Dear Sir/Madam: This letter is a sequel to my letter “The Great NITEL Robbery: Estimated Loss N500Bn” of 11th January 2009. I do sincerely hope that the letter is receiving your personal attention in view of the gravity of the issues raised.
This sequel will deal with the lies Nigerians have been fed with on the exploitative, extortionist and oppressive gsm tariff made possible by the greed of a few Nigerians who are willing tools in the hands of our new colonial masters under the cover of bringing foreign investments to Nigeria and whose actions are based more on using the telecommunications space to destabilize Nigeria.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
Big players in the world of telecommunications such as British Telecommunications, American AT&T, and Orange etc refused to Invest in Nigerian Telecommunications sector because they knew that the terrain will be riddled with corruption. As far back as 1998 a visiting British telecommunications official expressed this fear and those of us in the industry knew that this opinion would have pervaded the boardrooms of major world telecommunication players. It was therefore not surprising that they stayed off. The result is the "telecommunications jungle" Nigeria has become with arbitrary and oppressive tariff poor network configuration, ultimate poor quality of service and a terrifying tool for destabilizing Nigeria.
Before I continue please let me share with you the substance of a telephone call that I received since my letter on “The Great NITEL Robbery” appeared to have gone into wider circulation in Abuja. The caller told me the story of a Nigerian who traveled to China on a business trip. A Chinese observed that the Nigerian had two mobile telephones on him and was curious to know why the Nigerian was carrying two telephones. The Nigerian was puzzled and told the Chinese that he left the other FOUR telephones in Nigeria as it is usual to have two or more Mobile Telephones in Nigeria at which point the Chinese exploded that Nigerians MUST BE MAD to be carrying two or more mobile telephones around. Carrying more than one mobile telephone around is an anomaly and defeats the whole essence of a mobile telephone but the GREED of the so called telecommunications regulators in Nigeria will not allow them to appreciate this point. I was shocked when Ernest Ndukwe, the Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), proclaimed with glee in a speech read on his behalf in South Africa that Nigeria has overtaken South Africa in the Number of Mobile telephone lines. Like the Chinese the South Africans Know that Nigerians are MAD. Over 99% of mobile telephone subscribers in South Africa use just one line but the reverse is the case in Nigeria. The economic waste of Nigerians being compelled to possess two or more gsm phones because of poor quality of service and Lottery based advertising of the operators in a country with acute poverty is better imagined. As I stated in my previous letter you have to laugh and cry for Nigeria.
Back to the oppressive and unjustifiable tariff; the GSM tariff was not based on any cost analysis or network configuration. Soon after satisfying the greed of the NCC officials MTN and ECONET(-now Zain) submitted their arbitrary tariff demands to NCC early in 2001. One of them demanded N100 per minute and the other demanded N75 per minute. At this time the highest NITEL tariff for a long distance trunk call was N18 per minute less Value Added Tax (VAT). But for their unbriddled greed and corruption NCC should have rejected the proposals of MTN and ECONET outright because the tariff did not take account of Local calls of subscribers within the same Mobile Switching Center (MSC), calls from one MSC to another MSC or Roaming within a particular network i.e. calls by a subscriber who is outside his own MSC and Roaming Across Networks i.e. call originating from one operator’s network to another operators network. This means that Nigerians irrespective of whether they are making local calls within same mobile exchange (MSC) or making calls between two MSC of the same operator or making calls from one operator’s MSC to another operator’s MSC are being made to pay the same price A GRAND RIP OFF. The very corrupt NCC officials led by Ernest Ndukwe realized that they could not justify the N100 or N75 Naira per min the gsm operators were asking for while NITEL was still charging a maximum of N18/per min.
They therefore made the Operators get at the then Minister of Communications who summoned NITEL managers and instructed immediate increase of NITEL tariff making the highest cost of a trunk call to become N42. NCC officials then turned around to approve a fixed N50 per minute for the GSM operators making the justification then that there was little difference between the forced NITEL maximum charge of N42 and the N50 they approved for GSM operators. Unfortunately they forgot that it is because of mobile local MSC calls that the ministry also raised NITEL local call charges from N1.90 to N4.30 why then did NCC not insist on local mobile calls within same MSC at N5/min? Please note that some tariffs were brought down during the forced increase in NITEL tariff just to confuse the public as to the real purpose of the forced increase. Most undiscerning Nigerians were not curious as to why it was the Ministry of Communications that announced the increase in NITEL tariff and not NITEL itself as published on June 1st 2001 just before NCC announced the scandalous N50/min forGSM calls. It was therefore not surprising that the same Minister of Communications was unceremoniously relieved of his duties not long after, because greed knows no bounds.
