Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule has said that governors of the Northern States cannot move against Bola Tinubu, a President, according to him, they brought to office.
Northern governors rejected the recent tax reform bill sent to the National Assembly by the Tinubu government.
The governors made their stance known in a communiqué on Monday by the Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum, Muhammadu Inuwa, the governor of Gombe State.
Recall that Tinubu, on October 3, 2024, forwarded a tax reform bill to the Senate and the House of Representatives for approval.
Part of the bill provides reforms in the sector, including changing the name of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS).
The proposed new tax legislation seeks to provide Value Added Tax (VAT) exemptions to oil and gas exports, crude petroleum oil and feed gas for all processed gas, as well as goods purchased for use in humanitarian donor-funded projects.
Governors and the Traditional Rulers Council in the Northern States after a meeting on Monday at Government House, Kaduna, urged the National Assembly to “oppose any bill that can jeopardise the well-being of our people”.
During an interview on Channels Television, Sule weighed in on the controversial VAT bill that has sent the northern region against Tinubu.
“We cannot bring President Tinubu as a president, the North came in heavily to make sure Tinubu became the president, and then turn around and be against him.
”We picked an item in that bill and that item is concerning VAT, nobody is against anything. We are talking about the sharing formula of the VAT. We have a right to agree with this or disagree with this.
”What we said clearly is that we want fairness in the distribution of the VAT. If we go the way it is, we are going to say it will be unfair to some other states in the South.”
