Poor service, rich providers

There are brave people in Nigeria. They have just been joined by Adebayo Shittu, the Minister of Communications, who is being reported have read the riot act to telecoms service providers. Nigerians will hope that the minister is reading a different riot act from the one that was read to these providers by virtually everyone […]

There are brave people in Nigeria. They have just been joined by Adebayo Shittu, the Minister of Communications, who is being reported have read the riot act to telecoms service providers. Nigerians will hope that the minister is reading a different riot act from the one that was read to these providers by virtually everyone in authority in the last few years. The old riot acts have worn thin through repetition and neglect, or have lost their efficacy or their way because they have been routed through the services of the providers. Now Nigerians will, in their characteristic manner, watch out for radical improvements in the quality of services, a sharp drop in the levels of outright swindles and dramatic improvements in the levels of transparency in the operations of these providers. If these are not observed very clearly and comprehensively, Alhaji Shittu’s credibility as a leading minister in an administration that is committed to changing things for the better, will be severely damaged. Nigerians will then resume cursing the providers while patronizing them with trillions, in spite of overwhelming evidence that these curses have little effect on the providers, and that we can do with less chatter.
Actually, the minister’s bark is likely to feel a bit more like a bite this time because its context has changed. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has a new CEO who went in with very high expectations, supported by strong political muscle to rescue and improve services of a veritable cash cow that was being milked to its bare bones. Just when you thought that the telecoms sector provided better service and returns than the oil and gas sector to pilferers, crooked regulators, politicians and service providers, the giant MTN ran into serious turbulence. Few people thought MTN will not shrug off this as routine and resume normal service to Nigerian subscribers and the government. After all it had enjoyed unlimited credit in the past. This brush with the Buhari administration, however, turned out to be a major problem when it was asked to pay a fine in trillions of naira. Very few Nigerians outside its shareholders shed tears. Though three trillions was difficult to even imagine, it was easier to comprehend when equated to the scale of abuse and contempt with which providers served Nigerians.
The twists and turns which the MTN penalties saga has been taking must have left their toll on the psychology of providers who had competed to outdo each other in the manner they scammed a garrulous nation that had lost its voice to complain. South African President Jacob Zuma’s recent visit may have interfered with the process of getting MTN to show remorse and pay up huge amounts to the Nigerian government, and the recent lifting of regulatory services on the provider may be evidence that politics may have gained it a little more breathing space.
What Minister Shittu is asking NCC to do is a lot more than police the registration of users. He wants wholesale improvements to arrest or eliminate practices that range from a few that will qualify as out rightly criminal, to shabby services that are tolerated only in Nigeria. There must be large numbers of staff who are employed by the providers for the sole purpose of inventing new and patently illegal or prohibited ways of making more money from subscribers, in addition to the trillions we pay for normal airtime and properly subscribed services. It is a waste of time listing even a few of these scams, but a popular way of alerting subscribers to one of the more popular scams is to ask them to listen to ‘their’ caller tune. Call their lines in their presence and put them on speaker phone while they hear what all their callers hear when they are called. If you do this, prepare for shocks and profound indignation, and then utter dejection when they find out that they cannot complain. Elders and religious leaders revered in the community have their callers listen to music or religious material that offends their dignity and image. They have no idea that this is what people hear on calling them. They have never requested for it, and they certainly resent having to pay for it. They become livid when told that the service provider can change the caller tune at will, and once you are locked in, there is no getting out.
The way every manner of offer or service is dumped on Nigerians’ phones, you will be forgiven for thinking that we have the most unregulated system in the world. As soon as you delete fifteen unsolicited offers and advertisements, another twenty are sent to you. The phone you purchased with your own money is bruised and filled with junk which you clear at your own cost. God alone knows how many marriages have been threatened by a strange voice answering a call placed to a spouse. You will not know how poor the service in Nigeria is until you leave its shores. An entire nation lies to itself with the words, ‘it is a network problem’. In our entire history, nothing has rendered us so completely hooked and so abjectly impotent as our cell phones.
Yet, it does not have to be this way. We are where we are today because Nigerians who should have enforced compliance with standards and conduct have been totally compromised. How else could MTN have gotten away with refusing to register millions of lines at a time when blood flowed from atrocities of terrorists who took advantage of laxities in monitoring use of communications? You have to ask, now that MTN is being asked to pay for its contempt for our laws and national security, what happens to those public officers and politicians that failed to enforce directives to register all lines? Indeed, who is supervising the current registration (and the multiple re-registrations) of MTN subscribers to ensure compliance with regulations?
Telecommunication services, particularly cell phones provided by private operators, have become a key feature in the lives of Nigerians. No basic infrastructure touches more lives than phones. Unlike other infrastructure such as roads, water, medical facilities, schools etc, this service is entirely un-subsidised. Trillions are being made by providers from a nation that would rather pay to talk than feed. A lot more than what is legitimate is being made because our regulatory institutions have since defected to the enemy. Minister Shittu is taking on a vital area where quick wins are possible and necessary. This administration must make a major difference in the way citizens and telecoms service providers relate. If they cannot immediately improve the quality of their services, they should be made to stop the elaborate scams that further impoverish Nigerians.