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That NCC's Punitive Directive
Lagos n ordering MTN Nigeria Communications Limited and Celtel Nigeria Limited to refund N4.7 billion to their subscribers for their poor quality of service in January this year, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has demonstrated sensitivity to the ugly, perennial plight of GSM users in the country. If implemented, the directive could usher in a new era of corporate responsibility and, by extension, customer satisfaction in the nation's telecommunication sector. The largely sub-standard service of the mobile telephone providers is indeed unfortunate. Ordinarily, with the rise of the subscriber base to well over 40 million in less than seven years, Nigerians should benefit immensely from that robust, upward profile. Instead, phone users especially have had to live with technical defects - drop calls, call diversion to wrong persons, network inaccessibility, poor audio and delayed or undelivered text messages. Most of these anomalies are traceable to network congestion, as 10,000 base stations and only 2,000 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) are clearly inadequate to cater from the ever-expanding subscriber base. But rather than expanding their facilities to absorb the geometric growth of the industry, some of the operators have concentrated on prosecuting promotional strategies to attract more users to their already over-burdened networks. Sadly, the nation has continued to pay dearly for the mindless competition amongst the providers. As the frustration of the people rose, so did the profit of the telecoms companies. That paradox led to accusations of ineptitude and complicity leveled against NCC by some commentators and industry watchers sometime ago. The Commission's response to that was evidently courageous. In September last year, it notified Celtel and MTN of its intention to compel them to be accountable for any sloppy service they rendered, beginning from last October. But in order to dodge the plan, the target firms obtained an injunction from the Federal High Court in Lagos stopping the NCC. However, NCC's tenacity ensured the reversal of that order in November last year and restored to it the power to checkmate the operators. In being persistent, the Commission has shown that it is a true regulator, a defender of the rights and interests of the consumer. By that, it has also redefined liberalization as not synonymous with recklessness and lack of regulation. Without proper monitoring, a society in dire need of foreign investment like Nigeria can easily become a theatre of pseudo-capitalism where raw exploitation predominates. NCC's move should, therefore, be diligently enforced as failure to do so would be counter-productive and unwittingly open a new chapter of impunity and corporate disdain for the welfare and rights of the Nigerian consumer. Also, regulators in the other sectors of the economy should emulate the Commission's bold step in order to revive the people's confidence in the government, its agencies and the companies that provide critical services. Nigerians deserve to be treated with respect and equity. Return of Slavery to Country?
Today, abject poverty, hopelessness and lack of basic necessities are forcing some parents to consciously sell off their children just to make ends meet. The woeful slavery stories are legion. Every year, thousands of African children are trafficked in Africa and sold off in Britain to rich merchants with the promise of a better life. Some of the teenage girls among them are later forced into prostitution, while others are subjected to all kinds of inhuman experiences in Europe. Every year, hundreds of Nigerian children are sold off by their desperate Nigerian parents seeking to eke out a living. Between Kano and Abuja a few weeks ago, some syndicated Nigerian slave dealers were caught with 250 children which they were taking to the slave market. Similar sad stories are re-told across the country. But the most chilling and pathetic slavery story is the one involving a couple-Kola and Seyi Woniye, in Oyo State recently. Devastated by poverty and human misery, the couple offered to sell their two sons: five year-old Shola and three year-old Sonu, to a British journalist who posed as a business man. The couple offered to sell the two boys for the sum of N1 million (5,000 pounds) or one for N500,000 (2,500 pounds). Seyi, the mother of the two kids admitted regretfully that it is "hard for us to do this, but we are desperate and this is our last hope" Mr Woniye is a panel beater. Without mincing words, the above is a modern-day slave trade. It is sad, very sad indeed that in this age and time Nigeria with all her resources can yet be forced into modern-day slavery. Age-old themes like corruption, greed, betrayal of popular will, election rigging and lust for power may be excused, but it is certainly regrettably shameful on all counts to be associated withthis bare-faced slavery of sell off our children just to make ends meet. A society which sells off its children jeopardises the hope of tomorrow, and thus tottering on the verge of extinction. But we cannot just simply lament about the modern-day slavery in Nigeria without tracing its root cause to the grinding poverty ravaging Nigeria. Nigeria is the sixth largest producer of oil in the world. Presently, oil is selling very high in the market, but ironically Nigeria cannot feed her children. Nigeria tops the list of countries with malnourished children. A recent United Nations report confirmed Nigeria as having the second highest number of maternal deaths in the world after India. Primary and secondary health system cares are virtually non-existent in Nigeria at the moment. When the poor are sick their relations start preparing for funerals because of lack of money for medical treatment abroad. Despite the huge sum of money sunk in resuscitating the energy sector, Nigeria is still a country in darkness. Road side mechanics, welders, women