The increase of taxes during periods of economic hardship has been described as an invitation for social unrest.

This advice was given ahead of the implementation of the new tax law which commenced on January 1, 2026.

Daily Trust reports that the federal government had assured that under the new tax regime, low income earners would pay less, insisting that no new taxes have been introduced.

Speaking at the launch of “Moria’s Scar: Agbekoya Uprising” by Nigerian author, Bimbo Bakare, he warned that increasing taxes during periods of economic hardship is tantamount to inviting social unrest.

He recalled the conditions that gave rise to the Agbekoya revolt.

“When people are facing economic pressures, that is not the time to levy high tax,” he said.

He stressed that history repeatedly shows how economic decisions taken without social sensitivity can spiral into crisis.

He linked the Agbekoya uprising to the manipulation of cocoa prices by foreign interests, a practice he said impoverished farmers and triggered resistance.

Bakare explained that the book explores how global economic forces shape local suffering.

“It is telling the story that whatever happened in one corner of the world has repercussions for people in other places in the world,” he said.

He added that the book was part of a broader effort to project African experiences into the global knowledge space.

“We need to form a critical mass and populate the global space with our own experiences, our own African narratives,” he said.

He recounted how a Western acquaintance compiling a list of the top 100 people of the century found no African through online searches, attributing the gap to the underrepresentation of African-authored works in digital and academic spaces.

“Not many of those authors are African. So, this is an attempt to bridge that divide as well as encourage each of us to put pen to paper,” he added.

The book reviewer, Ezinne Toyin-Asanmo, noted that political and economic decisions are rarely isolated.

“Political decisions are influenced by foreign parties, business people coming into the economy and trying to destabilise it. And for personal gains, a certain group of people tend to capitalise on that, and we still see that happening today very much in our economy,” she said.