By Rauf Oyewole
The Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed has again hit the President Bola Tinubu over the ongoing brawl on the Tax Reform bill, saying that the Presidency should be open to constructive criticism done by the President as the Governor of Lagos during the administration of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo and his role in the NADECO where he challenged the central government.
Mohammed while speaking as a guest on Channels TV programme ‘2024 in Review’ on Tuesday, said that he has no regrets for criticising some part of the bill, saying that it is not welcome by many Nigerians and states with no derivatives earnings.
He said that “We urged to accommodate more collaboration, he said no, he would go on, some of the issues…Even NEC and some of the ministers were not aware that this bill was going to the National Assembly. I think we are not in a military regime, even the military accommodate…even those with military background accommodated people like the President who was a governor and he was able to challenge them rightly at the Federal Government and heaven didn't fall down.
“But some of us are giving advice in good fate because we know him, he is democrat, he has really spearheaded a lot of protests against the federal government rightly, especially during the NADECO days, but we are disappointed that even the genuine interventions are seen as an affront or an insult that will warrant or unleash a kind of response that I got from the Presidency. That is very undemocratic and very unlike Tinubu.”
When asked to respond to the assertion that the reform will make many states sit up in maximising their natural resources, Mohammed said “should we die before we sit up? We need to discuss. Yes, it will help us to sit up. Even during the Buhari regime, we were able to raise our IGR.”
The Governor urged Tinubu to implement some of his policies using persuasion instead of force. He said that he's not against the reform but calling for a wider consultation and elimination of some areas in the bill.
According to him, reform is the manifestation of a need to engender good governance but should not be implemented at the detriment of the majority of federating states. “That is what we are saying. It is not that we will deprive him of his right as the President of Nigeria and somebody who has done a lot of reforms in Lagos and we have high hopes on him but rather mid way we are disappointed that he is not even accommodating, he doesn't listen, he believes that whatever he wants to do he has the right to do it.
“He does not have that right. He has to listen to Nigerians when they have apprehension,” he said.
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