Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, on Saturday disclosed that he openly criticised the original Value Added Tax component of President Bola Tinubu’s tax reform, warning that pushing the proposed increase through at a time of high inflation would have hurt ordinary Nigerians.

Sule made the disclosure while receiving the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, and the Renewed Hope Ambassadors National Media Tour team at the Nasarawa State Government House in Lafia, on the second leg of a nationwide inspection of federal and state infrastructure projects that had earlier taken the delegation through Benue State.

Sule said the President listened to the concerns of governors like him and ultimately revised the changes to the Tax Bill.

He stated, “I don’t praise-sing. When the president was misled about taxes, I criticised the matter openly. People misunderstood the matter, and when we visited the President, he said, ‘Sule, go and meet Zacch Adedeji and the current Minister of Finance [Taiwo Oyedele]. If you make the changes, if they agree, it’s okay.

“I said, ‘Mr President, that’s what we wanted from you.’ Governors were pushing me that I was the one to talk, and I spoke. And when we went, we made the changes.”

Sule explained the reasons behind his objection, tying it to the inflationary environment at the time the reform was first proposed.

“We made the changes because as at January 1, 2025, VAT would have been 10 per cent at the time. Inflation was about 30 per cent. Today, inflation is now getting to single-digit numbers. So now you can afford to charge more.

“I come from the business angle; I cannot allow our party to make a mistake. And luckily for us, we have a president who listens. He listened.

“We made the changes. They are positive, and it is bringing money to states; this has made the President look good,” he said.

Sule said he was willing to challenge the President publicly as consistent with a broader philosophy of honest engagement rather than blind loyalty.

“There is a way that you have to be able to find a way to commend your leaders when they do right. But it goes both ways,” he told the Presidential Communications Team, urging them to also scrutinise governors whose infrastructure did not match the resources they were receiving.

“The governors should be concerned about these trips that you are making, because it is time now to be accountable,” he added.

Sule also disclosed that the state’s monthly federal allocation surged from an average of N3.8bn to N4.5bn before the removal of fuel subsidy, to between N14bn and N16bn today.

He credited President Tinubu’s economic reforms for freeing up resources previously consumed by subsidy payments across all tiers of government.

The ex-Dangote Sugar Refinery executive explained, “In the first four years, everybody knows Nigeria was sharing anywhere between N590bn to about N620bn monthly as total FAAC allocation.”

“For Nasarawa State, what we were getting was anywhere between N3.8bn and N4.5bn for the state. With the removal of subsidy today, Nasarawa State is receiving an average of N14bn to N16bn every month,” he added, saying Tinubu “took the bullet” for state governments by freeing up resources previously consumed by subsidy payments.

Sule further stated, “Today, I can tell you we have spent about N90bn on infrastructure without borrowing one naira from the bank, and most of it has already been paid off.

He listed state projects executed, including a combined overhead and underground flyover built for N16.7bn, the dualisation of Akwanga Township at N7.1bn, an Akwanga underpass at N6.6bn, the dualisation of Shendam Road at N5.6bn, a stormwater channel at Amba Bridge at N3.3bn, and the Keffi flyover built for N11.4bn.

On lithium, Sule said Nasarawa now hosts what he described as Africa’s largest lithium mining and processing facility.

He attributed this to a federal policy requiring miners to process minerals locally rather than export them raw.

“You cannot take away the credit from this administration,” he said, highlighting the state’s vocational skills centres which offer training in 12 trades and a post-retirement skills programme, alongside new tertiary healthcare facilities established across all three senatorial zones of the state, including a specialist hospital under construction in Akwanga.

Responding, Onanuga said the tour was designed to independently verify claims of development rather than rely solely on official reports.

“We want to verify federal projects, verify state projects, so that people can know that the reports are not just a waste of time, but were done in good faith to really develop our country,” he said.