The 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has taken a swipe at President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the Federal Government’s tax policies.
Adebayo said the president has become “a clever tax collector” and may soon tax Nigerians for breathing.
He made the comments during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.
According to him, “Tinubu is a clever tax collector; he might soon begin to collect oxygen tax (the air we breathe), if we are not careful.”
He added in the live interview, “President Tinubu is a clever tax collector. He wants to collect tax from you for everything, including oxygen tax… Just give him time. He’s going to get there.”
Adebayo criticised the administration’s policy direction, saying the government sees citizens as revenue sources rather than stakeholders.
He accused the president of failing to fix Nigeria’s refineries while imposing what he called burdensome economic decisions on the public.
Responding to a question on fairness of his remarks, he fired back at the government’s performance in the oil sector.
He recalled that Tinubu appointed himself Minister of Petroleum and alleged mismanagement in refinery maintenance.
Quoting him:
“You appointed yourself Minister of Petroleum. We spent billions on turnaround maintenance. You are not making refineries work.”
He further argued that Nigerians should not bear the cost of government inefficiency.
In his words, “You now want to surcharge me for your own inefficiency… They see you as a customer. They don’t see you as a citizen.”
Adebayo also joked that if Nigerians are not cautious, taxes on twins and triplets may soon appear, as the government keeps looking for new revenue sources. He urged President Tinubu to urgently fix refineries instead of “thinking of how to collect more money from the masses.”
He concluded by calling on key oil players to revive the facilities, stating that working refineries remain the real solution to easing economic pressure on Nigerians.