout the implementation process.
“An independent body, comprising representatives from both the government and civil society, could be tasked with overseeing the implementation of the reforms and reporting regularly on their impact on the Northern region.
“This will help build trust and alleviate fears of misuse or misappropriation of funds.
“Finally, a ceasefire requires a genuine commitment to addressing the historical inequalities that have contributed to the current crisis.
“The North has long faced systemic challenges that have hindered its economic development.
“These include limited access to credit, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of investment in human capital.
“Addressing these structural issues is not merely desirable but essential for building a sustainable and equitable future for the region.
“The tax reforms, if properly integrated into a broader strategy of regional development, can play a positive role in this process.
“However, this requires a significant investment in capacity building, infrastructure development, and targeted social programs designed to alleviate poverty and create opportunities for economic advancement.”
Not carried along
Similarly, the President of AYCF, Yerima Shettima, lamented that the region wasn’t carried along by its elected representatives during the formulation of the bills.
He, however, called for a more participatory approach that involves dialogue and addresses the specific concerns of the North before implementation.
He said, ”The position of the AYCF, a significant demographic group in Northern Nigeria, on this complex issue, requires careful consideration of our socio-economic context and perceived impact of the bill on our communities.
“While a monolithic stance is unlikely, our concerns generally revolve around equity, fairness, and the potential for disproportionate burden on the Northern region.
“Our primary concern stems from the perception of inequitable distribution of resources and infrastructure development across the country.
“We believe that despite contributing significantly to the national GDP through agriculture and other sectors, the North historically receives less in return in terms of public services, infrastructure investment, and developmental projects. “Consequently, the introduction of new taxes, without addressing this existing imbalance, is viewed with skepticism.
“They believe that increased taxation without corresponding improvements in infrastructure – roads, schools, hospitals, would unfairly burden a population already struggling with poverty, unemployment, and limited access to essential services.”
Economy
“Another key concern is the potential impact of the tax reforms on informal sectors which heavily dominate the Northern economy.
“A large portion of the Arewa youth population is employed in the informal sector – agriculture, small-scale businesses, and artisanal trades – which often operates outside the formal tax net.
“The implementation of the tax reforms bill, particularly if it extends tax obligations to the informal sector, could pose a significant challenge. “We fear that increased tax burdens could cripple these businesses, leading to job losses and further economic hardship.
“The lack of adequate education and awareness about tax regulations also exacerbates this concern. “Many young people in the informal sector lack the knowledge and resources to understand and comply with new tax laws, potentially leading to fines and penalties, further marginalizing them economically.
“Furthermore, our position is also influenced by the perceptions of governmental transparency and accountability.
“Mistrust in government institutions and concerns about the proper utilization of tax revenue are prevalent.
“We question whether the increased tax revenue generated will be effectively utilized for the benefit of all Nigerians, or if it will be mismanaged or disproportionately benefit certain regions.”
Corruption
“Concerns about corruption and lack of accountability in government spending further fuel this skepticism and contribute to our reluctance to embrace the tax reforms without robust guarantees of transparency and equitable distribution of resources.
“The lack of visible development projects and infrastructure in the North, despite past tax contributions, strengthens our belief that increased taxation without guarantees of responsible governance is unproductive.
“The absence of robust engagement and consultation with the Arewa youth by Northern Senators during the formulation of the tax reforms bill is a point of considerable frustration.
“We feel our concerns and perspectives have been largely ignored in the decision-making process. This lack of inclusivity fuels our distrust and reinforces our opposition to the bill in its current form. We call for a more participatory approach that involves meaningful dialogue and addresses our specific concerns before implementation.”
Dialogue
Also speaking, National Publicity Secretary of ACF, Prof Tukur Muhammad Baba, said, “As an organisation, ACF is yet to say anything publicly on the tax reform issue.
“It’s already looking like the Federal Government has agreed for dialogue on critical or contentious aspects of the proposed bills.
