Tax Reform, Barau and Assisted Misconceptions

Part of the objective of this piece, is to look at the trending issue of Tax Reform as enunciated by President Bola Tinubu’s administration, legislative innuendo and how, from the scratch, the Executive arm of government, confuses the process with little or no proper communication strategy for the needed engagement of the citizenry.

The piece does not intend to go into the nitty gritty areas of the document, Tax Reform Bill, for x-raying the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the document. A lot has been said by tax experts and celebrated economists. I believe such technicalities should be left to technical people. For honest and proper comprehension of the process.

I am not interested in discussing whether Senator Barau was trapped, or what he did was deliberate to give him access to other corridors come 2027. My major concern as a student of media and communication is, where is the missing communication link, that creates all hues and cries?

The approach to inform citizens about the Bill and other embedded explanations is highly elitist. Even at that, a significant percentage of our elites do not understand the document well.

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My area of great concern is, how the communication aspect of the entire process was pushed down the ladder, not minding the far reaching consequences of the byproduct, if you wish. Whose fault? Those saddled with the responsibility of handling the project. By that I mean the gamut from abstract expressionism to realistic portraiture of the entire project. Not Presidency, in my view.

Even if the inputs from the public would not be regarded to be part of the process, but at least Nigerians deserve clearer understanding of the entire process. As per the content, direction, actions, responsibilities, historical position of the existing tax laws within the framework of the new Bill and specific roles of the stakeholders, among many other factors.

As loaded as it appears, the Bill has 4 parts or aspects. These are, Nigerian Tax Bill, Nigerian Tax Administration Bill, Nigerian Revenue Service Bill and Joint Revenue Board Bill. Which some commentators call four-in-one.

With good communication strategy and for the sake of gaining popular support from the public, I thought the Executive would have design some proactive media and communication interventions to tell Nigerians what has been in the offing.

Most of the critical commentaries are louder from the North. Which many see and believe that the script was made to further impoverish the North. I also observe that, some of the comments and commentaries hovering around in the last few days are critically objective, some quasi-critical and quasi-objective, some pseudo-critical and pseudo-objective, some critically subjective and some embedded on the premise of ignorance of the entire process.

But I also believe that, the Executive fueled that with their flagrant disregard to effective media and communication plan. That is why I said, in the caption of this piece “… Assisted Misconceptions.” Assisted by who? By the Executive themselves. Particularly the main actors playing the script to screen.

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Nowhere in the North where I saw aggressive campaign for awareness creation of this Bill. Northern Nigeria, has listening audience when it comes to media usage. Yes, social media is also visible in youth. That is basic. So even at the level of the social media, the engagement in the North by the government is poor, poorer and poorest!

Nothing like aggressive radio programmes, phone-in programmes with experts sponsored by government. In Kano for example, where we have about 30 radio stations, I doubt very much if there are 5 radio stations that run either special bulletin or special programmes or documentaries on retainership basis, sponsored by the people handling this new Bill. Not to talk of other Northern states.

I therefore call on the National Assembly, not to repeat what the Executive entertains. Which could be by ommission or commission. Both Chambers, I suggest, should push for clearer understanding of this document to the public.

It is glaring to all of us that, the Executive was not able to employ scientific communication strategy in creating spaces for proper engagement for the newly introduced document.

That could be the explanation why, even legislators, some of them do not comprehend the document. As revealed by the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, in the interview he granted to the BBC Hausa Service.

At the level of the Governors’ Forum, the new Bill is not a darling document to many. Reason for boxing it down. With this (mis)conception of the document among elites, what then can stop people from rejecting the entire process?

Right from day one, I thought the authors of the Bill, the Executive, would create amplified awareness creation strategy around the process and its content.

As Senator Ali Ndume was arguing that, he was not against the Bill, but his concern is the timing. It is therefore pertinent, for our legislators, to first an foremost, paint a picture of clearer understanding of the process and the content, before throwing it to Nigerians for public hearing.

From the way I see it, because of these heated debates there is every likelihood that, some adjustments may come into play. This is just an opinion, anyway.

Anwar writes from Kano and can be reached at fatimanbaba1@gmail.com