Tuesday, December 30, 2025 - A former National Publicity
Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP) and chieftain of
the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has called on
the National Assembly to immediately initiate impeachment proceedings against
President Bola Tinubu following the alleged perversion of the Tax Reform Bill.
The Tax Reform Bill was recently passed by both arms of the
National Assembly to widen Nigeria’s tax base, regulate tax administration,
boost revenue, and reduce dependence on borrowing.
The alleged fraud was brought to light by Abdulsammad
Dasuki, an opposition member of the House of Representatives from Sokoto State
and a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The lawmaker lamented that the tax laws available to the
public differed significantly from the versions passed by the legislature.
Raising a Point of Order during plenary, Hon. Dasuki
informed lawmakers that his legislative rights had been breached, insisting
that the content of the gazetted tax laws did not reflect the entirety of what
was debated, voted on, and approved during plenary.
He further revealed that after the passage of the tax bill,
he spent three days reviewing the gazetted copies alongside the Votes and
Proceedings of the House and the harmonized versions adopted by both chambers,
discovering insertions that were alien to the original draft bill.
Reacting to the development, Eze described the foreign
insertions as reflecting the evil illustrated in the biblical parable of the
weeds in Matthew 13:25: “When men slept, the enemy sowed tares.”
“After lawmakers legislated on the draft bill and sent it to
President Tinubu for assent, in the thick of the night, while lawmakers had
retreated to slumberland and Nigerians were deep in sleep, the President
stealthily grabbed the document, tampered with it, and distorted the law to
suit his personal perspective of what a tax law should be,” Eze alleged.
“And since this embarrassment was made public, Senate
President Godswill Akpabio has disappointingly acted to sweep it under the
carpet. He has denied lawmakers access to the certified true copies of the
bills.
“The restriction placed on lawmakers from accessing the
certified copies by Sen. Akpabio has deepened suspicion and internal wrangling
within the legislature,” he added.
Eze noted that the alleged alteration perpetrated by the
President “is a criminal usurpation of the legislative process and the
constitutional order, which clearly calls for serious, decisive legislative
action against the President. It is heavy and should not be swept under the
carpet.”
The APC chieftain said, “Such actions amount to gross
misconduct, abuse of office, and violation of the constitution and should
quickly trigger impeachment proceedings against the President under the
constitutional provisions governing executive accountability.
“Any discrepancy between the enrolled bill and the passed
bill is treated as a serious constitutional defect. President Tinubu does not
possess line-item amendment powers unless explicitly granted by the
constitution. And unfortunately, he does not have such powers under our laws.
“The business of law-making is the exclusive function of the
legislature. Therefore, by his action, the President has usurped legislative
authority.
“And interferences of this nature are grave and collapse the
constitutional boundary between the executive and legislature. It also sets a
dangerous authoritarian precedent that clearly undermines democratic
governance.”
Eze decried the silence of the leadership of the National
Assembly, an arm that ought to serve as a watchdog, stressing that their
docility amplifies the desperation of the Tinubu administration to swindle
Nigerians out of their earnings without due process.
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