Our taxes will fund his campaign: Nigerians rage as tax boss joins Tinubu’s 2027 fundraising team

Why Zacch Adedeji’s dual role is constitutionally and ethically contested

When the All Progressives Congress released its 2027 Presidential Campaign Council list on Saturday, one name stopped Nigeria cold: Zacch Adedeji — chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service, the agency responsible for collecting every naira of federal tax revenue — listed as Deputy Director of Fundraising for President Bola Tinubu’s reelection campaign.

The appointment, announced by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, placed the country’s most powerful tax official squarely inside a partisan political fundraising structure — and the reaction has been swift, sharp and damning, according to Daily Trust, Peoples Gazette and The Punch.

The central objection is straightforward. Adedeji is not a politician. He is a serving public servant, bound by Nigeria’s Public Service Rules which require civil servants to remain strictly non-partisan. His agency — formerly the Federal Inland Revenue Service — generates the lion’s share of Nigeria’s non-oil revenue, making him one of the most powerful unelected officials in the country. Placing that official inside a presidential campaign’s fundraising apparatus raises an obvious and uncomfortable question: where does tax collection end and campaign financing begin?

Former Kogi West Senator Dino Melaye has vowed to test the legality of the appointment in court. “The man who is supposed to observe PSR is not just supporting Tinubu — he is the Deputy Director in charge of fundraising. And meanwhile, you are in charge of revenue collection of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Melaye said on his verified X account, adding: “If that is not conflict of interest, I don’t know what else it would be.”

Social media commentator Morris Monye was blunter: “Most likely using our taxes to fund APC’s campaign. Because what is this appointment?” Kalu Aja argued Adedeji should take a leave of absence from public office if he wished to work for a political party. “You are destroying institutions in the name of politics,” he said. @_yang_El added: “He is automatically a public servant and in the Public Service Rules. Civil servants are meant to be non-partisan when it comes to politics. You either be a government worker or go work for the Political Party.”

@MohdHAbdullahi put it most clinically: “This raises ethical issues, and the tendency to divert public resources for a particular political party’s campaign is manifest. A line must be drawn between partisanship and etiquette of public service. This is clearly an abuse of office.”

The administration has not directly addressed the conflict of interest question. Tinubu’s statement to the council focused on campaign messaging and his administration’s record, urging members to “soundly defeat all those forces who plan to take our country backwards.” Supporters of the appointment would likely argue that Adedeji’s expertise in revenue generation and financial networks makes him a natural fit for a fundraising role, and that his appointment does not automatically mean public funds will be misused.

But that argument struggles against the weight of public perception and institutional precedent. No previous Nigerian administration has placed a sitting revenue agency chairman inside a presidential campaign structure — and the optics of doing so are, at minimum, deeply problematic.

The Adedeji controversy is not the only one shadowing the new campaign council. The African Democratic Congress has criticised the inclusion of former Humanitarian Affairs Minister Betta Edu — under investigation for allegedly diverting N585 million into a private account — and former NSITF chairman Ngozi Olejeme, currently facing trial for N1 billion fraud. The Allied Peoples’ Movement described the council as an “assembly of disconnected yes men and discredited politicians.”

Whether Tinubu was right to appoint Adedeji ultimately comes down to a choice between political convenience and institutional integrity. Nigeria’s revenue collection agency must be, and must be seen to be, independent of partisan political interest. By placing its chairman at the centre of a campaign fundraising apparatus, the Tinubu administration has made that independence considerably harder to assert — and considerably easier to question.