Since the appointment of a substantive Post Master General, the political circles in Oyo state has been embroiled in war of words with some individuals accusing the Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, of opposing the emergence of the state’s candidate as the NIPOST helmsman. In this interview with Yinka Adeniran, the minister bares his mind on the issue, his 2019 governorship ambition, the ICT roadmap and other matters in the ministry. Excerpts:
How do you see the controversy over the filling of the post of the postmaster general of the country?
NIPOST is under the supervisory authority of the Ministry of Communication where I am the Minister. We sought approval of Mr. President to recruit a Post Master General who has business background, who could take NIPOST to the highest level. We felt that, perhaps, we may not get all the needed materials in relying on just the NIPOST staff. So, we got approval to advertise the position. We advertised the position in three newspapers. In all, 49 people applied but they were later shortlisted to 21. And then the process went on.
Mr. Zaccheus Adelabu, I know him very well, he is my very good younger brother; at no point did he react to our advertisement. He never applied for the job of the post master general, he was never shortlisted (of course because he didn’t apply), he never took part in the written test nor take part in the interviews. So, how could he have been a candidate? Although, I was told that he was promoted to becoming one but the funny thing was that Zaccheus never discussed the issue with me.
The person who was sponsoring him eventually brought another person who was finally approved by Mr. President. It is only Mr. President that has the power to appoint. Even the Minister owes his office at the instance of the President. So, for anybody to think that I overturned the wish of Mr. President, is stupidity of the highest level; it is cheap blackmail.
Some people are saying I didn’t approve Adelabu because he is a Christian, but the man there now is a Christian. They also said I didn’t approve of Zaccheus’ appointment because he wanted to contest for governorship, I am not aware he is contesting governorship and I know that he will never compete with me. And if he does, he will be welcome. I am not intimidated by anybody in Oyo State. It was also said that it was because he was in another camp in our party or an ally of whoever, I don’t have any enemy in Oyo State. If people consider me as their enemy, they are the ones who know me as their enemy; I don’t know them as my enemy.
So, there is no truth in that tendentious allegations; it is just pettiness borne out of mischief to try to tarnish my image and I’m sure, it has failed because Zaccheus never applied and never even discussed with me. He could have discussed with me if he wanted the job. We are very close, we were in a party together about three weeks ago, he could have approached me and discussed his interest. The allegation very baseless and cheap political blackmail but I’m getting used to that.
What are your plans to run for the governorship of Oyo State in 2019?
I don’t want to emphasise that point because I started my political career like someone who started school from class one and progressed to class two and I’m now like someone who is in SS3. Of course if a child gets to SS3 and you are asking him, if you finish school certificate, will you like to go to higher institution, the person will just be looking at you.
Let me emphasise, however, that though my supporters are very anxious and ready that we should start campaign, I never encouraged that. Because I have a job at hand now and I want to do the job of the Minister of Communications that I have been given by Mr. President, I want to use the dynamism that God has given me to try to transform the ICT industry, so that Nigeria can become advanced and developed like South Korea, Singapore and China, which do not have oil. All they have is their brain and they use their brain through ICT methodology to develop their country. I want to do exactly that. So, I am not in a haste to begin any campaign for governorship.
At the appropriate time, our people in Oyo state will take their decision. The people will decide. I am not even going to beg anybody. I know that people are intelligent enough to know that of all metals, gold is the most valuable.
What is your ministry’s roadmap for the ICT sector?
We have spent the last few months to lay the foundation. So many people have made cases before we came on board. It is like a tenant occupying an accommodation for a long time and when he leaves, the new man coming in must try and examine the place very well, clean and organise the place well and do all the needful to make it habitable. Since we came in, we have been laying a very strong foundation on the use of ICT to develop Nigeria. One of the very first thing we did, which never happened in the history of the ministry is the fact that we convoked an ICT retreat, which held in Ibadan at IITA for a whole week. More than 400 eggheads, industry leaders, experts and officials of the ministry were there to formulate policies. They brought different ideas as to what the ICT industry should look like. And these were put together and it has now evolved as a draft of Nigeria ICT Roadmap (2016-2020). The roadmap is now before the Federal Executive Council and as soon as it is approved, it becomes the policy direction of the ICT industry, which I am supposed to lead or drive. Even now we have started work. If you look at what we have tried to do with NIPOST, by the time the revolution takes full effect, what NIPOST is doing now will just be, perhaps, about 10 percent of what it would eventually be doing. So many businesses will come up, through transportation, through property development, through egovernment, e-commerce and the rest. I think Nigeria is very lucky that, for now, we have a government that believes in using ICT to impact people.
In the past, Nigeria depended solely on petroleum. Petroleum is a natural resource, we were producing 2.2m barrels per day and it was selling for $140/barrel. From that amount, the price has gone down to less than $40 per barrel. That is one shortfall.
