₦airaland Forum

Let us stop deceiving ourselves. What this government is doing cannot honestly be called reform. It is a pattern of rushed economic decisions that increase hardship while delivering no visible improvement in public services.
Electricity tariffs have gone up, yet power supply remains unstable. Nigerians still experience blackouts, estimated billing, and failing distribution infrastructure. In serious countries, tariffs rise after supply improves. In Nigeria, citizens are forced to pay more for the same poor service. That is not reform; it is institutionalized inefficiency.
Fuel subsidy removal followed the same reckless path. Yes, subsidy was corrupt, but removing it without functional refineries, affordable public transport, wage adjustments, or social protection guaranteed inflation. Fuel prices jumped, transport costs doubled, food prices surged, and small businesses began to collapse. These outcomes were not unexpected they were basic economic consequences.
Now, instead of fixing the damage, the government is introducing new taxes in an economy already under extreme pressure. Nigerians are being asked to sacrifice more without clear evidence of how previous taxes and revenues were used. Where are the refineries? Where is stable electricity? Where are functional public hospitals and improved security? Taxation without accountability is exploitation.
Healthcare exposes the hypocrisy clearly. Public hospitals are underfunded, doctors are leaving the country, and medical infrastructure is weak. Yet government officials regularly travel abroad especially to Europe for medical treatment. Leaders refusing to use the systems they manage is the clearest proof of failure.
Security remains fragile. Kidnapping, banditry, and violent crime persist across the country. Farmers abandon land, businesses struggle, and citizens live in fear. No nation develops under constant insecurity.
Calling all this “necessary pain” is an insult to intelligence. Real reform is planned, humane, and transparent. Pain without structure, direction, or accountability is not courage, it is negligence.

Nigerians are not against reform. They are against being governed into poverty while being told to endure in silence.

You cannot tax your way out of poverty - you must produce your way out of it. H.E Peter Obi.

Tinubu is a Terrible Leader always looking for shortcut glory.

It’s daylight robbery, not reforms

Truth is even if the power improves theyd be blackout everywhere with the hike in tariffs only a few can afford units that would last a month. This is unfair

This post will make it to front page

IT IS ALL ABRACADABRA AND THE EXTENSION OF EMEFIELE AND BUHARI 'S POLICY.

THIS IS LAWLESSNESS. REGULATION IS FIXING STANDARDS FOR ALL AND ENSURING CONTROL.

Happy ranting. You still have more years to go

Ivimmanuel:
Truth is even if the power improves theyd be blackout everywhere with the hike in tariffs only a few can afford units that would last a month. This is unfair

Exactly. Even if power supply improves, the current tariffs mean most people will still experience blackout because they simply cannot afford enough units to last the month. Electricity has been priced beyond average income levels. When units finish, darkness returns not due to grid failure, but affordability. That is energy poverty, not reform. Power that exists but cannot be paid for is no different from power that does not exist.

If they ask the OP to tell us the new taxes that he’s complaining about now, he will start throwing abuses around instead of answering.

helinues:
Happy ranting. You still have more years to go

Calling facts “ranting” doesn’t make them false. Electricity tariffs have risen faster than incomes, fuel prices have multiplied, food inflation is crushing households, and insecurity persists. These are measurable realities, not emotions. If pointing out higher costs with no matching service, leaders flying abroad for healthcare, and citizens being priced out of basic electricity is “ranting,” then the problem is denial not criticism. Silence won’t fix policy failure, and years passing won’t turn bad economics into success.

seunmsg:
If they ask the OP to tell us the new taxes that he’s complaining about now, he will start throwing abuses around instead of answering.

There is no abuse here. The concern is simple and factual recent policy proposals and enforcement measures expand the tax burden on ordinary Nigerians higher VAT impact through increased prices, stricter personal income tax enforcement on already-strained workers and SMEs, levies embedded in electricity tariffs, fuel pricing, telecom and service charges. When costs rise across essentials, it functions as indirect taxation. The average Nigerian now pays more to live, even without a formal “new tax name.”

seunmsg:
If they ask the OP to tell us the new taxes that he’s complaining about now, he will start throwing abuses around instead of answering.

When I read your comments, I’m disappointed by how much your reasoning has declined, apparently beyond repair. It makes me wonder how you became a federal civil servant, perhaps through connections.

danielbrown90d:
Calling facts “ranting” doesn’t make them false. Electricity tariffs have risen faster than incomes, fuel prices have multiplied, food inflation is crushing households, and insecurity persists. These are measurable realities, not emotions. If pointing out higher costs with no matching service, leaders flying abroad for healthcare, and citizens being priced out of basic electricity is “ranting,” then the problem is denial not criticism. Silence won’t fix policy failure, and years passing won’t turn bad economics into success.

You are still ranting. The ranting won't put food on your table oo

You are part of the reason this country can never moved forward with this your jobless syndrome.

Bat is all smoke and mirrors.

He gives with his right hand and takes with his left hand, teeth and hands of his cronies.

His vuvuzelas are making it seem as if PIT exemption is some new wonder policy. But the reality is that exemptions to PIT had always existed for low income earners. And tax rates were as low as 7% and maxed out at 24%.

But now, tax rates start at 15% and max out at 25%. So how is this helping the poor? Whichever way you cut it, taxes have increased and value for money drastically reduced. In fact, taxes have doubled for supposedly high low to mid income earners because they paid 7% before, but now pay 15%. So what was supposedly gained by exempting the first 800k is removed by doubling tax on the amount above 800k. In fact, those who were at the extreme end, the very rich and high income earners to which bat and his cronies belong, experienced only a 1% increase, from the old rate of 24% to 25%, while the real low income earners experienced a 110% increase in taxes... so who is f××ling who?

But the issue is not even entirely about tax increases, it is about the threshold for tax exemptions and tax rates.

For a government that claims it wants to help the poor, it should know that by virtue of its economic misadventures and incompetence, a person earning N3.6m p.a in Nigeria today is for all intents and purposes, poor. And that N3.6m p.a. is what mid to senior level public servants earn before deductions. These are people with massive responsibilities and often over 10-15 years in service.

In fact, a person earning N500k p.a and paying PIT of 7% pre-APC is better off than a person earning N800k p.a. today without PIT.

So, if bat was sincere about this tax policy, the exemptions should have started from around N2m and the low end of the tax rates should be retained at 7%.

Twist4u:
You cannot tax your way out of poverty - you must produce your way out of it. H.E Peter Obi.

Tinubu is a Terrible Leader always looking for shortcut glory.

The same who wanted to remove subsidy "systematically". He was asked to explain what this will entail, na there petrol finish for generator.
Tinubu is totally on the right path.