In one single day, two critical policies of former President Muhammadu Buhari came under review, raising fear that the footprints of the administration may gradually be erased.
At the presidency on Thursday, President Bola Tinubu signed four executive orders, deferring the commencement date of the changes contained in the Finance Act from May 23, 2023 to September 1, 2023, also called the Finance Act (Effective Date Variation) Order.
Also at the Senate, the lawmakers on the same Thursday decided to review the process adopted by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari in the concession of Aminu Kano Airport, Kano; Nnamdi Azikwe Airport, Enugu; Muritala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos; and Port Harcourt Airport, Rivers State.
The review of the two policies of the Buhari administration has again put the regime whose many of its policies were mired in controversy before he left the office for lack of transparency, on the spot.
With the hold on the Finance Act, the new Nigerian head of state who took office May 29 suspended excise taxes on telecommunications services and some locally produced goods introduced two months ago by the Buhari administration.
The executive orders are to “address business unfriendly fiscal policy measures and multiplicity of taxes,” according to his spokesman, Dele Alake.
Some of the charges being reversed by Tinubu include levies on certain imported vehicles, single-use plastic products, and domestically manufactured alcoholic drinks and tobacco that were introduced by Muhammadu Buhari in his final weeks in office despite the pleas from the manufacturing association of Nigeria that such measures would impact negatively on the real sector.
The president has “promised to run a government that will not make life difficult for Nigerians or asphyxiate corporate entities,” Alake said
The suspension of taxes adds to a slew of changes introduced by Tinubu that have long been sought by bankers, economists, and businesses to revive Africa’s biggest economy from almost a decade of torpor.
Others include scrapping a fuel subsidy that cost the state $10 billion last year, suspending the nation’s controversial central bank governor, devaluing the naira, and initiating an overhaul of Nigeria’s chronically inadequate power industry.
At the Senate, however, the federal lawmakers were angered by the concessions of the nation’s airports which process, they said is not transparent. They argued that the Federal Ministry of Aviation which handled the process, lacks the power to concession the airports.
The decision of the Senate owed to the motion by Senator Suleiman Kawu, who noted that the concessions occurred less than six days before the expiration of Buhari’s administration.
Kawu informed the lawmakers that the power to concession the airports is domiciled with the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria and not the Federal Ministry of Aviation that undertook the process.
Senators across parties line expressed dissatisfaction with the way and manner the concession was carried out.
Senator Adamu Ailero, who seconded the motion, and Senator Ali Ndume condemned the last administration’s Federal Executive Council for failing to do due diligence before concessioning all the country’s airports.
Ailero said that the concession was hurriedly done towards the end of Buhari’s administration, adding that it was done in a dubious manner.
Some of the Airports concessioned were Malam Aminu Kano Airport, Kano; Nnamdi Azikwe Airport, Enugu; Muritala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos; and Port Harcourt Airport, Rivers State.
In his remarks, the Deputy Senate President, Senator Jubril Barau, who presided over the plenary session, applauded the sponsor of the motion, Senator Kawu, for bringing the issue to the attention of the Senate.
Barau added that there was no wrong in concessions because that is what is being done across the globe, citing the concession of Heathrow Airport, which is being managed by a Nigerian in the United Kingdom, but that the process must be transparent.
Comments are closed.