News

December 7, 2024

Tax Reform: Tinubu’s administration won’t undermine participatory democracy – FG

Planned Protest

Minister Idris

By Emmanuel Elebeke

The Federal government says the Tinubu administration will never do anything to undermine the ideals of participatory democracy in pushing for its transformative reform agenda.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris stated this on Saturday at the 2024 Annual Public Lecture/AGM and Awards organised by the Kaduna State Chapter, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR, themed: Tax Reform: The Role of Public Relations in Fostering Constructive Dialogue for National Economic Renaissance held at Stonehenge Hotel, Kaduna.

He said the administration has also been very clear that the Executive will listen to and work with all stakeholders to ensure that all concerns are duly and comprehensively addressed.

“The theme for the public discuss, “Tax Reform: The Role of Public Relations in fostering Constructive Dialogue for National Economic Renaissance” has brought to the fore yet again, the place of constructive dialogue as a vital pillar of democracy.

“Society advances by mutually respectful engagements, where we give voice to diverse opinions, and respect those who we disagree with. We will certainly not always agree on all issues, perhaps not even on most. But we will always be guided by the fact that the things that unite us, our common humanity, our nationhood, our sense of patriotism, our collective vision for a Nigeria that works for all – will always be more important and more meaningful than our differences of age, religion, region, ideology, gender, culture, and social class.

“The topic before us today is a sensitive yet important and inescapable one: taxation. All over the world, effective taxation is important as a source of financial power for governments to provide social services for their citizens. However, there is plenty of reason to believe and assert that Nigeria’s tax administration system has become long overdue for reform, on account of design and implementation flaws as well as the general attitudes of taxpayers toward taxation.

“In light of this, the ongoing review of the country’s tax laws and realities is timely and crucial, especially as part of a larger set of macroeconomic reforms aimed at setting the country on an irreversible path of growth and development. The full details of the new tax bills are available in the public domain, one must commend the Presidential Committee on Fiscal and Tax Reform for an excellent job in this regard, in terms of public engagement so I will not attempt to go over these details again here.

“What I will say is that it is very inspiring and heartwarming to see Nigerians from all walks of life coming out to express their views and opinions on these matters of critical national importance, as such is the very essence and meaning of democracy. In spite of the challenge of trust deficit that tends to crop up around matters of governance in Nigeria, we have still been able to have what can be adjudged as robust debate on this sensitive issue.

“President Tinubu has also been very clear that the Executive will listen to and work with all stakeholders to ensure that all concerns are duly and comprehensively addressed. We will continue to ensure open lines of communication and engagement with the National Assembly and all other stakeholders on these taxation bills.

We are all in this together, as one people, one nation, and just as we are being called upon to make collective sacrifices, we will also collectively reap the abundant social and economic benefits of all of these necessary reforms.

“It is at times like this that we are reminded of the important roles of Public Relations in the maintenance of a functioning and healthy society. By facilitating purposeful communication, building mutual understanding, and transparent promotion of ideas, Public Relations practice and practitioners can help create a culture of collaboration and progress.”

“Also, as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu continues to implement an ambitious fiscal reform agenda that will devolve more resources to Nigeria’s State and Local Governments, and ultimately to the Nigerian people, in the spirit of true federalism, citizen engagement will become ever more critical.

“Those of us who manage communications for the Federal Government understand that we have a lot of work on our hands. We are up to the task, and we will continue to deploy innovative and comprehensive mechanisms to provide the public with insights and enlightened information that will bolster public trust and confidence in the reform narratives of the Renewed Hope agenda.

“We will also be looking to count on the strong support of the NIPR, among many other stakeholders. Which is why this dialogue is very much welcome, and commendable. Even with our keenness for fundamental reform of Nigeria’s governance and fiscal systems, the Tinubu administration will never do anything to undermine the ideals of participatory democracy. The current mandate and responsibility that we have for governing and reforming Nigeria at this time came by way of democracy, and we will continue to live up to those very high democratic standards and expectations.”

President is being Statemanly – Gov. Sani

In his remarks, the representative of the Executive Governor of Kaduna State, Sen. Uba Sani said there have been a lot of issues and concerns with regards to these new bills before the National Assembly but expressed happy that the President is being a statesman and president for all in handling the tax reform issue, having directed that further discussions be held as expected of a president.

“We must commend him for that. And for the NIPR to take this very bold role in doing what it is doing today, we must also commend them because the Lead Speaker, I am sure if we had the opportunity of giving him the two hours, many of us would have been more well-informed about these bills. But we do not have the benefit of the time.”