Former presidential candidates at the 2023 presidential election, Mr Peter Obi and Mr Atiku Abubakar, have separately slammed President Bola Tinubu on issues relating to economic conditions of Nigerians.
Mr Obi in a statement argued that taxation must be rooted in transparency, fairness, and concern for citizens’ welfare, cautioning that the ongoing controversy over the alleged manipulated tax law threatens economic growth and public trust.
Despite recent controversies, the new tax laws regime have officially kicked off.
“For the first time in Nigeria’s history, a tax law has reportedly been forged. The National Assembly itself has admitted that the version gazetted is not what was passed into law,” he said.
“Yet, citizens are being asked to pay higher taxes under this manipulated framework, without transparency, without explanation, and without corresponding benefits,” the candidate of the Labour Party in 2023 noted.
Mr Obi, who is now with the African Democratic Congress (ADC), stressed that “taxing poverty does not create wealth; it deepens hardship,” urging the government to focus instead on empowering small and medium-sized enterprises, which he said are critical for job creation, income growth, and the natural expansion of the tax base.”
“You cannot tax your way out of poverty, you must produce your way out of it,” he noted, calling for a lawful, fair, and people-centered tax system that supports production, rewards enterprise, protects the vulnerable, and restores trust between government and citizens.
“Nigeria needs a fair, lawful, and people-centred tax system, only then can taxation become a true tool for unity, growth, and shared prosperity,” Mr Obi concluded in the statement posted on his official X handle.
On his part, Mr Abubakar, a former Vice President, warned that policy failures under President Tinubu are deepening business distress, accelerating job losses, and pushing the country toward economic collapse.
In a New Year message to Nigerians, he described 2025 as “one of the most punishing years in our recent history,” marked by what he called “economic suffocation” and governance devoid of empathy.
He said the Tinubu-led administration presided over months of fiscal drift, borrowing heavily while businesses struggled to survive.
“The past year exposed, in stark terms, the incompetence and policy bankruptcy of President Bola Tinubu,” Mr Atiku said, adding that the government governed “for months without a functional budget, relying on propaganda while borrowing recklessly.”
From a business perspective, Mr Atiku, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last presidential poll, warned that the operating environment for enterprises deteriorated sharply, with small and medium-sized businesses bearing the brunt of inflation, weak consumer demand, and policy uncertainty.
“Industries shut down. Workers were sent home. Hunger spread. Suffering became normalized,” he said.
He also questioned the credibility of the government’s reform agenda, citing what he described as a scandal involving a forged tax law.
“Nothing better captures the decay of this government than the scandal of a forged tax law, shamelessly branded a ‘reform’,” Mr Atiku, who has also now defected to the ADC, said, warning that “a government that begins reform with forgery cannot end with prosperity.”
Mr Atiku further dismissed official claims of revenue performance, arguing that worsening insecurity and debt accumulation were eroding investor confidence.
“While drowning the nation in debt, the government falsely claimed to have met revenue targets,” he said, noting that kidnappings and violent crimes had disrupted livelihoods and economic activity nationwide.
He said unemployment, labour unrest and collapsing enterprises defined the year, contradicting repeated assurances of economic recovery.
“Small businesses, the backbone of job creation, are collapsing. Workers are losing jobs,” Atiku said, arguing that policies demanding sacrifice from citizens were unjustified.
He warned, however, that weak institutions and disregard for due process could undermine future economic stability and elections. “A government capable of forging or tampering with laws cannot be trusted to conduct free and fair elections in 2027,” he said.
Calling for civic engagement, Mr Atiku urged Nigerians and the business community to organize for change through democratic means. “Democracy gives the people the power to change a failing government, peacefully and decisively, through the ballot,” he said.
He concluded with a call to action: “Let us vote out hunger, insecurity, unemployment, dishonesty, corruption, abductions, lies, and propaganda. Nigeria deserves better. Nigerians deserve dignity.”
Business Post reports that both Mr Obi and Mr Atiku are planning to work with other politicians to oust Mr Tinubu in the 2027 general elections through the ADC.