By Kolawole Ojebisi
Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, has revealed the difficulties facing his team in engaging state governors regarding the controversial tax reforms
Oyedele made this revelation while speaking during an interview with Arise TV on Monday. He explained the committee’s efforts to involve state governors and their attitudes which created obstacles for fruitful consultations and inhibited collaboration.
Oyedele stressed that while the committee sought to meet with governors from all six geopolitical zones, only the Lagos State Governor made himself available.
He added that the Governor of Kaduna State who initially expressed willingness, eventually stepped back as his Deputy Governor hosted the meeting in his stead.
“We wrote to meet with six governors, one from each geopolitical zone. Up until this moment, only the Governor of Lagos State was able to meet with us. The Governor of Kaduna State agreed, but on the scheduled date, it was the Deputy Governor who hosted us,” Oyedele said.
He also expressed frustration over the lack of commitment from state governors: “I won’t name the other governors, but they didn’t have time for us. The Governors Forum themselves invited us four times and canceled four times.
“The fifth time, we waited until 1:30 am, and when they finally met with us, we were given just 15 minutes.”
Despite these challenges, Oyedele disclosed that his team had successful engagements with other stakeholders, including Commissioners of Finance and heads of internal revenue services across various states in Nigeria.
“We had a half-day engagement with finance commissioners from across Nigeria and more than four engagements with heads of internal revenue services nationwide.”
