By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.

Since the departure of Professor Isa Ali Pantami as the Minister of Communications in the country, there are increased sharp practices by the telephone service providers, notably the Mobile Telephone Network (MTN).

The ordinary telephone user in the Nigeria is the one who feels the pinch of these bad practices from the telephone companies, because of the difficult times he is already facing in the country, and therefore can do without added ‘cheating’ from any quarters.

That is  why it has become necessary to call on the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani to call MTN to order, to stop sending unsolicited text messages to the subscribers of its telephone service in the country.

The country is becoming a forest where survival is for the fittest, in view of the Harculean task many people go through to make ends meet daily. This is despite the fact that the country is abundantly blessed with in-demand mineral resources that if properly utilised by the leadership the ordinary citizens would have no cause to complain of ‘hard times’.

Unfortunately that is not the case, and the country has become a ‘jungle’ of sorts, where only the few rich people live comfortably, with most of the rest of the people managing to only survive. 

It is against the this abject backdrop that the MTN, which is a foreign company, is making life even more difficult for its ordinary customers in Nigeria, ‘cheating’ and worrying them witch unsolicited Short Message Service (SMS), popularly referred to as text, in order to make more killing, despite the huge profit it makes from its 82 million subscribers in the country to its 37.4 million users in South Africa.

The company is said to make the biggest profit from its services in Nigeria, with operations in at least 22 countries across Africa, including its home country (South Africa) and the Middle East.

It is said to make an annual revenue of N2.46 trillion in Nigeria against the company’s South African earning of R88 billion.

During the infamous tenure of a one time chairman, now an even bigger man on the board of the company, yours faithfully had to go for the services of additional operators in the country to mitigate running on only the MTN, because of the many unsolicited text messages that the company was sending to most of its customers.

There was however, a reversal of the bad situation when Professor Pantami took charge as Minister of Communications in the country. He made the telephone service providers to sit up and serve their subscribers with due diligence and without complain from the customers.

The departure of the of Professor Pantami as the Communication Minister witnessed the comeback of these unsolicited notifications, adverts, and others in Nigeria, by the MTN. The company daily sends the irritating notification of the amount of data I have used, which I have never asked for, but all the same cost me the ‘airtime’ that I would have used for something else.

What is actually irritating and annoying is the fact that although one is told to send a message to a certain number if they wanted the discontinuation of that particular notification, it appeared that it was only a ploy to exploit the customer further. No matter how many times you replied in the negative, that the notification is not required, you would still receive the same message the following day, which means that your message was either ignored or it was a not meant to do what it was supposed to do, anyway.

The unsolicited text message sent to yours sincerely on 26-06-2024 reads as follows: 

“Y'ello, your data usage for 26-06-2024 is 1493.71MB. To stop this notification dial *312*600#.” 

But despite repeatedly dialling   

*312*600#, the company (MTN) still continues sending the same message over and over again, with a disturbing and worrying daily regularity, which means that the company means to ‘cheat’, whether or not one likes it.

The other telephone networks are not saints either, but it is MTN, which I now use, know and receive the unsolicited messages from. It used to be the same thing with Globocom and 9 Mobile networks. But since the arrival of Professor Pantami as Minister of Communications during the previous government, I stopped using the two lines and gave the handset away.

It is in his duty and the interest of 82 million MTN subscribers in Nigeria that the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani call the company to order, and stop sending unsolicited messages to its customers in the country. But what it dares to do in the other countries it operates, is not your business or anyone’s concern and worry in this country.

Malam Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.