By  Prince Osuagwu
The Nigerian telecommunications market has never been without wars. In fact the sector could conveniently be said to have advanced its market leadership in Africa, in the midst of turbulence, litigations and outright wars.

Gwandu

If the regulator is not struggling to convince an obvious uninformed majority of mobile phone users that the use of mobile phones or siting of base stations close to residences do not have health hazzards, the operators are  accusing different tiers of the government of imposing similar taxes and levies. A development that has imprinted the term double taxation in the Nigerian telecom policy lexicon.

Sometimes, as one trouble is getting settled, others would rear heads. It is either the states governments are forming some quasi-regulatory agencies to checkmate the activities of telecom operators in their respective states or the operators themselves are taking the states to court challenging the legality or otherwise of having two or more regulators for a single player in one market.

However, it has been these troubles, double taxation agitation, court action over regulation of mast and base stations installation, interconnect rate imbroglio, tariff reduction calls and all, that make the sector very interesting. It is also those developments that apparently heightens its growth.

However in recent times, apart from  agitations from telecom operators on the time frame of the SIM card registration exercise initiated by the Nigerian Communications Commission and its banning of all lottery related promotions by the operators, the industry has been calm.

But last week, some volcanos erupted. An agency of government, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, NESREA declared war on all telecom companies it considered operating in contravention of environmental laws and regulations. Its first catch was a big fish, Nigeria’s Second National Operator, Globacom.

According to the agency, the telecommunications masts Globacom erected at a residential area in OAU Quarters in Maitama, Abuja, did not follow due process as it alleged that the operator did not acquire environmental impact certificate before erecting the masts.

Penultimate Tuesday, the agency announced a decommission of the masts and pulled it down. NESREA’s Deputy Director in charge of Inspection , Compliance and Monitoring, Mrs. Miranda Amachree said that “following petitions from residents, an investigation was carried out by the Agency, which revealed that Globacom did not obtain the necessary Environmental Impact Assessment Certificate before the erection of the mast”.

Stoutly defending its position in decommissioning the masts, Amachree also disclosed that tests carried out at the site showed that the noise level was very high compared to what should be obtainable in a residential area. She added that the mast also violated the regulation on the distance between a telecommunication mast and a residential building, as well as the distance from the road.”

As if decommissioning the masts was not enough punishment, the agency also announced that it has filed criminal charges against Globacom Limited joining Globacom staff, Lorenzo Gomez, and Mohammed Jameel, for violating Environmental Laws in the country.

In the charge filed before a Federal High Court in Abuja, the agency accused Globacom of illegally constructing, installing and operating  a base transmission/ telecommunications station at O.A.U Maitama Residential Quarters, Maitama District, Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, alleging that it was contrary to Section 2 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, Cap E12, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and punishable under Section 60 of the same Act.

The agency told Vanguard Hi-Tech, that it was reacting to petitions by the Residents’ Association of O.A.U Quarters, Maitama, Abuja, and would not have decommissioned or resorted to court action if Globacom had not rebuffed its requests for the production of the EIA certificate.

According to the Director of Legal Services of NESREA, Barrister Bola Odugbesan, “efforts were made to hold dialogue with the operator of the illegal mast, but there was no response from them.

But now, there is no going back on the enforcement of environmental laws. the Agency presently has four court cases in different parts of the country, while we have decommissioned many illegal masts . We will follow the law, apply the law, and enforce the law!” he added. Vanguard’s efforts to get Globacom to confirm the allegations were unsuccessful as the appropriate officer to respond to the allegation was said to be out on other official assignments. However, a source at the company admitted knowledge of the scenario but said the company has not released any official stand on the matter.

Also, attempts to get the reactions of the Chairman of Association Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, ALTON, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo was futile as his phones kept ringing constantly without anybody answering.
However  his counterpart in the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, Engr Titi Omo-Ettu, expressed fears that the issue of double regulation would gradually crept into the industry when another agency other than NCC takes drastic actions as decommissioning and pulling down telecom masts.

NCC’s deluge of Ag. EVCs
While the industry was yet to analyse the effects of this new development, President Goodluck Jonathan came with a knock-out, directing the former Acting Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Engr Stephen Bello to step aside on the basis of age and hand over to the next senior officer, Dr Bashir Gwandu who would again operate on acting capacity as NCC EVC.

Gwandu before the development was the Executive Commissioner, Engineering and Standards of the  Commission. The first surprise that hit industry observers was that the new appointment was also on acting capacity in a commission that had been expected to have a substantive EVC since April 3, 2010 that the former substantive EVC, Engr Ernest Ndukwe, completed a second term in office and left.

Hi-Tech, however, gathered that the President’s stand was that Bello, having attained 60 years, on 20 August, 2009 should conform with the civil service rule on age limit to retirement.

He communicated that in a letter, through the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Information and Communications, dated June 21, 2010 with reference FMIC/PSO/225/1 Vol1/2, directing Bello to hand over to Gwandu, who is the next most senior officer of the commission.

The directive was said to have followed the advice of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye.

But there was later to be a twist when Bello allegedly refused to hand over to Gwandu, saying that as an appointed Executive Commissioner and later Acting EVC, the age limit rule of civil service no longer applied to his positions which he claimed were purely on appointment. Bello was appointed Director of Engineering of the Nigerian Communications Commission in 2000 and became Executive Commissioner, Engineering and Standards, in 2005.

