The Senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, has urged governors opposing the new tax bills introduced by President Bola Tinubu to engage in negotiations rather than calling for the withdrawal of the proposals.
Oshiomhole made this appeal on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The new tax bills have sparked widespread controversy, drawing stiff opposition from various quarters, including the 36 state governors under the National Economic Council.
Specifically, 19 northern governors have rejected certain provisions of the bills, demanding their withdrawal from the National Assembly.
Responding to this opposition, Oshiomhole argued that withdrawing the bills would effectively shut down necessary discussions. He advocated for public hearings to allow for constructive debates.
“We are making these laws for the Nigerian people,” he said.
“And therefore it is the Nigerian people who should look at these things constructively and say: ‘Is it in our interest?’
“But in the real world, nobody gets what he wants; you get what you negotiate, and it is more so in a democracy.”
The former Edo State governor criticised the tendency to frame debates along ethnic and religious lines, warning that such an approach undermines truth and reason. He dismissed claims that the proposed tax laws would disproportionately favour one region over another.
Oshiomhole explained that societal change can occur through resolution or reform, emphasising that the president is within his rights to propose tax reforms. However, he cautioned that the president should not expect the bills to be returned to him unchanged after parliamentary deliberations.
“I am not a stammerer, and debate is for those who can argue. And that is what the parliament is about,” he said.
“The good thing is that the president has not sent to us a law; what he has sent to us is a set of proposals under a bill, for us to look at, discuss, debate, if necessary, negotiate, and alter it as we want, and pass to him a piece of legislation or bill that attracts the two chambers of the National Assembly.
“I will be surprised if the president thinks that whatever he forwarded to the National Assembly will be back the way he proposed it. Even the Appropriation Act never goes back the way it came in.
“It will be a sad day for democracy if we get to a point in which whatever bill the executive brings to the National Assembly, the National Assembly stamps it and returns it to the executive the way it brought it,” Oshiomhole added.
