The Nigeria Labour Congress has again rejected the 50 per cent telecom tariff hike approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission, proposing a five per cent increase instead.
The country’s labour union also reaffirmed its plan to proceed with a nationwide protest on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, to express its opposition to the tariff adjustment.
NLC spokesman Benson Upah stated this during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday.
“They keep on emasculating us through stupid taxes. It will come to a point when people can pay, but they won’t pay. This really is to halt this mindless tariff increase. And if by any chance there has to be an increase at all, five per cent, given the fact of our situation that there have been increases across the board.
“But now to say 50 per cent, it is not going to work. Where will the ordinary Nigerians be at the end of the day when we have energy tariff increases?” he said.
Upah continued, “The manufacturers are groaning, the middle-class people are groaning. The ordinary Nigerians on the streets can’t even afford to turn on the lights in their sitting rooms. When taxes are low, more people than when you have high taxes.”
On Wednesday, after a National Administrative Council meeting, the NLC President Joseph Ajaero issued a communiqué rejecting the hike, labelling it “insensitive, unjustifiable, and a direct assault on Nigerian workers and the general populace.”
The NLC said it would move forward with a nationwide protest on February 4, 2025, to rally against the hike, asserting that it would only worsen the financial challenges faced by citizens.
Reacting to this, the spokesman stated, “We will start with peaceful rallies, and if those peaceful rallies do not work, we will escalate our actions.
“Our actions would be reasonable and within the ambit of the law. It is going to be effective, and there will be mass actions, the type we probably haven’t seen before.”
On January 20, the NCC announced its approval of a 50 per cent tariff increase for telecom operators, citing rising operational costs and the necessity to maintain industry sustainability.
In a statement signed by the NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka, the Commission emphasised that the decision aligns with its regulatory responsibilities under Section 108 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003.