A cross section of students in Enugu State, on Wednesday – yesterday, January 22 – appealed for the reversal of the 50 per cent hike in tariff in telecommunication services due to prevailing socio-economic hardship in the country.
The students who spoke in separate interviews conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) expressed the view that telecommunication services, such as internet data service, have enhanced learning and research work, making its usage indispensable to all students, and would suffer greatly unless the tariff hike is reversed.
Mr Divine Eze, a student of the Department of Environmental Management at the University of Nigeria Enugu Campus (UNEC), urged the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and telecom companies to consider the financial struggle of students and their parents and reverse the hike.
Eze said that currently most students could not easily cope with the high costs of textbooks and other educational materials, which have increased in the past few years.
“The only relief we have for now is the telecommunication services that have helped students to manage, thus, reducing need for travels, time of doing research and writing same research work,” he said.
Speaking, a student of the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Mrs Chiamaka Dike, called on NCC and telecom companies not to increase the cost of data service as it would negatively affect learning and education the most.
“Usage of data has made me manage the N2,000 that my parents usually give to me monthly for GSM services.
“Many other students I know go through such strict conditions by using data only when necessary,” Dike, who is of the Department of Banking and Finance, said.
Corroborating, Mr Chidiebere Chimdobe, a student of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), noted that NCC and telecom companies failed to consult and carry all telecom stakeholders along in pushing for the hike.
Chimdobe said telecommunication services drive millions of soft jobs or e-jobs which students and fresh graduates have engaged in in the past 10 years.
According to him, NCC and telecom companies are thoroughly insensitive to the hardship and daily struggles and plights of Nigerian youths most of whom are students.
“If they go ahead with the hike, it will further compound hardship and will increase social vices as well,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Progressive Students Movement (PSM), a pan-African students movement, has given an ultimatum of 72-hour to NCC and telecom companies to reverse the recent 50 per cent hike in tariff.
The President of PSM, Mr Bestman Okereafor, called for the review and reversal in a statement made available to newsmen in Enugu.
Okereafor noted that the 50 per cent increment at this time is “unjustifiable, untimely, and insensitive; hence the total rejection of this anti-masses increment.”
According to him, PSM is calling on NCC and telecommunications companies to review their stance as a matter of urgency.
He said: “The attention of PSM has been drawn to NCC’s approval of Telecom operators’ 50 per cent tariff increment.
“It will be recalled that telecom operators had previously demanded to adjust their tariff rate; a request which many Nigerians especially Nigerian students frowned at.
“Information at our disposal shows that NCC approved the telecom companies request in response to rising operational costs, at the detriment of Nigerians and the obvious economic realities facing the country.
“However, this development, which allows for a maximum of 50 per cent adjustment to current tariffs, was announced in a statement signed by Reuben Muoka, the NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, on Monday, Jan. 20.”
The PSM President warned that the entire students’ bodies would be protesting this abnormal and inconsiderate 50 per cent increment in tariff if not reviewed in the next 72 hours. (NAN)
