One man’s campaign against bank withholding tax deductions

I can assure you that I am not the only newspaper editor that must have been bombarded with a particular protest email by a certain Oyeyemi Adu in the last 12 to 18 months! But I guess that in these days when 419 and some form of terrorist activities are hatched, developed and practised via email communication, it can be understandable why it hasn’t received much of an attention. There is also the fear that you can never be sure who is on the other side of an anonymous email – it could be a wacko! And what if it is someone sympathetic to Al-Qaida or Boko Haram? Boy, don’t just go there! In this lifetime, I don’t think I want to start any conversation the end of which I know not. In such circumstances, it’s better to do what the late Awoist, Bola Ige, called Siddon Look!

To reinforce that view and the active decision to siddon look, the other time it was my friend and brother, Felix, who sent me a video via WhatsApp, but which upon viewing it, caused shivers that I could actually feel and isolate run through my spine! In this my full-blooded adult life, body, soul, warts and all, I can unequivocally report to fellow indulgees, right here, right now, that I did hear me telling myself that I should have known this had PG (Parental Guidance) written all over it – yeah, the video, I mean! And that I should have taken heed of the warning! Once you have been exposed to such gory online video of atrocities men can commit against their fellow men in the name of one thing or the other, then you are surely going to be careful what sorts of emails you respond to, no matter how inquisitive you are as a journalist or member of a society you so earnestly want to be decent as not to have politicians who are pre-occupied with the me, me, me business! And who, as a result of this preoccupation, would use their position irresponsibly in what is supposed to be a 21st century democracy!

Fellow indulgees already know my various positions on certain practices of our banks. You know how I have tried in my own little way to campaign against that morbid term known as COT. You know also how I have raised the alarm, shouting that it doesn’t make sense for my bank to give me a paltry capitalised interest, but then go ahead to take a higher amount than it gave me in the name of monthly charges! You know I think of this behaviour as a form of lazy banking. It is the reason why, when the regulator, trying to do its own job of targeting inflation, comes down to make our bankers get off their couch potatoes behaviour, they begin to panic and become exposed for what they are – lazy bankers!

To return to the matter of the protester, Adu, I have stated that because of what people have been using the internet to do, I have formed the habit of placing PG on a lot of things that come through my emails that I did not have prior knowledge of. After all, it’s already too much on our sanity that our email boxes get buffeted by those unsolicited messages from people and organisations wanting to sell us one thing or the other. Now, to add what could potentially lead to you being linked to 419 or terrorism would not only drive you insane, it could bypass insanity and lead you straight to possible jumping off a cliff somewhere in Zuma! And it is not just that. I know that as journalists, we ought to be investigating this matter and trying to establish what the man (or woman) has been going on about for more than a year! But giving that if you really are of no significance to this country and its political machinations, and you decided to make her problem yours, you could end up driving yourself really up the wall, the best you could do upon receiving such emails is to make a conscious decision to choose to keep your sanity! This must be what my colleagues and I have been doing since the email started circulating.

But you are always going to find yourself unable to ignore a non-relenting serial emailist, who continues to shout fraud in the subject column of his emails as if he or she wants you to do something about it. Unfortunately for him or her (I don’t know who this person is and because of advised PG precautions, I do not want to start a conversation with someone who might turn out to be capable of beheading someone! Ok, I am just kidding, don’t mind me), the emails are sent to you in a way that suggests FYI (for your information). In other words, you are not really being expected to do anything about it, but to just take note that they have been sent to their primary recipients. For how do you explain an email that does not speak to you, that is addressed to someone else, but for which you have been privileged to be informed that something of the sort had occurred? Well, in sanity land, you just ignore it.

However, it does contain some information that you personally think answers should be provided. Well, Adu, the tenacious emailist, protests that he has been had by his bank and wants this investigated by both the bank concerned and the regulator, Central Bank of Nigeria. Adu says the bank has been making deductions from his account in the name of Withholding Tax, which it does on behalf of the government. Adu, however, says there is no extant law that provides for this in Nigeria. For this reason, it is illegal for the bank to be doing this. Adu goes on to say that if there is legal backing for this, the bank should show proof and show how it has been sending this to government. Adu believes that he is being robbed of his money, and he mentions some figures he had calculated, for which he or she wants refunds. These are not figures that would break a bank, but there must be a strong reason why this protester has been ignored; not just by his bank, but also the regulators.

A lot of things don’t add up in the argument; I mean, logically speaking. And this might just be the reason why it’s probably felt that this should be left alone. But we are indulgees and at the Square Table, every weekend, we like to crack our ribs! There could be possible explanations to offer to Adu, either through replying his mails or inviting him over for a talk. Or is someone afraid that the protester might just get mad, upon being invited, and strangle them? Just maybe!

By: PHILLIP ISAKPA