By Aaron Ossai
Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa, the leader of the Northern Regional Caucus in the House of Representatives has assured that lawmakers from the North will allow national interest to take precedence in the consideration of the four tax reform bills before the House.
Doguwa, who spoke to journalists at the Tax Reform Interaction organised by the House yesterday also assured that they will not rush the process but do justice to the bills and people of Nigeria by studying them carefully and diligently before passage.
“These proposed bills are obviously to do with fiscal federalism as it relates to sharing of resources, to federating units and key government institutions.
“We must therefore, be careful to study the bills diligently and consider them clause by clause with a view to making justice to the people and justice to the bills in the overall interest of the people and national interest.
“We will certainly not rush the passage of these bills in order to avoid making hasty legislation or laws that would at the end not be able to address our practical economic realities as a nation.
“National interest will be the key word. It will be the watchword and I believe all of us will be guided by national interest. The government itself, I want to believe, has good intentions. So, we will look at those intentions and see how we can educate and enlighten our people and at the end of the day, the law will be for the good of the people”, he said.
The caucus leader commended the leadership of the House for organising the interaction saying it has broadened members’ understanding of the bills.
“We must commend in the first place the wisdom of the leadership of the House for coming up with this interactive session to further enlighten and clarify the contents and intents of the proposed tax reforms bills.
“Building on this good initiative, we will continue to hold further consultations at the levels of state and regional caucuses to create sufficient awareness amongst our members and other relevant stakeholders”.
“We have to commend the initiative and wisdom of the leadership of the House of Representatives. I will like to say without mincing words that the initiative of the leadership to engage members to broaden our understanding of the content and context of what the bills are all about is very good.
“If there’s anything, we members can now say that this should be work in progress. This consultation has to be work in progress. We will pick it up from here and go down into other smaller Legislative groups, caucuses, regional and state level to let people begin to understand the importance of the bills.
“We, as members of the Northern caucus will build on the initiative of the leadership, which of course is by way of promoting interaction, consultation, widening the scope of enlightenment of our people”, he added.