'Buhari's TSA policy will cause massive unemployment' - Pro-democracy group says

A non-governmental organization, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), described President Buhari's transparency and accountability crusade as a "facade," noting that the enforcement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy for all federal agencies is targeted at crippling the banking sector.

It said what brought about the policy is the perceived dominance of investors from southern part of Nigeria in the ownership hierarchy of commercial banks.

According to a statement by HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf,reliable information is that the current 'irrational' and 'impulsive' policy of single account was contained in the economic blueprints allegedly handed over to President Muhammadu Buhari when he assumed of office by “some regional hawks from the northern Nigerian based Arewa Consultative Forum who now has its erstwhile General Secretary, Colonel Hamid Ali (rtd), as the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service.”

The group also warned against hasty implementation of the TSA directive by federal agencies “because of the inevitable mass retrenchment of bank workers that would follow the pull out of huge public funded deposits in most of the commercial banks for onward transfer to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)."

“This policy is like throwing a stone in a market place without knowing whether it will actually harm ones mother.

“The subterranean tendencies are to precipitate the collapse of the banks and weakening the alleged lopsided ownership of the banking institutions by persons perceived to be southerners,” it added.

The pro-democracy group however called for a review of this policy to forestall economic hardship afflicting many Nigerian households.