Proposed tax reforms in Nigeria have resulted in a dispute between the country’s predominantly Muslim north and the largely Christian south. Amid the tensions, social media reports recently claimed that President Bola Tinubu had removed security personnel from northern governors and ordered the closure of mosques in Lagos over the row. However, this is incorrect: there have been no local media reports of such events since the story emerged two weeks ago and a presidential spokesperson told AFP Fact Check that the claims were baseless. A representative of the Lekki Muslim Ummah also said mosques in Lagos were functioning normally.
“Breaking News: Tinubu withdraws security from northern governors and orders closure of mosques in Lagos,” read the headline of a Facebook post shared on December 5, 2024.
Screenshot of a fake Facebook post taken on December 17, 2024
Several users elsewhere on Facebook and Instagram echoed the claim.
Controversial tax assessments
The tax laws are intended to simplify tax administration and make Nigeria, which depends on oil for 90 percent of its revenue, more attractive to local companies and foreign investors (archived here).
The tax reform chairman has argued that Nigeria has “more than 50 nuisance taxes” – that is, levies paid in small but frequent amounts, usually by consumers (archived here).
If passed, the bills will reduce the number of separate levies paid by individuals and businesses to just “a few” and cut corporate taxes from 30 percent to 25 percent over the next two years.
Being a state with a federal budget regime, part of Nigeria’s taxes are paid into a central pot before being distributed monthly between the central government, the 36 states and 774 local governments.
One of the four bills is widely seen in northern Nigeria as a ploy by Tinubu, a southerner, to further impoverish the region by reducing federal allocations of those levies, including the value-added tax (VAT).
Fake news
Nigeria has 19 governors in the northern region, just over half of all state governors in the country.
The revocation of security credentials of all northern governors and the closure of mosques in Lagos are major developments that would have been reported by local media and discussed on social media.
However, more than two weeks after the claim first appeared online, no such incidents have been reported.
Tope Ajayi, a presidential spokesman, said the claim was aimed at fueling tensions in the country.
“We are in the era of mindless fake news that wants to create discontent and crisis in the country. President Bola Tinubu will never do that. Such fake news should be completely ignored,” he told AFP Fact Check on December 16, 2024.
On the same day, Mansur Ibrahim, the publicity secretary of the Lekki Muslim Ummah – the central body for Muslims in the Lekki area of Lagos – also confirmed that religious activities in mosques continued uninterrupted.
