All Nigerians who had access to the telephone services some years ago will remember thatNigeriahad a telecommunications company called NITEL – The Nigerian Telecommunications Limited. It used to be the only telecommunication service provider and enjoyed the monopoly even though it failed to exploit the opportunity. Then came the elites 090 alias “naught nine naught”. Thereafter a fully mobile telephone services section was created out of NITEL and was called M – TEL, all of them were products of the then posts and telegraphs department P&T.
I recall with deep sadness, the rough ordeal people went through in other to purchase an M – TEL line or is it starter pack.
I was in their Wuse Zone 2 Abuja office for more than three times at different occasions and even spent one night on the queue in other to acquire the M – tel line yet never succeeded.
That was the beginning of the problem. You spend valuable man – hours if not days to weeks pursuing the M – tel line without success, but once you hand over your twice the official price amount to a tout, there and then he goes in and come out with the thing.
At the Wuse Zone 2 office, the M – tel staffs preferred to deal with touts rather than with genuine buyers.
At that time the Econet now Airtel and the Mtn were limited in their services areas of coverage and because NITEL was supposedly all overNigeriawe thought and believed that their services would be better. FOR WHERE?
The double amount you paid of course did not enter the official coffers of the company. This should be expected because the touts were no officials of the company but were working either for or in consonance with the officials to cheat the company.
While those staff kept the pilfering spree on and at the same time rationing the starter packs while delaying if not denying the genuine customers, those other network continued to expand.
What was the outcome?
The company began to get distressed and continued to dwindle. So much so that it finally went into comma and has been there ever since.
Inside sources confirm that the company continued to retrench their staff, that today it is said that only 6 (six) workers are left in their once boisterous Owerri territorial office, a staff strength not even enough to man a supermarket.
Today, only the staff of the company are getting the heat of being out of Job but definitely not the touts.
We were all here when the Federal Government of Nigeria under Olusegun Obasanjo and the Peoples Democratic Party began to implement their policy of liberalisation of the telecommunication industry and services; a phenomenon which Nigerians are applauding as very successful. Well if our own NITEL or M – tel were alive and favourably competing and raking in huge profits for Nigeria, providing employment opportunities and expanding to at least smaller West African Nation, it would really have been a confirmed success.
Whose hero is the son who brought in a business competitor whose presence, it does not matter how, led to the death of his father’s business?
NITEL was here when ECONET came toNigeriaand kept changing names until it is today AIRTEL – a very successful network provider.
We saw Mtn come and painted everywhere yellow and truly it is everywhere you go. They are said to be making billions of Naira or is it dollar as profit and remitting same toSouth Africa, their home of origin.
Our own Dear Mike Adenuga followed with the establishment of Globacon and with pride it is a proven success story.
Only yesterday Etisalat came and joined the ever expanding market of telecom inNigeriaand I can bet you they are now really talking even in terms of profit making and rapid expansion.
We were told that all these carriers began by hiring and utilising NITEL facilities and made effective use of them and are raking in huge profits there from.
Now MANY QUESTIONS ARISE; did they (I mean the successful networks) really hire and took off with NITEL facilities?
At what State did they meet and hire those NITEL facilities before using them. Are they still using them or have they handed them back to NITEL and if yes at what State of existence did they hand them back?
Why and how did those who hired from NITEL keep thriving while NITEL kept dying?
Another worthy probe by the National Assembly will be to ascertain how much NITEL made from the hiring out of her facilities and why the company is in its present state of existence. This will helpNigeriadetermine whether the hirees killed our NITEL so as to thrive on its ruins and whether there is a deliberate effort or plot to make the company worthless or valueless so that it could be sold and brought for pea nuts.
It is pertinent here to recount the story of Avutu poultry farm in Obowo LGA of Imo state established to produce nearly two million eggs daily. As soon as Chief Sam Mbakwe, the founder left office, the project was killed. All the layers were eaten up together with their eggs. Such a thriving venture established to provide both protein and labour for our people died.
As at last count of its morribond history, the Dizen golf of Isreal priced it, the sum of (1.00) one naira only, saying that about one billion naira (1bn) would be required to dismantle and cart away what is on ground before the poultry farm could be resurrected. The Machines there have become very obsolete and now occupying valuable space.
Come to think of it, in the good old days, government used to run almost all establishments and their services ranging from the coal corporation, the railways, and the airlines to the electricity and telecoms.
There were the breweries and cement factories, even government owned banks competed favourably with those of the public.
Since this advent of privatization and liberalisation have we fared better?
Were NITEL and M- tel to be alive today no less than 10,000 (ten thousand) Nigerians of different cadres would have been gainfully engaged by them or out rightly employed including many other secondary industries and derivatives that would have sprang up alongside nationally and perhaps internationally.
It is obvious that there are no less than (10) ten phone service providers operating and making huge profits in Nigeria today and many more applications are being processed for more operators to join the ever expanding Nigeria market.
How come telephone service providers in Nigeria are all succeeding while NITEL and M – tel are held on the ground or is it in the grave as a corpse?
How come Nigerians in high places who really enjoyed the services of NITEL when it was the only telephone service provider in Nigeria are keeping quiet and are happy patronizing other carriers?
Each time I recharge my line, I multiply whatever cost figure by at least 30 million (thirty million) just to have a glimpse of whatNigeriais losing.
I incidentally operate more than one line so I know what I am talking about and each time my phone rings, my mind reminds me of our own very dear NITEL and NIGERIA IS THE EVENTUAL LOSER.
Today Nigerians are enjoying what they are happy to call liberalization; the policy that put the final nail on the coffins of NITEL and M- tel.
In any case the management of NITEL and M – tel invited death when they failed to take advantage of the feelings of thousands of Nigerians sleeping at phone booths of NITEL just to make or receive a call. They could have expanded their services to capture the yawning market begging for utilisation which compelled Nigerians to pray for alternative.
However and ironically, the government that liberalised telecommunication and allowed their own to die also, liberalised radio and television services, but are ensuring that theirs remain first class. This we know is to ensure the existence of their instrument for propaganda.
They beam their so called achievements and policies very consistently and powerfully and are not relying on private media organisations for their publicity.
If government has no hand in running any business let them sell off the NTA –Nigeria Television Authority and her sister the FRCN – Federal Radio Corporation ofNigeriaand the same should go for all the State Government owned media houses.
Adieu NITEL: NIGERIAIS THE EVENTUAL LOSER.
