Forgery of TINUBU's tax reform law treason against Nigerians - ATIKU

Wednesday, December 24, 2025 - Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has described as treason the alleged alterations made to Nigeria’s newly introduced tax laws.

Public outrage has followed claims of discrepancies between the tax bills passed by the National Assembly and the version later gazetted by the Presidency.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, 23 December, Atiku said the alleged illegal and unauthorised changes amount to a “brazen act of treason against the Nigerian people,” stressing that such actions represent a direct assault on constitutional democracy.

According to him, the alleged “draconian overreach by the executive arm of government undermines the fundamental principle of legislative supremacy in lawmaking.”

Atiku further accused the administration of being “more interested in extracting wealth from struggling citizens than empowering them to prosper.”

The former vice president listed provisions he claimed were unlawfully inserted into the tax bills after they had been passed by lawmakers.

“The following substantive changes were allegedly illegally inserted into the tax bills after parliamentary approval, in clear violation of Sections 4 and 58 of the 1999 Constitution,” Atiku stated.

He alleged that new coercive powers were granted to tax authorities without legislative consent, including arrest powers, property seizure and garnishment without court orders, and enforcement sales carried out without judicial oversight.

“These provisions effectively transform tax collectors into quasi-law enforcement agencies, stripping Nigerians of due process protections that the National Assembly deliberately included,” he said.

Atiku also claimed that the altered laws impose heavier financial burdens on citizens, citing a mandatory 20 percent security deposit before appealing tax assessments, compound interest on tax debts, quarterly reporting requirements with lowered thresholds, and forced dollar-based computation for petroleum operations.

He argued that such measures create financial barriers that prevent ordinary Nigerians from challenging unjust tax assessments while increasing compliance costs for businesses already struggling in a harsh economic climate.

The former vice president further accused the government of removing key accountability mechanisms, including the deletion of quarterly and annual reporting obligations to the National Assembly, elimination of strategic planning submission requirements, and removal of ministerial supervisory provisions.

“By stripping away oversight mechanisms, the government has insulated itself from accountability while expanding its powers — a hallmark of authoritarian governance,” he said.

Atiku said the alleged constitutional violations expose what he described as a government obsessed with imposing heavier tax burdens on impoverished Nigerians rather than creating conditions for economic prosperity.

He lamented Nigeria’s high poverty rate, rising unemployment, and persistent inflation, arguing that punitive taxation and erosion of legal protections would only worsen the situation.

“True economic growth comes from empowering citizens, not impoverishing them further through punitive taxation and constitutional manipulation to achieve short-term fiscal goals,” he stated.

Atiku called on the executive arm of government to immediately suspend the implementation of the tax law scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026, to allow for a thorough investigation.

He also urged the National Assembly to urgently correct the alleged illegal alterations through proper legislative procedures and hold those responsible accountable.

In addition, he called on the judiciary to strike down any unconstitutional provisions and reaffirm the sanctity of the legislative process, while urging civil society and Nigerians at large to resist what he described as an assault on democratic principles.

Atiku further called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate and prosecute anyone found culpable in the alleged illegal alteration of the laws.

“What the National Assembly did not pass cannot become law. This fundamental principle must be defended, or we risk descending into arbitrary rule where constitutional safeguards mean nothing,” he said.