“Already, the Attorney-General of the Federation is billed to appear before the Senate on the bills. If anything, it’s probably now that ACF should come out to urge all parties, for or against the bills, to negotiate on truth, honesty and sincerity of purpose for the good of the nation.”
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
On Saturday, May 10, 2025, the naira is exchanging for ₦1,618 to 1 US dollar at the parallel market (black market) in Nigeria.
This reflects the current rate at which individuals are trading dollars for naira outside of official financial institutions.
This means that for every one dollar, you can get the equivalent in naira of ₦1,618 on May 10, 2025, showing a slight improvement compared to the previous day, indicating a bit more relief for the naira against the dollar.
Saturday, May 10, 2025, records a minor upward movement in the exchange rate, suggesting a brief gain in stability for the local currency among those trading in foreign exchange.
The black market rate represents the value at which individuals can trade their dollars for naira outside official exchange channels, where the currency’s value is largely driven by supply and demand dynamics rather than government regulation.
Note that the Black Market Exchange rate is typically higher than the official exchange rate because it is not regulated by the government and reflects a more immediate, fluctuating market response.
Today’s exchange rate has slightly improved compared to yesterday, Friday, May 9, when the naira exchanged at ₦1,627 per dollar. (This means the naira gained a bit of value in the past 24 hours, possibly due to increased dollar availability or improved forex supply conditions.)
The value of a country’s currency is determined by aggregate supply and demand, influenced by factors such as national interest rates, inflation, capital flow, and the overall money supply.
These forces, both internal and external, affect the strength of a nation’s currency and contribute to exchange rate fluctuations. The most common method to assess a currency’s value is through exchange rates. The two main exchange rate systems are the fixed rate and the floating rate systems, with the parallel market rate offering a real-time reflection of currency trends.
Investors and market participants closely monitor parallel market rates for a more immediate and practical reflection of currency trends, often making it a reliable indicator of short-term shifts in economic conditions
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
When she was told sometime in April 2021,during her ante-natal registration at Divine Rain Maternity Clinic, that she was carrying a twin pregnancy,32-year old Mrs Eunice Bright Ekwok’s joy knew no bounds.
For,she only paused momentarily to contemplate how she would be able to cope in raising the expectant babies with her husband, Bartholomew Bright Ekwok, who had no stable income job.
Since she has been told her fate,Mrs Ekwok demanded for a copy of the scan result to take home but the doctor,Timothy Zeje blatantly turned it down, He told her the rule in the hospital forbids that, insisted that the result can only be put in her file in the hospital.
She got home and disclosed what she had been told in the hospital by the doctor to her husband. At first,the husband wanted evidence for what he had just heard and so,he asked the wife to present the scan result. When she could not present it and instead told her husband the rule of the hospital, the 34-year old wanted to rush to the private medical facility to meet the doctor for an explanation. But his wife’s insistence that it wasn’t necessary to pursue the scan result made him suspend his action. They later prayed about the doctor’s disclosure and resigned to fate. With this,Mrs Ekwok started preparing herself towards the day she would give birth.
Each time she went for a follow-up check at the hospital, located at Sauka area of Abuja,the expectant twin mother would engage the medical doctor of how she was happy for the news he broke to her earlier about the status of her pregnancy. She had no inclination that she would unknowingly share her twins with the doctor who had been married for years without a child in the union. Ahead of hospital plans,he told Mrs Ekwok that her wife was pregnant and she could have conceived almost the same time with her.
When the pregnancy was due,Mrs Ekwok gave birth in the hospital through a cesarean section,though in an unconscious state. Neither the husband nor any of her relatives was in the labour room during the session,it was only the doctor and the hospital’s nurses.
The middle age woman,narrating the heart-rending experience,said some hours after she regained consciousness,she was only handed one baby instead of two since she was carrying a twin pregnancy. When she requested to see her other child,she was informed by the doctor that the other twin didn’t survive birth.
