The Nigeria House of Representatives has rejected the proposed Operation Positive Identification (OPI) planned by the Nigeria Army to commence nationwide on November 1.

Consequently, it charged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct Chief of Army Staff, Mr Tukur Buratai, to put the operation on hold pending due consultations on the OPI.

The House also directed its Committee on Army to immediately engage with Buratai to develop a pro-people security management strategy.

This followed adoption of a motion sponsored by the Minority Leader, Mr Ndudi Elumelu, at yesterday’s plenary, urging the House to intervene and halt the proposed military operation.

Elumelu, in his lead debate, argued that the Army was exceeding its constitutional brief by proposing to embark on a nationwide military operation without authorisation of the National Assembly.

According to him, 1999 Constitution (as amended) stipulates that before the Army can embark on any activity outside its brief, it must get approval of National Assembly.

The minority leader, who said he was not aware the parliament had given any such approval, contended that the operation, if allowed, will amount to an infringement on the rights of the citizens.

“If the proposed Operation Positive Identification is allowed, it will downgrade innocent Nigerians to suspects, prisoners and in fact, conquered persons in their own country, thereby stripping them of their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of movement, and instilling fear and anxiety in the citizenry.”

Mr Chukwuma Umeoji, an All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) member, who represents Aguata Federal Constituency of Anambra State, urged the Army to jettison the proposed operation as it is allien to the 1999 Constitution as amended.

“It it is worrisome that the military is increasingly been involved in primary civilian exercise. The government should initiate a programme for the withdrawal of the military from engagement that are primarily the constitutional role of the police. The militarisation of the country is dangerous for democracy, considering the history of the country. In the eyes of the international community, it portrays Nigeria as country at war with itself. The military is used for citizen identification only in occupied territory".

Sun

More Nigerians are now shunning transactions via Point of Sales (PoS) terminals; owing to the implementation of a ₦50 additional charge by merchants, as imposed by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in collaboration with the Nigeria Inter- Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).

CBN described the new service levy as Stamp Duty Charge.

Investigations showed that customers now avoid ePayment platform in preference for cash deals, thereby throwing a big spanner in the Federal Government’s financial inclusion drive and in particular, CBN’s cashless policy.

Customers, who previously cheered CBN’s decision to infuse the policy, saying it would eliminate the risk of carrying cash and reduce the cost of printing Naira notes, have criticised the move to collect stamp duty charges on PoS transactions.

It must also be mentioned that other payment channels, including the automated teller machines (ATMs), Instant Transfers, Online Banking, and Mobile Banking are still seriously challenged.

Already, financial transactions are replete with all manners of excess charges by banks and merchants, even when services are not delivered as and when due. According to the CBN 2017 to 2019 Banking Guide, Nigerians, especially bank customers are made to face several charges by the financial institutions.

These include N52.50k monthly card maintenance fee; N65 after third withdrawal in ATM interbank fees. Most times, banks remove the N65 at the first and subsequent withdrawals.

The banks still deduct N4 for SMS alerts, including unsolicited ones for birthday wishes, national and international day celebrations and operational updates.

There is also N52 deduction in electronic transfer service. Banks also collect as much as N4,000 as fee for hardware token and N4 for one-time pin (OTP) SMS charge as well as N20 per page of a Statement of Account, among others.

While all these are imposed, then comes the N50 Stamp Duty Charge on Nigerians, who use the PoS terminals.

According to customers, the new N50 charge, which has been implemented by many fuel stations and supermarkets in Lagos, has become a burden and a source of worry to them and merchants as well. 

A visit to Ikeja shopping mall in Lagos showed that more customers made cash payments instead of transaction via PoS terminals.

The same situation played out at Hubmart, also at Ikeja. One of the officials, who preferred anonymity, said: “most people today (yesterday) made payments via cash. They said they can’t part with additional ₦50 charge.”

Also, some petrol stations, especially independent marketers, pasted a notice on the ₦50 additional charge on their walls for customers to see. An attendant at Petrocam, Oke -Afa, Lagos, who simply gave his name as Adetunji, said:” most people that have visited our station today to refill their tanks opted to pay with cash, even those that have been using cards before now. Some because of the ₦50 charge refused to refill their tanks.”

Indeed, while the interaction with Adetunji was on-going, a customer, Chinedu Okeke, entered to refill his tank via PoS, but immediately he saw the ₦50 notice, he opted to do cash. “I would rather pay with cash than pay N50 for a service that should be free of charge. What has this CBN or government done for the masses that they will impose this charge on us? The welfare of common citizens was not put into consideration while taking this devilish decision.”

Another customer who spoke to The Guardian after paying the ₦50 charge at Oando fuel station, Berger, Lagos reiterates that the process would only sabotage the cashless policy drive by CBN, as many customers would prefer paying with cash to evade the stamp duty levy.

According to the entrepreneur who identified herself as Adamma Nwachukwu, the apex bank is already frustrating its own policy cashless economy and financial inclusion through the N50 charge, saying: “it should be abolished forthwith as Nigerians already over-burdened with too many taxes, levies and charges without corresponding value for money.”

