Ever since the news of a landmark fine imposed on the largest network operator in Nigeria, MTN, broke in October last year for contravening subscriber registration rules, global attention has been on Nigeria to see how the delicate issue, which at a point, involved the Presidents of Nigeria and South Africa, would be resolved.
Unfortunately, the manner in which the ‘resolution’, which became public, early June, was handled still leaves much to be desired.
When an issue of such magnitude with national pedigree at stake becomes a subject of argument between the Presidency and the National Assembly, such that the so called ‘resolution’ is now hanging in the balance, then there is a problem. It portrays us as a country that lacks organisation and due process.
Or how do we explain a situation whereby a subject involving three key stakeholders got resolved by two; the Presidency, represented by the Minister of Communications and the Nigerian Communications Commission and MTN while the third, the National Assembly—of course equally important as the law making body—was left in the dark? Hence the current imbroglio.
Prior to the announcement of the resolution, which saw the reduction of the fine from N1.04 trillion to N330 billion, a Ministry of Communications official had told the media—not even local media—that, “lawmakers have set up a committee to investigate the MTN saga and they are still on it,” adding that “until they are through with it, nothing can be done.”
As reported by Reuters, Victor Oluwadamilare, Special Assistant to the Minister of Communications on Media said the Federal Government, the NCC and the Ministry of Communications “can do nothing” about the case until the House of Representatives Committee on Communication, which was looking into the matter, completes its investigation. According to him, “there’s no point dealing with a particular organisation from different fronts. It would be counter-productive.” And this sounds like good judgment!
Regrettably, the opposite was what happened. Both the upper and lower chambers of the National Assembly are now furious that the issue was resolved behind them, which paints the picture as if a backdoor approach was used in settling the situation. First to raise concern about the manner the issue was resolved was the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Communications, Honourable Saheed Akinade Fijabi, who expressed shock that such a ‘settlement’ could be consummated with the permission of the Communications Minister, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, without the lawmakers being consulted.
According to the lawmaker, such a position is a slap on the House, as it is contrary to an agreement with the Minister, the NCC and the Attorney General of the Federation, that all negotiations on the MTN fine be suspended until the House concludes its investigations on the subject matter.
In same manner, the Senate condemned the parties for reaching such agreement without recourse to existing understanding between all the parties involved. To address the issue, it had to summon Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); Adebayo Shittu, the minister of communication, and Abubakar Malami, minister of justice. This came as the Senate began its own investigation into the reduction without its knowledge. Gilbert Nnaji, a senator from Enugu east, brought the motion, which urged the senate to summon the key officials involved in the matter. Senator Nnaji is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, therefore well-appointed and informed on the subject as well.
But the Communication Minister, in defending the apparent ‘backdoor’ approach had claimed that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) decided to reduce the penalty against the telecommunications giant after realising the negative impact the burden could have on the nation, its people and the economy. According to him, there were pressures on FEC from different quarters, which later agreed to reduce the fine imposed on MTN to N330 billion to be paid within a period of three years.
“As far as we are concerned, the MTN issue is a closed matter. Nigeria as a country must move on. We must not do anything to drive away foreign investors. Foreign investments are potent means of bringing about development and wealth creation,” he said. Shittu went on to remind Nigerians that there were less than 500,000 telephone lines before the telecom operators came on board.
According to him, “Nigeria now has more than 152 million lines and MTN is the dominant operator in the field. It controls almost 50 per cent of the lines. Though, MTN violated the law and we had to penalise it. We must put a halt to the limitless crisis so that we don’t discourage foreign investors. That is what the Federal Executive Council has done to ensure we move ahead. We know for instance, that MTN operates in 22 countries. What it realises in Nigeria alone is more than what it realises in the other 21 countries put together,” he said.
But the fact of how many lines Nigeria had before the 2001 Digital Mobile Auction, which heralded the telecom revolution in the country, was well known to the government when the fine was imposed. What is at stake here, and which should and must be clear to the government and its functionaries, is: following through due process by involving all parties to the matter in resolving it, rather than putting the country in bad light with its functionaries openly arguing over what should have been resolved amicably before the matter goes public.
Agreed that the ‘settlement’ was done in the interest of the country as the Minister claimed, shouldn’t there be a formal notification of the National Assembly before such decision was taken knowing fully well that there was an understanding that every negotiation should be suspended until the lawmakers have concluded their investigations? After all, the National Assembly, the Minister and the NCC are all in the same nation’s capital, Abuja! Why should we have a divided house hence it cannot speak with one voice?
This is a matter of national pride; the larger global community should not see us as being unable to organise ourselves and put our house in order. We therefore call on all the parties involved in the MTN issue to respect whatever initial process at resolving the matter that was in place; all parties must get round on the same talking table and jointly reach an agreement on the fine, even if it means writing off the fine altogether.
That is the best way forward.