“I told the doctor that I would like just to see how the dead child look like or his bones but he refused, They told me that my baby is dead and scattered. Okay, where are the pieces and where are the bones? I asked but they couldn’t give me an explanation. Instead, they were saying why would I not be grateful for the one that survived birth and rather be asking for another baby when we were a poor couple and could barely take care of the one we have. We let go the issue at the time,”she said,sobbing.
When Mrs Ekwok went back to the hospital for check on there wound that arose from the cesarean section, she requested to see her file but she was told her File had since been burnt even as she was seeing a heap of patients’ files in one of the offices.
“When I told them I wanted to see where it was burnt and the ashes since they claimed it was just few days they did it, they asked me to go behind the building and when I got there, there was nothing suggesting that they had burnt anything. I returned to ask them why should it be only my file they would burn out of the many others in tne hospital? They couldn’t say anything.
As God would intervene for the couple to see one of their alleged lost twin sons,on one faithful day she had gone to a nearby general hospital for a routine immunization,Mrs Ekwok met her alleged son in someone’s care.
She explained that as she made to return home after being attended to, she saw the wife of the medical doctor of the hospital she gave birth coming into the facility for immunization. When she approached her for greeting,Mrs Ekwok saw that the baby the doctor’s brought was a spitting semblance of her own baby-same dreadlock and everything! She couldn’t identify between her child and the one the doctor’s wife brought in for immunization except how they were dressed.
Shocked, Mrs Ekwok,paused and reflected. She remembered that she had delivered of her child in a hospital owned by the woman’s husband. She also did not forget that she had twin pregnancy but saw only one baby after delivery. Although she was told the other child ‘scattered ‘ during birth. She became curious to know more about the child in the hand of the doctor’s wife.
“That fateful day, I went for immunization at AMAC Hospital at Besan. After they gave my baby the injection, I wanted to go home,so I was trying to put my baby on my back and immediately saw the wife of the doctor where I gave birth coming into the hospital with one of her brothers. They were bringing their children for immunization. When I saw the baby they brought, I was like, what is happening here?
The baby in my hand looked exactly like the one in their hand. I said ‘I’m so confused.’ I didn’t even know what to do again,so I greeted them and she sat down. And since it was a heat period, I asked her to remove the baby’s cap because the heat was too much. She removed the cap,I became confused the more because of the spitting semblance of the child and my baby. They have same leg, same face, same dada (dreadlock, same everything. I said ‘what is going on here’ to myself. I now concluded that my earlier intuition that my twin baby was taken away at birth and not dead as told by the doctor,”she narrated.
But instead of raising alarm alerting people at the immunization facility to her claims that she had found her missing child, Mrs Ekwok took to a Plan B option. She would find out the home of the couple in possession of her ‘twin baby’ and become a regular visitor there.
How would she do it perfectly? She confided in her husband and they hatched a plan. Following this, she went tto the doctor’s home with two of her wrappers (clothes),pretending that things had not been fine with them financially and begged that they buy the material from her as their way of assisting her family. Mrs Ekwok became a regular visitor to the doctor’s house unknown to her host that her guest was on a mission to uncover the truth about their supposed baby.
But this was when peace began to elude the doorstep of the Ekwoks,because in several attempts to find out more about the child’s origin, she and her husband have been taken to police stations and detained,taken to court and sent to prison and even openly tortured and accused of attempting to steal a child.
In all the places they have been taken to,they continued to lay claim to the parenthood of the child, insisting on conduct of a DNA to prove their case but the police allegedly, through the influence of the doctor and his wife,have blatantly turned down their request and instead, been trying to prosecute them in court for theft.
“Insisting that the child who is over two years now is theirs,the couple,called on authorities and the public to intervene so their request for a DNA can be conducted for the child in contention.
Contacted to speak on allegation by Mrs Ekwok, the accused, the doctor refused, explaining that his action was because the case was already being handled by the police, adding that it had been taken to court.
He,however, directed Vanguard to the Force Intelligence Department Abuja for more details.
