The tax that will change Nigeria

BY SAMUEL BABATUNDE AINA

Nigeria is turning a corner, one which I have hoped for many years. I am an X (formerly Twitter) person. I love the back and forth that happens on that app: the daily struggles, trends, and catchy phrases which only regular X users can understand. At the moment, and I stress that because things change, X is the number one social media platform where opinions are formed, shaped, and magnified. If you intend to be current about what happens in this country, and you’re not on X, then it’s quite possible that you are digesting watered-down information, which is often the case.

You may ask, why did I start off with this relevant – or, depending on who’s reading this, irrelevant – piece of information about X? Oh well, I did that to form a foundation, one that will make more sense as you read on.

As I pointed out in the first paragraph, many opinions are formed on X, and one of the most intensely debated topics in recent months has been the tax reforms introduced by Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. For many months, led by the cerebral Taiwo Oyedele, the president has rejigged our entire tax laws in a bid to free low earners from the burden of paying too much tax and give those that earn far more a lot more responsibility than they currently shoulder. For weeks on end, even in the midst of alleged threats to the life of Oyedele and members of his family, he pressed on in his consultations from one state to another, engaging stakeholders in an attempt to spread the necessary awareness, as well as working on aspects of the tax reform that many were uncomfortable with.

In the end, the bill was finally approved by the green and red chambers that represent the legislative arm of government, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu expressly approved it, with a timeline for the implementation of the bill to begin on the 1st of January, 2026.

Tell me why, many weeks after the approval of this bill, Nigerians have finally decided to pay great attention to what it really contains and means for their earnings. Whether it was sponsored or not remains to be seen, but in the past week, the Nigerian social media space has seen a sudden rise in “tax experts” with boards and markers and an earful of misinformation to feed the masses.

In regular fashion, Nigerians have begun to panic. The mathematics I have seen from random, obviously ill-informed content creators, and the turmoil that has followed on Twitter and other social media platforms, have been hilarious to witness. Oh well, I am not here to tell you how you will be taxed, Mr. Taiwo’s videos are there for you to watch and learn from. I am here because I am seeing, for once, that Nigerians seem to be very interested in what the government is doing, and they are interested because it finally touches on something which they do NOT play with.

Their money.

A typical Nigerian cares very deeply about money and will only part with it under very strenuous circumstances, least of all to the government. I have seen people lamenting online about how “Tinubu is taxing like America and Nigerians are benefitting like Mozambicans,” and it makes me wonder what exactly Nigerians really want.

Do we want progress? If we do, how is progress attained if the citizens do not pay their taxes? If the people pay their taxes, how do we ensure that it is being put to good use?

Now we arrive at the point of this entire blabber; because that’s what this is. I wrote this entire article in a rush of adrenaline after reading the comment comparing Nigeria to Mozambique.

We, and when I say WE, I mean you, the reader of this piece, finally understands what it means to hold your leaders accountable. You still don’t get it?

You will.

For many years, political commentators have urged the Nigerian people to “hold their leaders accountable,” stressing that the buck does not end at the President’s table, and Nigerians have turned a deaf ear. If you lack water, blame the President. You lack accessible roads in your locality? Blame the President. Lack of portable water? Blame the President. No one cares who their Local Government chairman is, or their Assembly member, or the person representing them at the House of Representatives, let alone their Senator and what they’re doing with all the heavy funding they get from the government. If you line 20 Nigerians in a row and ask them to list the people who represent them at all levels, fewer than 5 will have accurate answers, and it might not even be for ALL of their representatives.

This is because Nigerians are typically disinterested in politics. Many do not care who rules and who doesn’t. They participate in politics without ever politicking. They join political parties just to be a part of something whilst failing to properly follow up on what these parties represent or what they actually want to do. It is the reason why, despite the three major candidates at the last general elections promising to remove the age-long pipeline of corruption that the subsidy program had become in their manifestos, many Nigerians still expressed shock when the winner, President Tinubu, went ahead to reaffirm its end during his first Presidential address to the nation at Eagles Square in Abuja. To this day, Nigerians still express shock at some of the reforms President Tinubu is proposing, despite all of them being in clear print in his manifesto before he was voted in.

Hilarious. What did you expect?

But this tax reform seems to be the one that will change many things in this country, and I am terribly excited about it. Like I said earlier, Nigerians hate to part with their money, and if they have to do it, they will ensure that you don’t spend it enriching yourself without pushback.

And that’s where the game changes.

For the first time in a long while, every Nigerian, whether rich or poor, a hustler or salary earner, an entrepreneur or gig worker, will have skin in the game. No more is taxation the problem of a select few civil servants whose pay slips were easy prey for government deduction. Now, as long as your earnings fall within the taxable bracket, you will contribute. And because you will contribute, you will ask questions. You will demand receipts. You will demand performance.

The social contract has been rewritten.

Nigerians are not naturally trusting people, especially when it comes to money. We count every naira, we stretch every kobo, and we guard our earnings with a ferocity that outsiders will never understand. Which is why, now that the government has stretched its hands into the pockets of everyone, those hands will be watched. Closely.

Politicians, take note. This is no longer business as usual. No more empty promises swallowed whole by a disinterested populace. No more hiding behind vague statistics and lofty speeches. Nigerians will look at their roads, their schools, their hospitals, and they will ask why. They will look at their local government offices, their senators, their representatives, and they will demand answers. They will not be satisfied with “we are working on it.” They will want proof. They will want results.

This, in truth, is how nations are built. Not by blind loyalty, not by passive citizenship, but by active participation from people who finally realize that government decisions directly affect their lives. If money is the language Nigerians speak fluently, then taxes are the new alphabet of accountability.

So, to those in power: prepare yourselves. Scrutiny is coming to every level of governance, from the villa in Abuja down to the smallest ward office in the most remote village. The grassroots will no longer be ignored, because everyone is now paying into the same basket, and everyone will want to see what comes out of it.

By the time this reform kickstarts, it might just force a cultural shift we have prayed for: a Nigeria where leaders truly serve because the people are watching, counting, and calculating. A Nigeria where citizens no longer shrug at corruption but confront it because it is now their own money on the line.

That is the Nigeria of MY dream, and I sincerely hope it’s yours too. And maybe, just maybe, this tax reform is the beginning of that awakening.

We shall see.

Sam Aina can be contacted on X @ainoorh and on Facebook via Sam Aina