By Kayode Emola

As we move closer to 2026, one thing that will be on the minds of many Nigerians is the new tax regime of President Tinubu coming into effect on 1st January 2026. Many people are wondering how this is going to affect their personal finances; is the government going to come into their bank accounts to seize their hard-earned money, especially if they cannot prove the source?

Some are wondering, haven’t we already been taxed enough? What else are they looking for that they haven’t already got? I have deliberately stayed away from this topic for some time, but I believe it is prudent to shed some light on what is really happening, especially as its implementation is imminent.

Tinubu has travelled to many countries and has seen how many developed economies work. Most countries survive mainly on taxation, but taxes without accountability would not bring the desired change or development in the country. So, I believe that the new tax regime brings a tangible positive impact on the people of the country, as claimed by the government.

Let’s even ask ourselves what the term tax refers to. Tax is a mandatory financial charge imposed by the government of a country on individuals’ income, companies’ profits, or the cost of goods and services.

If tax is the mandatory financial charge on an individual’s income or a company’s profit, etc, how come the Nigerian government is just waking up to realise that Nigerians are not properly taxed? First, many Nigerians are being taxed through their employment, and many big businesses are also being taxed. The only problem with Nigeria is that we do things haphazardly, which makes for ineffective results.

Tinubu’s proposed tax regime is going to experience a lot of hiccups and not necessarily achieve the desired results it was intended to achieve. Not because the government does not have genuine intentions but because the Nigerian government is working in reverse when it comes to taxation.

In many progressive countries, there is less bureaucracy in setting up a company. Once your company is set up, you are automatically given a unique tax reference number, which you can use to open a bank account and start transactions. When we are talking about progressive countries, I don’t mean the likes of the USA, Canada, UK, Norway etc. I am talking about countries in Africa, like Rwanda, where it takes just about 6 hours to open a company and get set up for business.

In fact, you can open a company on your way to Rwanda, and your company will be ready to go before you get there. This little bottleneck makes it easier to get set up in a place like Rwanda and many other progressive countries compared to a country like Nigeria, where it takes forever to set up a company. Even after opening your company in Nigeria, it could take you forever to get set up for banking transactions, let alone getting your business.

The bottom line here is that it is not that Nigerians don’t want to pay tax but the bureaucracy in setting up a business makes it difficult to get set up and registered for tax purposes. For a country that has less people in paid employment, the government would need to make it easier for people to set up a company so that people can actually run their business through a limited company for proper accountability.

Secondly, over 70 percent of Nigerians live in abject poverty, so when the government is talking about taxing the people, it feels more like asking the people to make straws with their hands. How can you tax someone who literally don’t have anything to give? The majority of the people live on less than $2/day, and most of them don’t even have a bank account. How then does the government expect to tax them?

In 2021, the government imposed various forms of charges on personal and business bank accounts. The aim was to generate revenue for the government, and it was hailed as a panacea for development as the government had hoped to raise a lot of revenue this way. Fast forward 5 years, and the government is planning to abolish it and introduce direct taxation instead, thinking it can raise more money.

The truth is that most developed countries like Britain, which raises over 70 percent of its income through taxation, do so through the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) system. This is the most effective way to collect taxes for the state and generate the needed revenue for development. In the case of Nigeria, many people are not in paid employment; therefore, I don’t think the government will generate as much as it has hoped for.

This means that the newly introduced tax regime is just another government exercise and whether it succeed or fails remains to be seen, depending on how it is implemented. How can the pepper seller or the groundnut seller in the market pay their tax. These small traders are merely survivors who live on their daily income and have nothing left for their day-to-day essentials.

For those who are confused about the Nigeria tax reform, I will advise them to get for themselves the gazetted copy through this link C:\Users\Computer Section\Deskt. I believe most of the questions regarding the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 can be found here.

As we move forward to January 2026, I will use this opportunity to wish our people a happy new year and hope that the Tinubu tax regime makes their lives better. I sincerely hope that the government is not, in all sincerity, trying to introduce stealth taxes on our already impoverished people.

By Kayode Emola

Christmas reminds us that the year is ending. Most people even take the time to draw up a long list of New Year resolutions. Whether they follow through with the resolutions or not remains to be seen. This year’s Christmas will not be an exception; many people will look back to the resolutions they made in 2024 and have a deep reflection as to whether it has come to past or not.

As 2025 draws to a close and 2026 stares at us in the face, it is worth looking back to what we have endured as a nation. It is no secret that the Yoruba people are still reeling from the terror years of Mohammed Buhari’s regime. Many had hoped that with a Yoruba person as President, the terror will be a thing of the past.

