Former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, has issued a stern warning to the Federal Government over its newly introduced tax reforms, cautioning that policies imposing additional financial burdens on impoverished citizens risk sparking widespread public resistance.
Sowore, a long-standing human rights activist and publisher, delivered the warning during an appearance on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme on Monday, where he expressed deep concern over the economic implications of the reforms on millions of Nigerians already battered by inflation, unemployment, and rising cost of living.
“Anybody who taxes poverty will reap resistance, because Nigerians are just too poor right now,” Sowore stated bluntly, framing the new tax measures as potentially incendiary given the country’s deteriorating economic conditions.
His remarks come barely a week after the Federal Government commenced implementation of four major tax reform laws on January 1, 2026. The legislation—comprising the Nigeria Tax Act, 2025; the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025; the National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, 2025; and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act, 2025—represents the most comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s tax system in recent history.
The reforms, championed by President Bola Tinubu’s administration and guided by the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee led by tax expert Taiwo Oyedele, have been presented by government officials as essential for broadening Nigeria’s revenue base, improving fiscal efficiency, and reducing the country’s dependence on oil revenues. However, the rollout has been shadowed by confusion, allegations of procedural irregularities, and public anxiety over the potential impact on household incomes.
Sowore argued that the administration’s approach was fundamentally flawed, insisting that Nigeria’s taxation problem is not about rates but about scope. He maintained that successive governments have consistently failed to widen the pool of taxpayers, leaving the burden concentrated on a shrinking middle class and the working poor.
“What I have always proposed is that we expand our tax base, not to increase taxes. We are not doing well in terms of how much taxes we are collecting,” Sowore said during the televised interview. He pointed out that Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio remains one of the lowest in Africa, trailing behind countries such as South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana, despite having the continent’s largest economy.
According to data from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio has hovered around six to seven per cent in recent years, far below the African average of approximately 16 per cent and well short of the global benchmark of 15 per cent recommended for sustainable development financing. Critics, including civil society groups and opposition politicians, have frequently cited this underperformance as evidence of systemic inefficiency, elite tax evasion, and limited enforcement capacity.
Sowore also cast doubt on the reliability of official statistics underpinning the reforms, accusing the government of presenting inconsistent and misleading data to justify its policies.
“Any time you see data presented by these guys on statistics, lies and lies. You never get anything correct from them. At the end of the day, there will be resistance,” he said, reflecting a broader public distrust of government institutions and their pronouncements.
Beyond questioning the rationale for the reforms, Sowore raised serious allegations about the integrity of the legislative process itself. He claimed that discrepancies had emerged between the versions of the tax bills passed by the National Assembly and those subsequently gazetted and circulated for implementation.
“A tax system that starts with fraud is not taxation; it is extortion,” Sowore declared, suggesting that the inconsistencies amounted to a betrayal of legislative oversight and constitutional procedure.
The allegations have stirred considerable debate within political and legal circles. Several lawmakers and civil society organisations have called for clarification, with some demanding that the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and the National Assembly leadership conduct a formal review of the gazetted documents to confirm their authenticity and alignment with what was debated and approved.
In response to the growing controversy, Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, moved quickly to address the concerns. Speaking to journalists and via official social media channels, Oyedele described the circulating documents as unauthorised drafts that contained errors.
“The versions being shared online are fake. They were not the final copies submitted forgazetting. The errors have been corrected,” Oyedele stated, urging Nigerians to await the official release from appropriate government channels.
However, his clarification has done little to quell suspicions, particularly among opposition figures and activists who view the episode as emblematic of the opacity and administrative confusion that have characterised elements of the Tinubu presidency’s policy rollout since May 2023.
Nigeria’s tax system has long been a subject of intense debate and reform efforts. Under successive administrations—from Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure in the early 2000s to Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari—attempts to modernise tax collection, broaden compliance, and increase internally generated revenue have met with varying degrees of success and failure.
The introduction of the Taxpayer Identification Number system, automation of processes through the Federal Inland Revenue Service, and adoption of digital platforms were all aimed at improving efficiency. Yet challenges persist: widespread informality in the economy, porous enforcement mechanisms, political interference, and endemic corruption have continued to limit revenue performance.
President Tinubu’s administration inherited an economy in crisis—marked by a bloated debt profile, dwindling foreign reserves, a weakened naira, fuel subsidy removal backlash, and rising insecurity. In this context, the tax reforms have been positioned as part of a broader fiscal stabilisation agenda intended to restore macroeconomic balance and fund critical infrastructure.
Nonetheless, the timing and perceived harshness of the measures have provoked backlash from labour unions, market associations, students’ groups, and civil rights organisations. Many argue that imposing new taxes—or increasing existing ones—at a time when inflation exceeds 28 per cent and millions are slipping below the poverty line is both economically unwise and politically reckless.
The Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress have both expressed reservations, warning that any policy perceived as punitive to workers and ordinary citizens could reignite the kind of mass protests seen during the #EndSARS movement in 2020 or the nationwide strikes that greeted fuel subsidy removal in 2012 and 2023.
Sowore, who has consistently positioned himself as a champion of the poor and marginalised, echoed these sentiments in his Monday interview. His language was unambiguous: continued economic hardship combined with increased taxation could ignite popular unrest.
“There will be resistance,” he repeated, a phrase that political observers interpret as both a prediction and a rallying cry for civil disobedience should the government proceed without adequate consultation and mitigation measures for vulnerable groups.
