Expert Calls for Tax Reform That Prioritises Citizens’ Welfare

Nume Ekeghe

A leading fiscal governance advocate and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Morenike Tejuade Babington-Ashaye, has called for a wholesale rethinking of Nigeria’s tax system, warning that without deliberate focus on welfare, transparency, and citizen equity, the country’s 2024 tax reforms may amount to revenue extraction without justice.

Delivering a keynote address at the 20th Anniversary Tax Debate of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Tax Club, Babington-Ashaye underscored the urgent need for Nigeria to restructure its tax policy framework to directly tackle poverty, inequality, and exclusion issues she described as central to the country’s long-term economic and political stability.

“One of the principles which an ideal tax system must have is, sufficiency in the performance of public functions and services  better life for the people, quality environment, quality education, quality health care, among others.

“All cash benefits which the Constitution demands for the people’s happiness have never been done in Nigeria. While the tax reforms have taken care of those working, there is a need for the National Assembly to make a law on the payment of cash benefits to the unemployed, the elderly, the physically challenged individuals, and the newly born whose parents are not employed. Social amenities and benefits are the inalienable rights of citizens to guarantee their welfare and happiness,” she said.

“Framing taxation as a vehicle for citizenship rather than merely a fiscal obligation, the former CITN president warned that policies which exempt certain groups from taxation without providing compensatory social benefits risk further marginalising them from governance structures.Tax is the price every citizen pays for lawfully belonging to a nation. Granting tax exemption to some citizens is deliberately eliminating their political power,” she said.

According to her, for tax reform to achieve legitimacy, it must be grounded in a social contract that respects the dignity of all citizens, not just those already economically productive.

Babington-Ashaye went further to challenge the colonial-era governance mindset still embedded in Nigeria’s fiscal system arguing that true democracy cannot exist when citizens are excluded from their own resources.

She said, “The time has come for the government to remove the colonial and military mentality of ‘governance by force’. The citizens own their country, and God gave them mineral resources to eradicate poverty. Those whose communities have mineral resources that God planted are endangered and impoverished. The time has come for part of the revenue from the proceeds of mineral resources to be shared equally with households for peace, happiness, and prosperity. The social vices we witness today are due to governments depriving the citizens of their wealth.”