The Chairman, Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, said he and his family are under attack from some Nigerians indisposed to the tax reform proposal.
The tax reform bill has divided opinions with the preponderance of Northern leaders not in support of it on grounds that it is skewed against North but in favour of Lagos State.
Speaking at an event for the presentation of the report of a technical committee set up by the League of Northern Democrats (LND) to review the controversial tax reform bills on Thursday in Abuja, Oyedele said his family and him have become a subject of insults, particularly on social media.
The attack, he added, is not disturbing him.
“Even on social media, you need to see the number of people cursing me and my family. I don’t take it personally. I just go through and say is there any useful comment that we can work on? We pick it and we work on it. It’s public service. You’re not meant to be appreciated and praised every time. It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world.
“Public service is public service. You are accountable to the people and you must take that very seriously. So our approach to this is that some Nigerians were asked to do this for our country and I had the privilege of leading that team and we did our best but we’re not in any way suggesting that our best is the best for Nigeria.
“You cannot have more than 200 million people and you then assume that about 100 people are the smartest. You know that that would be arrogance at a different level. So this engagement helped us to even improve the quality of what we have done,” he said.
