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GSM – Global System Mobile communication, another big scam on Nigerian people by
The Global System Mobile Communication (GSM) telephone contract which Nigerian Government awarded to a South African company - MTN South Africa and their Nigerian partners- to upgrade and improve Nigerian telecommunication system is a commendable effort of the Nigerian Government to modernized the communication network. This GSM license contract to these private companies was almost ($300.000.000 million) Three hundred million dollars paid to the Nigerian Government for them to operate the network, according to Reuters News Agency of January 18, 2001. This huge amount of money will be passed to Nigerian consumers and as things are right now in Nigeria, it is the rich that will afford the telephone and communication system. According to the world bank estimate only about 15% of Nigerians have access to telephone or communication system at a regular basis. The economy has not improved. The standard of living has not improved and in fact it has gone down drastically. So I want to know who is going to pay this ($300.000.000 million dollars) Three hundred million dollars to this private companies. It is going to be the ordinary Nigerians and that means telephone or communication system will be out of reach for ordinary Nigerians. The private companies will charge high fees and going by the numbers we have, despite the usual empty estimates and numbers by our Government, telephone will be expensive. Where are the ordinary people going to get the money. Will the 15% rich Nigerians be able to pay for it of course not they cannot pay for it alone. This means the ordinary Nigerians will not be able to afford telephone and the middle men and mafia that runs our communication networks will be empowered to continue to bilk and deprive the ordinary Nigerians the ability to afford telephone and other communication system which is the heart beat of any society and its economy. I became suspicious when some of Nigeria’s former heads of state and their collaborators who ran the most corrupt administration in the world was part of the partnership vying for the contract and they succeeded in cornering the contract to their dubious friends. Please someone should tell me where did our corrupt former Heads of States learn about Communication and Technology. Former heads of state world over concentrate on charitable effort. In Nigeria former heads of states are only concerned with contracts – they never have enough in stealing our money. Remember Ajaokuta Steel Industry, Alaja Steel Industry , Motor plants, natural gas project, Fertilizer projects, all these large white elephant projects where means to steel our money and none of these projects has worked out as planned. To me it is de javu all over again, Remember when these corrupt leaders gave contract to ITT International ( International Telephone and Telegraph) in 1979/1980 telling us that our communication and telephone system will be upgraded in ten years and the price then( when Naira was higher than dollar) it was $800.000.000 million ( Eight hundred Million Dollars) contract and till today that money and contract did not improve Nigerian telephone system at all. That money was stolen. The only cheaper means to improve our telephone and communication system in Nigeria that will give us modern communication system, cheaper and more dynamic is VSAT Earth station system ( Very Small Aperture System). The manufacturers and companies that launches in the orbit are Hughes Network Systems, GE Americom, Scientific Atlanta among others. These companies with Nigerian partners can launch these system in the orbit at a cheaper and at a more efficient manner than what I think we have now. We can also lease or rent this system run by Nigerians and their partners at a cheaper price considering the state of the economy and the ability of the common Nigerian people to pay. Our Government is contributing to a digital divide between Nigerians and the rest of the world by opting to use an expensive system with dubious mechanism and dubious partners. “ Many countries in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia-pacific-rim have highly underdeveloped voice and data terrestrial networks and some areas, none at all. VSAT offered a quick, inexpensive, and reliable way to implement a communication networks. International corporations reach their foreign corporate sites, and national government can match the communication infrastructures of first world nations. Another application of VSAT technology is operating in Poland. With the introduction of free market society, Poland turned to VSAT Technology to modernize its national Communication capabilities.” (Communication Technology Update, 2001). Oil companies, Engineering companies, shipping companies banks use VSAT to communicate with their workers by telephone, fax, internet for internal and remote communication. VSAT can operate in TCP/IP for internet connection, voice and data transmittal . When you use your visa or Mastercard in a remote area the transaction can be conducted with VSAT. When you buy a product in a store in England with head office in New york the cash register transmits the sale to New york while the customer is still there. These technology is being used today at a cheaper price than what we will be getting in Nigeria In Nigeria all the oil companies, advanced Foreign Embassies, shipping companies and International companies do not depend on our communication system, they all have and use one form of VSAT or the other for their business. Maybe Nigerian Government should have asked these International companies how they coordinate their programs and workers in Nigeria. The expatriates with oil companies in their Nigerian living quarters and in the oil fields and swamps communicate comfortably with their families abroad and employers using the latest communication technology all through VSAT which is cheaper and easy to install I just feel that this GSM telephone system being privatized and within this free market system being initiated in Nigeria, the ordinary Nigerians will suffer because the people behind this plan did not do their research very well for what will be cheaper and easier for ordinary Nigerians based on the present economic situation in Nigeria,. Ugo Harris is an educational software and communication system researcher
Nigeria Democracy and Justice Project Washington, DC
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