The possibility of science
SIR: I read with amusement, the text message sent to subscribers on the MTN network on the killer phone calls being received on the GSM networks. In the text, MTN described the calls as a hoax and scientifically impossible. The only explanation one can muster for this type of ignorance by a multi-national company is that it is a gasping attempt to protect its profits no matter the situation.
For persons who have received the phone calls and have been affected, I wonder what type of feelings they will have about Nigerian systems, leaders and corporate organisations. The truth is that the calls are real and are being made, even as I write this piece. But no one, deems it fit; no institution in Nigeria deems it fit, the government in Nigeria does not find it worthy to launch an investigation into the authenticity or otherwise of the phone scare.
Are we animals We should know because our president wrote a book about the animal called man. One would have expected an official enquiry into the story by the NCC or any other responsible government body. But are they responsible Or responsive
Nigeria is a country where everybody is expected to fend for himself. The government is only for the people in power and their families. The democracy is only for the politicians, by the politicians, for the politicians. I am sure the workers at MTN have advised their family members to beware of the calls. But they have gone ahead to misinform and misadvise other Nigerians to go ahead and pick calls and run mad.
This is the Nigerian tragedy. In other countries, citizens would have been advised appropriately to take precautions. Screen calls and generally be at alert without causing a scare. But we are different, we are Nigerians, it is scientifically impossible.
But is it really The possibilities of science are endless, even made longer through fetish and occultic routes. Ignorance should not be an excuse. I call on all Nigerians to take precautions in dealing with these phone calls. Especially parents who have given their children and wards, handsets. Nigeria is a country where anything can happen and usually does.
Femi Awoyinfa,
Lagos.
