The All Progressives Congress, APC, has faulted any attribution of dictatorship to President Bola Tinubu amidst controversy surrounding executive bill on tax reform.
The tax reform proposal has divided opinions, with leaders of Northern extraction one of those against it.
The 19 Northern governors and traditional rulers from the region claimed it is skewed in favour of Lagos State where Tinubu was twice a governor and once a Senator, representing Lagos West.
APC National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, in an interview with Punchng pushed back at suggestion the President is on a mission to force down the reform on Nigerians.
“We are not in a dictatorship where the President will by fiat make a resolution. There is separation of powers. The executive has initiated the bill. So, it is for the National Assembly, which comprises representatives from all over the country, to determine whether the bill will pass or not.
“It is not the prerogative of only the President. People must not see him as a dictator. So, if the bill eventually passes, it will be because it has passed the test of acceptability by the majority of the Nigerian people as represented in the National Assembly.
“Secondly, a bill is only passed after it has been subjected to public hearing. What has happened now is that the bills have passed a second reading. It will now go to the committee stage from where there will be a public hearing,” the publication quoted Ajibola as saying.