Alas, it seems as if the terror has breathed a new sigh of relief with Tinubu as President. When Tinubu said in 2023 that he would continue in the legacy of his predecessor Buhari; people didn’t fully understand what he meant. Now it is very clear that he was going to sit bye and watch while the terrorists overrun the country just like Buhari did when he was President.

If not, how can the former Governor of Zamfara Bello Matawalle, who is a known sponsor of terrorists be appointed by President Tinubu as the Minister of Defence. This and many other questionable appointments make the Tinubu regime and Nigeria a laughingstock in the international community.

Many people are quick to give Tinubu the benefit of the doubt about his inactions as a President when it comes to tackling terrorism in Nigeria. They forget that the innocent people who lose their lives daily through terrorism cannot regain it ever again.

It only took the threat of an invasion from President Trump for the Nigerian government to begin to act to defend its own citizens. Some were even bold to say that the terrorists were not only killing Christians as if the killing of innocent civilians and security officers are a new norm to be allowed to fester.

For all intents and purpose, the killing of any person due to no fault of their own is one too many. It is something that needs to be condemned by everyone in the society. We need to become a society of deep thinkers and to be the moral conscience of our people.

The government of Nigeria is not interested in the security and welfare of our people. Therefore, we at the Yoruba Self-Determination struggle need to be at their heels to make sure they do what they’ve been elected to do. Barring any external circumstances, President Tinubu is laying the foundation of his re-election for a second tenure by luring the opposition into his political party. What they do not know is that God in heaven is not sleeping and He alone has the final say.

As we move closer into 2026, we need to make it the year for our declaration of Yoruba sovereignty. If there is any resolution worth taking for our Yoruba people, it would be the freedom from this perpetual bondage we have come to find ourselves in.

I will take this Christmas period to appeal to our people to recognise that Christ agreed to be born into this earth because he wanted us to be freed from Sin. He did not spare His own life for our freedom. If the freedom of mankind was important to our saviour Jesus Christ, it must be our number one priority for our Yoruba nation come 2026. I wish us all a merry Christmas and a prosperous 2026 in advance.

By Kayode Emola

From Venezuela to Nigeria the story seems to be the same when it concerns President Trump. Presently, over fifteen thousand US military personnel are battle ready to take out the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who has been given the opportunity of a safe passage to any country of his choice. Whether he will take it or not remains to be seen and what actions the US President will take.

When it comes to that of Nigeria, it will be what Yoruba refer to as “abowaba” (we’ll get back to that) approach President Trump is adopting. It’s more than a month now that President Trump threatened to attack the terrorists in Nigeria. Many people are wondering whether it’s still going to happen or whether this is the end we’ve end of the matter.

The truth of the matter is the US President is not sitting on the hands on this matter. He has appointed US congress men and women to investigate the matter, and this people are working night and day to get to the bottom of the matter. However sceptical some of our people may be about the intervention of the US, one thing is certain, it will surely happen.

What we can’t say is when it will happen and what the consequences or the fall out of the intervention will be. The most interesting thing is that at last, for once the US is alive to its responsibilities as the police of the world.

As for Nicolas Maduro, whether he is removed as President or not will depend on the support he receives from Russia. With the war in Ukraine, I don’t know how much appetite and resources the Russia federation is happy to deploy to save a foreign country. Especially when its own country and military personnel are in the frontline of a war. My guess is that if Russia could not save President Assad of Syria, then the likelihood of saving Nicolas Maduro is very slim.

Concerning we the Yoruba people, there are a lot of things we can begin to do amidst all these ongoing events. First thing we must realise is that it is very evident that there is nothing left to salvage in Nigeria. Even if the US army comes to Nigeria with all the armoury and arsenals they have, if the fundamentals that caused the insecurity is not addressed, the problem is bound to reoccur.

Therefore, as much as the US is wanting to fight terrorism in Nigeria which is a blessing. We Yoruba must realise that except we separate from Nigeria, poverty and terrorism will continue to be the experience for many of our folks. There is hardly any day that goes by without an incident of kidnapping taking place somewhere in Yorubaland.

Many of our folks can no longer travel to Nigeria from abroad without the fear of being kidnapped for ransom or worse still be killed by terrorists roaming our forests. Many are choosing to travel to other parts of Africa for holidays just to avoid going to Nigeria. For those who are brave enough to travel to Nigeria, they must get private security for they and their families protection which is not supposed to be.

How Nigeria allowed terrorism to fester for 15 years without any government intervention to curb it beats my imagination. The same Nigeria government that says it could not fight insecurity, and insurgency had the military personnel and equipment to put out a coup plot in neighbouring Benin Republic.

Therefore, it is evident that the lives and properties of Nigeria do not matter to the government. I will urge our Yoruba people to get themselves together and decide now that the only solution for us is total exit from Nigeria. Anything other than that is just cosmetics that is bound to fade away when tested in heat.