In a sharp escalation of public frustration over rising digital costs, activist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has issued a direct call for Nigerians to “occupy” the offices of the country’s major telecommunications providers.
The mobilization targets the industry’s four giants MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile following a wave of allegations that these service providers are systematically shortchanging their subscribers through predatory billing and “mysterious” data depletion.
Speaking via a widely attended digital town hall, Sowore and leaders of the African Action Congress (AAC) characterized the current state of the Nigerian telecom sector as a “digital heist.” The movement argues that while the cost of living continues to skyrocket, telecommunications firms have allegedly accelerated the rate at which data bundles expire, leaving millions of Nigerians disconnected.
This “Occupy” directive marks a shift from online venting to physical disruption, with Sowore urging citizens to take their grievances directly to the doorsteps of the companies’ headquarters and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The tension has been further fueled by recent regulatory shifts, including the controversial suspension of airtime borrowing services which many low-income earners utilized as a financial safety net.
While the NCC has recently scrambled to mandate that operators compensate users for poor service quality, the activist front has dismissed these measures as mere tactics designed to protect corporate profits.