Confirming the drop in PoS transactions in a telephone chat with our correspondent, Managing Director, ITEX Integrated Services, a CBN licensed Super-Agent, Ernest Uduje, while commending the apex bank in the drive to improve financial inclusion in the country, insisted that “this ₦50 charge is ill-timed.”

According to him, transactions through PoS have dropped within the last few weeks. “In a nutshell, I think it is affecting transactions negatively, because now most businesses like filling stations, if you go there now, they will show you their prices, and they will say they will charge you ₦50 extra.

Then, in some places they will tell you go and bring cash, they are not interested because they don’t know other charges that will follow. “I don’t know why government is focusing on PoS alone because there are other platforms, the ATMs, and others. If they are looking at driving cashless, this is not a time to add additional fees. Already, merchants are suffering lots of other taxes directly and indirectly, then another ₦50. The merchant would just abandon the process and collect cash. “I still mentioned it to them at a function that government has reduced what we can charge. In other countries, they charge two to five per cent per transaction, depending on what you are doing. On our own, we came together and said we should do 1.75 per cent to encourage the market. But when CBN got into the entire process, they said go and start at 2.75; we will allow you to increase later on. Rather than increase it, they reduced it, and now charging ₦50.

“This means that on one hand you say you are encouraging people, you bring down to .5, to drive the numbers, but again you have added ₦50 as bank duty, so nobody is coming. We have seen a decline in our transaction volumes. I think there should be a rethink to stimulate the entire ePayment process. It looks like small money, but ₦50 is something to the merchant, and also to the end user,” Uduje stressed.

Meanwhile, NIBSS data showed the total volumes of PoS transactions for 2017 stood at 146.3 million which was worth N1.4 trillion; 285.9 million transactions in 2018 valued at N2.3 trillion, and 187.7 million for six months- January to June 2019 worth N1.4 trillion.

According to President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Olusola Teniola, there should be an urgent stakeholders meeting that will include the CPC, CBN, legislators, civic society, NCC, and Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. Also to attend the meeting are other wider stakeholders – banks, telecom and service providers, and consumers to address the charges being applied by the banks and ratify the best approach to addressing the infrastructural deficit vis-a-vis the cashless policy objectives.

While the Stamp Duty charges controversy rages, some top Nigerian lenders like GTBank and Access Bank, have begun to offer palliativies. GTBank has removed all bank charges for young undergraduates on its GTCRea8 account product. This is specifically for undergraduates between the ages of 16 to 25. GTBank said it will cover all charges on transfers, USSD transactions, and bank alerts for the account holders.

Commenting on the Bank’s removal of charges for young undergraduates, the Executive Officer of GTB, Segun Agbaje, said: “Empowering young people in every way we can is the most valuable investment that we can make for the future. That is why we have taken this bold step to cover the cost of all their banking charges, not just to allow them to bank for free, but also to inspire them to imagine a world free of all limits to their ambitions, and in which they can achieve their greatest dreams.”

Similarly, Access Bank is offering its customers one week free instant transfers (NIP) to any bank. The bank in an advertorial said, “Instant transfers are free for the entire week for all our customers, and you can perform as many transactions as you want, its that simple. All you need to do is use your mobile app, internet banking or dial *426# or *901# for the transfers.”

The development follows the completion of the upgrade of its banking platforms in line with global best practice.

The Guardian

Federal Government says it is working on how to inject sanity into the social media space which, according to it, is totally out of control today.

Addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, Minister of Information and Culture Mr Lai Mohammed said social media at present constituted real danger to the unity of the country.

It would be recalled that an attempt during the first tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari to regulate social media was rebuffed by many Nigerians who argued that the same platform had aided Buhari’s election in 2015.

Meanwhile, in the midst of the raging debate over fake news and misinformation through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others, different stakeholders spoken to yesterday gave different perspectives on the latest move by the government to regulate the cyber space.

“What goes on social media is so ridiculous and we will contain it,” information minister said.

He said since the government launched its reform of the broadcast industry, many Nigerians have reached out to it demanding that it also looked into sanitising the social media space.

“I can assure you that we are also working on how to inject sanity into the social media space which, today is totally out of control,” he stated.

The minister emphasised that contrary to insinuations, the government had no intention of muzzling the media or stifling free speech, saying the campaign was against fake news and hate speech.

He said only those engaged in disseminating fake news or hate speech needed to be worried because they would not be spared.

"We cannot allow fake news and hate speech to become free speech because these Siamese twins of evil are capable of inflicting untold damage on our democracy and are threatening our national unity. They represent a clear and imminent danger to our survival as a nation,” Mohammed said.

He assured that the planned social media regulation would be in line with international best practices as obtainable in Singapore, the United Kingdom and other countries.

“No responsible government will sit by and allow fake news and hate speech to dominate its media space because of the capacity of this menace to exploit our national fault lines to set us against each other and trigger a national conflagration. That is why we will continue to evolve ways to tackle fake news and hate speech until we banish both,” he stated.

Preparing the stage

The minister recalled that following the unprofessional and unethical conduct of some broadcast stations, especially before and during the last general elections, he had constituted a committee on the implementation of the recommendations approved by Mr Buhari to inject sanity into the broadcast industry.

