… Says Lawmakers Seize Printed Copies
… Blames Misinformation For N4.6 Trillion Stock Market Loss In 2025
Daud Olatunji
The Chairman of the Presidential Tax Reform Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, has alleged that the National Assembly has collected all printed copies of Nigeria’s newly passed tax laws, a development he said has reignited uncertainty surrounding the implementation of the legislation.
Speaking on Wednesday in Lagos shortly after delivering the keynote address at the 2026 Economic Outlook organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) as part of its 60th anniversary, Oyedele said feedback from his staff revealed that the National Assembly had directed that the printed copies “should not be sold or made available to the public until lawmakers conclude their review.”
While acknowledging that legislative review is a normal process, Oyedele warned that the restriction on access has complicated the rollout of the tax reforms.
“While that is good, it also creates the uncertainty again,” he said.
The controversy involves four laws that took effect on January 1: the National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, and the Nigeria Tax Act.
Concerns emerged over alleged alterations to the gazetted versions of the laws compared with the versions passed by the National Assembly.
During a House of Representatives plenary in December, Abdussamad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto) raised a matter of privilege under Order Six, Rule
Two of the House Rules, insisting that “the content of the gazetted tax laws did not reflect what members debated, voted on and passed. I was here, I gave my vote and it was counted, and
I am seeing something completely different.”
The dispute triggered calls from opposition leaders to suspend the implementation of the laws.
However, the Federal Government maintained that the tax reforms must take effect.
In response to public concern, the House of Representatives released Certified True Copies (CTCs) of the four tax reform Acts on January 3.
House spokesman Akin Rotimi explained that the release was ordered by the Speaker of the House and Senate President Godswill Akpabio following reports that “multiple and conflicting versions of the tax laws were in circulation.”
Speaking further on Wednesday, Oyedele recounted his attempts to obtain an official printed copy from the government printe“The Acts Authentication Act says whatever the government printer publishes is the evidence of the law that was passed.
That government printer published something, which we said this is the official version. Lawmakers said it’s not what they passed. So they said they would do their own gazettes.
They set up their committee, they did their own review, they did their own gazettes. They sent me a copy, soft copy. But that’s not what the Acts Authentication Act says,” he said.
He added, “So I sent my staff, go to government printer and go and buy. They went there, as of last week, they said it’s not ready. That they should wait. So, I also told everybody, the NRS, JRB, you too wait, because we cannot issue guidelines. We are not 100% certain that this is the final official position.
“I called my staff this morning, I said go back there, be following up every day, go, go there, don’t call them, go and sit down there. And I got feedback as I was here that says, I don’t even know whether I should say this or not, because I don’t know what the press will report.
“But in the interest of accountability and transparency… everything that they printed, the National Assembly collected from them and said they shouldn’t sell to anyone, that they want to complete their review. While that is good, it also creates the uncertainty again.”
On allegations that the laws had been altered,
Oyedele downplayed their effect on the legislation’s core provisions.
“So in other words, what I’ll say to you is, the explanation we have provided about the law, because all this issue of they’ve altered, they’ve not altered, it’s not even a lot.
There are few items that shouldn’t affect the main thing that people need, nothing about the tax rate, about the tax burden, the filing deadline. So, but this is the best I can say to you, as we speak,” he said.
Oyedele also highlighted how misinformation has impacted Nigeria’s economy, recalling the collapse of the stock market in November 2025.
“On the next slide, you see how misinformation can be very expensive. Sometimes last year, some people decided to develop a narrative around capital gain stars in the capital market. They said, oh, the capital market is losing value because of CGT.
This was November. They repeated it for four to five days. When we kept repeating it, people started believing it. And on the 11th of November, 2025, I call it Black Tuesday, the market lost 4.6 trillion Naira in one day.
Because everybody went to the market trying to sell because they heard that CGT has come to take all their money away. We explained it, and the market bounced back… Look at what we found.
That day, there were 20,173 queues, number of transactions, valued at 23.5 billion Naira, which means average for one transaction was just a little over 1 million Naira.
The new tax laws exempt someone who sells up to 150 million Naira a year. Why are people selling 1 million Naira in panic? The danger of misinformation,” he said.
“He further alleged that some Nigerians were being paid to protest against the reforms. “We’ve seen people who have been paid to protest against this reform.
You see a group, they gave them N30 million to go and protest. In the process of sharing N300 million, this agreement broke. Some of them went to the media and said, we are not doing it again,” Oyedele said.
On the importance of accountability, he said: “Your reforms can be brilliant. I’ve never seen any reform ideas in Nigeria that is not brilliant. We’re just not very good with execution. And one of the reasons why execution failed is poor accountability.
When trust rises, reforms are easier, and resistance to reform declines and results are better. Number two, let’s seek knowledge.”
Experts at the ICAN Economic Outlook also stressed effective execution of reforms. Dr Chinyere Almona, Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, urged interagency engagement and technological oversight, while Segun Ajayi-Kadir, Director-General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, called for inclusive growth without compromising competitiveness.
He also highlighted unsold inventory in the sector estimated at N2 trillion.
Mohammed Hayatudeen, chairman of the session, described Nigeria’s economy as entering a “delicate but defining moment,” noting moderated inflation, stable exchange rates, and stronger external revenues, but warned that “laws alone do not raise revenue; capacity does.
Systems do, and professionals do. How these reforms are executed will test institutions in terms of their durability and efficacy.”
In his welcome remarks, ICAN President Mallam Haruna Nma Yahaya emphasised that “accountability is not merely a governance ideal; it is an economic imperative.”
He noted that while Nigeria’s economy showed signs of stabilisation in 2025, progress remains fragile without discipline, transparency, and strong institutions.
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