Rejecting the Illusions of Growth Under a Corrupt System Built to Exploit

By Lateef Adams

After months of public discourse and intense government promotion, the much-discussed tax reform under the Tinubu administration has finally passed through the National Assembly and been signed into law. From the outset, the government’s rhetoric around this reform was loud and exaggerated, presenting it as a silver bullet capable of solving Nigeria’s worsening economic crisis. But beneath the official noise lies a deeper reality. The new tax law, which is far from addressing the root causes of the country’s economic woes, serves to entrench the same corrupt capitalist system that was responsible for the crisis in the first place.

The four new laws signed are: the Nigeria Tax Act, which merges existing tax laws into a single framework; the Tax Administration Act, which sets rules for how taxes are collected across the federal, state, and local governments; the Nigeria Revenue Service Act, which replaces the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS); and the Joint Revenue Board Act.

In our previous publication, we had faulted the bill’s initial version as presented to the National Assembly, pointing out that the Tinubu regime had no real intention of addressing the country’s deep-rooted productivity deficits. Instead, its primary focus was on revenue generation, particularly the plan to raise the Value Added Tax (VAT) from 7.5% to 15% over a period of four to five years.

One of the most heated debates among lawmakers was over how the revenue generated would be shared. This issue sharply divided the house, with some members openly vowing that the bill would never pass. That division alone validated our earlier position, that the regime is more concerned with generating funds than with using those funds to drive real, sustainable economic development.

Nevertheless, the bill has now been signed into law, and the VAT sharing formula is as follows: states will retain 30% of the VAT they generate; 50% will be shared equally among all states; and the remaining 20% will be distributed based on population. This formula, far from resolving the concerns raised, only further exposes the government’s revenue-hungry posture.

Just like the false promises that surrounded the removal of fuel subsidies, where we were told that the masses would benefit from redirected funds, the same misleading narrative is now being sold to promote the so-called benefits of tax reform. The reality is, once again, different.

Many analysts have continued to raise concerns about the implementation of the new Act, drawing parallels to other economic policies such as the national budgets, policies whose implementations are often opaque and riddled with diversion of resources. All economic projections by this administration have remained nothing more than illusions. For instance, the GDP projection for 2024 was boldly put at 10%, but the actual growth was a mere 3.6%. In 2025, the government again projected a 10% GDP growth, yet the actual figure has fallen even lower than that of the previous year.

Inflation and unemployment had reached all-time highs until the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) quietly redefined its measurement methods. With this redefinition, the unemployment rate magically dropped from over 33% to 4.3% in 2022. Similarly, inflation figures, which stood at 34.8% in December 2024, suddenly fell to 24.48% in January 2025 and then to 23.18% in February. These statistical adjustments may look good on paper, but they do not reflect any real improvement in the lived economic realities of ordinary Nigerians.

The root of the crisis remains the corrupt capitalist programme of this administration and the ones before it. That is what the working masses must focus on changing, not buying into the illusions of reforms that are crafted to serve elite interests. The Tinubu capitalist government made grand promises about using subsidy savings for development, yet the reality has been increased borrowing and worsening conditions. The same déjà vu is now playing out with this new tax law. In no time, Nigerians will once again be left wondering where the so-called generated revenue is being channelled under a corrupt and exploitative capitalist system.

What this new Tax Reform Act also sets in motion is a framework where private firms can be contracted to collect revenue on behalf of the federal government. This arrangement bears a striking resemblance to the model introduced in Lagos State in 2002 under then-Governor Bola Tinubu, where a private firm, Alpha Beta, was handed sweeping control over the collection of internally generated revenue (IGR). In return, the firm received a 10% commission on all monthly IGR collected. The move has long raised public concern, especially as the firm is widely believed to be closely linked to Tinubu himself, now the President. Far from reforming taxation in the interest of the public, this Act risks entrenching a system where public revenue is siphoned through private hands under the guise of efficiency.

This so-called tax reform, like many other policies of the Tinubu regime, is nothing but a mirage, crafted to enrich the ruling elite while pushing the burden of economic crisis further onto the shoulders of the working people. It offers no real solution to the crisis of poverty, unemployment, inflation, and underdevelopment that millions are facing daily.

The time has come for the working masses, youths, students, and all oppressed people to reject these illusions and begin to organise for genuine change. We must build an independent mass movement rooted in the struggles of ordinary people, armed with a socialist programme that puts public wealth under the democratic control of the working people. Only such a movement can rescue this country from the grip of a corrupt, exploitative capitalist system and chart a new path based on equality and collective development.