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Has it occurred to us that we are gradually adapting to the sit-at-home as a national pastime? Contrary to what most people may think, the sit-at-home phenomenon is no longer a South East problem but a national ailment that needs a quick cure.
Nigeria is now in the third phase of this unwelcome national experiment.
The first phase was forced on us by a worldwide deadly disease called coronavirus, codenamed COVID-19. No one knows how the disease crept in on humanity. Initially, scientists guessed that animals transmitted the disease to humans. Later, we heard that this was biological warfare research gone wrong. Accusing fingers pointed at China, a superpower peddling a peculiar brand of global influence. But then, the story changed when it was suggested that the United States, a rival superpower, funded the Chinese lab from where the disease allegedly escaped to ravage humanity. What we do know is the extent of its horrifying devastation to the human population. About seven million people died. Nigeria accounted for a tiny percentage of the deaths, at 3,155 persons to date.
For more than 14 months, COVID-19 forced the world indoors while governments printed more money to buy vaccines and palliatives to share among disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. In Nigeria, government officials hoarded the palliatives and made a bonfire of expired vaccines while watching the poor suffer and die from the disease, together with associated hunger and malnutrition. The palliatives never worked because of the corruption and greed of those entrusted with the responsibility to share them. And we will never know whether animals or the global quest for domination by world powers gave rise to the calamity.
Nigeria entered its second phase of sit-at-home, prompted by separatist agitation. South East agitators forced citizens of their region indoors in a bid to arm-twist the government into releasing their separatist leader. The arrest of their leader birthed rival separatist factions that are today whimsically imposing longer stretches of the forced sit-ins, effectively destroying a key economic region. Government did not consider palliatives for the poor and vulnerable caught in the middle of its military offensives to tame the agitators. We carried on as if the sit-ins had no national implications. Although restricted to the South East, the sit-at-home affects productivity and tax harvests, to name two national casualties. But palliatives never came to disadvantaged citizens because the government of the day obviously had an axe to grind with people of the region.
Today, we are in another phase of the national sit-at-home, the third since 2019. Unlike previous ones, this phase is forced on the people by government’s fiscal and monetary policies. It began on 29th May, 2023, with a new government that removed safety nets that hitherto supported the fragile economy. To ameliorate their immediate devastating impact, two states hurriedly implemented sit-at-home for public sector workers by reducing the workweek to three days. In the private sector, employers experimented with remote work as a creative sit-at-home for employees to cope with severe hardships occasioned by fuel subsidy removal. People, however, wonder what effect these tokens will have on a nation with a third of its population unemployed, where employees cannot cope with their take-home pay, where hunger threat has become real as subsistence and smallholder farmers abandon their farmlands, and where small and medium enterprises are rapidly folding up.
Amid doubts and anguish, federal legislators approved N500 billion as palliative for the poor and N70 billion for themselves. Mr. Tinubu, we heard, has changed his mind and is now hoarding the money while he considers other ways to provide for the suffering poor. These days, no one seriously questions humongous funds approvals by the National Assembly and the uses to which they are put. The popular perception is that these represent war booty for election victors, which explains why Nigerian elections are prosecuted like mortal combat, a fight to the finish, a do-or-die. The strongest snatches power and runs with it while the weak threaten to soak baboons and monkeys in their blood or pontificate on the immorality of the power hijack.
When strong forces – pandemics, separatist agitations, state capture – lead to suffering, palliatives do not work because the forces are actuated by greed, selfishness and corruption. Who will be surprised that every naira budgeted is a potential repayment for campaign expenses? And so, after we get through the Tinubu imposed sit-at-home, the poor and vulnerable will look forward to another round of suffering, initiated by those who battle to impose their will on a region, the nation and the world.
The palliative that works
From all indications, banks appear to be the lone sector where palliatives work. And this may be because they do not wait around for the government. They pinch what they need to survive and thrive from depositors’ funds.
Three days ago, three friends bitterly complained about a particular commercial bank that all four of us patronize. One felt so bad about it that he took to Facebook to post the evidence and offload his frustration on the bank. It was this post that convinced me that depositors are facing a craftily planned and surgically executed theft from their banks. Here is the evidence, from my friend’s Facebook post and what I received as SMS alert from the bank on the same date, 17th July, 2023:
TO ME TO MY FRIEND
Txn: Debit Txn: Debit
Ac: 2XX..59X Ac: 2XX..70X
Amt: N60.00 Amt: N148.00
Des: SMS/SMS Charges JUN 28TH 2023 – JULY 15TH 2023 Des: SMS/SMS Charges JUN 28TH 2023 – JULY 15TH 2023
Date: 17-07-2023 22:12 Date: 17-07-2023 16:18
The bank simultaneously withdrew between 60 and 148 naira from each of its customers’ deposits. To analyse what happened on 17th July, I counted how many message alerts I received from the bank within the period 28th June to 15th July, 2023. There were 15 messages in all, meaning that the bank was charging N4 per SMS.
This was not all.
Four of those 15 SMS were airtime payment for which they will eventually share a commission with telcos. The bank may have negotiated the SMS at N1.50 to N2.00 and will, therefore, be netting between N2.00 and N2.50 on each message sent. I also noticed that one of the SMS withdrawals was for Stamp Duty levy. We know that banks share the cost of collection for all federal and some state taxes. So, after collecting their share of the Stamp Duty harvest, the banks will still charge depositors for SMS alerts and share the charge with telcos.
Here is where it gets interesting. On its website, the bank says that it “provides corporate, commercial, SME, consumer and personal (retail) banking services to more than 27 million customers. This means that, on an average of N150 per customer, the bank, through this one-day action, withdrew N4.5 billion from its customers’ deposit on SMS charges alone. If this practice continues, this bank will pinch about N54 billion from its customers’ deposits every year – on SMS charges alone! Add other frivolous charges and levies that flagged Mr. Godwin Emefiele’s Central Bank monetary policy, and the seriousness of systematic robberies that banks execute becomes nothing short of a criminal heist that a responsible government should not condone.
Individual bank depositors do not bother to complain when this “change” is pinched from their accounts. But consider this: Data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBBS) record 191.4 million active bank accounts as of December 2021. With an average of N150 monthly withdrawals as SMS charges, our banks are in effect stealing over N344 billion from their customers from this lone charge. This being the case, do you wonder when people claim that Nigeria is a crime scene?
