The Senate Chief Whip Ali Ndume is one of the biggest critics of President Bola Tinubu. The veteran member of the Senate has maintained consistency in his criticism of the president. Ironically, they are both from the same political party.
It is rare to have a vocal and vehement critic within a party as the Borno State senator. Ali Ndume considers Tinubu as capable of turning things around in the country, but he believes that the leader surrounds himself with a set of bad advisers.
He was dealt with by the leadership of the Senate, who are invariably answerable to their benefactor, Tinubu. He was initially stripped of his title in the house and restored later. But rather than caving in, Ali Ndume has stepped up and become bolder to condemn the tax reform that the president is pushing through the National Assembly.
He has persistently called on the president to withdraw it as it would not benefit the country though he meant to say the northern region, whose most of its state governors are lazy and couldn’t think outside the box to find means of generating revenue to run their states.
On the floor of the Senate, Ali Ndume shouted even rejected allowing Mr Taiwo Oyedele address the lawmakers about the tax reform, a fiscal restructuring. The president said that the reform would bring justice to how revenue is shared.
The lawmaker was also on Channels Television to talk about the issue. One would think that he has personal things to benefit from the tax reform or the reform itself would hurt him one way or the other. He talked down about the bills and said that the timing was wrong. No time for structural reform is wrong, Ali Ndume might not know. Nevertheless, the president should listen to his noise a bit.
“Mr. President, let’s be honest to ourselves. If we sit down here and work on this bill, assuming as it is now, what happens? Because the governors have not come out publicly to change their position; the traditional rulers have not sat down publicly to change their position, and NEC has not sat down to change their position”, Ndume said.
Most definitely, he was right with his advice. The National Economic Council (NEC) headed by Vice President Kashim Shettima has called for the withdrawal of the bill. The council consists of all the state governors among others. And they are representing the interest of their states.
Ndume added that the traditional rulers have not changed their position (to reject the bill). It doesn’t seem the Ooni of Ile-Ife, Deji of Akure, Sultan of Sokoto, Shehu of Borno or Emir of Kano have rejected the reform. Yet Tinubu can consider them.
A wider consultation would give more credibility to the reform. Every state would need to be self-sufficient and take care of its own needs. The state governors often rely heavily on the federal allocation. A large number of them do not generate enough to pay salaries let alone execute projects.
Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum said that it would be difficult to pay salaries if the reform came through. He has said the mind of several of his colleagues. However, they can’t hold the country to ransom. The earlier they start working on how to earn the better.
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