“The case is already being handled by the police and it has been taken to court. If you have to investigate more about the matter,the best place to go is the Force CID,”he said.
The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA,an umbrella body of practicing medical practitioners said even as the allegation was raised over a year ago, it had not been formally brought to its attention.
Spokesperson of the Abuja branch of NMA, Dr Bature Mannir,told Vanguard that he had just heard about it ,asking for time to confirm from the chairmen if such a complaint had been brought to his table. But at the time of filing this report, he was yet to respond.
Think Cross River calls for justice,vows no son of the state ‘ll be hijacked by anybody
Reacting to the development, Think Cross River, an initiative that aims to forster unity,responsibility and collective ownership among Cross Riverians, has called for justice to prevail.
The group vowed to pursue the case to its logical end ,ensuring that the child was reclaimed by his alleged biological parents.
The initiator of Think Cross River, Papa Dom Cklamz Enamhe, told Vanguard that no child of the state’s origin would be allowed to be taken away by anybody under any guise.
Enamhe, who is also the convener of Who is Who platform of Northern Cross River,said:” Mr. Bartholomew Bright-Ekwok is from Cross River State. We just got to know about the story and we have moved in.”
The elder statesman said:”We will not allow any child of Cross River extraction go out. We will not stand and watch anybody intimidate any Cross Riverian. I have briefed the governor and he is on his foot on this. The senators from Cross River State extraction are all on the same case.
“No one child of Cross River extraction will be taken anywhere. We will get back the child. We will have DNA. We will go to court. We will do the right things. We, as a community, have resolved that this matter will be sorted out properly.
“Our child will return to the immediate family and will be back home. Poverty is not a crime. No Nigerian has a right to intimidate anybody because he is richer or because by any means, he is a professional.
“If I come to your hospital to give birth, I didn’t commit a crime. If you say one of the twins was missing or dead, where are the features? And we are taking two years and 11 months and you are still ignoring just a DNA test? We will afford it. We can afford it.
We will go through the processes.
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, on Friday, secured the release of eight female inmates from the Goron-Dutse Correctional Centre by settling their fines and compensation debts.
Among those freed were two pregnant women and two nursing mothers.
This development was contained in a press statement issued by the Governor’s spokesperson, Sanusi Tofa, who noted that the governor made the intervention during an unscheduled visit to the facility, accompanied by key government officials.
According to the statement, the Governor said the purpose of his visit was to assess the living conditions of inmates and explore ways the State Government could support their welfare and rehabilitation.
Yusuf reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to improving correctional facilities and facilitating phased releases for inmates incarcerated for minor offences.
He expressed concern over the high number of inmates awaiting trial, noting that out of 1,939 inmates, only 382 had been convicted, while 1,536 were awaiting trial.
“I assure you that the state government will work with the judiciary to accelerate the dispensation of justice and ease congestion in correctional centres.
“I also urged you to remain hopeful and view their current situation as a test of fate. He encouraged them to embrace positive change in anticipation of their eventual reintegration into society,” he said.
To support the welfare of inmates, the governor ordered the immediate provision of cows, foodstuffs, mattresses, blankets, and assorted beverages.
In a related development, the governor paid a surprise visit to the Janguza Maximum Security Correctional Facility, where he announced plans to relocate inmates from the Kurmawa Correctional Centre to Janguza.
He expressed satisfaction with the infrastructure and general conditions at the Janguza facility and urged able-bodied inmates to reflect on their experiences and apply the lessons learned for better outcomes upon release.
The governor also appreciated former Minister of Interior, General Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau (Rtd.), for his instrumental role in facilitating the establishment and construction of the Janguza Correctional Centre during his tenure.
He reiterated his administration’s dedication to facilitating the release of eligible inmates, supporting students to return to school, and empowering others through vocational training.
According to the statement, several inmates at both facilities expressed gratitude to the Governor for his visit and commitment to improving their conditions.
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