Nigerians And MTN; A Parable For The 'Mumudous' By Adekoya Boladale

On 16th August 2013, over sixty million Nigerians
were literally cut off from civilization, without prior
notice or warning. Mobile Telecom Network (MTN)
subscribers woke up to discover they were alone in
this cold and lonely world. However that wasn't the
only offence; MTN did not deem it fit to tender any
form of apology to its subscribers not until 12hours
into the oblivion with a very short message less
than twenty words. It is important to state that the
numeric figure of these subscribers outnumbers
the population of South Africa; three times that of
Ghana, and twenty percent of the population of the
United States (US).
MTN a South African mobile telecom company
came into Nigeria at a time when the country
needed a stable and consistent mobile brand. It
was dubbed the 'Telecommunication Saviour' then
selling its SIM at $400 and top up cards at 1,500
naira minimum. The telecom company enjoyed the
monopoly to such an extent that it found the
exploitation in Nigeria so rewarding and quickly
moved its headquarters from South Africa to
Nigeria. For quite some time, Nigerians were at the
mercy of this sole mobile telecom service provider
added with a lot of unreasonable terms and
conditions until the likes of Glo, Zain, Visafone,
Etisalat among others came in and made the
market competitive. Surprisingly, despite the
various juicy packages offered by these other
companies, Nigerians saw no need to make a
switch. The excuse then was logical and reasonable
at least one out of the lots; 'I can't change my
number; this is the line everybody knows me with'.
In a bid to address this market inequality and
create a level playing ground the Nigerian
Communication Commission (NCC) moved in.
After long years of rigmarole, the NCC introduced
the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) on April 22nd
2013, a service which enables subscribers to
switch network providers while still retaining their
number all at no cost. It is however alarming that
with a service such as this; some Nigerians still
find it hard to make proper choice.
The story above can only be likened to our current
political and leadership problem. Our nation
dilemmatic state is our own doing. MTN here
represents the crop of emergency leaders that
emerge at a time when we desperately desire
democratic rule, we threw caution to the wind and
gave power to rogues and criminals disguise as
gents and saints. Yes they came to us with the best
of roadmaps on papers but deep in their heart they
nurse a villainous plan greater than that of Lucifer,
but did we ever take time to ask them the right
questions other than dance around them with
drums and 'bata'?
The now corruption-ridden National Association of
Nigerian Students (NANS) which in the past causes
fear, panic and bring jittering to the soul of public
office holders as become pawn in the hands of
politicians and so bastardised that it's now been
paid to go on live television defending absurdity
and felony (felony in this context means a crime
against education), yet these are our youths and
acclaimed future of our great country.
Over the years we have been milked, skinned,
humiliated, deceived, tortured and played but any
time better individuals who neither posess fat bank
account nor enjoy the endorsement of the
'powerful' comes forth to take charge of our
nation's affair we take turn to label such person
with volumes of unprintable names.
Nigerians in their usual lackadaisical attitude feel
there is no need for a change or rather as they put
it 'Let's play with the devil we know'. It is only a
sign of gross foolishness for one to feel comfortable
with darkness when there is a possibility of light in
the next room; in fact it contradicts
neuroplasticity- the natural ability to seek for
change in discomfort fused in the human brain. We
have come to find faith only in God and make no
move to ensure we get the change our heart long
for.
In some instances I have had to listen to some
Nigerians in defense of the presidency. The
arguments always start with phrase such as this;
'.after all what did he do? Is he the one that
created the problems?' In most cases I have been
forced to point out to them few out of the many
sins of Goodluck Jonathan; the removal of subsidy,
failed power supply (not generation), skyrocketing
unemployment rate, perpetual insecurity and
unimaginable geometric growth in corruption.
Yes, President Goodluck Jonathan in all
righteousness never created Nigeria's problems,
but in 2011 when we were clamouring for a
president I don't remember we asking for a
clueless one who lacks knowledge on how to solve
these long age ailments. We never asked for a
siddon look who knows nothing other than to sign
Cheques and roll out pardons to criminals. Defense
like this continues to show how gullible we are in a
nation so blessed yet so poor.
A friend on twitter retweeted a post from one of his
followers in Somalia who has been in the war torn
country for three days, this fella acknowledged the
woeful sights and dilapidated nature of the country
but he shocked me when he said he was yet to
experience a second of power outage, this is in a
country that has been in perpetual state of war for
so long.
Nigerians won't learn just as the MTN subscriber's
won't port. The people of Abia state whose
Governor has failed to cleanse the potential world
class industrial area off the ridiculous dirt
trademark, would rather create crops of jobless
praise singers and fire dancers who follows him
around dancing and shouting to make ends meet
than provide sound entrepreneur skills acquisition
programme but deliver to them repainted and
dusted projects as dividends of democracy won't
see the need for change. The people of Akwa-Ibom
state whose Governor continue to use state
resources to acquire fleets of bulletproof and
military grade luxurious cars and jets at the
expense of the masses while quoting ghost
executed projects won't see the need for change.
The people of Ogun state whose megalomaniac
Governor continue to construct roads at a
whooping sum of 1.3billion naira per kilometer
while accumulating huge debts and loans that
would require the 10th generation to make full
repayment, fails to create employment but rather
promote thuggery, won't see the need for change.
We all would be living in a fool's paradise if we
continue to believe something good will come out
of these darkness, we are no different from the
MTN die-hard Nigerian subscribers who get
defrauded, short changed, exploited but looks at
their reception-less network service bar on their
phone smile, look up and say "I just love MTN"
Adekoya Boladale a political scientist is the
Convener, Advocacy for Better Leadership (ABEL)
and an alumnus of Tai Solarin University of
Education (TASUED) wrote via adekoyaboladale@
gmail.com. Please follow on twiter @adekoyabee