Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has stirred national debate after condemning what he described as the alleged forgery of President Bola Tinubu’s tax reform law, warning that any unauthorized changes to legislation passed by the National Assembly amount to a grave threat to Nigeria’s democracy.
Atiku in a post on his X handle said, “The illegal and unauthorized alterations made to Nigeria’s tax legislation after passage by the National Assembly represents a brazen act of treason against the Nigerian people and a direct assault on our constitutional democracy.” He argued that the alleged changes undermine the authority of the legislature and violate the spirit and letter of the 1999 Constitution.
According to the former vice president, the development reflects “a draconian overreach by the executive branch” that weakens legislative supremacy in lawmaking and exposes “a government more interested in extracting wealth from struggling citizens than empowering them to prosper.”
Atiku pointed to several provisions he said were allegedly inserted into the tax bills after parliamentary approval, in clear violation of Sections 4 and 58 of the Constitution.
On enforcement powers, he warned that the law now grants tax authorities sweeping coercive powers, including arrest authority, property seizure and garnishment without court orders, as well as enforcement sales without judicial oversight. He said these provisions “transform tax collectors into quasi-law enforcement agencies, stripping Nigerians of due process protections that the National Assembly deliberately included.”
He also highlighted what he described as increased financial burdens on citizens and businesses, such as a mandatory 20 percent security deposit before appealing tax assessments, compound interest on tax debts, stricter quarterly reporting requirements, and forced dollar-based computation for petroleum operations. According to him, “These changes erect financial barriers that prevent ordinary Nigerians from challenging unjust assessments while increasing compliance costs for businesses already struggling in a difficult economy.”
Equally troubling, Atiku said, was the alleged removal of accountability mechanisms. He listed the deletion of quarterly and annual reporting obligations to the National Assembly, the elimination of strategic planning submission requirements, and the removal of ministerial supervisory provisions. He warned that “by stripping away oversight mechanisms, the government has insulated itself from accountability while expanding its powers—a hallmark of authoritarian governance.”
Beyond legal concerns, Atiku framed the controversy as a moral and economic issue, arguing that the alleged constitutional breach reveals “a troubling reality: a government obsessed with imposing ever-increasing tax burdens on impoverished Nigerians rather than creating conditions for prosperity.”
He noted that Nigeria continues to battle high poverty levels, widespread unemployment, and rising inflation, yet the response, he said, has been harsher taxation rather than policies that empower citizens. “True economic growth comes from empowering citizens, not impoverishing them further through punitive taxation and erosion of legal protections,” he stated.
Atiku concluded his statement with a call to action, urging key institutions and Nigerians to act decisively. He called on “the Executive to immediately suspend the implementation of the tax law effective January 1, 2026 to give room for a proper investigation,” and urged “the National Assembly to immediately rectify these illegal alterations through proper legislative processes and hold accountable those responsible for this constitutional breach.”
He also appealed to the courts “to strike down these unconstitutional provisions and reaffirm the sanctity of the legislative process,” while urging “Civil Society and all Nigerians to reject this assault on democratic principles and demand governance that serves the people rather than exploiting them.”