Nigeria’s leading lawyers’ association and the former vice-president Atiku Abubakar have called for the immediate suspension of newly enacted tax reform laws, amid allegations that their contents were altered after approval by the National Assembly.
In a statement on Tuesday, the president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Afam Osigwe, a senior advocate of Nigeria, said the controversy surrounding the Tax Reform Acts posed a serious threat to the integrity, transparency and credibility of the country’s legislative process.
Osigwe warned that the allegations strike at the heart of constitutional governance and demanded a comprehensive, open and transparent investigation to restore public confidence. Pending such a probe, he said, the implementation of the laws should be put on hold.
“Until these issues are fully examined and resolved, all plans for the implementation of the Tax Reform Acts should be immediately suspended,” the NBA said, warning that legal and policy uncertainty could unsettle the business environment, erode investor confidence and create unpredictability for citizens and institutions expected to comply with the laws.
Atiku echoed the concerns, describing the alleged post-legislative alterations as a “grave assault on legislative supremacy”. He accused the executive branch of inserting coercive enforcement powers, imposing harsher financial obligations on citizens and stripping out key accountability mechanisms without parliamentary approval.
The controversy was triggered last week when a Sokoto lawmaker, Abdussamad Dasuki, told the House of Representatives that the version of the tax laws gazetted by the federal government differed from the final copy passed by lawmakers and transmitted to President Bola Tinubu for assent. The House subsequently set up a seven-member panel to investigate the claims.
On Tuesday, Atiku joined growing calls for the suspension of the laws, which are due to take effect on 1 January 2026, insisting that no statute can have force unless it is duly passed by the National Assembly.
He alleged that the changes included the insertion of arrest powers for tax authorities, property seizure and garnishment without court orders, enforcement sales without judicial oversight, and new coercive powers introduced without legislative consent.
“These provisions transform tax collectors into quasi-law enforcement agencies, stripping Nigerians of due process protections that the National Assembly deliberately included,” Atiku said. He also pointed to increased financial burdens on taxpayers, including a mandatory 20% security deposit before appealing tax assessments, compound interest on tax debts and more onerous reporting requirements.
Atiku argued that the alleged amendments would make it harder for ordinary Nigerians to challenge unfair tax assessments and raise compliance costs for businesses already operating in a difficult economic climate. He further accused the executive of removing accountability mechanisms, including reporting obligations to the National Assembly and ministerial oversight provisions, warning that such moves reflected “a hallmark of authoritarian governance”.
“Nigeria’s poverty rate remains alarmingly high, unemployment continues to devastate families, and inflation erodes purchasing power daily,” he said. “Yet rather than empowering citizens to become more productive and expand the tax base organically, this administration chooses aggressive extraction from an already struggling populace.”
Both Atiku and the NBA urged the National Assembly to investigate and rectify any illegal alterations, hold those responsible to account, and suspend implementation in the meantime. Atiku also called on the judiciary to strike down any unconstitutional provisions, urged civil society to resist what he described as an assault on democratic principles, and asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate and prosecute those culpable.
The federal government, however, has sought to allay public fears. The executive chairman of the Akwa Ibom state revenue service, Okon Okon, said reports that citizens would be denied access to their bank accounts without a tax identification number from January 2026 were false.
Okon said personal bank deposits were not taxable and noted that a new Joint Tax Board portal allows Nigerians to generate a tax identification number in seconds using their national identification number and date of birth. He said the reforms were designed to reduce multiple taxation, simplify the system and ease the burden on taxpayers, cutting the number of taxes across federal, state and local levels from 63 to about 10.
Supporters of the reforms argue that, if properly implemented, they could boost economic activity and development. But for critics, the unresolved allegations over how the laws were enacted pose a deeper question about constitutional order and democratic accountability in Nigeria.
