Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze has described as embarrassing, the disturbing perversion of the tax reform bill recently passed by the two arms of the National Assembly to widen Nigeria’s tax base, regulate tax administration, boost revenue, and reduce dependence on borrowing.
This fraud was brought to light by Abdulsammad Dasuki, an opposition member of the House of Representatives from Sokoto State, who is of the stock of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The lawmaker lamented that the tax laws available to the public grossly differed in content from the versions passed by the Legislature.
Raising a Point of Order during plenary, Hon. Dasuki brought to the notice of Legislatures that his legislative rights had been breached, insisting that the content of the gazetted tax laws did not reflect the totality of what lawmakers debated, voted on and approved during plenary.
The Lawmaker further hinted that after the passage of the tax bill, he spent three days reviewing the gazetted copies alongside the Votes and Proceedings of the House and the harmonised versions adopted by both chambers and discovered some insertions which are alien to the original draft bill that was passed.
Reacting to the development, Chief Eze described the foreign insertions as depicting the evil referred to, in the biblical illustration in the parable of the weeds in Matthew 13:25, “When men slept, the enemy sowed tares.” After Lawmakers legislated on the draft bill and sent to President Tinubu for assent, in the thick of the night, while Lawmakers have retreated to slumberland and Nigerians deep in sleep, the President stealthily grabbed the document, tampered and distorted the law to suit his personal perspective of what a tax law should be. And since this embarrassment was made public, Senate President Godswill Akpabia, has disappointingly acted to sweep it under the carpet. He has denied Lawmakers access to the certified true copies of the bills.
The restriction placed on lawmakers from accessing the certified copies bill by Sen. Akpabio has deepened suspicion and internal wrangling within the legislature.
Chief Eze noted that the alteration perpetrated by the President is a criminal usurpation of the legislative process and the constitutional order which clearly calls for a serious, decisive legislative action against the President. It is heavy and should not be swept under the carpet.
Such action, the APC Chief said, amounts to gross misconduct, abuse of office and violation of the constitution and should quickly trigger an impeachment proceedings against the President under the constitutional provisions governing executive accountability.
“Any discrepancy between the enrolled bill and the passed bill is treated as a serious constitutional defect.
“President Tinubu does not possess line-item amendment powers unless explicitly granted by the constitution. And unfortunately, he does not have such powers under our laws.
“The business of law-making is the exclusive function of the legislature. Therefore by his action, the president has usurped legislative authority. And interferences of this nature are grave and collapse the constitutional boundary between the executive and legislature.
“It also sets a dangerous authoritarian precedent that clearly undermines democratic governance”, he added.
Eze decried the loud silence of the leadership of the National Assembly, an arm that ought to serve as watchdog, stressing that their docility amplifies the desperation of the Tinubu administration to swindle Nigerians out of their earnings without due process and leave a heavy legacy of poverty and impoverishment by the end of his tenure in 2027. These, Eze said, Lawmakers must not allow.
He called for an impeachment proceeding to be commenced immediately against President Tinubu, citing a gross violation of the constitution and corruption of the legislative process which are obvious gross misconducts that require appropriate response from the legislature.
