Address Concerns Over New Tax Laws, NLC Tells FG
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the Federal Government to immediately address concerns raised by Nigerians over the new tax laws, warning that persisting with them amounts to a dangerous pattern that undermines the country’s tax administration and democracy.
The NLC president, Joe Ajaero, said this yesterday in Abuja at the book launch and 85th birthday celebration of one of the congress’s founding presidents, Hassan Summonu.
Ajaero said the government’s insistence on pushing ahead with the laws was akin to muddling along in confusion and darkness, noting that “we do not know which one is truly the law”.
He claimed the tax laws went through a process that excluded Nigerian workers and the masses, whom he described as the country’s major taxpayers.
Recalling that the Congress had warned the nation about the dangers of excluding workers from the Presidential Committee on Tax, he said: “We knew that the workers and masses were going to be on the menu (‘eaten’).” He alleged that the proposed laws were packed with serious alterations aimed at making workers and the poor poorer.
“Tax law that imposes a heavy burden on workers and the poor is not progressive. Tax that taxes the national minimum wage is not fair. A tax that taxes the masses who are living in excruciating poverty is regressive. That was why we were excluded from the committee and that was why our warnings went unheeded. We do not see anything wrong in pausing along this negative path, rethinking, and redirecting,” he said.
To this end, Ajaero urged the Federal Government to address immediately Nigerians’ concerns about the tax laws, rather than what he described as grandstanding by the Taiwo Oyedele-led Presidential Committee on Tax Reforms and the executive chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service, Dr Zacch Adedeji.
He faulted the laws, again alleging that their outcome was intended to worsen the condition of workers and the poor, insisting that such a tax framework could not be described as progressive.
Advising the government further, he added: “Your legacy must be in crafting foundational and credible laws that strengthen institutions, not undermining them. When you bypass key stakeholders, distort acts of parliament, and rule by strong arm, you make a mockery of our democracy. You negate public trust and threaten national stability. True democracy is not just about elections; it is about the rule of law, institutional integrity, and governance that serves the many, not the few.”
Fight tax laws, not lament them, Oshiomhole tells NLC
Meanwhile, at the event, the senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, charged the NLC to engage the Federal Government over the new tax laws.
Oshiomhole told the NLC president, Joe Ajaero, to actively fight for workers if he believes there are provisions in the laws that are against their interests, insisting that lamenting the policy would not stop its implementation.
Oshiomhole said, “I listened to Ajaero, and he was agonising that minimum wage workers are asked to pay tax. Do you think that if you cry from here till tomorrow, it will stop? The lesson of Sunmonu is: if it is wrong, fight it. If you know it is wrong, fight it. Do not lament it.
“On the floor of the Senate I always say I didn’t come to Abuja to lament imperfection. What the people need is not our tears, it is not our emotional statements. Those who do bad things don’t do it out of ignorance and those who enjoy a particular order will not give up. You have to fight them to give up.”
He added, “The minimum wage is exempted from tax. So when you say minimum wage is being taxed, they will see that as a loophole and say he doesn’t know what he is talking about.”
