Opinion: Nigerian youth and the insanity of NCC

by Irebami Taiwo

Dear young fellow,

I’mm angry that at this moment when we are supposed to be at the frontiers of this change, we are here taking the back seat and letting a few of the older generation sway us about.

The prices of goods and services have increased in the last six months and as young people we are quiet about it. The ones that have the greater influence of this age group are no longer taking the position.  Some of them now have political appointments and no longer have the interest of this age group.

My generation was the master mind of the Occupy Nigeria protest.

I’m not forgetting in a hurry the Social Media bill that a ruling party member brought to the floor of the Nigerian Senate, thereby burning down one of the major roads that led them to the office.

The height for me was getting this SMS from my network provider.

“Dear customer, please be informed that from 1st Dec, some MTN data tariffs will be increased to reflect the new rates set by the NCC to operators. Thank you.”

 

This was what I could gather when I read about it online

“The Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) has directed mobile operators to initiate a new data tariff regime from December 1, 2016 in what is effectively a price increase”

I

Why? you may ask.  From my findings:

“In order to provide a level playing field for all operators in the industry, small operators and new entrants to acquire market share and operate profitably small operators and new entrants are hereby exempted for the price floor for data services,” it said.

“For the avoidance of doubt a small operator is one that has less than 7.5 percent market share and a new entrant is an operator that has operated less than three years in the market.

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Dear NCC,

This new data tariff is just like you are overburdening the already overburdened. The economy at the moment is in  recession,  a lot of unemployed young graduates roaming the streets.  There is no money in circulation. I put the question to you once again,  Why?  Why the increment? Even with the prices of the current tariffs,  it’s still really difficult for many to afford. Why are those put in power to protect us, ease life for us, now making things so hard for the average Nigerian? The ones with jobs among us barely earn anything, certainly not enough to be independent. A basic 30,000 naira monthly salary including tax with subscriptions swallowing about one-sixth of that. Having access to the Internet may not be a necessity but it shouldn’t be made an impossibility. It’s the 21st century,  the world is in the technology age. Everything happens online these days. So yes, in a way,  Internet access is actually a necessity. As youths, most of us follow the current news on social media.

Now u are asking Network providers to increase that.

To what end, please?

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I want to implore my fellow Nigerian Youths, we can’t be quiet about an issue has trivial as this. We can’t just continue to let issues like this happen. We are the future of this country and issues like this will directly impact us. This calls for action from us against this decision.

#DataMustFall

Enough said.


Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

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