Tax Reforms Bills Tear Nigeria Governors’ Forum Apart

There are strong indications that the 36 state governors under the aegis of Nigeria Governors’ Forum are sharply divided over the Tax Reforms Bills pending before the Senate and the House of Representatives for consideration as forwarded by President Bola Tinubu.

Recall that the governors have, for weeks, been confronted with the tax reform bills, just as the bills have been engulfed in controversy” criticisms and stiff opposition from many quarters.

The Northern 19 governors had also rejected sections of the bills as they called for its withdrawal from the National Assembly to allow for further consultations.

The National Economic Council, NEC, chaired by the Vice President and composed of the 36 governors and some ministers had earlier rejected the bills.

It was clear on Wednesday night when the governors had an unusual very short meeting that lasted one hour as they rushed out of the meeting without a communique and refused to address the waiting journalists at the entrance of venue of the meeting that all did not go well.

The governors after about one hour of the meeting at Lake Chad Crescent, the Secretariat of the NGF, came out with sealed lips without the usual smiles and exchange of banters, except that some walked together in line with states of origin.

The meeting started at 10p.m. and ended at 11p.m.

Journalists had expected either a release of a communique or to be addressed by the Chairman of NGF and Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, who would have been flanked by the Chairman of Progressives Governors, Senator Hope Uzodimma or in the alternative, Chairman of NGF, Alhaji Abdulateef Shittu.

At the end of the day, the waiting journalists left the place at about 11p.m., as nobody had addressed them.

Meanwhile, it was gathered that the governors who attended the meeting could not reach an official agreement on the controversial tax reform bills.

It was learned that the failure to agree was the reason the NGF could not produce a communique after the meeting.

The first indication that the meeting would be a deadlock was when some of the governors did not come to the venue at 10 p.m., even when the meetings were held at Asokoro.

There were reports at to 9p.m that the meeting would not hold because it may lead to an exchange of words because of differences with regard to the tax bills.

It became clear that the meeting would hold when two governors arrived, followed by a bus with the inscription, Imo Liaison office, Abuja that brought the Chairman of Progressives Governors and Imo State Governor, Uzodimma, alongside some of his colleagues from the All Progressives Congress, APC.

It was gathered that the APC governors came in a group because they had earlier met with the Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Ganduje, just as they were said to have been summoned by President Tinubu as they rushed to the villa for the meeting. It was, thereafter, that they came for the short meeting.

Present at the meeting were 15 governors mostly of the APC, Governors Alex Otti of Abia State and Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, governor of Plateau State of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, among others were also in attendance.