…To embark on protest
A Northern Coalition group, known as ‘Forum for Growth and Development of Arewa, has expressed dissatisfaction and anger over recent open support of some northerners for the new tax reform Initiative.
This is as the group has decided to embark on protest in order to express their anger. The Coalition, which fixed Wednesday as the day they would embark on protest, described the Initiative as anti-North.
According to the group, the decision to embark on the protest is to send a strong message to President Bola Tinubu and members of Senate and House of Representatives that the alleged anti-North Bills are rejected and unacceptable.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu has transmitted the Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform Bill to the Senate. The proposed legislation is aimed at streamlining tax collection, ensuring compliance and optimising revenue.
In an issued press statement made available to newsmen in Kaduna yesterday, signed by the Convener, Jibrin Mohammed, stated that, We have consulted widely, and carried out investigation about the proposed tax reform Bills and discovered that the implementation would relatively affect and relegate the northerner region economically and commercially.
The group, which condemned House of Representatives member, AbdulMumin Jibrin, representing Kiru/Bebeji federal constituency of Kano State for his supportive stance and endorsement of the controversial tax reform Bill, said his position on the tax reform is without consideration to the backwardness and development gap between Southern and Northern regions.
We, therefore, submit that the tax reform will disproportionately affect the economic livelihoods and aspirations of our people, especially considering the current harsh economic reality in the countryside, it stressed.
While acknowledging that the proposed tax reform could be of significant interest or benefits to those in the South, the group insisted, We make bold to inform those backing this anti-North Bill to remember that an average northerner is suffering now, and cannot afford to be dragged beyond this point of poverty line.
North is currently facing problems of insecurity, severe poverty, unemployment and dearth of infrastructure; and any move to further create a policy that will impoverish us will be met with resistance.
We are therefore calling our youths and citizens from the region to join to stop further action on the tax reform Bills, said the statement.