The second shortfall is the fact that the activities of militants in the Niger Delta have also reduced the quantity we are producing. So, Nigeria has been in trouble in the last one year or so because of these scenario I have painted, and that is why we had to put on our thinking caps. See the developed countries, which never had oil, they have developed their countries. Many of them have surpassed Nigeria in terms of development. That is the level we are going too. And I believe that, with our political will and ideas, Nigeria too will benefit immensely and develop tremendously through the use of ICT.
What machinery have you put in place to harmonise the party in the state ahead of 2019 elections?
Honestly, I want to apologise that I don’t want to dwell on the machineries in place ahead of 2019 because I don’t want my attention to be diverted. Mr. President has given me a mandate to lead the ICT industry towards using it to develop Nigeria from the perspective of creating jobs, bringing about revenue and even advancing the economy. If I start with strategies for 2019, that is not what the President had asked me to do as a minister.
When we get to 2018, we can then start talking about strategies and all of that. I am a member of the APC and I was a member of the merger committee that brought about the birth of APC as a merger party. So, you should appreciate that I should know what to do and how to do it in due course. But for now, I think the primary responsibility of mine is that I have one of the most sensitive ministries that Nigeria relies on to evolve into a new economy and I want to be saved the distraction of politics to concentrate on my job.
What are the effects of the fine imposed on MTN on the annual profit and efforts to sanitise the telecoms industry?
In law, we say cause follows effect. If you take an action, it will have consequences. If the law says,ensure you register every sim card holder before activating those sim cards and the law further says, if you fail to register every card holder before activating, you will pay N200,000 for everyone.
If you are then negligent or by providence, you made mistakes and didn’t register, will you blame yourself or you will blame the law, which has taken its course? MTN must consider itself very lucky because, if for the fact that Mr. President reduced drastically the fine, by now MTN would have folded up. But the Nigerian government did not want MTN to fold up for a number of reasons. First, MTN came from South Africa, it brought foreign money through foreign direct investment to invest in Nigeria. Consequently, it provided services that never existed in Nigeria; that is GSM service. Today, MTN is the largest single operator of GSM. The second is the fact that it has also employed several Nigerians.
Again, a lot of Nigerians have also bought shares in MTN and they are shareholders of the company. If we insist on the original fine and they pay it and become bankrupt, the eventual loss is that of Nigeria, because a lot of people will lose their jobs, a lot of service will not be made available to Nigerians and it would discourage other foreigners to come and invest in Nigeria.
Even in a court system, if you go to a magistrate court and you are fined, you could appeal to a higher level of court and the court could reduce the fine. It is all within the jurisdiction of the court. In this case of MTN, Mr. President, being the symbol of our sovereignty, the buck stops on his table.
We have looked at all the facts and considered that, it is in the best interest of Nigeria for the fine to be reduced. If you consider the history of fines throughout the world, there is no place where a fine as high as that has ever being imposed on any single entity. So, for me, as a Nigerian and as government, that money came as booty for government. Of course, a lot of people might have died through the inefficiency and impunity of MTN, but again, it is good that Nigeria got that money, which could be used to revive the economy and other sectors, to build more roads and other infrastructure and impact on the people. I think government has done well and I know MTN appreciates it.
So, if there are loses this time, the lesson would be learnt, not only by MTN but by all operators in the country that Nigerian laws are expected to be respected, implemented and enforced. If you do otherwise, the blame will be yours to take if there are consequences to it.
What is the ministry doing on the issue of unsolicited messages from mobile operators and other inefficiencies?
I am the minister of communication but I must say I am also a victim of the impunity, negligence and all the extortions by these companies. Following my earlier promise, I did call a meeting of the operators about two months ago, I read a riot act to them, I reminded them that Nigerians are not happy about their poor services, the drop calls, unsolicited messages and all the rest. I also alluded to the fact that, even when they say, if you are not interested in a service, you should press a code, again they will still take your money. Apart from me inviting them, the NCC has also invited them, but regrettably, the situation continues for worse.
I want to assure Nigerians that we are not unmindful of the situations and we will definitely take all the necessary steps. I can also assure you that we already have a complaint telephone number of 622, it is toll free. You can phone between 8:30 and 5pm, Mondays through Saturdays. Through that, complaints are also collated, then NCC will take the needed action so as to seek and get redress for Nigerians.
What has happened to the proposed concept of Postbank?
We will have postbank. After a long wait, with the inauguration of a new post master general, we have given him the marching order and what to do and the roadmap that the post office must create.
I want to assure you that the man who has been appointed Post Master General is an accomplished lawyer, a distinguished and successful businessman. I have confidence in him that he would apply all his wisdom, intellect and education to transform our ideas and visions into reality.
I want to assure you that we will have, not only NIPOST Bank, we will also have NIPOST insurance, NIPOST transport and logistics services. We will have NIPOST property development, NIPOST e-commerce, NIPOST e-governance, where people don’t need to travel far away before processing their international passports. We need the prayers of Nigerians and we are sure that before the end of the present tenure, these things would have been put into practice.
