By OLATUNDE AJAYI

Business activities at the Ibadan branch of MTN Nigeria were paralysed on Wednesday by a protest staged by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the students? body, under the Joint Campus Committee (JCC) in Oyo State, carried placards with inscriptions protesting the hike in telecommunication tariffs.

The protesting students blocked the main entrance of MTN at Mobil Roundabout with their ?Aluta bus?, carrying placards with inscriptions such as ?Enough is enough! Tariff hike is a scam!?

The actions of the students thus kept both customers and members of staff outside and helpless.

The Executive Chairman, NANS/JCC in Oyo, Comrade Tiamiyu Ademola, said the protest would, however, not end with MTN but would be extended to other telecom service providers.

He said the joint students? body would soon be meeting with policymakers in government, expressing its readiness to continue the protest until government and service providers yield to their demand.

?Life is getting more difficult for Nigerians by the day.

?Data subscription was increased by over 100 per cent, making it more unbearable. ?Happy MTN? should translate to ?Happy Customers,? but now, customers are not happy.

?They should know that without customers, their businesses cannot thrive.

?Our demand, therefore, is simple.

?NANS is demanding that they should reverse both call and data tariffs to their initial prices.

?We are not entitled to call and data allowances like some people in government; we are surviving through the hard-earned income of our parents; hence, we should not be placed on the same tariff level,? he said.

According to the state Chief of Staff, NANS/JCC, Samuel Adeleke, many indigent students are now finding their academic activities difficult.

?It?s difficult to proceed in their research work, final year projects and other educational engagements due to the unsustainable data tariffs,? he said.

Adeleke, therefore, urged the government to urgently consider the plights of the citizens, especially the students, for the sake of the nation?s future.

However, the Senior Manager, External Relations, MTN Nigeria, Funso Aina, could not immediately respond to the issues, as he told NAN he was in a crucial meeting.

NAN recalls that the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in January claimed it had gotten an approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to increase telecoms tariff by 50 per cent.

The increase followed a frantic push by MNOs and other stakeholders for the government to consider the inflation rate and give approval for an upward adjustment of the tariff on data, calls and SMS messages.

The MNOs argued that the withdrawal of fuel subsidy and devaluation of the naira precipitated an increase in the cost of services within the industry and other market realities.

The move has since been condemned by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), students? bodies and Civil Society Organisations. (NAN)

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