The GSM swindle

Just when we thought we were rid of governance by thievery in this era of Change, telecom companies have taken over from the political lords of yore to establish an elaborate system of ripping off their customers. The barefaced stealing of subscribers’ credit is common to all the networks but the worst case, in my […]

Just when we thought we were rid of governance by thievery in this era of Change, telecom companies have taken over from the political lords of yore to establish an elaborate system of ripping off their customers. The barefaced stealing of subscribers’ credit is common to all the networks but the worst case, in my own experience, is MTN.
Example: I have never subscribed to the pestilence named “Easynews” which pops up on my phone at will and deducts my money routinely. The cheek of it all is the message that follows the serial stealing: MTN actually thanks me for renewing my subscription to a service I never desired nor requested. It is so painful it makes you want to throw your phone into the washing machine!
There is another one named “Callertunez”. It is a service that sells different tunes to interested persons who desire them as ringtones. I have more important things to do with my time than changing the tunes that came with the phone. I have never subscribed to Callertunez and will never do so. But guess what – MTN routinely deducts money from my account and follows up by thanking me for permitting such burglary.
Had we been in a country like the USA where class action is the lifeblood of commercial relations, no telecom network would so brazenly steal from its subscribers as happens here.
Some fellow sufferers have told me that MTN is trying to raise money to pay the fine it incurred from the regulators for having millions of unregistered SIMs on its network. Even if that explanation is far-fetched, it is difficult to discountenance it if you have been serially raped as I have.
The silver lining is that the federal government is aware of this shameful stealing from the same customers who provide the telecom companies’ meal ticket. The other day, Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu openly expressed dissatisfaction with the incessant rip-offs by telecommunication companies, warning that failure by the companies to correct this anomaly would be met with stiff sanctions.
Hear him: “Nigerians are not happy about receiving unsubscribed text messages asking them to subscribe for one thing or the other without requesting for it. Personally, I have been a victim of this more than once.
The second problem is dropping of calls. You will have two phones side by side and you will call the other one and they will tell you the number does not exist and a lot of Nigerians are being frustrated by this.”
Continuing, Barrister Shittu said, “The third one is deficiency in broadband penetration. You will discover that Nigerian telecom companies do not have the financial capacity to get telecom cable and mast into every community and that is why some communities do not have telecommunication services.
“The last is the payment for data for internet connectivity and you may not consume the data before it expires, instead of rolling it over when you subscribe again, they will say you have exhausted your data and ask you to subscribe afresh.”
Many subscribers are looking forward to the emergence meeting which the minster has called between his ministry, Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC)and all the telecommunication companies in the country to address these issues.
The irreducible minimum outcome expected by long-suffering subscribers, is that the telecom companies refund all monies stolen, directly to the victims.

No Footballing Future (NFF)
The Nigerian Football Federation is an embarrassment to lovers of the beautiful game in Nigeria. It has continued the culture of chasing shadows.
The recent resignation of Coach Sunday Oliseh revealed the decay in the NFF. Rather than continue to play the Nigerian roulette of humouring a band of technical carpetbaggers, he threw in the towel and left with his dignity.
I have read several reactions to the embarrassing development, especially the ill-thought-out press release of the NFF which made a big deal of paying Oliseh the backlog of salaries owed. But the one that stood out in my view was one by Victor Oladokun, former anchor of the Christian Broadcasting Network. Oladokun reacted as follows:
If you have ever met Sunday Oliseh you’ll recognise right away that he is a consummate professional and extremely smart.
In the aftermath of the resignation, the NFF ingeniously said it did not owe Oliseh any back salaries. The truth is that with Oliseh and Stephen Keshi before him (both with families living abroad), the NFF was in a nasty habit of owing the Managerial/Technical crew as much as 6 months’ worth of salaries in arrears.
Oliseh did the smart thing. Instead of being jerked around, he refused to play along with the tomfoolery that has bedevilled the NFF. He got paid, cut his losses, and moved on, as any self-respecting professional would.
For the NFF to act all indignant simply because it had made good on back salaries, is a ruse that should no longer be tolerated in the NFF, civil service, or private sector, for that matter.
An employer who owes workers months of back pay is a thief and an enabler of a corrupt environment. When you send a grown man home month-in and month-out without a paycheque, what have you done? You’ve stripped him of his dignity, created a crisis in his home, and caused him to begin to think thoughts and do things that he otherwise would not have.
This is not the 20th century. Any CEO or Governor that owes workers months of back pay, does not deserve to be in office! Employees deserve the loyalty, support, and empathy of those who employ them. In return, they’ll always ensure the continuity and profitability of the enterprises they work for.
Enough of the perverse arrogance and wickedness of ‘leaders’ who delay salaries and think they are doing employees a favour simply by catching up on their debts.