grinding pepper, petty-traders, panel beaters (like Woniye) who would have been self-employed if there is constant power supply in Nigeria, are today roaming about the streets in idleness. Is any body still wondering why pressed parents are resorting to the sale of their children? Therefore the struggle against poverty is crucial to the future of our country. Sadly enough, instead of tackling poverty in Nigeria, our government is floundering in empty policy sloganeering, forgetting that human development is the ultimate goal of all developments. The governments of other countries are more interested in the welfare of their citizens. Regretfully here in Nigeria, our leaders seem more interested in their own welfare by demanding for increased salaries and allowances, instead of activating policies that can improve the welfare of the people. Therefore President Yar'Adua must understand that poverty reduction is a primary challenges his government. Finally, the latest Oyo slavery incident should serve as a wake-up call to our anti-child trafficking bodies and security agents ,including fraudulent immigration ofiicials who assist in procuring fake travel documents for trafficked kids in the country, to be more serious in the discharge of their duties. Their duties call for more vigilance and more effective policing of the highways and the borders. President Yar'Adua and members of the National Assembly should take this matter to heart and find effective ways of ridding Nigeria of modern slavery. From the April, 2005 issue of Transatlantic Times On the occasion of the visit by His Excellency Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to London: His Excellency Prime Minister Meles Zenawi attended the third meeting of the Commission for Africa held on 24th February 2005 at Lancaster House in London. Prime Minister Meles is one of the 17 commissioners of the Commission for Africa, which was established under the chairmanship of British Prime Minister, the Rt. Honorable Tony Blair early last year. Over the past year, the commissioners have been engaged in analyzing why previous efforts to solve African problems failed, and have looked into fresh and viable mechanisms to deal with them. The commissioners’ report is expected to be launched in both London and Addis Ababa on 11 March, 2005 and will include comprehensive recommendations to change the lives of Africans through good governance, more development aid, and debt relief as well as the creation of a fair trading environment for African countries on the international market. Britain will assume the presidency of the G-8 and the European Union later this year and Africa will be one of the major items on the agenda to be tabled by the British Prime Minister at these forums, so that a broader global consensus and political goodwill can be generated to help solve Africa’s problems. At a press conference held at the conclusion of the meeting, Prime Minister Blair praised his Ethiopian counterpart, and noted that Prime Minister Meles was chosen as a commissioner on his personal merit and for his commitment to reform and development in Ethiopia. In the course of his brief stay in London, Prime Minister Meles also met and held discussions with a British-friends-of-Ethiopia Think-Tank as well as representatives of the Ethiopian Community living in London. Prime Minister Meles and his entourage are expected to leave for home on March 24, 2005, in the evening after concluding their fruitful visit to the UK, that will have been the fourth in the last two years. Embassy of Ethiopia February 25, 2005 London, UK From the November, 2004 issue of Transatlantic Times Dear Editor, I have just read a copy of your magazine, TransAtlantic Times, which I picked up at the African store here in Pittsburgh. I was pleasantly surprised such a magazine exist. I want to say thank you for the opportunity to read up on Obama. I was glad to find his entire speech which I missed during the convention. I also commend your well written and thought-out article on the aids crisis in Africa. I was encouraged to know that its not all bad news. Teh Uganda story is heart-warming. This was a well researched, factual and solution-based article that has renewed my hope in the containment of the disease in Africa and the eventual cure for it. I look forward to your next edition. The Best, Dr. A.J. Okoh Pittsburg, Pa, USA From the June, 2004 issue of Transatlantic Times Dear Sirs, Four double six was the number meant to de-humanize Nelson Mandela in a South African prizon for twenty seven years, but Nelson Mandela has now risen to the same number to mount global campaigns against HIV/ÅIDS. "We know what needs to be done -- all that is missing is the will to do it," was the final plea in the former president of South Africa made at the closing ceremony of the 15th International AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Making a comparison of the suffering of his black people under the apartheid system of the white minority rule in South Africa, Mandela said "do not forget the millions of people suffering from HIV and AIDS and do not reduce them to mere statistics." He repeated his appeal to the doners-governments, rprivate sector, and private foundations to substatially increase their funding for the fight against AIDS. He appealed to the world to rise to the occasion and with urgency to donate to the global fund and enable it to continue its fight against Malaria, TB, and AIDS-diseases he said "present the greatest threats to humanity." He said the challenges now faced require comprehensive prevention and care programs. There is also immediate need for access to the anti-retroviral treatment needed to save millions of lives in the developing world including Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. He called for global policy changes that would protect the human rights of those that suffer from unfair discrimination due to the disease. Thank you, Henry Neondo, Bangkok, Thailand |
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