Nitel as a microcosm of Nigeria

Nitel will always be in the news, and like Nigeria, it will always excite a mix of resentments, doubts, and ‘near’ faith. As some critics are wont to say, and not without good reasons, it is dangerous to absolutely believe that things would get better soon with the contraption called Nitel.

Because many have come to see Nitel as a microcosm of Nigeria, their understanding of Nitel has also come to imply their strong sense of pessimism in Nigeria. That in itself is a dangerous state of mind. But, then, who can really afford to have faith in an institution that has been so bastardized that the only sane thing to believe about the institution is accept that it would always be moribund, and one day, it would finally go into extinction. As are all things, eh!

Kevin Caruso, chief executive officer of Nitel, was all optimism a few days ago as he announced the new strategies to enhance services by the phone company as part of the moves by government to get new investors for the ailing telco. Let me quote Caruso as reported by one media organization:

“All we are focusing on now is how to improve on our services; we provide service to different types of customers from GSM operation, Private Telephone Operators (PTOs) and some private and government offices. We are working on our infrastructure to ensure that our services are improved and also efficient.”

Caruso spoke in the tradition of those before him who have occupied the unenviable position of chief executive officers of Nitel and who have had the privilege of running Africa’s most troubled telco and getting the honor to resign or the dishonor of getting sacked before they crystallized their dreams into something meaningful.

Caruso made promises, seemingly logical pledges of sanitizing Nitel as it returns to the auction room where government and Transcorp, the private sector consortium with a 51 percent stake, hope to find a new bridegroom.

Whether they would ultimately get a good groom is a matter of conjecture. What is not subject to argument is the long road that Nitel, like Nigeria, has taking to get to this dire straight.

Imagine Nitel as Nigeria and MTN as Malaysia and Globacom as Dubai and probably Zain as India. How would you write a short story if you had all these subjects as major characters in your story?

MTN would be Malaysia that managed to build national wealth out of a resource that is in abundance in Nigeria but completely neglected – remember the parable of the palm oil seed? MTN would be the character that celebrated its 50th birthday with much accomplishments in terms of gross national income, relative self-sufficiency in agriculture and a relatively advanced manufacturing sector.

Globacom would be Dubai that produced lesser crude oil but has managed to become a major tourism destination by investing proceeds of its crude oil wisely in tourism; it would be the little oasis in a desert fast becoming a major hub for global financial players and technology players seeking the right environment to flourish outside the advanced world. Like Dubai, you would see the ingenuity of a people and their leaders intent at turning their sands to seas of splendor.

By contrasting Zain with Nitel, you probably would see the remarkable advancement a nation can make by ‘right thinking’ itself out of an early morning corporate crises to become a major leader in technology business solutions.

In Nitel, you will feel the undermining weight of corruption and how government undue interference can kill business. You will appreciate why Nitel is out of Nigeria's amazing telephone growth now at 53 million and why Nitel, which was the only telephone company at a point in history, is completely out of reckoning in the new order of 53 million phones.

Today, Nitel lays prostrate with a history of failed privatizations and skewed sale. Increasingly, it is becoming clear that Nitel’s sale to Transcorp resulted from cronyism and not due diligence. It is increasingly getting clearer that the 51 percent stake acquisition by the upstart Transcorp was influenced largely by the personal interest of a few powerful men. Just like Nigeria, Nitel’s history and state of comatose has been influenced by powerful interest outside the realm of noble vision.

In Nitel, you have unpaid loans with no clear-cut procedures on how the loans were acquired or spent; you have a workforce hired to satisfy ethnic balancing and crass nepotism without any bearing to the short or long interest of the business; you have corporate leadership that must kowtow to the political leaders and interests that are extraneous and often in conflict with the health of the business; and you have an institution burdened by bureaucracy and seeming insensitivity to the new spirit of competition in a deregulated market.

How else is Nitel not Nigeria? Are all the sins and shortcomings of Nitel not also part and parcel of the Nigerian state that gave birth to it? Most importantly, does Nitel's story not tell the story of Nigeria? If it does, why should anyone take Caruso seriously? Soon, the Nitel CEO will be one of the men that came, saw Nitel, made promises, fiddled with one or several things, and left the scene like past presidents did to Nigeria. Nitel is indeed Nigeria, or Nigeria is indeed Nitel -- depending how you choose to see it.