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By Bimbola Oyesola
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has threatened mass protest and total shutdown of economy if the federal government fails to withdraw the contentious cyber security levy recently introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The TUC president, Festus Osifo, said the protest would not only involve members of the organised labour but the entire citizens of the country.
“We call on the federal government to give marching orders to the Central Bank of Nigeria to immediately withdraw the circular and cancel the planned levy forthwith; failure of which we will be left with no option than to mobilize all our members, stakeholders and indeed the entire masses to embark on immediate protest that would culminate into total shutdown of the Nigerian economy as this is one exploitation too many,” he said.
Stating that, “Enough is enough; Nigerians must breathe! These extortions must stop”, the TUC said imposing a 0.5 percent cybersecurity levy on almost all electronic transactions is “illogical, coming at a time that Nigerians are grappling with high cost of living that is imposed by devaluation of naira, hike in the cost of petrol, supersonic increment in the cost of electricity tariff, etc.”
The TUC president said the congress was quite disturbed that since the inception of this administration, its policies have brought pain, anguish and sorrow on Nigerians.
He said that a bank account holder in Nigeria today is currently charged stamp duty, transfer fee, VAT on transfer fee, and all forms of account maintenance levies by both government and the banks, noting that this burden seems not to be enough as government is poised to inflict further pain on already battered Nigerians.
“So many policies of this government are not only imposing hardship on the downtrodden Nigerians but also on businesses, as some of them are shutting down because of the unfriendly business environment,” he stated.
The labour leader lamented that the National Assembly that ought to be the bastion of democracy and the protector of the citizens often times engages in collusion with elements within the executive to exploit the people, wondering how can such obnoxious law see the light of day in a truly people oriented legislative house.
“This is indeed a conspiracy of the oppressors against the masses and citizens of this country and it must be resisted by all well-meaning Nigerians.”
According to Osifo, “Financial analysts have done a preliminary estimate using the 2023 online transfer volume in Nigeria that fell within these categories and put the value at over 2 trillion Naira; what kind of cybercrime are we fighting with this humongous amount of money?” He opined that this ugly development will further encourage people to hoard cash at home, reduce financial inclusion, increase poverty and exacerbate misery index.
The TUC President reasoned that the cost of living is at an all-time high, food inflation is biting, all contributing to the vulnerability of Nigerians, adding that, “This act is viewed as a deliberate plot to continue to drain Nigerians of their hard-earned money and we kick against this vehemently.”
He maintained that all Nigerians are interested in right now is the urgent conclusion of discussions around the minimum wage and not a “vexatious policy that is further reducing the already depleted disposable income of the masses and indirectly ridiculing the gain which the minimum wage would have brought to the people when concluded.”
