My Saturday column was anchored on a viral soundbite from 2019 of Bola Tinubu saying, “If we reduce the purchasing power of the people, we can further slow down the economy.
Let’s widen the tax net. Those who are not paying now, even if it is inclusive of Bola Tinubu, let the net get bigger and we take in more taxes, and that is what we must do in the country.”
He did utter those words, but the context was intentionally distorted with intent to deceive. Ironically, it was a previously fervent Tinubu supporter who has now become one of his severest critics who called my attention on Saturday to the fact that the soundbite intentionally cut out the preceding and subsequent statements Tinubu made, which made it clear that he wasn’t asking for citizens’ purchasing power to be weakened and for the economy to be slowed down.
On the contrary, he was actually advocating the opposite of that, which is ironic because he appears to be doing exactly what he counseled against—sort of like his contradictory attitudes on petrol subsidies when he wasn’t in government and when he is now in government.
Well, here’s the full quotation which political opponents who popularized the soundbite (and misled some of us) deliberately left out:
“The global economy faces a stiff headwind [due to] factors not [of] our making…. Consumer spending is slipping…. And this is where I will stop and appeal to Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President, and his team.
“Put a huge question mark on any increase on VAT, please. If we reduce the purchasing power of the people, we can further slow down the economy.
“Let’s widen the tax net. Those who are not paying now, if it is inclusive of Bola Tinubu, let the net get bigger and we take in more taxes, and that is what we must do in the country, instead of additional layers of taxes. For now, I’ll stop there.”
He obviously didn’t have a great choice of words, but Tinubu was actually advising the Buhari administration not to increase VAT (as he is proposing to do now) because it will reduce the purchasing power of the people and slow down the economy.
In my column, I found it incredulous that he would say that. I wrote: “So, many people, including me, concluded that Tinubu merely slipped up. What he meant to say was inconsistent with what he actually said.”
Two things made the propagandistic soundbite believable. One, although Tinubu was addressing former Vice President Osinbajo, he used the first-person plural “we” even though he wasn’t officially in government (which may be justified because he saw himself as a part of the government—never mind that he distanced himself from it during the election).
Two, in the nearly one year he has been in power, his signature economic policies have done no more than reduce the people’s purchasing power, slow down the economy, and widen the tax net.
All said, I believe that at all times we must admit the truth even if it’s against us, embarrasses us, weakens our argument, or causes us to be hated or ridiculed. That’s my personal philosophy.
The truth is that the viral 2019 soundbite that inspired my column is decontextualized and manipulated. I apologize for unknowingly validating it.
Nonetheless, my analysis of the strangulating economic policies of the Tinubu administration, which he advised Buhari against, stands.
I am glad that he has seen reason to reverse the cybersecurity tax, according to today’s Punch. I hope other reversals of injurious economic policies will follow. All we want is a better deal for our people.
