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A former National Secretary of the defunct Action Congress (AC), Usman Bugaje, has criticised President Bola Tinubu over what he described as the improper presentation of the tax reform bills to the National Assembly.
In an interview with Vanguard, Bugaje expressed concerns about the manner in which the tax bills were introduced and questioned the President’s insistence on the sacrosanct nature of the bills.
Bugaje noted that the legislative process demands thorough consultation and debate, adding that the President’s approach appears to undermine the principles of democratic governance.
The ex-AC official said, “In his last (media) chat I watched, if I am correct, he talked about tax bills being sacrosanct.
“How can tax bills be sacrosanct? These are bills before the National Assembly, even though not properly presented to them because when the Senate presented it, it was not in the Order Paper, and you can’t discuss, by parliamentary rules and procedures, any matter not in the Order Paper.
“So the idea was to smuggle in the bills and this idea of coming through the back door creates a lot of suspicion. I can go on but let me just make a few points. This is not just about President Tinubu, it covers almost all our political leaders.”
Speaking on the state of democracy in the country he said, “The leadership that democracy produced in the last 25 years is characterized by three things and unless you capture these three things or you address these issues, it is very difficult for anybody, no matter how well intention, to… One, the fact that we don’t even have an appreciation of the future, when government spokesmen speak or Ministers address us about issues of their ministries, they don’t seem to have the figures.
“They don’t seem to have idea of previous situations. I would say there is no vision. We can’t see far. Let me just use one or two things to illustrate that. One, in 2023, the grains deficit, just grains; food that Nigerians eat, the deficit, that’s the difference between consumption and actual production, was about 30 million metric tons. Since then, we have had floods in Borno, Jigawa, Taraba, Zamfara and so many other states.”
Bugaje lamented that insecurity in the country has escalated, adding that it has affected grain in the country.
Speaking in the interview he said, “Insecurity has escalated, and that must have affected our grain. So what is our deficit this year and what are the measures to address it? If you can’t have food, you can’t have peace and you can’t talk about reforms and taxation.
“I don’t see any conversation that demonstrates a proper understanding of the issues in agriculture. So, the government, not just the APC administration; even the PDP and other political parties ruling states, don’t have appreciation of the future; still they speak about the problems of this country, that they want to fix it. I don’t see a proper understanding of the problems and that should be the starting point.
“Again, in education, we did a rough survey and found out that nearly 60% is students, at least in the northern tertiary institutions, across universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, colleges of legal studies, are not able to return to school because either they can’t pay their registration fees or they have paid, but cannot pay for transport or that they have paid for both registration and transport but can’t find food they will eat when they get to the school.
“When I drew attention to this ugly trend, I was quite happy that the Minister of Education was there and he picked interest in that. He invited me and we had a very good discussion. But, the point here is that government doesn’t seem to be aware of these facts. Even in the Students’ Loan Scheme that they started, it’s not really working; there is no monitoring and evaluation of the program. All these are matters that affect whatever policy and programme of government. And, these are things that are can be addressed.”
