AFRICAN ECON :: THE OPTIMIST VOICE

EDITORIAL

Public Service vs Public Looting ...July 10, 2010

We thought we have already rested the issue of immense corruption in public service, whether governmental Ministries, Legislatures, the Executive offices, Federal, State Local, and all others. For years, since about mid eighties upwards, corruption has taken roots. It is only getting worse by the year, until today and of all times, the civilian administration the country has craved for after years of military; public service has become public looting.

Committees of Inquiries and investigative committees are conduits for further resource waste for the country and its people. It is robbery if you ask me, and this is why.

(a)     The resources that have been allocated to a project, be it electricity, NITEL and others running into billions of dollars (not naira) have not yielded any results that people can see tangibly. In short the public was robbed.

(b)     The resources wasted paying legislators while they sit to further waste time discussing what they know will not lead to anything is further wastage. They aught to spend that time on other important legislations that will yield results.

(c)     Further, these same embezzlers from the electricity Project and the NITEL saga will now, behind the scenes, share some of the loot with members of those legislative committees.

So while reading a piece written by a Leonard Shilgba on NITEL, which by the way was a good piece drawing attention to such issues of immense importance, we decided to take up the issue and drum it more. This is partially because these are not issues commonly discussed. You may not find articles like that in the mainstream press.

The part that drew our attention the most is this, and we quote.

“MTN declares hundreds of billions of naira in profits. Why can’t they, when the same company offers better services in its home country South Africa, but would not invest what is needed to do same in Nigeria? But since the communications committees of the national assembly and NCC have been apparently compromised MTN has not been called to order. The billings by telecommunications companies such as MTN are outrageous. There are no efforts made by either the NCC or the communications committees of the national assembly to protect consumers.” (Shilgba, L. Gamji.com July 5, 2010)

The main thing he was talking about was NITEL, how it was robbed of its facilities, service and leadership in the country’s telecommunication in the name of privatization. One of the most incredible of all the neglect, one that not many people may realize its scope is that, it is one of the only public institutions to own its own orbiting satellite (s), which of course all the nation’s GSM services rent to provide services to the public. Out of that rentage alone, billions are being wasted on a monthly basis.

One crafty way the deceitful “looters” of NITEL deceived the nation, was in making the nation believe that they had something to invest in purchasing NITEL, when in actual fact their eyes were on owning the cash cow of NITEL, the satellite(s) they own.

The NITEL issue is one of the most important reminders of abuse and waste the country has ever seen. In that regard therefore, I support and further amplify the call by Shilgba to address the issue with immediate effect.

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