*Supports Ndume’s position
By Andover Tyowase
The Southern Borno Concerned Leaders have urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be guided by the Kenya example on fiscal policies in his bid to pull through his four controversial and largely misunderstood tax reform bills before the National Assembly.
They equally threw their support behind former Senate Whip, Senator Ali Mohammad Ndume who had earlier raised deep concerns about the proposed legislations.
In a statement made available to journalists in Abuja, the leaders urged the President to borrow a leaf from the Kenyan government where planned fiscal reforms plunged the country into unprecedented crisis and unimaginable catastrophe.
In their defense of Senator Ndume, the group through
Comrade Bulama Ali Haruna Sawa, the spokesperson for the Senatorial District, urged Nigerians to ignore a “so-called Northern Redemption Coalition, and its faceless Convener, one Adamu Bashir, over the position of our Senator, Mohammed Ali Ndume on the tax bill submitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
According to him, they support the position of Ndume, stressing that “as people who understand the implications of the said bills and its likely after effects on our people, we have decided to speak out, if only to expose the fallacy in the said Adamu Bashir’s rejoinder to Senator Ndume’s interview on TV.
He continued, “We fully identify with the positions of the Northern Governors, our revered Northern Elders and the National Economic Council, and of course Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume over the matter.
“The said Bashir Adamu, if he actually exists, is at best a meddlesome interloper, who is not known to anybody in Southern Borno. We challenge him to make a physical appearance as proof of his real identity, and to tell the world at which meeting it was agreed that the people of Southern Borno differ with their senator over the tax reform bill.
“It is not only true that the bills have the tendency to deepen the pedagogy of the Nigerian masses but is heavily skewed against our people and indeed the people of the North.
“We had expected Adamu Bashir to take up arguments based on issues raised by the Senator in the interview rather than rush to the public with a poorly scripted demagogue on behalf of his paymasters. It is rather a paradox that Bashir talks about recalling Senator Ndume at a time we are getting pleased and satisfied with Ndume’s work as our Senator.”
Continuing, he said: “It is also unfortunate that, somebody somewhere has decided to trivialise the very serious issue of a bill that will further cause harm to an already despairing populace, for obvious pecuniary gains.
“Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume has often made us proud every time he comments on national issues, including the most recent one about the tax bill.
“While his views may sound repugnant to the powers that be, they are very pleasing to us and reflective of the mood of Nigerians in general. Never has Senator Ndume ever spoken about issues, and his views are found to be contrary to the general public expectations.
“To every right thinking Nigerian, Senator Ndume merely re-echoed the prevailing sentiment in the country, to the effect that, some of the fiscal reforms being introduced in the Nigeria are at variance with the general mood and antithetical, injurious and painful to the citizen.
“It is a truism that, at a time the governments of other countries, especially our neighbour Ghana, are reducing taxes for their citizens, ours has become so insensitive, to the extent of increasing taxes.
“The Nigerian government ought to learn from the recent experiences of Kenya, where planned fiscal reforms plunged the country into a nationwide catastrophe.
“We are happy with Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, and we are satisfied with his outing so far. He represents what we stand for, and he epitomises our aspirations. As our representative, Senator Ndume has done so well and has our mandate to say all that he was quoted to have said in that particular interview, and of course others.”
