By MKPE ABANG
The clouds are gathering; you can tell from the colour of the cloud if you look to the skies and see colours change from white to dark. And, as the darkened colour of the clouds thickens, you can feel the gathering storms threatening; about to break. Sharp lightning soon heralds the thunderous storms; oh no, you don’t need to be reminded by any weather man…of what follows shortly. And, as often and always happens, rains usually follow in torrents!
And right now, those skies are thickening; the colours are changing into darkened nearly impenetrable solid rock, though they hang in the air.
In Africa, parables are very strong tools for warning, for advice, for foretelling an impending doom – or an imminent good fortune; but only if the one forewarned would take heed. So in Africa it is said: those who would separate the fight may do well to prevent it through timely advice during the verbal hot exchanges or harsh words. And, it has worked; has always worked.
MTN Nigeria and its parent company, the MTN Group, a very law-abiding conglomerate; so business-minded the company would not willingly do anything in any of the host countries where it operates, to hurt the people or their government. And, MTN operates in 22 countries across Africa and the Middle East. Yes, those of us of African descent are proud to call it our export to the world; why not? It is a great success. And, as they say, success has many friends, relations and supporters; only failure is an orphan and walks the lonely path.
Would MTN have willingly broken the SIM card registration laws in Nigeria for any reason? From the foregoing, the simple answer would be a resounding ‘No!’ Yet, this company with a large heart to venture into areas where the weak and short-sighted would avoid, did break Nigeria’s SIM card registration laws by not cutting off from its network some five million subscribers whose registration details in the SIM card registration exercise could not be verified as of August and September 2015. And when an ant falls, hardly does the yarn of a leaf move; but when an elephant falls, you can rest assured to hear the reverberations with the grounds shaking!
So for that infraction, the giant MTN was slammed a N1.04 trillion fine (at the time it translated to $5.2 billion). Naturally the quantum of the fine shook not just the African economic stratosphere; the reverberations reached right down to all the four corners of the earth! It was an unthinkable amount for a fine; it was said to be the largest ever of such fine on a telecommunications operator for an infraction.
To underscore the seriousness of the fine – and the amount involved, and indeed the underlining importance of the market where the company operates and where the fine had been slammed – President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, sensing trouble for the company that calls his country home, visited Nigeria and conferred with his Nigerian counterpart, President Muhammadu Buhari. And, we know what such conferring means. But this, only after in the intervening period the erstwhile Group CEO of MTN, Zimbabwean born Sifiso Dabengwa and MTN Nigeria’s first ever and only Nigerian born CEO so far, Michael Ikpoki, had resigned their appointments – to soothe corporate and political nerves over the matter.
The fact that up to now, there is still an air of uncertainty over this fine despite the efforts thus far at such highest of levels, the fact that even back in Nigeria the very important key actors that may, should and can eventually resolve the impasse – namely the National Assembly, the Ministry of Communications and the Nigerian Communications Commission – have not found a common ground yet on the issue, leaves a lot to worry about.
For, although the NCC with endorsement of the Minister of Communications, has met with MTN and accepted a reduced amount of N330 billion, which MTN expressed readiness to pay over an agreed period of time and terms, the National Assembly (through its Committees on Communication, with the Lower Chamber taking on the battle), is yet to be sold on that ‘reduction’. So, MTN and the international community are still left to ponder and wait.
Now, while the ominous clouds that surrounded the Nigerian telecom industry’s most successful player still, are yet to clear, even darker clouds are gathering, unfortunately from the same angle that led to the action that has left a sour taste in the mouth since that fine on MTN. Can you guess it? SIM card registration; national security.
Currently all eyes and concerned hearts are with MTN; for, it is the one that had been fined. Soon after that experience activities on SIM registration took very serious dimensions; so serious that many subscribers on all the networks had their lines barred for not having completed their SIM registration details. All the operators mounted customer care desks specifically for this purpose, to warn and invite their subscribers to visit SIM registration centres they had mounted across the country, to complete their details or register their SIMs. But like all things done in a hurry and with a certain purpose in mind, the momentum soon peters out. And, it has in this instance.
How do you know this? Pretty simple: the messages in the mass media have ceased; the messages being sent out by operators, which became a daily occurrence, to their customers’ lines, regarding completing their SIM registration, which became the order of the day soon after the fine on MTN, has completely disappeared. But that is not the most worrisome part.
Here it is: there are many subscribers out there – and they run into several millions – whose registration is as simple as a single name! There are many more others whose details are given simply as a single name referenced to an occupation or a location or an activity.
Thanks to technology, with such apps like Truecaller or Truedialer, it has become easier to know details of a caller or a number you wish to call. Imagine therefore when you have names like: Tunde tailor, Shehu Wuse Market, Pepple fisherman, Emeka trader, Okon Calabar, among others. These are just a few of what you get when strange names call your line and you’ve installed Truecaller which automatically throws up the name or names of the caller.
In many instances, you simply see just a single name: John, Akpan, Ahmed, Ngozi, Funke, Rex, Akin, and so on. And you begin to wonder: where is the SIM registration that you went through, in which you filled a form, had your fingerprints taken, your photo taken, and you had to submit at least two names – first name and surname?
The case gets worse further as you get calls and check the callers; but even working at its best, Truecaller can’t come up with any name or details. Simply put: that number has not had its SIM registered at all! And, this is happening with numbers from all the networks currently dominating the Nigerian mobile phone market: Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN!
You can then begin to shift uneasily in your seat: the day is nigh when NCC, with the best of sledge hammers, will slam fines, hefty fines, on all the operators; such fines that will make the N1.04 trillion fine currently still a hard bone to swallow for MTN, look like child’s play!
So all of us that will cry out very loud, that ah! this NCC has come again o! these fines are too much, reduce them, cancel them, do this or do that; this is the time to cry out: operators must stop this practice whereby in their eagerness to quickly provide a semblance of obeying the SIM registration rule, their agents take just about any information, especially names – single names, names associating with merely occupation or activity or area of residence, without getting some means of identification that at least give full names of the subscriber – such as first name and surname, to begin with.
The security worries that pushed Nigeria to this limit, including Boko Haram issue, which reached its zenith, prompting a mandatory SIM registration, have not gone away just yet. Instead many more are rising: Fulani Cattle Herdsmen (carrying AK 47 rifles), resurging Niger Delta militants whether the new such as Avengers or the old such as MEND, among many others.
But even for the simple reason that be it for business, for proper record keeping and planning for the country, there shouldn’t be any cutting of corners with this vital registration. And, I foresee a situation where NCC will soon have ‘marshals’ under its enforcement and monitoring, to conduct ‘stop and search’ or ‘show your SIM registration’ like the ‘stop and search’ by our friends in the police and other security agencies. When this begins to happen, both subscriber and operator will have to suffer the consequences. And it is not far off!
Because I will be concerned when the bigger fine is slammed on all the operators in the coming days, I dared now to send out this warning to the operators. When it does come, I will say ‘I warned you.’