Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, has disclosed that some citizens have been raining curses on him and his family over the Tax Reform Bills before the National Assembly.
But the tax expert said he remains undeterred by the vitriol as his assignment was a public service to engender economic transformation of the country.
Oyedele made this known during an event for the presentation of the report of a technical committee set up by the League of Northern Democrats (LND) to review the controversial tax reform bills in Abuja on Thursday, December 19, 2024.
“Even on social media, you need to see the number of people cursing me and my family. I don’t take it personally. I just go through and say is there any useful comment that we can work on? We pick it and we work on it.
“It’s public service. You’re not meant to be appreciated and praised every time. It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu appointed Oyedele to lead the efforts to reform Nigeria’s fiscal policies, introducing the new Tax Reform Bills.
However, some proposals in the four-piece legislature have triggered controversy among Nigerians over suspicions that passing the bills into law would stifle some regions’ access to government revenue.
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The major pushback against the bills has come from the North, where political and religious leaders have alleged a plot to marginalise the region.
Many Northern governors and lawmakers argued that the Tax Reform Bills, which have also led to open confrontations in the two National Assembly chambers, were curated to favour Lagos State and a few other narrow interests to the detriment of the North.
Oyedele defends his committee’s work
The former PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) executive insisted that his committee’s recommendations were not influenced by anyone, as they are a result of robust discussions and engagements to revolutionise the country’s tax system.
“Public service is public service. You are accountable to the people and you must take that very seriously. So our approach to this is that some Nigerians were asked to do this for our country and I had the privilege of leading that team and we did our best but we’re not in any way suggesting that our best is the best for Nigeria.
“You cannot have more than 200 million people and you then assume that about 100 people are the smartest. You know that that would be arrogance at a different level. So this engagement helped us to even improve the quality of what we have done.
“I’ve said this in a number of fora and I’ll say it again. There’s not a single person in the world, not the World Bank, not IMF, not the United Nations, not Mr President, not any governor, not any minister, past or present, not president, past or present, no one dictated anything to us. Every single thing you see in all those bills was the outcome of debates by the committee that is representative nationally.
“We have people from all the geo-political zones. We have more than 20 government institutions. We have all manner of engagement, including with people with disability. But we know that engagements will never end. In fact, if the bills are passed, it doesn’t mean that we should stop engaging. We should continue,” he stated.
Oyedele, who reiterated that there are no perfect laws even when they have been enacted, said consultations would give feedback on how it’s being implemented and the areas that need further improvement.
“So, I’m eagerly looking forward to the outcome of this event today and I can give you one assurance. Every single point you send to us will be carefully considered and we’ll get back to you with our own explanations.
“So once we have superior reasoning and superior arguments, we bow to it very quickly because we have no agenda other than the agenda for Nigeria,” he added.
