Don’t Overload Nigerians With Too Much Taxes, Afenifere Charges Tinubu

By Ayodele Oni

Pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, has called on President Bola Tinubu, to ensure that the people are not squeezed out of breath before that good time when results of his policies will be felt by Nigerians.

The Yoruba group advised the president to urgently put a halt to steps by some government institutions to jack up prices of commodities and services “as such would further worsen the precarious situations of hapless Nigerians.”

A statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the organization, Jare Ajayi, maintains that various steps taken lately by Tinubu-led administration may have the potentials of lifting Nigeria up in the medium and long term.

“But there is the need to ensure that the people are not squeezed out of breath before that good time comes, as it’s only a person who is wholesomely alive that would enjoy the largesse of tomorrow!”

While calling on President Tinubu to checkmate steps capable of alienating his administration from the people, Afenifere urged him to be mindful of actions by government agencies that may be tantamount to sabotaging his good intentions.

Afenifere noted that move by the electricity Distribution Companies in the country (Discos) to increase tariffs from July 1, this year, 40 percent, and the Federal Joint Tax Board imposing a levy of N1,000 per annum on every vehicle owner in Nigeria are anti people policies which should not come now.

“As though to further squeeze the citizens, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has made it obligatory for commercial banks to collect and verify their customers’ social media handles as part of their Know Your Customer (KYC) process.”

According to Ajayi, this directive amounts to making members of the public ‘to pay’ for the failure and negligence of relevant organs of the government in carrying out their constitutionally assigned duties.

“The CBN, through its Director, Financial Policy and Regulations Department, Mr. Chibuzo Efobi, said that it gave the directive with a view to ‘bolstering compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism provisions.

“Already, every telephone user in the country got captured as directed by the National Communications Commission (NCC) with the National Identity Number (NIN) incorporated.

“Besides, every bank customer now has what is known as Bank Verification Number (BVN). Email addresses were also registered with the banks into which information from banks are sent to the respective customers.

“Meaning that the information this new directive is seeking is already within the purvey of government agencies.”Faulting the reason of Discos for the planned increase in tariff on Naira exchange that went up from N441 to N750 per dollar, Ajayi wondered why service being rendered in Nigeria should be denominated in or predicated on US Dollar.

“Is the energy they are distributing imported from the United States of America?”

He concluded by calling on President Tinubu to stop the planned increase on electricity tariff and ensure that the increase is not effected secretly as had been done before, stop the planned N1,000 POC levy and prevail on relevant arms of government to utilize information about Nigerians already in their purview as the new CBN directive is repetitive of what already exists in addition to its potential of being used to infringe on the privacy of Nigerians.”

Faulting the reason of Discos for the planned increase in tariff on Naira exchange that went up from N441 to N750 per dollar, Ajayi wondered why service being rendered in Nigeria should be denominated in or predicated on US Dollar.

“Is the energy they are distributing imported from the United States of America?”

Afenifere called on President Tinubu to stop the planned increase on electricity tariff and ensure that the increase is not effected secretly as had been done before, stop the planned N1,000 POC levy and prevail on relevant arms of government to utilize information about Nigerians already in their purview “as the new CBN directive is repetitive of what already exists in addition to its potential of being used to infringe on the privacy of Nigerians.”