“Those NITEL workers had the effrontery to go on strike and shut down SAT 3, our SAT 3, our national resource, I mean, a property bought with federal government money, tax payers’ money; those workers, they must face the music. They must be punished and charged with economic sabotage. That is a national embarrassment. Can you imagine these people holding this country to ransom and making it impossible to reach the rest of the world? Who did they think they are?”

“Calm down. Why are you getting so worked up? What is the problem?”

“You have come again with your diplomatese. Are you telling me you were not aware that NITEL workers went on strike and shut down SAT 3?”

“Of course, I am aware. But that should not make you blow your top. Don’t they have a right, as a collective group, to ask for their due?”

“That is rubbish. Their due my foot! We are not talking here about their due. We are talking about a national resource; we are talking about national security, and we are talking about communicating with the outside world freely and unhindered.”

“But they did not tell you not to communicate with the outside world. They had an employer, whom they felt owed them some dues or entitlements, and they had to flex muscles before the employer listened to them. It was that simple; I mean, can’t you see the point?”

“Well, it is you that don’t seem to see the point. Look at it this way: these people held us to ransom over our common property; that is cheap blackmail. SAT 3 is not their property; it is a national asset, and they, like the police, the armed forces, just must, for the sake of national security, ensure that that resource is up and running, all the time.”

“On a lighter side, have we not been held to ransom by the armed forces before?” Think of those long years of military rule; what better form of being held to ransom could there be? Anyway, you could just have gone over to a very budding competitor; after all these are the days of liberalisation, competition and alternative choice in the Nigerian telecom environment. Are you aware that Globacom, the second national operator, is laying its own cable independent of NITEL or anyone else? When Globacom started, they proposed to pay some money to NITEL so as to be admitted into the SAT 3 Consortium; but NITEL refused and Globacom had to go it on their own. You could just take what you need from Globacom, only you have to wait till they are ready.”

“Yes, that is when that one is ready. But what are we going to do in the interim before Globacom’s submarine cable is ready? Are we going to be dancing to the whims and caprices of these so called NITEL workers? By the way, let me ask you, if they were so important, how come this same NITEL could not give Nigerians telephone lines 40 years after independence? Okay, I understand the company named NITEL came into being in 1985; but before then, we have had P&T, we had NET; what happened in 1985 was just mere metamorphosis; the company is the same. How come for all of 40 solid years of Nigeria’s independence, all they had was less than 500,000 telephone lines? How come even now, rather than move forward with lines, as is evident with other operators, NITEL is moving backwards? Don’t you think these workers should all be fired and charged with economic sabotage? They were not ashamed of their acts; now they think they can take our SAT 3 and blackmail 150 million Nigerians for their own inadequacies.”

“I should remind you that they are also part of the 150 million Nigerians; I’m sure you know that. But that is by the way. You talked as if NITEL workers are the owners of the company. Don’t forget the common saying that he who pays the piper dictates the tune. Your government has always been owner of NITEL; so, it is your government that has never allowed NITEL to crawl, let alone walk or run.”

“Oh! so, now it is my government; it is no longer our? Anyway, that is besides the point. But how come that Transcorp did not understand the fortune it landed when it bought 51 per cent equity in NITEL till this was pruned down to 10 per cent?”

“Now you are coming to the point. It was Transcorp’s failure to see the importance of the company called NITEL, and its failure to put down a blueprint to take the company from point zero to where it ought to be, that has led us into all these problems. So, you should have put the blame where it should be in the first place. The workers are just as helpless in the circumstance as you and I; it is just that when pushed to the wall, like a goat, they had to learn to bite. And the only weapon left to them was, in fact, to go on strike and, because they realised NITEL had no lines that will make anyone miss the company while they were on strike, they had to shut down SAT 3, which action could and it did bite hard.”

“I think I have an idea; yes! I don’t know why I did not think of this all along. Yes, that is the solution to this problem. It is high time we removed SAT 3 from NITEL. Government must set up a company to manage SAT 3 for and on behalf of the Nigerian people and government. Yes, this body should report directly to the Presidency.”

“That will be going too far; there is a regulator for the communications industry, the Nigerian Communications Commission. I am sure if it got to the point of setting up such a body, the NCC can fine tune and regulate it. But will that not be going too far? If we remove SAT 3 from NITEL, is there anything left of the company in case we still wish to sell? By the way, you know government is looking for a strategic investor or whatever, to take over NITEL. What will there be in NITEL without SAT 3, anyway?”

“Look, my friend, I’m not interested in your sentiments. Who cares if nothing is left of NITEL? Have companies not been liquidated before? If the company is giving us nothing but headache and we have this bright idea of setting up another special purpose vehicle to manage our SAT 3, why are you worried of what becomes of NITEL? Forget NITEL, let’s just set up that company. We can call it Nigeria SAT 3 Consortium; pure and simple.”

“There is a problem there already. You know there is a company called NigComSat; that is the Nigeria Communications Satellite. Do you not see that there will be a clash of interest or focus between these two? May be we should just remove SAT 3 from NITEL and vest its management in NigComSat. How about that?”

“You are certainly more interested in creating problems for this country than solving the ones already created. How could you think of such thing? NigComSat? Oh! no. Is that not the company that launched satellite that has not sold any transponder up to now? Instead of selling transponders to telephone operators, it wants to offer last mile services like its customers? Look, my friend, NigComSat needs to refocus; it is a government company 100 per cent as it is. In the first place, government ought not have set up that company while at the same time trying to sell NITEL. Why set up new companies as public enterprises when we are saying the best thing is to sell the existing ones so that private hands can drive them? Besides, if NigComSat has not made any money selling transponders up to now, how are you sure they will know what to make of SAT 3? The best solution is to set up another body or agency to manage SAT 3, sell or liquidate NITEL and we will have peace.”

“I feel for this country. When are we going to have people who will run the affairs of government institutions like it is done in other countries, with the commitment, patriotic zeal and honesty that is require? Why is it that when Nigerians run or work in government institutions or agencies, they only want to wreck the place; whereas, the moment they resign or are retired and they go into private practice, running their own affairs, they are at their best? Why are we so negative to our national institutions?”

“That is an assignment for you. For now, me, I’m putting up a proposal to government to remove SAT 3 from NITEL and set up a separate body to manage that important asset. And I can already tell them in advance: if they fail to do so, soon, very, very soon, Globacom will complete its own cable and take over all the customers that are currently dependent on SAT 3, just the same way that all other telephone and mobile operators have taken over all the customers that should have been NITEL’s from day one.”