A chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Buba Galadima, says the Tax Reform Bills introduced by President Bola Tinubu are anti-people.
According to him, the Tax Reform Bills may not be bad in their entirety, but they are capable of making ordinary people suffer through the increase in value-added tax (VAT).
Galadima argued that the anti-people nature of the bills is the main reason the North is vehemently opposing the bills.
Speaking during an interview with Vanguard published on Sunday, the elder statesman pointed out that the most painful thing about the bills is that some Nigerians who may be negatively affected by the bills are supporting the President’s decision.
“It is not about the business community because they don’t lose anything. And, it’s not all the bills that are bad, but the major issues is that the bills are anti-people, because when you increase VAT by 1%, the cost of things will skyrocket and it’s the ordinary man who has no capacity to even feed himself that will suffer most. The business man, each time you add whatever, he will also add it to the cost of his goods. He doesn’t need to complain. What pains me is that some Nigerians, even though it hurts them, they will say “yes, we support the president because Mr A is the one that is opposing him”. We are a country, we should talk for the good of everybody and not because Mr A is opposed to something I have to like it or not. That’s not how to build a nation,” he submitted.
