A new political and legal battle is unfolding over Nigeria’s recently enacted tax reform laws, as the Presidency insists implementation will proceed as scheduled, despite mounting opposition warnings about economic hardship and constitutional concerns.

On Wednesday, the Presidency firmly rejected calls to halt the tax reforms signed into law by President Bola Tinubu, describing the legislation as irreversible and fully set to take effect on January 1, 2026. According to presidential officials, the laws have already cleared all legislative hurdles and cannot be suspended at this stage.

However, opposition groups, civil society voices and some lawmakers argue that the reforms risk worsening poverty, undermining livelihoods and raising serious questions about legislative integrity.

The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said critics were reacting far too late to a process that had already concluded at the National Assembly.

“The law has been passed by the National Assembly and endorsed by the President,” Onanuga said. “Some people are only waking up now, when they had ample opportunity to raise objections earlier.”

He stressed that the reforms would begin implementation on January 1, 2026, maintaining that there was no basis for fear or reversal. According to him, the new tax framework would streamline Nigeria’s complex tax structure while protecting vulnerable earners.

“The law is unstoppable,” he said. “It will harmonise multiple taxes and clearly exempts low-income workers from taxation.”

Onanuga described the reforms as transformative, arguing that improved revenue generation would ultimately benefit Nigerians. He dismissed calls for suspension as misguided, insisting that the reforms reflected the thinking of what he called responsible stakeholders.

“It is a revolutionary law meant to improve tax revenue for the good of all Nigerians,” he added. “Asking that it should not be implemented at this point is simply too late.”

His remarks came amid growing pushback from the National Opposition Movement, a coalition of citizens drawn from several opposition parties and civic groups. Addressing a press conference at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja, the group demanded the immediate suspension of the tax rollout.

The NOM spokesperson, Chille Igbawua, said Nigerians were already grappling with widespread poverty, unemployment and surging living costs, warning that additional tax burdens could deepen social distress.

“This tax plan is shocking and punitive,” Igbawua said. “Nigerians are struggling to feed, house and clothe themselves. Introducing this policy now will only worsen their condition.”

The group accused the Tinubu administration of prioritising elite economic interests over ordinary citizens, arguing that taxation cannot be used as a tool to resolve poverty.

“You cannot tax hunger. You cannot tax poverty. And you cannot tax people into prosperity,” Igbawua said. “What we are seeing is a pattern of policies that consistently hurt the masses.”

According to him, recent economic shocks, including fuel subsidy removal, naira depreciation, rising electricity tariffs and food inflation, have pushed households and small businesses to the edge. He warned that the cumulative impact could threaten democracy, security and development, not only in Nigeria but across West Africa.

President Tinubu recently signed four major tax reform bills into law, a move the government has described as the most comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s tax system in decades. The new laws include the Nigeria Tax Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Act and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Act.

Under the reforms, tax collection and administration will be unified under a single authority, the Nigeria Revenue Service. The government says the changes are designed to simplify compliance, expand the tax base, eliminate overlapping levies and modernise revenue collection across federal, state and local governments.

The laws are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026, following a transition period intended for public education, system upgrades and institutional alignment.

Yet reactions remain sharply divided nationwide. The NOM warned that low-income earners, informal workers and the unemployed would bear the brunt of the reforms, despite official assurances to the contrary. The group also accused the government of failing to address corruption at higher levels while placing greater pressure on citizens.

Beyond opposition criticism, fresh controversy emerged in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, where a group of lawmakers alleged that the tax laws were altered after passage by the National Assembly.

Raising the matter under privilege during plenary, a lawmaker from Sokoto State, Abdussamad Dasuki, said discrepancies existed between the versions approved by lawmakers and the gazetted copies released by the Federal Government.

According to a report compiled by the affected lawmakers, the changes went beyond routine editorial corrections. They alleged that substantive provisions were inserted, removed or modified without legislative approval, including oversight and accountability measures initially passed by parliament.

The report further claimed that new coercive powers, such as arrest authority, garnishment without court orders and mandatory dollar-based calculations, appeared in the final documents without the consent of the legislature.

“These changes cannot be described as clerical errors,” the report warned, noting that such alterations undermine legislative authority and create legal uncertainty for investors and taxpayers.

Dasuki told the House that what Nigerians were seeing in circulation did not reflect what lawmakers debated and approved.

“I was here. I voted. What was passed by this House is not what has been gazetted,” he said.

He urged the House leadership to retrieve the original harmonised versions passed by both chambers and submit all documents for review by the Committee of the Whole.

In response, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, assured lawmakers that the leadership would investigate the allegations thoroughly and take appropriate steps in the national interest.

The disputed tax laws form a central pillar of President Tinubu’s broader economic reform agenda, which aims to boost government revenue, reduce borrowing and manage rising debt servicing costs.

However, the growing controversy has intensified scrutiny of the law-making process and raised questions about oversight, transparency and the legal foundation of the reforms ahead of their planned implementation in January 2026.

As political tensions rise, analysts say the government faces a delicate task of balancing fiscal reform with social stability, especially at a time when public trust remains fragile and economic pressures are high.