Bello’s argument was said to have thrown serious apprehensions at the Nigerian Communications Commission and put officials in confusion as to who to report to.

It could be recalled that even the former EVC of the commission, Engr Ernest Ndukwe also faced the same problem when he attained the age of 60 while in service at the commission as the EVC, and later had to scale the huddle after due considerations were explored and the fact established that his position was on appointment.

Bello was said to have wanted this precedence to be followed, but it could have been late as Gwandu was said to have already assumed office, allegedly saying that whether Bello handed over to him or not, he could operate as acting EVC from his office.

Enters the Telecom Integrity Watch Group.
Meanwhile, a group that referred to itself as Telecom Integrity Watch Group, in an advertorial in one of the national dailies, asked the President to revert the directive on the grounds that he was mis-directed.

The group said: “We find this strange and curious and a clear negation of the rule of law. It has to be emphasised here that the 60 years age limit applies only to civil servants. We state categorically that Bello ceased to be a career civil servant at the point he was elevated to the position of Commissioner and was subsequently cleared by the Senate of the Federal Republic . Engr Bello is therefore a political appointee and cannot be removed on the directive of the Head of Service or Permanent Secretary”.

The group added that  “the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 states very clearly how a Commissioner should be removed from office. Section  10 subsection (1) states a “Commissioner may be suspended or removed from office by the President if he:

(a) is found to have been unqualified for appointment as a Commissioner (b) has demonstrated inability to effectively perform the duties of his office; (c) has been absent from 5 (five) consecutive meetings of the Board without the consent of the Chairman except he shows good reason for such absence; (d) is guilty of a serious misconduct in relation to his duties as a Commissioner; (e) in the case of a person possessed of professional qualifications, he is disqualified or suspended from practicing his profession in any part of the world by an order of a competent authority”

Daring all the holes picked by Bello and the Telecom Integrity Watch Group, Minister of Information and Communications, Prof Dora Akunyili, Thursday last week, called a meeting of telecom stakeholders in her Radio House office Abuja, and introduced Gwandu to everybody as the new Acting  EVC of NCC.

Akunyili also read riot act to telecom operators, mandating them to upgrade their services and ensure that tariff is reduced within six months from the meeting date. She also charged the Gwandu-led NCC to within three months come up with an action plan on how to give the sector a face lift.

NCC now speaks
These activities have kept the sector on the spotlight and helped in raising many suspicions, speculations and perhaps so much fabrications of what happened and what did not, especially as NCC was too careful to come up with the right information.

However, when some national dailies reported during the week that the crisis at NCC had led to the freezing of its accounts, the commission quickly debunked it.

The commission’s Head, Media & Public Relations, Mr Reuben Muoka, said that since it could be proven that none of the commission’s accounts were frozen, that the public had better discountenanced such reports and treat them as figments of the imaginations of the authors.

According to him, “we wish to also inform the public that there is no crisis of succession in the Commission. For the avoidance of any doubt, Dr. Bashir Gwandu, the Executive Commissioner in charge of Engineering and Standards, have since June 21, 2010, been appointed the Acting Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission.

This followed government’s directive to the former Acting Executive Vice Chairman, Engr. Stephen Bello, whose five-year tenure as an Executive Commissioner with the Commission expires on July 5, 2010, to proceed on his formal retirement.

“Since his appointment, Dr. Bashir Gwandu, with the full knowledge of the entire staff, has continued to perform his duties as the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Commission at our Headquarters in Abuja without let or hindrance.

He was at the meeting convened by the House of Representatives Committee on Communications on Wednesday, June 23, 2010, and there was no time during the meeting that another person appeared in the same capacity as Acting EVC”.
For him, such reports making rounds in some of Nigerian dailies are as disturbing as they are distortion of facts and a deliberate attempt to paint a picture of crisis where none existed.

The  man Gwandu
The man at the helm of affairs now, Dr Bashir Gwandu is said to be an experienced officer that can conveniently step into the shoes of Engr Ndukwe.  He is said to possess a BSc in Physics from Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto and an MSc in Applied Physics from the University of Jos.

He is also a proud earner of an MSc  in Power Electronics and Drives and MSc in Communications Engineering, before  obtaining an MPhil degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, all from the University of Birmingham.
Dr Gwandu is said to have designed many devices that are used in the telecom industry some of which have been patented in Europe and United States.

Since 2002, Dr Bashir Gwandu has been involved in research work on Regulation of Utilities. He was also one of the engineers invited as part of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) team to outline policy issues for the UK Energy White-paper.

Dr Gwandu before appointed Ag. EVC was the Executive Commissioner for Engineering and Technical Standards at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); supervising Spectrum planning and management, Quality of Service Monitoring and Network Optimization, Equipment Type-approval, Numbering Plan, Allocation and Management.

However, the fears are that operating on acting capacity may also limit the actions Gwandu would  possibly take and the way he is going to carry out activities in the sector.

Like Engr. Omo-Ettu quipped, “if government was not, and is not yet prepared to replace Ndukwe since he left, then there is something fundermentally wrong going on. Whatever it is would surely not benefit even the aggregate economy either”