Prof. Protus Nathan Uzorma
Corruption is said to be as old as man. It is more of a human invention than mere societal malaise. In our country Nigeria, corruption is ubiquitous and prevails in outrageous degrees in all nooks and crannies of the society, both in the private and public domains, amidst the oligarchs and the peasants, and in all sectors of the nation’s social existence. This makes every new parastatal, company or industry, department or sector, created or that enters the country, easily adapts and provides its own form of fraudulent operational models in the society.
To this effect, the communication sector of the country and precisely the network providers which history dates back to the early days of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who in 2000/2001 had the MTN and Vodacom networks entering the country to operate, and later the Vodacom underwent several nominal transmutations and company sales to the present day Airtel network, and the arrival of the indigenous Globacom network in 2002/2003 and later the Arabic network- Etisalat, and other numerous GSM network providers in the country today.
As a result of the prevailing corruption in the country, the communication domain of the Nigerian social life, like other domains, has been consistently raided by the endemic corruption that has characterised the polity. Consequently, these four major giants in GSM and internet network provisions have widespread corrupt practices in the activities and customers’ manipulative acts.
There are an average of 6-10 regular non-solicited contract prodding messages and calls per SIM-card user in the country daily. Years back, these messages come as SMS alone, but today, they flow in tens every one hour to the extent that if you eventually leave your handset’s message inbox unattended for two days, it will take either a total deletion of the entire messages in it, in order to remove the naughty unsolicited text messages or 20 minutes to read and angrily delete them. Today also, the messages prodding for contract subscriptions flow as automatic texts on the screens of every mobile phone- Whether smart phones or none, which needs but careful understanding before pressing any button to avoid automatic subscription. These messages unveil the activities of cyber con arts and criminals, who send a wide range of messages covering: Health, spirituality, religion, sports, business, love, politics, commerce, whether, education, lottery and betting, gambling and sweepstakes, music and movie downloads (digital pirates), news and pictures and exciting images from stage performance, pornographic prodding and invitations, network providers invitations to ring-back tunes and extra-credit contracts, etc.
Besides these, the network providers generate also operational models of extorting their users through the provision of unsolicited caller tunes being impelled to customers’ lines either for “mere” N20.00 weekly, which means N80.00 a month, and multiply this amount to an average of 100 million subscribers, the owners and generators of these caller tunes and the host GSM operators have a ratio of this generate N8, 000, 000, 000.00 monthly. Others would provide it for free for the unsolicited user for one or two weeks, some for 30 days grace and will be renewed on monthly fees of N50.00, and thus smiling home with an approximate of N5,000, 000, 000.00 swindled from Nigerians monthly. The same thing is applicable to internet provisions. They prod customers with browsing data requests that first create a bonus of 300% when subscribed for, for 3 days and the greater turnovers in billions of Naira daily, while the provided data’s volatility is unimaginable. Often times too, one would leave a certain amount of airtime in his or phone SIM-park and just picks a call of few digit-numbers from the GSM operators, and the entire airtime will vanish, while future tolls will be drawn in next recharges as payment for the unsolicited subscriptions.
Nigerian GSM network operators, mostly MTN, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat are swindling Nigerians and smiling all the way to the banks, while providing increasingly poor quality service. The magnitude of corrupt practices and swindling the major network providers subdue Nigerians into is quiet alarming. Nigeria is probably the only place in the world where a network can tag on to your calls music, messages, jingles etc, and charge you for calls not completed while you listen to the rubbish they tagged on to calls. All the three biggest networks, MTN (South Africa), Globacom (Nigeria) and Airtel (India), are guilty of this practice, as well as Etisalat that has at last joined in this sharp practice.
One of the unpleasant repercussions of globalization had been the acquisition of controlling shares in communication networks by Asian and African countries which very quickly bring in corrupt practices. Two organizations deserve our attention in this regard- The first is the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which has practically surrendered Nigerians (their co-compatriots) to the slaughter house of the GSM network operators. The NCC officials have adopted a “See no evil and hear no evil” approach to the affairs of the networks- As if they are somehow excluded from the pervasive poor service and exploitation. A new study carried out by the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Department (CMED) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has discovered that major mobile network operators lack accurate database of approved tariff plan for the billing of their subscribers. The subscribers said GSM operators are ripping off customers using mobile phones to browse and called on the NCC to investigate how mobile operators bill subscribers who use smart-phones to browse, especially those on Android and other smart-phones that do not have unlimited bandwidths.
Often the Commission rise and stabilize tariff plans, which are systematically thwarted by the network providers in their launches of new promos. The NCC has since 2013 had several reductions on the tariff plans for voice calls in the country, both intra and inter networks. The Termination Rates for voice services provided by New Entrants and Small Operators in Nigeria, irrespective of the originating network was fixed at: N6.40 (six naira forty kobo) from April 1st, 2013; N5:20 (five naira twenty kobo) from April 1st 2014; and N3:90 (three naira ninety kobo) from 1st April, 2015. But the plans last for as long as their attentions are still on the new directives, then the network providers turn to their former status quo. Allied to this, is the failure of the people to organize and fight their exploiters.
These unsolicited texts one day provoked a friend with me at a public function who within one minute received same messages he deleted that prods him that is as slim as, to subscribe for reduction of weight to avoid obesity. He was very bitter that even as he deletes the mocking text, same was repeatedly returned thrice in a minute, forcing him to subscribe. Should the country and her millions inhabitants who are subscribers to these network providers keep calm over these grand manipulations? Has NCC done its best and function over these network providers? Have the two chambers of the National Assembly, which have Committees on Communication forgot that millions of their citizens are suffering? When will these end? Is it how it is everywhere in the world, even in South Africa, India, etc? I believe a state of national emergency must be declared on this issue, and thus a national fight as the gross corruption that as bedeviled the communication sector of the country.