The President of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Festus Osifo, has said that if revenue of states reduce, workers will suffer.

Osifo stated this while commenting on the tax reform bills during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Thursday.

He said that the issue should not be politicised, saying an independent consultant should be brought in to analyse the data.

Osifo said, “Issues like VAT should be backed up by data. This data should be subjected to further analysis. We need to further analyse it to find out what is there if it’s true or correct.

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“If it’s true and correct, we must rejig the bills in order to ensure that no state will suffer. Bcause we in labour also worry if the revenue that is accruable to the states are going down, we will also have challenges with the state paying the minimum wage.

“This data should be subjected to forensic analysis; it should be subjected to all data analysis; we have the tool today. We can come up with true analysis. Once it’s done by an unbiased and independent consultant, people will tend to listen. But when this is done by some people from some sections of the country, the others will have mutual suspicion.

“The national Assembly, both Senate and House of Representatives, must bring in an independent consultant, who understands this data very well, who will be able to disaggregate them and come up with a clear composition.”