Usman said this when he appeared on Channel TV’s live programme monitored by SaharaReporters on Sunday evening, adding that Tinubu’s government is more concerned about milking Nigerians.
Former executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme and member of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof Usman Yusuf, has tackled the government of Bola Tinubu for ‘overtaxing’ Nigerians despite the socioeconomic challenges his policies have caused in the country.
Usman said this when he appeared on Channel TV’s live programme monitored by SaharaReporters on Sunday evening, adding that Tinubu’s government is more concerned about milking Nigerians.
According to him, the government is not bothered about the country’s growth.
He said the government’s failed policies had increased the poverty level and illiteracy rate in the country, but that it did not stop the government from exploring ways to tax the citizens for their money.
He said, “People have lost hope. It pains me to see our people lining up to collect cups of palliatives. Renewed Hope has turned into hopelessness. People have lost hope. The last one year has been a year of nothing but deception, destitution and hopelessness.
“From next week, they will start telling us their propaganda. What have they done to benefit the ordinary people? In a span of one year, they have brought millions of people back into multidimensional poverty, they have pushed millions more children out of school because their parents cannot pay their school fees. Many more people are hungry in one year. What have you done? I want the government to tell us. Don’t give me the story about they are just floating the dollars. It is all about deception.”
“You increased the taxes, you hike the interest rates. You borrowed money, thinking you will pump the naira artificially and you keep taxing everybody. This is exactly what the President did in Lagos. The economic team, to me, looks more like tax collectors than economists. Taxation does not grow the economy; only production does,” he added.
Media had reported last week that Tinubu’s government mandated that all users of federal airports across the country must start paying tolls at airport gates.
But some Lagos State residents on Friday raised the alarm over ongoing racketeering being perpetrated by officials of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) as they complied with President Tinubu’s order of toll collection.
Speaking to media on how officials of MMA in Lagos State were complying with the presidential order, two residents who always commute to the airport said the officials deliberately allowed one payment point despite having thousands of cars going to the airport daily.
The residents said the officials did this as a pathway for extortion. He said the officials did not also allow any electronic payment except cash payment.
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