CBN New 'Fraudulent' ATM Policies: Milking The Poor Citizenry!

The notable notion I cannot comprehend about this current administration in Nigeria that claims much prowess of transformation is how their policies and agendas are only on the negative impact of the lower and middle class of the citizenry. First, at the assumption of the new CBN Governor, there was the reintroduction of the 'On Us' banks ATM withdrawal charges to customers in a somewhat stylishly ethical module of 'after the first three withdrawals aside your bank of account'. Customers were subcharged a total sum of sixty five naira (N65.00k) in subsequent withdrawals after the initial first three withdrawn aside your bank of account. Just recently, this amount has stylishly returned to the old surcharge rate of one hundred naira (N100.00k); which the immediate past CBN boss cancelled. This new N100.00k subcharge rate, I am yet to experience personally but maybe it's just as a result of me not willing to use ATM aside my bank of account these recent days because of a recent negative experience which resulted to my composing this piece. While Nigerians were hoping for a better banking treatment, now our hopes have been casted back to the old beginning of ATM banking transactions in Nigeria!

As if all the new CBN administration focus is to retrieve the little cash in the hands of the poor Nigerians citizens, now there is another ATM policy of 'immediate card destruction'. With this policy, whether your ATM card is trapped with any of mechanical,  electrical or network ineffectiveness, your card is deemed or due for replacement by your bank of account and with a fee!

Normally, ATM used to withhold a card after three tries of inputting wrong password and without success. And it didn't actually result to immediate card destruction and subsequent replacement. But today, even if the ATM is faulty and thereby couldn't release your card even after dispensing cash to you, this new 'One-way' CBN policy states that your card will be destroyed and subsequently replaced by your own bank where you have account (bank of account). Then, the archaic and ill-treating side of the whole policy is that, one must pay the sum of N1,000.00k (one thousand naira only) for every replacement. What a maltreatment!

If I didn't experience this 'one-way' maltreatment policy personally, I wouldn't have known how mean is this current CBN cum FG maladministration in all zeal to milk the hoi polloi dry of the little income they have managed to sustained their lives with. Just imagine, an ATM had a mechanical fault and thereby couldn't release my card after dispensing cash to me. I went inside the bank (UBA) to complain but only to be directed to my own bank of account (Zenith Bank) as point of collection. I got to my bank the next day only to receive the shocking news of the new CBN policy. I was advised to fill a form for a new ATM card. After eight working days, I received an alert about my new ATM availability but my account had been debited with N1,000.00k! Just answer me: what is my offence to warrant such deduction from my account? Why should a policy be this rigid in this current days of electrical and mechanical malfunctioning of machines and equipment? I think someone should alert CBN to review this rigidity of their policy to flexibility. The masses are already financial handicapped. Much of financial manipulations could result to negative or aggressive resolution. Nigerians need positive treatment not practical and stylish maltreatment.

By: SADOH M. S.

BREAKING: FEBRUARY 14 GENERAL ELECTIONS POSTPONED!

Still unconfirmed from INEC, news from Associated Press had it that the general elections scheduled to hold on February 14, 2015, would be shifted by six weeks. This unconfirmed news formed the basis for the critical meeting held between INEC officials and security chiefs today 7th February, 2015. Thus the elections would be held in March, 2015.

According to other news sources since yesterday (eg, Naij.com), the NSA and the Army chief had made it clear to Prof. Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman that, there will be no guaranty of security should he decide to hold the presidential elections on February 14. As it obvious that the INEC chairman has no jurisdiction over the security control, it is expected that he would cave in to this decision.

The earlier decision of PVC distribution seemed not enough for this extension decision, but adding the matter of insecurity as a yardstick, even the opposition parties would not deviate from this agreement. According to the military chiefs, the six weeks extension would allow them in collaboration with the multinational troops from Chad, Cameroon, Niger etc, to contain and chase out Boko Haram insurgents from the areas they currently preside as under their caliphate sovereignty. We hope this decision is in the interest of the citizenry and not for political gains.

SADOH M. S.

UNCOMMON TRAGEDY: FIVE BURNT TO DEATH FROM FIRE OUTBREAK IN SULEJA!

It was an arena of tears and sorrow on the 22nd January, 2015 at Chenchenya area of Suleja, Niger State, when five members of a family of eight including the father, got burnt to death in an eccentric inferno that broke out around 11.00pm.

Nobody actually knew the cause of the fire outbreak as even the three fortunate survivors couldn't tell the genesis of the whole scenario. What the eyewitnesses could only say was that they saw the uncontrollable inferno around 11.00pm with voices of dying people crying from within.

According to the story from one of the survivors, the family head, Mallam Usman who had two wives, managed to rescue his younger wife with her only daughter and his younger brother who lived with them, at the early stage of the inferno. While they were outside the house on fire, the yells and cries of his elder wife and her three kids didn't allow him any composure as it was obvious that they were totally trapped in the burning flame and needed soccour. Even as the situation seemed not salvaging as the weight of the burning flame was uncontrollably unbearable, Mallam Usman went against all odds and hopped into the heavy flame of fire in a bid to rescue his second family. 

                                    The burnt building...everything burnt completely

The situation that made Mallam Usman hopped back into the inferno to save his family would've been averted if only the sorrowful screams: " laillah ilallah...laillah ilallah...laillah ilallah..." was not on continuous echo that attracted every ears around. He dived into the fire unconsciously but the salvaging and soccour mission which he intended was never accomplished. He was consumed by the fire along his first wife and three children. As at the time the fire burnt out completely in the morning, Mallam Usman was found holding the window protector in his elder wife's room in a burnt skeletal body. His elder wife was discovered with her four months old baby on her chest, both burnt to skeletal statures on a completely burnt mattress. The two other little girls both got burnt separately on the floor...it was an extreme horror to behold.

According to the sympathetic throng that gathered around the vicinity at the early morning hours of the next day of the incidence, it took a wholesome efforts of the 'mairuwa'numbering over twenty who came with their wheelbarrows filled with jerrycans of water to hinder the inferno from spreading to the other houses in the neighbourhood. They became the fire service locally as no known fire fighters are presently available for such tragic incidence at that area of Suleja.

Suleja is a suburb of Abuja, apparently the second largest town and the commercial nerve centre of Niger State, North Central, Nigeria. It was formerly the town called Abuja before the name was donated to the new seat of power in 1976 and thereafter renamed as Suleja just as we have it today. Historically, only few Nigerians know that the current Abuja was actually planned and plotted in Suleja.

By: Sadoh M. S.