Basking on the success of its Switch-Off phone protest in 2003 to press for a switch to per second billing, National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) said it is set for another mass revolt, this time to demand satisfactory services and lower tariffs.

Network operators and experts have however dismissed the planned switch-off campaign accusing the organizers of insincerity and ulterior motive.

But NATCOMS said it will carry out another switch off campaign on February 17, "in protest of the unsatisfactory services, deliberate high tariff structure, subscriber-care insensitivity"

The above story ran in the Daily Champion of January 19 2006. Today is February 17, and I had forgotten all about the switch off protest until, this morning. On my way to work it was mentioned in a Rhythm 93.7 newsreel. This led me to think about a lot of things. Firstly, who is NATCOMS? What do they hope to achieve?

NATCOM is the acronym for the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers, an organisation that was formed in 2002 to meet the GSM operators head on in their exploitative habits. And boy, those GSM people really exploit us. They were successful in their first protest back in 2003 which successfully forced V-Mobile (then known as Econet) and MTN (thieving bastards) to eventually introduce per second billing. Granted, there is a need for this protest.

But my train of thought here is not about NATCOM, their protests and/or their effectiveness, but about the fact that as I am typing this, my phone like those of all my colleagues are all on. Firstly, this particular protest was given very poor coverage. I DIDN'T HEAR ABOUT IT BETWEEN JANUARY 19 AND TODAY, which says a lot about the campaigning skills of those pushing the clamour for lower tariffs. I pride myself on knowing what is happening everywhere around me and I didn't hear about this, but I heard a lot about valentine's day.

The attitude of people when I mentioned it, starting from my friend with whom I hopped a ride, to the other people in the car, to the people who were interviewed on 93.7, then to my colleagues, and of course myself! An attitude of who gives a ****.

Frankly, at this point I couldn't care less anymore because I don't think Nigerians are a set of people worth fighting for. Nigerians are among the most selfish group of people on the planet. As individuals we may, and definitely have selfless people, but as a collective,

Why do I say that? We have had a lot of opportunities to right a lot of the wrongs that have been inflicted on us all by our government (let's face it, most of the wrongs committed by MTN are committed simply because Obj and co look the other way), and we have always come short. A very wiseman once said that the people deserve the government that they have. And sadly, in the case of my beloved Naija, it is very true. Do you remember the last real labour strike? April or was it May 2004? That strike was effective, and had we hung in there just 3 more days, the government would have caved in. But what happened? People began crying. Adams Oshimole let us go back to work we are suffering. What kind of attitude is that? Didn't we watch the Ukrainians when their government tried to force crap down their throats? They braved the bitter cold in the streests of Kiev and Lvov until the government obeyed the will of the people. Vox populi vox Dei! Can that happen in Naija? As things currently are, NEVER! Until we sit up as a collective and do what has to be done, we will continue to be exploited by MTN and the rest of their kind.

Someone asked me what is my beef with MTN. My beef is this: MTN collected a loan of $1.8 billion for 5 years in order to commence their Naija operations. In less than 2 years they had made more than enough to pay back the loan twice over, but were it left to them, tariffs would still be at 2002 levels. Whenever it comes to customer care MTN are always the last to implement changes that will be felt by the people. They kept giving excuses as to why they couldn't change over from per minute billing to per second until Globacom came on and showed us that it could be done. When MTN finally got off their fat arses to change to PSB, they did it at a cost!

MTN South Africa became one of the major players in the South African telecoms industry because of funds repatriated from Naija. Why do y'all think that Telkom and Vodacome keep casting greedy glances in our direction? They know what is here to be made because of 2 factors: our sheer size by virtue of population, and our apparent lack of regulations.

A few weeks back there was a High Court ruling asking Shell and all other oil companies (Shell is always the target because they are the biggest oilco in Nigeria) to stop gas flaring with immediate effect. The companies didn't even need to appeal the ruling. The Federal Government made it abundantly clear that the ruling couldn't be implemented until 2008 at the earliest! This is a government that is supposed to uphold the rule of law! A few days after the ruling, I happened to go to Warri, and guess what? It is gas flaring business as usual! Shell Estate at Ejeba, Warri is just beside a slum. Is that a mark of a socially responsible firm making billions from us?

We blame the oil companies. Wrong! Blame the government. The companies are only doing what most humans would do. As they like, since there aren't being regulated.

But then we go ahead of ourselves if we blame the government. You see in theory we are in a democracy. By common definition, a democracy is a government for the people, of the people and by the people. Which means that if a democratic government isn't doing well, the people can boot it out. This PDP government has simply not performed in broad terms. They have done well on some specifics lets be fair, but generally, what do we have? Never Expect Power At-all has metamorphosed into Problem Has Changed Name?

Nigerians aren't ready to stand up and claim their rights, so like the rest of the people that I know, my phone will remain switched on. While we are on the subject of lower and fairer tarrifs by the way, those South Africans are ripping us off badly on another front. Can we form an association of DSTV owners?

Well done research. I hail thee.

^^^^

February 17, 2006, 09:36 AM »

6 years difference.

January 27, 2012, 02:35 PM

Mobinga:

^^^^

February 17, 2006, 09:36 AM »

6 years difference.

January 27, 2012, 02:35 PM

Oops someone was about posting this on the frontpage. Lmao

Op, what do we really get frm switching off our phones¿