The Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Adewole Adebayo, has described President Bola Tinubu as a well-known tax collector.

Adebayo, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, said that Tinubu did tax collection in Lagos as a governor and is doing it now in Abuja as the president.

He said, “Everybody knows that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a well-known tax collector. But that tax collection is an improvement over a disorganized system he met on ground.

“He did tax collection in Lagos and he came to do tax collection in Abuja. The problem is with Hon. Dogara’s speech is that he is overstating it. This reform is not the best but is far better than what we had.”

The opposition politician acknowledged that Tinubu has made progress in managing Nigeria’s economy.

According to him, Tinubu’s predecessor President Muhammadu Buhari managed the country’s economy poorly.

“It’s obvious that the economy that President Buhari left was a poorly managed economy, and was an emergency room patient. Like any emergency room patient, the road to recovery will be a good diagnosis by the doctor. So if the doctor is able to know what is the reason why you are ill, he will be able to put you on a solid path to recovery.

“What President Tinubu has done is to stabilise the patient, but I’m not sure that he has managed to know the ailment. So the patient is not going to die imminently, but he hasn’t found a cure,” he said.

Adebayo added, “He hasn’t been able to identify the problem, the ailment that is disturbing the patient, but as an emergency room doctor he is taking some steps, some of it actually aggravated the case of the patient, but over time, he appears to have one or two wins in two sectors, which is why it appears that they might be deceived into thinking that the patient is on his road to recovery.”

On June 26, 2025, President Tinubu signed four major tax reform bills into law, overhauling Nigeria’s tax system to simplify tax collection and ease the burden on low-income earners and small businesses. These new laws are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026. (Channels TV, but headline rejigged)