ATCON and Nigeria’s ‘scam telecom awards’

The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) is angry. In a publication by some media houses last week, ATCON expressed dismay over what it called “the flagrant abuse of the Nigeria Telecom/ICT Awards by organizations, groups and individuals who have no locus standi, experience, objectivity, expertise or link with the information and communications technology industry in Nigeria.”

The umbrella body for telecom companies sees many of the awards purportedly seeking to recognize the leading companies in the industry as a sham. In fact, it used the word “scam award” to describe some of the awards ostensibly according the status of "Nigeria Telecom Company of the Year" to some operators.

It also claimed to have been “recently undaunted with local and foreign inquiries relating to some ICT awards in Nigeria, and as the umbrella association of operators in the Nigerian telecommunications/ICT industry, as well as an industry advocacy group, [it] believes that it is about time to introduce a level of sanity into the business of ICT awards in Nigeria to save the sector and the nation from image problems.”

For a way out, ATCON is craving to create a “Nigerian Digital Awards Standards Committee” involving the membership of all stakeholders, including the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and professional bodies in the country. ATCON’s dream committee will “source input from such organizations as the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Corporate Affairs commission (CAC), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Consumer Protection Council (CPC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), [and] Consumer Rights Groups during the process of evaluation of nominees for the awards."

It is ATCON’s search for an ideal. A noble one as it were, particularly in a country where institutions and decency have been bastardized; where greatness is defined not by noble deeds but corruption of decency through crass opportunism and the skewed influence of money – mostly unexplainable and ill-gotten. But, unfortunately, because what ATCON aspires for is just an ideal, it would remain something sought for and never realized because this ideal does not appear to be practicable like many other great ideals.

The first obstacle ATCON may face is that it appears to be seeking to have a monopoly of an enterprise where private organizations, particularly the media, have fine-tuned their skills in the last few years. If ATCON wants to have these organizations off the pitch, then it has to be able to convince Nigerians that there is a law, maybe a constitutional provision, that bars all sorts of organizations from giving specific awards within the telecom sector. It also has to prove to Nigerians that there are specific provisions in the Nigerian law that debars certain organizations from having the "locus standi" to give certain awards.

Practically every media organization ranging from the big to the small, the general news media to the specific trade journals, and the national to the local, organizes one award or another. The big ones may include the ones by the big brands such as Thisday Newspapers, but there are a deluge of small ones that hold their own in their own right as part of our institutionalized commercial culture of giving awards to individuals and organizations using different measurements that range from the noble and the absurd to the purely commercial.

In trying to address the problem of the monetization of awards in the telecom sector, or what has come to be known as "cash for recognition," ATCON risks exposing itself to the attack of the industry it seeks to partner with for the accomplishment of its own "ideal" award.

One argument that is irrefutable is that all over the world, media organizations have a long tradition of organizing and giving awards to reputable individual and corporate citizens. One example will suffice in the specific field of telecommunications: The London based Total Telecoms, a monthly publications on communications, yearly organizes the World Telecommunications Award with which it recognizes operators from across the globe in different categories ranging from "Best Mobile Operator" to "Best Value Added Service Provider" and the ubiquitous "World Telecom Company of the Year."

It is also increasingly becoming the tradition that conference and exhibition organizers are joining the fray of giving awards to operators within defined sub-sectors in the industry. Thus, last year, the South African based SATCOM, the satellite conference and exhibition organizer, started rewarding the best satellite operators on the continent. Kemilinks International, the organizers of the yearly African Telecom Summit, have added an award ceremony to the bundled package of conference and exhibition in the last few years.

ATCON is right to express concern over the so-called sham or scam award. But it is failing to appreciate the evolution of awards in the sector. It has also failed to show some level of appreciation for the general characteristics of awards in the global sense within the telecom sector and in the narrower sense within the peculiar traits of Nigerian telecom awards.

In the global sense, award are giving chiefly to recognize excellence and open a new level of competitive challenge among players. There are benchmarks for arriving at results, but there are no global or national policemen to adjudge the correctness or otherwise of any of these awards. It is the organizers that carry the responsibility and the burden of ensuring that their award has credibility and do stand above controversy as much as possible. An award becomes a sham once it is established that it lacks credibility and that it is on offer only for the highest bidder.

In the Nigerian reality, awards including telecom awards have become a sham like everything else that holds the moral fabric of the society together. Because everything is in disarray and there is a pervading sense of the immoral across the board in Nigeria, the awards merely express our sordid state of affairs.

Therefore, the ideal that ATCON seeks to entrench is viable only if so many things that have made the Nigerian state to go awry can be addressed. The telecom companies and the individuals that the awards tend to reward are part and parcel of the "Nigeria mess." The so-called boards of trustees that the organizations publicized to help give credibility to the process are only rubber stamp boards. Often, award winners are selected based on the size of the money provided by the different nominees. A winner is often arrived at as an extension of strategic business interest to keep the publishing business going or, if it is an NGO, to keep the organization relevant for a long time to come.

But seeking to eradicate these awards by creating a single one would only succeed in entrenching monopoly in a market of free enterprise. Every award assumed its true character overtime. It is left for the award giver to determine the level of credibility or lack of it that it wants for its award exercise. It also depends on the award receivers to determine the level of importance they attach to a particular award.

I do not see a way out in ATCON’s approach to clean up Nigeria’s dirt awards. What the organization should concentrate on is to do its own and set an example that others would be forced to follow. Once there is a viable and honorable option, the system would automatically clean itself. Even thieves would prefer to be honored with credible awards than be adorned with stinking coat.

Having one "Nigeria Telecom Company of the Year 2007" is not the issue but having a credible "Nigeria Telecom Company of the Year 2007" that stands out among the pack in a free market. How ATCON can do this and why it should do this ought be the preoccupation of its executives. Sometimes, to get the rats out of the house, you have to bring in the cat, as long as you can keep the cat focused on its original goal. The way forward? Set the right example by doing the right thing rightly.