He listed the recommendations to include: “Independence of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from political interference in the exercise of its regulatory powers, particularly with respect to the issuance and withdrawal of broadcasting licence.

Others are: “A review of the National Broadcasting Code and extant broadcasting laws to reflect the following amendments: Upward review of fines from N500,000 to N5,000,000 for breaches relating to hate speeches, inciting comments and indecency; willful repeat of infractions on three occasions after levying fine on a station to attract suspension of licence and upgrade of breach of political comments relating to hate speeches and divisive comments to ‘’Class A’’ offence in the Broadcasting Code.

Also approved, the minister said, were the recommendations on the amendment of NBC Act to enable it license WebTV and radio stations; and recruitment of more monitoring staff for the NBC.

He said at the moment, there are only about 200 staff monitoring about 1,000 radio and television stations nationwide.

Other measures, according to the minister, included deployment of adequate monitoring equipment and technologies for the NBC and enhancement of welfare packages of NBC staff to avoid their compromise in the line of duty.

He said the committee was also saddled with ending all forms of monopoly detrimental to the actualisation of the immense potential of the broadcast industry. “A situation where a few people corner a chunk of the industry to the detriment of others, especially our teeming and talented youths, is totally unacceptable and untenable.

Once the committee submits its report, we will immediately kick-start the implementation of the approved measures to inject sanity into our broadcast industry.

"No amount of attacks sponsored or otherwise will stop the implementation of the approved recommendations. And only non-patriots and anarchists will kick against measures aimed at putting an end to fake news and hate speech, especially in our broadcast industry,” he said.

NUJ, lawyers speak

While Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) backed the move to regulate the social media, lawyers were however divided over the matter. NUJ President Chris Isiguzo said social media regulation was long overdue as activities of its actors “have become something else.”

“When we talk about fake news, dissemination of hate speeches, they are so prevalent in social media. These people don’t have any form of regulation; once you have a smartphone you just begin to send all manner of things,” he said.

However, the Convener of Good Governance Team Nigeria, Tunde Salman, said government had “surreptitiously started regulating the social media as evident in the increasing harassment of bloggers and other social media activists for one flimsy excuse or the other.”

Similarly, Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, said the move to regulate the social media only further confirmed that the present government lacked agenda for the welfare of the people.

“Poverty is rising coupled with the spate of insecurity and other challenges that have been compounded by the lack of clear-cut agenda. And they are not concerned with how to fulfil their promises and help the cause of the country.

“What matters to them now is to stifle one of the few avenues for the suffering Nigerians to express their minds, and curtail their rights to fundamental freedom,” Onyekpere said.

Also, Director, Centre for Democracy and Development, Idayat Hassan, alleged that regulating social media “is another move by APC government to clamp down on free speech, dissent and the civic space.”

According to her, “there is no evidence to suggest that regulation, or whatever name they call it, will reduce fake news or hate speech.”

Executive Director, YIAGA-AFRICA, Samson Itodo said it was unfortunate that the government that benefited from social media “is turning around to regulate the same tool citizens have for holding government to account.”

According to him, “fake news and disinformation are a global phenomenon that needs to be addressed. Other nations did not deal with fake news by regulating social media or limiting free speech.”

Hameed Ajibola Jimoh, a human rights activist, said the conformity that the government must envisage is as regards Section 45(1) of the Constitution, which provides for “restriction and or derogation from fundamental human right,” including freedom of speech.

Section 45(1) states that, “Nothing in sections 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41 of this Constitution shall invalidate any law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society… (a) in the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health; or (b) for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedom or other persons”.

On his part, Mr Egobuokolobia M.D. Umukoro said: “The government can only restrict members of the security from such use. This is important because once there are restrictions on citizens’ right to freely express themselves there cannot be freedom.” 

A pro-democracy activist and former senator, Mr Shehu Sani, said the intended regulation of the social media by the Federal Government might be a veiled attempt to get at critics. Sani said regulating the social media to combat fake news and hate speeches will end up targeting critics of government policies and the opposition.

He said there were enough laws in the country to prosecute defamation, libel and incitement, hence a new law specifically for the social media will only be a new step to emasculate free speech.

Daily Trust

An accident involving two passenger buses which crashed into each other at the early hours of today, Monday, during rush-hour in Nigeria’s commercial capital has landed several Lagosians in the hospital.

The accident occurred at about 7:00 a.m. at Asolo Bus-Stop, near Majidun River, along the busy Ikorodu Road.

“The collision left several passengers injured and the two drivers of the two buses are in critical condition,” a commuter, Tola Oladipupo, said.

According to him “all victims have been taken to a nearby public health facility by Lagos emergency officials.”

It was unclear how many passengers were injured. A telephone line for Lagos emergency services did not connect on Monday morning.

Mr Oladipo said two okada riders plying the restricted bus rapid transit system were to blame for the ghastly crash.

The accident has triggered a long line of traffic jam for residents streaming from Ikorodu and nearby neighbourhoods into downtown Lagos for work.

Emergency and law enforcement authorities have been working to clear the debris and free up traffic flow for stranded road users.

Premium Times