The Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate for the 2023 elections, Adewole Adebayo, has labeled President Bola Tinubu as a “well-known tax collector.”
During an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Adebayo highlighted Tinubu’s history of tax collection in Lagos and his current role in Abuja.
“Everybody knows that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a well-known tax collector. But that tax collection is an improvement over a disorganized system he met on ground,” Adebayo stated.
He further explained, “He did tax collection in Lagos and he came to do tax collection in Abuja. The problem is with Hon. Dogara’s speech is that he is overstating it. This reform is not the best but is far better than what we had.”
Adebayo acknowledged some progress in Tinubu’s management of Nigeria’s economy, contrasting it with the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari, which he described as poorly managed.
“It’s obvious that the economy that President Buhari left was a poorly managed economy, and was an emergency room patient. Like any emergency room patient, the road to recovery will be a good diagnosis by the doctor,” he said, emphasizing the need for a solid path to recovery.
He added, “What President Tinubu has done is to stabilize the patient, but I’m not sure that he has managed to know the ailment. So the patient is not going to die imminently, but he hasn’t found a cure.”
Adebayo noted that while Tinubu has made some positive strides, he has yet to identify the core issues affecting the economy. “As an emergency room doctor, he is taking some steps, some of it actually aggravated the case of the patient, but over time, he appears to have one or two wins in two sectors,” he explained.
On June 26, 2025, President Tinubu signed four major tax reform bills into law, aiming to overhaul Nigeria’s tax system to simplify tax collection and ease the burden on low-income earners and small businesses. These new laws are set to take effect on January 1, 2026.
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