By
Alex Onyia
Nigeria is walking into a one-chance that will shock generations.
FIRS just signed an MoU with France’s DGFiP to “modernise tax administration”, “data-driven enforcement”, “information exchange”, and “capacity building”.
If you like believe sweet grammar.
Translation: Nigeria has opened the engine room of its tax system to France.
Who is advising these people?
Let’s be clear. France is not an innocent actor in Africa. France is the most aggressive economic-intelligence power in West Africa.
They hold CFA countries by the throat.
They control currency reserves.
They shape customs rules.
They monitor financial flows from Dakar to N’Djamena.
They embed “advisers” inside governments.
France does not play.
Without Africa, France would be a mid-tier country nobody sends.
Once France enters your revenue backend, they can read your entire economy like a Bible:
– Who pays tax
– Who evades
– Which sectors are weak
– Which sectors are profitable
– Where money comes from
– Where money goes
– Where wealth lives
– Where political networks hide
That is not “capacity building”.
That is POWER.
And Nigeria handed it over like a Valentine gift.
Instead of building sovereign capacity, we are outsourcing our fiscal brain to a foreign power that survives by controlling African economies.
Even Francophone countries are fighting to escape France’s grip.
Nigeria is rushing into it by itself. Incredible.
France didn’t build wealth with chains alone.
They used African tax, labour, rubber, gold, cash crops, and minerals.
Today, the chains are called:
“MoUs”
“Digital transformation”
“BEPS frameworks”
“Cross-border cooperation”
Same script. New costume.
Now imagine this as Nigeria transitions from FIRS to Nigeria Revenue Service in 2026 with foreign fingerprints already on the backend, algorithms, enforcement logic, data pipelines, and compliance structure.
Who do you fight tomorrow when your tax DNA is exposed?
Does the US give IRS backend to Mexico?
Does the UK hand HMRC to Pakistan?
Does India give its tax system to China?
Does France give Algeria its revenue architecture?
Never.
But Nigeria keeps behaving like a giant that signs away sovereignty for photo-ops.
Nigerians, your future is being auctioned in broad daylight.
Line by line.
Signature by signature.
Document by document.
“Our dear native land” is no longer poetry.
It is slipping away quietly.
Clap if you like.
Play tribal politics if you like.
But hear this truth:
Once a foreign power holds your tax system, your independence is finished.
No guns needed. Just MoUs.
Every sensible Nigerian must speak with one voice.
Not today.
Not tomorrow.
Not ever.
ALEX ONYIA FIRST WROTE THIS ON X TWITTER
