Adams Oshiomhole, the Senator for Edo North, has urged governors opposed to the new tax bills introduced by President Bola Tinubu to engage in negotiations to address their concerns.
Oshiomhole, a former governor of Edo State and ex-labor leader, made the call during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today program on Wednesday.
The tax bills, introduced by the Tinubu administration, have generated widespread controversy and faced strong criticism, particularly from the 36 state governors, who are united under the National Economic Council (NEC).
Additionally, the 19 governors from northern Nigeria have openly rejected parts of the bills and are demanding their withdrawal from the National Assembly.
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Reacting to the opposition of the governors, Oshiomhole said, “If you withdraw it, you have closed the debate. It is better debated at public hearings. We are making these laws for the Nigerian people.
“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.”
Oshiomhole also stated that when debates take on ethnic and religious dimensions, the first casualty is truth and reason. He emphasized that claims suggesting the bills, once passed into law, would favor one region over another should be dismissed.
The lawmaker noted that societal change can occur through either resolutions or reforms, highlighting the president’s right to propose tax reforms.
However, he cautioned that the president should not expect the bills to return to him in the exact form in which they were presented to the National Assembly.
Oshiomhole said, “I am not a stammerer and debate is for those who can argue. And that is what the parliament is about.
“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 attract the two chambers of the National Assembly.
“I will be surprised if the president thinks that whatever he forwarded to the National Assembly, we will back to it the way he proposed it. Even the Appropriation Act, it never goes back the way it came in. I do not know.
“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,” he added.
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