₦airaland Forum

From Kaduna to Lagos and now Ondo, APC thugs & the police are attacking coalition members just trying to hold their meetings.

I am happy for the coalition. Do the right thing and present the right candidate. At least INEC did not act mad this time.

Let me begin by thanking everyone who wished me well during my short time away from engagements on the doctor’s advice.

I resumed my many engagements yesterday, and I started by honouring a promise to visit an SME business owned by someone I met during the course of my activities, and I was truly delighted to listen to the owner.

Thank God for your health. Where is my lawsuit sir?

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu held a private working lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron today at the Élysée Palace in Paris. #PBATInFrance

Okoroawusa:
Bro, you are talking to a bot. Have you not noticed its activities since it was activated?

naptu2:
Meanwhile, I was against the demolition of the toll plazas. Government spent a lot of money to build them and they could be useful in future, why spend money to demolish them again?

And the current government has talked about reintroducing the tolls, which would mean spending money to build new toll plazas, when we had already spent money to build them in the past and then spent money to demolish them again.

Labour unions give Obasanjo ultimatum on fuel tax

8 January 2004

ABUJA
Nigerian trade unions have threatened to call a fresh general strike on 21 January unless President Olusegun Obasanjo repeals a controversial new fuel tax within two weeks.

Announcing the ultimatum on Wednesday, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said the 1.5 naira (US $0.01) per litre of fuel tax that came into effect on 1 January was illegal and unacceptable.

The powerful NLC groups 29 blue collar unions covering both the public and private sectors. It include key unions in Nigeria's lifeblood oil industry. The NLC forced the government to back-track on a steep rise in petrol prices last year after it called an eight-day general strike at the end of June.

Petrol prices have risen up to 12 percent since 1 January because the introduction of the new tax was accompanied by a further liberalisation of fuel prices. Petrol in Lagos now costs between 43 and 45 naira (43 and 45 US cents) per gallon.

“Since we cannot bear this hardship indefinitely, we shall resume the general strike and protest within two weeks,” Adams Oshiomhole, president of the NLC told reporters. “The fuel tax is illegal because it lacks the necessary legislative backing for its enforcement. It's illegal for the government to insist that people pay taxes that are illegal,” he added.

The tax was included in a budget appropriation bill sent to parliament in December. However, the government has ordered that the tax become effective from 1 January even though the legislature has yet to pass the bill into law.

Several prominent legislators, including the Senate President Adolphous Wabara and Speaker of the House of Representatives Bello Masari have expressed opposition to the the tax. But Obasanjo insists that it is needed to raise funds for the maintenance and repair of the country’s decaying road network.

Fuel prices rose last year by more than 50 percent after the government first abolished subsidies on imported fuel and later allowed prices to be determined by market forces under its economic deregulation programme. Most Nigerians see cheap fuel as one of the few benefits they have derived as successive regimes mismanaged the country’s oil riches. However Obasanjo is keen to abolish expensive state subsidies on fuel which have simply encouraged smuggling to neighbouring countries where prices are much higher. He also wants to raise domestic fuel prices to international market levels in order to facilitate the privatisation of Nigeria's decaying refineries, which are functioning at a fraction of their original capacity and are unable to meet domestic demand.

Your Fuel Tax is Illegal Lawyers Tell Obasanjo

By Adewale Busari
30 December 2003

Lagos — A cross section of legal practitioners have thrown their weight behind Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu's decision to drag the Federal Government to court over the proposed fuel tax contained in next year's budget, currently before the National Assembly.

Governor Tinubu yesterday threatened to drag the Olusegun Obasanjo administration to court if the fuel tax is implemented.

naptu2:
Meanwhile, for those that are saying that the petrol tax was imposed by Obasanjo.

He imposed it, but the NLC went on strike and several people sued the government. The court ordered that the tax should be suspended and the government suspended it.

That's why the FERMA Act 2007 says that implementation of the tax will begin at the date to be determined by the finance minister

FG Withdraws Fuel Tax, NLC Leaders Await Implementation, Meet Today
https://allafrica.com/stories/200401210282.html

nedekid:
Are you government, why have you taken it upon yourself to explain the rubbish 5% to the extent of advising people to approach legislator? Or is this a case of work no pay?