Who’s Exploiting Nigerian Mobile Phone Users? By Okey Ndibe

One of the biggest revelations of my
recent brief visit to Nigeria was to
discover the shabby, deteriorating
state of mobile telephony in Nigeria.
In a word, service providers are
serving Nigerian mobile phone users
a raw deal. And the hapless phone
owners can’t count on any
government agency or official to
look out for them.
The mobile telephone crisis is
across the board – and it’s become
nothing short of a scandal. Nigeria
has three major mobile telephone
networks – MTN, Glo and Airtel. I
don’t believe any of them boasts
satisfactory service delivery. Many
Nigerians maintain three or more
phones, one from each of the major
providers. Yet, the problem persists.
In fact, my friends, relatives and
acquaintances who use one of the
three providers or another voiced
the same complaints. They said
circuits are so often jammed that
they are unable to reach the person
they need to speak to. When contact
is made, the calls are plagued by
frequent, irritating disconnections.
Often, one or both parties are unable
to hear the conversation.
I didn’t just get an earful about
these problems, I also experienced
them. On one occasion, I was at the
domestic airport in Lagos waiting to
board a flight for Calabar. I
desperately needed to speak to a
cousin of mine who was supposed
to meet me before my departure. We
had spoken earlier that day. Yet,
when I made more than ten attempts
to reach him from the airport, I kept
getting the message that his number
did not exist! Later, he informed me
that he had similarly tried to reach
my number, but got nowhere.
The day of my departure back to the
US, I rang the number of a friend. He
and I were within the vicinity of the
airport, but my calls didn’t go
through. This time, I repeatedly got
the message that his phone was not
available. Yet, when we finally ran
into each other, he confirmed that
his phone was always on. And that
he wasn’t on a different call, either.
In between these two experiences, I
made or received numerous calls
where I could not hear the person
on the other line – or the person
couldn’t hear me. A few times, the
phone made a whirring sound that
impeded hearing by both caller and
called.
And here’s what rubs high doses of
salt on the injury of “dropped” or
inaudible calls: the telephone
companies still make you pay for it.
That’s right. Each time I made an
uncompleted call, I immediately got
text information on how much I was
charged. It was a case of heads you
lose, tails you lose. If the phone
providers can’t do their jobs, they
still make their customer pay!
Perhaps, this factor is a major
reason the three main operators cart
away ever burgeoning levels of
profit.
It’s one of those painful paradoxes
that make you want to shout: Only
in Nigeria!
The main reason people invest in
telephones is for ease of
communication. And the kind of
instantaneous communication
afforded by mobile phones has
become an integral part of any
modern society. Businesses depend
on mobile phones to negotiate all
kinds of deals. Individuals use them
to transmit all manner of
information, from the critical to the
ordinary. If a child takes ill in
school, a teacher would want to get
through to the kid’s parents
immediately. If there’s a serious
accident, witnesses would need to
alert the police or a hospital. If a
spouse’s flight is delayed, she or he
would be anxious to convey that
information to the other spouse.
Sometimes, there’s just that itch to
reach a friend or a relative: to relish
the joy of hearing their voice,
knowing they are doing well.
Don’t Nigerian telephone users
deserve the same kind of efficiency
that their counterparts elsewhere
take for granted? It’s bad enough
that Nigeria became a late entrant
and bloomer in the mobile telephone
sector, trailing such neighboring
countries as Ghana and Cameroon.
Why should such a relatively young
industry develop geriatric symptoms
so early in its life? What accounts
for the shambolic service being
offered Nigerian users?
One constant explanation offered by
“learned” customers was that the
number of cell phone subscribers in
Nigeria had far outstripped the
infrastructure installed by the
operators. My follow-up was then:
Why has the government failed to
compel these companies to plow
some of their stupendous earnings
into infrastructural development?
Again, those who “know”
conjectured that the companies
were in no haste to invest in
infrastructure. And I heard that too
many Nigerian government officials
were too compromised to force the
issue.
I remarked to one friend – a lawyer
– that, if members of the National
Assembly took their overseeing
tasks seriously, they would long
have held hearings to, one, figure
out the roots of the woes in the
mobile telecom sector and, two,
passed legislation to better protect
Nigerian consumers from the
shenanigans of any inefficient,
profit-guzzling providers. Amused,
this friend suggested that many of
the legislators and other
government officials who are
supposed to regulate the telecom
sector enjoy gifts of free phones
with unlimited calls from some of
the companies. “How do you
legislate on or regulate an entity
that owns you?” he deadpanned.
The brazenness of his claim – and
the possibility that his conjecture
was founded – left me stunned. Is it
true, indeed, that many Nigerian law
makers, including the highest
ranking, receive corrupting
telephonic gifts from mobile phone
operators? If that’s the case, then
why is nobody – neither
government officials nor groups of
concerned citizens – demanding the
prosecution of those who offer such
illicit benefits as well as the
unscrupulous officials who accept
them? Why is nobody demanding
that ethical standards be established
to cover business transactions, and
specifically the relation between
businesses and their official
regulators? Why does the
government look the other way as
Nigerian consumers are forced to
accept substandard service – and
perhaps blatantly exploited?
One is hardly surprised that the
government has been indifferent to
the frustrations of Nigerian phone
users. In fact, indifference is the
most benign way Nigerian
governments respond to the
discomforts or plights of Nigerians.
Perhaps, then, it’s up to consumers
to remedy their situation. How about
a group of mobile phone users
going to court to demand a finding
that they should not be made to pay
for calls and other services that are
not provided? Enlightened citizens
might as well take up the fight,
since the government shows no
inclination to rise to the occasion.
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@okeyndibe
( okeyndibe@gmail.com