A former president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba, has said the North’s grouse against the Tax Reform Bill is well founded.
Agbakoba (SAN) said the North was used to a revenue-sharing formula with clear principles, unlike what the Tax Reform Bill is proposing.
In a statement on Monday, he explained that Nigeria has to decentralize most of the powers in the exclusive legislative list to the constituent units of the federation to promote efficiency and development.
He noted that if power had been decentralized to the federating units, the argument on the Tax Reform Bill would be minimal, stating that the North has the capacity to generate enough revenue through mechanized agriculture. 
‘It is time to devolve powers to all three tiers of government in Nigeria to promote efficiency and development. Politically, Nigeria is overly centralized, with most decisions made in Abuja to the detriment of national growth. This centralization partly explains the opposition faced by the Tax Reform Bill.
“The bill, from a revenue perspective, is beneficial as it targets corporate entities and the super-rich while incentivizing the working class. However, challenges arise from the perception that the distribution formula does not favour Northern Nigeria. For development to thrive, balanced governance and equitable resource allocation are essential.
“Northern Nigeria may have a reasonably arguable case. We have always distributed revenue with clear principles. So, the North asks why the Revenue sharing formula in the proposed Tax Reform bill is not the same as that for sharing oil revenue?
“This is a huge problem! We will continue to grapple with how to distribute revenue equitably unless and until Nigeria politically devolves revenue collection to the states which implies massive devolution of powers from the centre. The North for example has capacity to generate massive revenue from mechanization of Agriculture, but it has not, as there are no strong incentives,” Agbakoba explained.
While advocating for the revenue-generating states to keep their funds, the former NBA president emphasized the need to localize development. He added that there is the need for the federal government to exercise political will in devolving power in the exclusive list to the federating units.
Agbaokoba continued, “My honest opinion is that it is more than past time to devolve political and economic power from Federal to state and also from State to local government. This is the only way we will grow the Economy from sharing Revenue to generating Revenue.
“I strongly believe consumption tax goes to states where the revenue is generated. But the North says that to change the system in the middle of the game is unfair. This needs careful review. I cannot understand why the Federal government is concerned with controlling marriage and drivers’ licenses or basic primary and secondary education, to the detriment of even distribution of political power.
“When one looks at the 98 items of power, it is plain that we, as a matter of first principles, need to distribute power more evenly and effectively and efficiently across the three arms of Government. This is also applicable to the Judiciary that is, by far the strongest in terms of Jurisdiction, in the world. The Supreme Court is slow because it exercises far too much local Jurisdiction, best suited at local and state Government level.
“I believe the most pressing matter in Nigeria is Governance, relating to redistribution of power across the three levels of Government, so that each level exercises assigned power in the most efficient and effective manner. In this way Revenue Sharing will switch to Revenue generation for development.”
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