EXTRA: We don’t need to study Tinubu’s tax bills before rejecting them, says Ndume

Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno south, says the national assembly does not need to study the tax reform bills sent by President Bola Tinubu before rejecting them.

In October, Tinubu asked the national assembly to consider and pass four tax reform bills.

They include the Nigeria tax bill, the tax administration bill, and the joint revenue board establishment bill.

The Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) opposed the bills, while the national economic council (NEC) asked Tinubu to withdraw them for further consultations.

However, the president said the bills would not be withdrawn, but that the national assembly could make amendments as they deemed necessary.

Speaking on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, Ndume said he had not studied the tax reform bills.

He said the timing of the bills considering the economic situation of Nigerians does not make “political sense” to him.

“I can tell you that it will be dead on arrival. We don’t need to study the bill,” he said.

“The general thing is that Nigerians are not willing to talk, hear or pay any tax now considering the situation we have faced because this is the government of the people.

“Right now, people can’t even afford what to eat. People are struggling to survive. Let people live first before you start asking them for tax.”