The Catholic Church says Nigeria is stuck in the web of corruption under President Bola Tinubu’s reign, excoriating his government for the rising debt burden, multiple taxation, and harsh economic environment forcing businesses to shut down.

The church leaders in Nigeria stated this in a communiqué issued at the end of the Second Plenary Meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), held in Auchi Diocese, Edo, between August 22 and 30.

“There is an unfortunate general feeling in the nation that we are stuck in a tight web of corruption from which we cannot extricate ourselves,” the communique said. “There are economic policies that seem to be in favour of those in the corridors of power and their cronies in the business sector.”

This echoes a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics that N721 billion was received as bribes by public officials under respective administrations of then-President Muhammadu Buhari and the incumbent in 2023 alone.

Also, last April, the U.S. government expressed concerns that Mr Tinubu was perpetuating the pervasive corruption of his predecessors through such appointments.

The Catholic bishops lamented government officials living in opulence without cutting the cost of governance while urging citizens to suffer hunger and poverty as the economy hurts.

“The majority of Nigerians are now stuck in living conditions that detract from human dignity. Thus, the debt burden has turned out to be a new form of enslavement of present and future generations,” the communique stressed.

The Catholic leaders added, “The government officials keep calling for patience and sacrifice, but their call does not fall well on the rest of the citizens who continue to suffer hunger and dehumanizing poverty, while those in power live an affluent lifestyle, with no visible effort at reducing the cost of governance.”

The Catholic clergy acknowledged tax payment as a civic duty but urged the government at all levels to harmonise taxes, constituting a huge burden on businesses and industries struggling to survive amid Nigeria’s economic downturn.

“Payment of tax is a civic duty, evasion of which is a grave offence. Yet, multiple taxation is a severe burden on business enterprises and individuals, especially within the Nigerian context, where many factories, industries and companies are being strangled by epileptic power supply, high costs of petroleum products, spiralling inflation, rising labour costs, the continuous weakening of the Naira, and scarcity of foreign exchange,” the Catholic explained.

They noted that the situation “has been further compounded by continuous hiking of bank interest rate and multiple taxation.”

They accused the federal, state and local government agencies of coming up “with different names to collect the same taxes from business enterprises and even voluntary agency institutions with threats, intimidation and blackmail.”