The most unfortunate part of the oppressive gsm tariff saga is that NCC had to portray Nigerians as highly uneducated in Telecommunications matters and present to the world a Network Numbering Plan disguised as a National Numbering Plan just to cover up the Tariff Fraud with National Security Implications.
The fundamental component of a gsm Network is the Mobile Switching Center as already indicated. To hide the Tariff Fraud NCC deliberately failed to define or mention this component in the digital Mobile Licenses that it has issued. It is at the MSC that Mobile numbers are generated and billing tariff is programmed.
By the Internationally recognized format, telephone numbers (Mobile or Fixed) start with the country code (234 for Nigeria) followed by the Area Code which identifies the geographical area (State or Town or Region) in a country where the telephone switch hosting that number is located and lastly the Network Operator Code and subscriber identification number. This enables both social and security identification of where gsm calls originate from. Ndukwe’s corruption ridden NCC changed that and replaced Area Code with Network Code with nobody knowing at what geographical point in the network a call is coming from. This is why Nigeria’s Mobile telephone numbers are not accepted by some online companies.
I pray that you use your good and exalted offices to demand the locations of ALL Mobile Switching Centers (MSC) in Nigeria from Ernest Ndukwe. I also pray that you ask Ernest Ndukwe why the Mobile Numbering in Nigeria reveals only the Network Operator and there are no indications whatsoever of Mobile Switching Centre(MSC) numbers and their locations.
It has been widely reported that the Inspector General of the Nigerian Police (IGP) Mike Okiro is seeking legislation by the National Assembly for the registration of mobile telephone numbers with the police. The IGP must have decided that the unregistered numbers of telephones in Nigeria which Ndukwe has permitted is posing a serious threat to the security of the Nation and rightly so. That the IGP is forced to take that step is a serious indictment of the regulatory body. Ndukwe should tell Nigerians where in other parts of the world unregistered telephones are permitted. In fact if it had been in the US the management of MTN would have been questioned by security officials. Not long after MTN commenced operations in Nigeria, they put out an advert that gsm can be used over water using some fishermen in the video footage. Were they sending coded messages to the Militants in the Delta areas who have since adopted the gsm for their Command and Control?
Ordinarily enforcing Compliance with Schedule 2, Directory Information in the Digital Mobile License would have, to a large extent, achieved the Intention and Objectives of the IGP, but Ndukwe nullified the whole intent and purpose of Schedule 2 by adding clause 2.6 which effectively absolves gsm Operators of the Obligations intended by the Directory Information. Clause 2.6 of the Digital Mobile License States:
“The provisions of this Condition, or such aspects thereof as may be impossible to implement, may not apply to the Licensee’s customers whose details and particulars are not known or available to the Licensee”.
At a time the Hon. Minister of Information and Communications is re branding Nigeria the NCC under the supervision of the same minister provided escape Clause 2.6 in the Digital Mobile Licenses which encouraged widespread use of unregistered cell phone numbers in Nigeria by terrorists, militants, kidnappers, armed robbers etc. as command and control to carry out their nefarious activities without fear of detection within and outside Nigeria.
I have it on good authority that Ndukwe’s pact with a particular foreign operator is the complete take over of Nigeria’s Telecommunications Space by that Operator with the unequalled intelligence gathering capacity on Nigeria and provide unsuspecting Command and Control facilities to Agents of destabilization that can serve its diabolical intentions on Nigeria.
There are major pointers to this. NITEL was to be financially crippled with the Fraudulent Interconnection Agreement and this has been achieved.
Transcorp was not interested in the reactivation of NITEL. Transcorp was only to serve as the Final Undertaker through assets stripping of whatever remains of NITEL. Thank God this has FAILED. Globacomm the only Nigerian Telecomm Player still standing is already being endangered. The frivolous licenses Ndukwe has been issuing for International Gateway, Unified Access, transmission, and Long Distance Carrier are all intended to ERODE Globacomm National Carrier Status and eventually force Globacomm to sell to favoured foreign company, make his reasonable profit and run,
I only hope and pray that Nigerians will “SHINE THEIR EYES”
Yours faithfully,
Engr. Solomon. Ogunjide Ogundele
7, Alabiamo Street, Bodija, P. O. Box 7689,IBADAN
E-mail: [email protected]; Tel: 0805-4068903
March 11, 2009
Hon. Michael Kaase Aondokaa, (SAN) Attorney-General & Minister of Justice
Hon Prof. D. Akunyili, Minister of Information & Communication
The Secretary to the Federal Government, Alh Yayale Ahmed
All Senators
All Members of the House of Representatives
CC: President Umoru Yar A’dua,
Vice President, Jonathan Goodluck,
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });