African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has urged the Federal Government to expand Nigeria’s tax base and recover outstanding oil royalties rather than impose additional taxes on citizens.
Sowore made the call during an interview on AIT on Saturday, arguing that the government could generate more revenue by ensuring that eligible individuals and businesses fulfil their tax obligations.
He maintained that Nigeria’s revenue challenge was not necessarily a lack of money but the failure to collect revenue already due to the government.
“We are not going to introduce tax, but we would expand the tax base, the GDP ratio… Nigeria is probably poorly taxed,” he said.
The AAC candidate compared Nigeria’s tax collection performance with that of other African countries, arguing that the government should focus on bringing more eligible taxpayers into the system instead of introducing additional tax burdens.
According to him, individuals and businesses earning taxable income should pay their dues to enable the government to provide essential public services.
“As long as you are making money, alright? You are supposed to pay tax and ensure that governments can do what they say they will deliver to you,” he said.
Sowore also questioned why the government frequently turns to taxation to raise revenue when, according to him, substantial sums remain outstanding from companies operating in the oil industry.
He claimed that oil companies owed Nigeria more than $62 billion in unpaid royalties, alleging that some operators had benefited from oil blocks and generated billions of dollars without paying the royalties due to the country.
“I’ll give you an example: there are, as I speak to you today, over 62 billion dollars in unpaid royalties to the Nigerian state from people that we gave free blocks and are making billions from it, they don’t pay royalties,” he said.
He argued that recovering the alleged outstanding payments would provide the government with additional resources to address infrastructure deficits, build schools and reduce the cost of governance.
Sowore further maintained that royalties should be considered within the broader framework of government revenue, arguing that authorities should prioritise recovering such payments before placing additional financial pressure on Nigerians.
“All this revenue you are talking about, they fall under the category of tax. Royalties are taxes too, but when we talk about it, they will lie to you; they don’t want you to understand that all of them fall under the categories of taxation,” he said.
Calling for the recovery of the alleged $62 billion, Sowore said the funds could help finance critical development projects and improve public services.
“So just ensure that you pay us our 62 billion. You know, we use it to do what we need to do, what we need to construct, the schools we need to build, and we cut down the cost of governance,” he said.
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