A federal high court in Abuja has ordered the Nigerian government to press ahead with the implementation of its controversial new tax regime, dealing a legal blow to critics seeking to delay reforms due to take effect from 1 January.
In a ruling delivered on Wednesday, Justice Bello Kawu dismissed an application filed by the Incorporated Trustees of African Initiative for Abuse Public Trustees, which had asked the court to restrain the federal government and its agencies from enforcing newly gazetted tax laws. The judge held that the suit lacked merit and failed to establish any legal basis for halting the reforms.
The group had sued the federal government, President Bola Tinubu, the attorney general, the leadership of the National Assembly and other institutions, alleging discrepancies between the tax bills passed by parliament and the laws eventually signed by the president.
In its ex parte application, the organisation sought an interim injunction to stop the implementation of the Nigeria Tax Act 2025, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act 2025 and the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act 2025, pending the determination of the substantive suit.
Justice Kawu ruled that the applicants had not demonstrated how the commencement of the laws would cause irreparable harm or amount to a breach of the constitution. Fiscal policy and economic reforms, he said, fall squarely within the lawful powers of government.
Once a law has been validly enacted and gazetted, the judge added, any perceived defects can only be addressed through legislative amendment or a substantive court order, not by an interim injunction. Controversy alone, he stressed, is insufficient to justify suspending the operation of an Act of parliament.
“There is no legal impediment to the commencement of the new tax regime,” the court held, directing that implementation should proceed as scheduled.
In a certified true copy of the ruling, Justice Kawu said the court lacked the power to halt the enforcement of a law already signed by the appropriate authority without concrete evidence of wrongdoing.
“At this preliminary stage, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to prove any wrongdoing,” he said, warning that granting an injunction would amount to prejudging the substantive suit. An ex parte application, he added, could not be used to suspend the coming into force of an Act already signed into law and gazetted.
The ruling clears the path for the new tax framework to take effect from 1 January 2026, even as opposition from lawyers, civil society groups and former lawmakers intensifies.
On Wednesday, the prominent human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) argued that the reforms could not legitimately take effect until allegations surrounding the authenticity of the laws were resolved. He accused the government of failing to publish “clean copies” of the tax laws before the commencement date.
“If that was not done, the government will put itself into trouble deciding to implement the laws,” Falana said, warning that interest groups were preparing to challenge the legitimacy of the legislation.
There have been persistent allegations that provisions were “smuggled” into the tax bills after they were passed by the National Assembly, making the laws signed by Tinubu on 26 June 2025 different from what lawmakers approved.
While the president reiterated this week that the reforms would proceed as planned, describing them as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to build a fairer fiscal system, Falana questioned which version of the law Nigerians were being asked to obey.
“There are questions about the authentic tax laws—so which laws are we talking about?” he asked. “Until we have clean copies of the tax laws, you cannot talk of a commencement date.”
Falana also criticised longstanding tax exemptions for companies operating in free trade zones, describing them as discriminatory and unconstitutional. Excluding some of the richest corporations from paying taxes, he argued, undermines any claim to progressive taxation and shifts the burden onto ordinary citizens.
Former federal lawmakers under the banner of House to the Rescue went further, warning that the reforms could trigger widespread litigation. In a sharply worded statement, the group offered a ₦3m reward to any serving lawmaker who could produce an authenticated copy of the harmonised tax laws transmitted to the president for assent.
Without verifiable legislation, the group said, the government was “ruling by announcement, not legislation”, describing the imminent implementation of the tax regime as “economic violence” in the absence of transparency and legal certainty.
Civil society voices echoed those concerns. Musa Rafsanjani, executive director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, warned that implementing disputed laws would erode public trust and breach constitutional lawmaking procedures. He called for the immediate publication of the exact version of the laws assented to by the president.
Political criticism has also grown. In his New Year message, Dumebi Kachikwu, a former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, said it was wrong to begin the year by imposing new taxes on an already strained population. He accused the government of pursuing reforms that benefit powerful interests while deepening hardship for ordinary Nigerians.
The Senate leadership, however, has pushed back strongly. The Senate leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, insisted the tax reforms were not designed to inflict pain but to end multiple taxation, stabilise public finances and improve living standards, particularly for low-income citizens.
He said the legislation was passed after extensive consultations and urged Nigerians to study its provisions rather than be swayed by what he described as misinformation.
For now, the court’s ruling has handed the government a decisive legal victory. But with questions over transparency, equity and legislative integrity unresolved, Nigeria’s new tax regime looks set to enter force under a cloud of deep public scepticism and mounting political resistance.
