Opposition to the implementation of Nigeria’s newly enacted tax laws intensified on Monday, with minority lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) demanding an immediate halt to their rollout, even as a federal high court in Abuja ordered an accelerated hearing in a legal challenge to the legislation.
The Minority Caucus of the House said it was alarmed by claims that the versions of the tax laws gazetted by the federal government differed materially from those passed by the National Assembly and signed by President Bola Tinubu. Enforcing such laws, the caucus warned, would amount to a constitutional breach.
The controversy erupted two weeks ago when Abdussamad Dasuki, a Peoples Democratic Party lawmaker representing Kebbe/Tambuwal in Sokoto state, told the House during plenary that the tax acts passed by parliament were not the same as the copies later gazetted by the government. He alleged that the changes were made without legislative approval, in violation of the 1999 constitution.
Following Dasuki’s intervention, the House set up a seven-member ad hoc committee, chaired by the Borno state lawmaker Muktar Betara, to investigate the allegations and report back.
In a joint statement on Monday, the minority leader, Kingsley Chinda, alongside other caucus leaders, said implementation of the tax laws should be suspended to allow the committee to complete its work.
“Ordinarily, the controversy would have been dismissed as needless,” the statement said, “but the gravity of the allegations – that the laws were unlawfully altered after passage – is of great concern to all Nigerians.”
The caucus said it would support the House in ensuring accountability and transparency, vowing that any wrongdoing would be exposed “in the interest of justice for all Nigerians”. It stressed that the National Assembly remained the lawful custodian of all acts of parliament and warned the public to disregard any purported tax laws lacking the signatures of the clerk of the National Assembly and the president.
“Any attempt to foist altered laws on Nigerians is an attack on the independence and constitutional role of the National Assembly,” the lawmakers said, urging the federal government to suspend enforcement until the investigation is concluded and the authentic texts are clarified.
Pressure on the government was further heightened by NANS, which threatened nationwide protests if the tax reforms are implemented from 1 January 2026. In a statement signed by its national president, Olushola Oladoja, the students’ body said a law whose authenticity was under investigation could not be implemented “in good conscience”.
“With the National Assembly already probing the alleged alterations, implementation by January 1 becomes untenable, reckless and unacceptable,” NANS said, warning that failure to suspend the law by 14 January 2026 would trigger coordinated protests across the country.
The association also criticised what it described as a “glaring failure in public education”, arguing that most Nigerians remained uninformed about the scope and long-term implications of the reforms. It accused the Federal Inland Revenue Service of failing to carry out a nationwide sensitisation campaign, describing reliance on selected social media influencers as “elitist, exclusionary and disconnected from the realities of the average Nigerian household”.
Despite the growing backlash, the federal government has reiterated its commitment to the January 2026 start date. After a high-level meeting with Tinubu on Friday, the chair of the presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, said implementation of the Nigeria Tax Act and the Nigeria Tax Administration Act remained firmly on schedule.
The dispute has now moved into the courts. On Monday, the high court of the federal capital territory in Abuja granted an accelerated hearing in a suit seeking to halt implementation of the 2025 tax acts, though it declined to issue an interim injunction.
The case, filed by the Incorporated Trustees of African Initiative for Abuse Public Trustees, challenges alleged discrepancies in the laws and their proposed commencement date. The respondents include the federal government, the attorney general, the senate president, the speaker of the House and the National Assembly.
Ruling on an ex parte motion, Justice Bello Kawu ordered an expedited hearing of the substantive suit and granted leave for substituted service on the defendants, but declined to restrain the government from proceeding with implementation at this stage. The matter was adjourned to Wednesday, 31 December.
As political pressure, student mobilisation and legal scrutiny converge, uncertainty is growing over Nigeria’s most ambitious tax overhaul in decades – with its ultimate fate now likely to be decided as much in the courts and the streets as in the corridors of power.
