Tax data sovereignty: Tinubu’s open invitation to French neo-colonialism, By Jibrin Ibrahim

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I am very worried that there appears to be no one in the government that is concerned about our national interest. Which country in the world would a nationalist industrialist invest $20 billion to establish a massive petroleum complex and government agencies would be issuing import licenses for massive imports targeted at destroying our greatest industrial asset? How can the government promote a partnership with a foreign company that would outsource our tax data management, thereby exposing us to the foreign manipulation of our most important financial information?

Last week, Nigeria gave up its proud history of assertiveness and independence in the international system by signing off our tax data sovereignty to a foreign power. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) signed an MoU with the French Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (DGFiP) to exercise technical oversight over our tax data. We live in interesting times, when an elected government would hand over our sovereignty without even flinching. There is no basis for such behaviour and we should know better. We know from experience that when INEC decided to drop foreign technical expertise and use local know-how in 2010-2011, the integrity of our voters’ list developed remarkably and we no longer suffered the indignity and anxiety of waiting upon a foreign country to give us our voters list in time for elections. We also had no more need to pay extortionate charges to a foreign company to allow us access to our own data. Have no doubt about it, when you give up your data to a foreign company, they own it and use it to their advantage.

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I support the campaign by Dr Segun Adebayo, who has repeatedly made the case that the MoU with France is senseless because Nigeria does not need external digital tax infrastructure. Nigeria is a fintech powerhouse with some of the most powerful unicorns in the world – Flutterwave, PayStack, Interswitch, PiggyVest, Bamboo and NIBSS. We have massive internal capacity and we need to use our own resources. Our taxpayer data is national power and we must not hand it over to a foreign power that can use it to undermine our national security.

I am very worried that there appears to be no one in the government that is concerned about our national interest. Which country in the world would a nationalist industrialist invest $20 billion to establish a massive petroleum complex and government agencies would be issuing import licenses for massive imports targeted at destroying our greatest industrial asset? How can the government promote a partnership with a foreign company that would outsource our tax data management, thereby exposing us to the foreign manipulation of our most important financial information? How can we do this at a time when so many African countries are liberating themselves from the stranglehold of French neo-colonial control? How can we offer ourselves willingly to that control in spite of the massive risk of the loss of our sovereignty? How can we even envisage a foreign power keeping the details of the incomes and expenditures of every tax payer and corporate body in our country? Is there no nationalist in the ruling APC government?

We Nigerians should all be concerned and express our opposition to the attempt to hand over the most personal and sensitive corporate database of all Nigerians to France by the FIRS. The harm done by handing over not just financial details but also identity data, including BVN and NIN records, collected from Nigerians to a foreign entity is immense. We are about to be handed over to France on a platter of gold and the entire Western intelligence network…

France has a long history of seeking to control the data sovereignty of its neo-colonies. French neo-colonialism in Africa is anchored on its control of the currencies and foreign reserves of its client states. On matters of data sovereignty, the French company, Gemalto (now part of Thales) controlled the electoral roll and biometric systems for elections in African countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea and Burkina Faso. During the 2018 elections, serious problems arose over the reliability of the technology provided and there was nothing the country could do. France has a long history of extending and deepening its neo-colonial control through corrupt data generating companies. Currently, Gemalto is under investigation in France over corruption relating to how it obtained contracts to secure juicy ID document contracts in six African countries. According to French investigative publication Mediapart, which reported the story, Gemalto paid bribes or used other unfair channels like intermediaries or lobbyists to secure at least 10 contracts between 2015 and 2019 to produce different ID documents for Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Niger, Senegal and Uganda. The fact that French companies involved in the data arena have a long history of deep corruption channels with African governments should be an additional cause of concern for us in Nigeria. Is there a dirty deal behind the MoU?

We Nigerians should all be concerned and express our opposition to the attempt to hand over the most personal and sensitive corporate database of all Nigerians to France by the FIRS. The harm done by handing over not just financial details but also identity data, including BVN and NIN records, collected from Nigerians to a foreign entity is immense. We are about to be handed over to France on a platter of gold and the entire Western intelligence network — including Britain’s MI5, America’s CIA, and Israel’s Mossad, who would all have direct access to our data.

The love affair between the Tinubu administration and the French government is causing concerns throughout Africa, as we continue to display our commitment to maintaining France as our “neo-colonial partner”. Nigeria must return to its historic role of maintaining the country’s strategic autonomy in world and African affairs. The French government is collapsing at home, in Europe and in African affairs. Nigeria should beware of taking the role of propping up France, the collapsing neo-colonial power in Africa.

Nigeria has an important leadership role to play in Africa. Following the coup d’état in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger over the past few years, the issue of French neo-colonialism has been on the West African agenda. These countries have closed French and American military bases in their countries and thrown out their troops. Foreign and exploitative mining and other companies have also been thrown out as these countries are actively seeking to end the French neo-colonial control of their countries. There is currently a very strong anti-neo-colonial movement developing in the region. Senegal has also closed French military bases in the country and sent out their troops. Even Cote d’Ivoire, which is very pro-French, sent out French troops from the country. Is Nigeria going to be the only country going against the tide and actively inviting French neo-colonial control over its economy and security?

Just over a week ago when the attempted coup was ongoing in Benin Republic, Macron, the French president, posted on X that he had just had a discussion with President Bola Tinubu on security matters. Shortly afterwards, it was announced that Nigerian war planes were bombing the putschists in Cotonou. Did Nigeria act on its own or did we act with/for France? The love affair between the Tinubu administration and the French government is causing concerns throughout Africa, as we continue to display our commitment to maintaining France as our “neo-colonial partner”. Nigeria must return to its historic role of maintaining the country’s strategic autonomy in world and African affairs. The French government is collapsing at home, in Europe and in African affairs. Nigeria should beware of taking the role of propping up France, the collapsing neo-colonial power in Africa.

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A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES.