A Human Rights Activist, Olu Omotayo, Esq, has said that the current 50 per cent tariff increase on telecommunication services, is additional burden on the Nigerian masses.
He said this on Tuesday in an interview in Enugu in his reaction to the approval of 50 per cent hike in telecom services.
Omotayo, who is the President of the Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network (CRRAN), said the high telecom tariff would have negative impact on Nigerians.
He said: “There is no justification for that now, especially when Nigerians are still grappling with the current economic hardship.
“I feel the government ought to have thrown the debate open, even to the grassroots so that the general opinion of the people should prevail before going ahead with the increase. “
The human rights lawyer further said that the increase was a hash new year message to the already impoverished Nigerians masses.
“As we speak, price of petrol has gone up again; cost of electricity very high; and now telecom services, all have gone beyond the reach of the masses, ” he said.
Meanwhile, the Progressive Students Movement (PSM), a pan-African students movement, has given an ultimatum of 72-hours to Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and telecom companies to reverse recent 50% hike in tariff.
The President of PSM, Comrade Bestman Okereafor, called for the review and reversal in a statement made available to newsmen in Enugu on Tuesday.
Okereafor noted that the 50 per cent increment at this time is “unjustifiable, untimely, and insensitive; hence the total rejection of this anti-masses increment.”
According to him, PSM is calling on NCC and telecommunications companies to review its stance as a matter of urgency.
He said, “The attention of PSM has been drawn to NCC’s approval of Telecom operators 50 per cent tariff increment.
“It will be recalled that telecom operators had previously demanded to adjust their tariff rate; a request which many Nigerians especially Nigerian students frowned at.
“Information at our disposal shows that NCC approved the telecom companies request in response to rising operational costs, at the detriment of Nigerians and the obvious economic realities facing the country.
“However, this development, which allows for a maximum of 50 per cent adjustment to current tariffs, was announced in a statement signed by Reuben Muoka, the NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, on Monday, Jan. 20.”
The PSM boss warned that the entire students’ bodies would be protesting this abnormal and inconsiderate 50 per cent increment in tariff if not reviewed in the next 72 hours.
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