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New Page 9
NITEL: These hawks again?
T HERE is one area the Obasanjo
Government has not blinked. It is the privatisation agenda. Government has not
hidden its intention to stop investing in bottomless pit-business. President
Obasanjo has not hidden it from any body that his government is not going to
put a dime in any business except those that are of strategic importance and
in which the private sector is not interested.
Recently, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) left no one
in doubt that it was not prepared to let any temptation come to it along this
line, let alone fall into it. The Federal Ministry of Communication had come
to FEC with a N55 billion proposal on the restructuring of NITEL which was
rebuffed. FEC had told the minister that it had concluded plans to sell its
controlling stake in NITEL and that it was the responsibility of the investors
to reorganise and pump more funds into the organization.
Information from the media indicate that some investors
have already indicated interest in buying what could be described as one of
the few surviving national institutions. Notable among these is a consortium
called New Tel. The name New Tel is not new to the Nigerian Telecommunication
market nor is it to NITEL’s quest to privatise. They were the ‘proud losers’
in the 2001 privatisation attempt of NITEL. But the present NewTel is coming
with an expanded team. The new consortium include Dr. Kwame Amuah, son-in-law
to former South Africa’s President and World Statesman, Nelson Mandela and
another powerful figure in the present South African Government, Mr. Moletsi
Mbeki, brother to South African President, Mr. Thabo Mbeki./Dr.l Amuah
participated in the controversial South African Second National Operator (SNO)
bid in which he moved to acquire a 51 per cent equity in a company which was
meant to rival South African giant, Telcom.
Also in this team are the Chagouris, that group of Lebanese
business brothers that made a fortune exploiting their closeness to Nigeria’s
maximum rulers, Sani Abacha. Ever since Abacha’s demise, they have been
hanging around trying to join the commanding heights of telecommunication
business and other plum prospects. Available information show that the
Chagouris are the deep pocket behind the facade that Eric Nabih Chamchon, CEO
of Motorphone and Ambassador-at-Large to Niger Republic represent.
There are also Nigerians. Prince Tokunbo Sijuade, Andre
Gyemfie, Bunmi Elesho, Seye Kosoko and Seye Oladepo, a director in National
Bank of Nigeria (NBN). These are mainly go-betweens, doing the job on behalf
of their masters.
There is everything wrong with this composition apart from
its incompatibility. First, the names of Moletsi Mbeki and Dr Amuah spread
like wild fire in the controversy that surrounded the licensing of an SNO in
South Africa. The two were accused among other things of using their powerful
connections in high places to swing the deal in their favour. The fear is that
they might want to pull such stunts again in Nigerian telecommunication
industry and by extension other things in the market. Nigerians have not been
satisfied by their forerunner into the market, MTN, as it has been fleecing
Nigerians to boost its inordinate ambition to be the largest telecommunication
network in Africa. Subscribers are therefore, apprehensive that another South
African Company at a potentially more strategic level as national operator
could indeed make Nigeria a South African sub.
But if these arguments against the South African company
are bad enough, the Chagouris are mere hawks in the Nigerian market, waiting
to swoop on their prey. It is no secret that the Chagouris have severally been
fingered in the Abacha loot, which they have not repatriated till date. May be
this will afford them the opportunity to do so. That is, taking our money to
buy our property? The Chagouris also would have derailed the GSM auction
process which they did not want to hold in the first place. Having been
clandestinely awarded a GSM licence by the Abacha Government, and having
mapped out their strategy to take over the telecommunication market, they were
surprised when a new government interested in due process decided to throw
open the bidding process. They were not barred from participating but they
decided to go to court to contest the frequency they were given by the Abacha
Government. How then can the Chagouris deserve to buy our own NITEL. It is
disdainful, immoral, socially reprehensible and economically wrong.
The other interested investor is Vodacom. Again this one is
also not new to Nigeria. Only recently, the pull-out of Vodacom from their
Nigerian partner dominated the media in Nigeria. Vodacom had after initial
reluctance come to Nigeria through Econet Nigeria. They never hid their
interest in the Nigerian market, profit. Before MTN’s investment in Nigeria,
Vodacom was head and shoulders taller than MTN. But MTN had been making more
money than they are putting in the country and by so doing had overtaken them
with the speed of a supersonic concord plane. They wanted their own share of
the Nigerian cake, hence the hurried arrangement to oust the Zimbabwean brand
owner of Econet.
But just as they had come, they had also withdrawn, citing
a scandalous payment to some state governors as reason for their withdrawal.
But the Nigerian directors of V-Mobile say those were mere accusations
stemming from Vodacom’s intention to take over the company without
contributing much to it. Vodacom’s Group Chief Executive, Alan Knott-Graid,
confirmed this much when he said recently, "in terms of whether we can be
market leader in Africa, well I think, to not be in Nigeria is very, very
important. Nigeria is by far the second most important economy on the African
Continent and it is really very difficult, at least in my view, not to be in
Nigeria and still be able to have a huge impact in terms of subscribers on the
continent.
"The fact we’ve withdrawn from this particular venture,
doesn’t mean that Nigeria is off limits. I think it’s fair to say that, at
least I personally have lost my appetite a little bit for Nigeria, for the
moment, but there is nothing a good holiday can’t fix and there is nothing a
good opportunity can’t fix. So if one should come our way and should I be a
little stronger, we will probably go back in."
Before one gets carried away by this desire to bring in
investors at all cost, it is important to emphasize that the manner of
withdrawal and the impression created in the international community has cost
Nigeria immeasurable loss of goodwill. The easy pointer to this is that chief
executives of oil prospecting companies can no longer obtain facilities in the
international market on some terms as their counterparts from other parts of
the world. Nigeria has been painted by Vodacom as a rogue country.
So what use is it to do business with a man who has lost
appetite in our country? Nigerians, ronu!
•Anifowope, wrote in from Abuja.
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