The Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG have expressed support for Ali Ndume, Senator representing Borno South Senatorial District, over his stance against the proposed Tax Reform Bills.
The National Coordinator of CNG, Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, during a courtesy visit to Senator Ndume, expressed the group’s commitment to back the lawmaker’s efforts to challenge the controversial bills.
Charanchi further explained that the visit was to exchange ideas on effective strategies to oppose the reforms at various levels, saying that CNG is actively engaging with citizens across Northern Nigeria through town hall meetings to raise awareness about the bills.
He said, “the goal is to empower constituents to reach out to their representatives and demand that they reject the proposed reforms.”
He added that they would continue to utilize all available democratic tools to ensure the bills, which he claims threatens the livelihood of millions, are rejected outrightly.
He used the occasion to call on Northern lawmakers to remain true to their constituents and reject the bills, which he said appeared ill-timed and served as a tool to fulfill external demands, such as those from the World Bank.
Charanchi explained that some legislators from the North have chickened out while others are scrambling for crumbs from the presidency, stressing that it could lead them to support the unpopular bills for their personal aggrandizement as God-forsaken and evil-spirited political bandits.
He warned that senators and members of the house representatives who abandon the interests of their constituents would be treated as the enemies of the people and political relevance decisively and immediately destroyed and buried.
He further warned any lawmaker from the North who supports the “oppressive Tax Reform Bills”, saying that their betrayal would not go unnoticed as they have signed to enslave the people who entrusted them with their mandate.
The Coordinator stated that Northern lawmakers must remember that they are in the National Assembly to serve the interests of their constituents, not to rubber-stamp policies dictated by external forces like the World Bank or any ethnic supremacist.
”Stand with the people, or face the consequences of their rejection”.
Charanchi explained that any lawmaker who discards the interests of his people by supporting the bills would be treated as a dangerous outcasts who deserve our collective censure and opprobrium, adding that such despicable, mischievous and reckless rascality from legislators particularly those from the North is an all-out affront to the collective interest and dignity of the regions that we are determined to go any length to preserve and jealously guarded.
Coalition of Northern Groups back Senator Ali Ndume’s stance against tax reform bills