Taxing the Poor Is Not Reform’’, NLC Blasts FG over New Tax Regime

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has issued a strong warning to the Federal Government, saying the newly introduced tax laws are undermining Nigeria’s tax administration, weakening democratic governance, and worsening the hardship faced by workers and the poor.
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday at the book launch and 85th birthday celebration of former NLC president, Hassan Summonu, NLC President Joe Ajaero urged the government to immediately halt and review the controversial laws in response to widespread public concerns.
Ajaero described the government’s insistence on pushing ahead with the reforms as “muddling along in confusion and darkness,” arguing that even Nigerians can no longer tell which version of the tax law is valid.
“We do not know which one is truly the law,” he said.
According to him, the tax reform process deliberately excluded Nigerian workers and the wider public — whom he described as the country’s largest taxpayers — from the Presidential Committee on Tax Reforms.
Recalling earlier warnings by the congress, Ajaero said labour had predicted the outcome of such exclusion. “We knew that the workers and the masses were going to be on the menu — to be eaten,” he said, alleging that the proposed laws contain major alterations designed to further impoverish workers and low-income Nigerians.
Ajaero argued that any tax framework that places heavier burdens on workers cannot be described as progressive.
“A tax law that taxes the national minimum wage is not fair. A tax that targets people already living in excruciating poverty is regressive,” he said, adding that labour’s exclusion from the committee explained why its concerns were ignored.
He called on the government to pause, rethink, and redirect the reforms, rather than engage in what he described as grandstanding by the Taiwo Oyedele-led Presidential Committee on Tax Reforms and the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Dr Zacch Adedeji.
The NLC president insisted that the outcome of the new tax laws appeared deliberately skewed against workers and the poor, warning that such policies erode public trust and threaten national stability.
He cautioned the Federal Government against bypassing critical stakeholders and undermining institutions, stressing that true democracy goes beyond elections.
“Your legacy must be in crafting credible laws that strengthen institutions, not weaken them. When you distort acts of parliament and rule by strong arm, you make a mockery of democracy,” Ajaero said.
He added that democracy thrives on the rule of law, institutional integrity, and governance that serves the majority, not a privileged few.