The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) on Wednesday criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s insistence on implementing the newly enacted tax reform laws from January 1, 2026, describing the move as an assault on democracy amid unresolved allegations that the laws were materially altered after passage by the National Assembly.

The group said the President’s posture represents a grave affront to democratic values, particularly coming from a leader who has often portrayed himself as a beneficiary of Nigeria’s democratic struggle.

In a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, the CNG expressed serious concern over what it described as credible discrepancies between the versions of the tax laws debated and approved by lawmakers and those eventually transmitted for gazetting.

According to the group, a review of verified facts, expert legal opinions, and submissions by lawmakers and independent observers indicates that the gazetted versions do not reflect what was approved by the National Assembly.

The CNG accused the Presidency, working alongside the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, of pursuing an ulterior agenda that could worsen the hardship faced by Nigerians through what it termed the reckless enforcement of flawed and legally questionable tax reforms.

Charanchi said: “These discrepancies are not minor drafting errors; they are substantive alterations that strike at the heart of legislative authority, constitutional order, and the rule of law.

“This desperate push, despite glaring procedural breaches and widespread public opposition, betrays a governing mindset increasingly detached from democratic accountability, constitutional restraint, and social responsibility.”

Charanchi faulted President Tinubu for what it described as a contradiction between his pro-democracy credentials and his current posture, accusing him of ignoring widespread public calls for the suspension and review of the tax laws.

He added: “Any law altered after legislative approval, without fresh debate and re-passage by the National Assembly, cannot be considered valid under Nigeria’s constitutional framework. To insist on enforcing such laws amounts to executive overreach and a direct assault on democratic governance.

“No amount of rhetoric about ‘structural reset’ or ‘once-in-a-generation reforms’ can justify bypassing due process or imposing legislation of questionable legitimacy on Nigerians. This posture only reinforces the suspicion that there is an ulterior motive behind the so-called tax reforms.

“The CNG is equally alarmed by the disgraceful conduct of the National Assembly, which has increasingly abandoned its constitutional role as a coequal arm of government.

“The spectacle of lawmakers openly chanting ‘on your mandate we stand’ during President Tinubu’s appearance in the legislative chamber was not merely embarrassing; it was a public declaration of legislative surrender. A legislature that cannot defend the integrity of laws it claims to have passed has forfeited its independence and betrayed the trust of the Nigerian people.”

By failing to assert its authority in the face of alleged alterations to duly passed legislation, the CNG said the legislature had weakened democratic accountability, eroded public confidence, and set a dangerous precedent for constitutional governance.

Questioning the urgency behind the January 1, 2026, implementation date, the CNG asked why the government was rushing the reforms amid unresolved disputes, public scepticism, and widespread economic hardship marked by poverty, insecurity, and unemployment.

The coalition warned that imposing tax reforms through questionable processes would deepen public resentment, weaken state–citizen relations, and reinforce perceptions of injustice, exclusion, and elite insensitivity.

The CNG demanded an immediate suspension of the planned implementation, full public disclosure of the versions passed by the National Assembly and those gazetted, as well as an independent legislative and judicial review of the alleged alterations.

“Nigeria is not a monarchy, and presidential authority does not override constitutional order. History has repeatedly shown that governments that mistake silence for consent and sycophancy for legitimacy inevitably face a reckoning.

“The CNG firmly believes that Nigeria’s democracy cannot survive a system where laws are debated in parliament, rewritten elsewhere, and imposed through executive force. Allowing this precedent to stand would endanger not only tax legislation but the integrity of all future laws in the country,” he added. (The Guardian)

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