By Sonny Aragba-Akpore

Early last week,the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) announced a temporary suspension of Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card services nationwide to address concerns raised by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) on migration of SIM related services to the national platform.
In a statement issued on Tuesday July 1,2025 and signed by ALTON chairman, Gbenga Adebayo an engineer and publicity secretary, Damian Udeh, a lawyer,said the transition, which affects processes such as SIM swap, SIM replacement, new SIM activations, and Mobile Number Portability (MNP), has introduced unforeseen technical challenges, temporarily disrupting real-time identity verification services nationwide.
Although it claimed it was giving such directives on the instructions of NIMC,there are also strong indications that the steps were being taken to forestall and minimize further congestion on the various networks which have continued to experience outages leading to uncomfortable customer experience.
Poor services have been traced to tired and sometimes decaying infrastructure as Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are believed to have been traumatized by rising foreign exchange rates,dwindling revenue occassioned by customer aparthy to subscriptions as a result of a comatose economy and unrealistic purchasing power.There are also issues of right of way challenges created by local government and state officials.
While operators emphasize services in the urban and semi urban areas where the economy appears resilient,rural dwellers have been left to bemoan a fate that makes them resort to their own devices to communicate.
Even in the so called urban centres,there are several black spots so much that no urban dwellers can lay claim to robust services and as a result,subscribers are plagued constantly by incomplete calls,drop calls and poor data services.
Except for those who may pretend that all is well,the situation is not as rosy as we imagine.
Strangely,ALTON and its members are helpless.
Even the regulator,the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) appears handicapped as it cannot go beyond dishing out guidelines to improve service delivery in an economy guided by business decisions.
Beautiful as such guidelines and policies may seem,the operators are clearly the ones to determine how fast and far they can run especially since any race or decision is based on funding more so when foreign direct investment (FDI) has been on a steep decline in the last few years.
Although not generally discussed, one critical factor is the shortage of foreign exchange in Nigeria.
Due to paucity of local funding,operators rely heavily on foreign exchange for imported equipment and services—ranging from base stations,towers and routers to software licensing and satellite connectivity, and so foreign exchange sourcing remains a nightmare and operators face delays in importing vital infrastructure components;Costs of equipment rise, especially when they have to source foreign currency from the parallel market at higher rates;Payments to international vendors are delayed, straining business relationships and slowing maintenance or support services; and expanding projects are stalled, as the deployment of 4G and 5G networks is hindered.ALTON stated last week that“this disruption (of SIM service suspension)follows a recent directive from the NIMC, mandating our Mobile Network Operator (MNO) members to transition to a new identity verification platform. The migration process, which is central to the verification required for SIM registration and other services, has unfortunately impacted service availability,”In 2024, the NCC) established comprehensive Quality of Service (QoS) thresholds to enhance the performance of telecommunications services in the country. These standards, outlined in the Nigerian Communications (Quality of Service) Regulations, 2024, and the accompanying Business Rules, set clear expectations for telecom operators across various network segments.
These were enshrined in the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Thresholds specifically for operators’ guidance.
The regulations define specific KPIs for 2G, 3G, and 4G networks, focusing on critical metrics such as:
.Drop Call Rate: The percentage of calls that are unexpectedly terminated.
.Call Setup Success Rate: The percentage of calls successfully connected.
.Traffic Congestion: The level of network congestion affecting call and data services.
Operators were required to meet these KPIs to ensure optimal service delivery.
Penalties were also prescribed for failure to comply .
These penalties include a fine of ₦5 million per infraction, plus an additional ₦500,000 for each day the violation persists .
The regulator categorized the country into three priority reporting areas to tailor service quality efforts:
For instance Priority 1 Areas including Lagos, Abuja, Rivers State Require 100% compliance with QoS KPIs.
While priority 2 Areas: Require 80% compliance.
Priority 3 Areas: Require at least 70% compliance.
“This tiered approach ensures that regions with higher demand receive focused attention .”Telecom operators were expected to submit monthly QoS reports to the NCC, detailing their performance against the established KPIs.
“The NCC employs various methods to assess compliance, including drive tests, consumer surveys, and data from Network Operating Centres (NOCs).”
Although the NCC has the authority to impose administrative fines on operators who fail to meet QoS standards but it is not clear how this could be done especially when the operators are handicapped .
The NCC fines range from ₦5 million to ₦15 million per infraction, with daily penalties of ₦500,000 to ₦2.5 million for ongoing violations .
“These regulations aim to improve the overall telecommunications experience for Nigerian consumers by ensuring consistent and reliable service delivery across the country” NCC documents submit.
In reality,poor quality of service is traceable to a myriad of factors including Inadequate Infrastructure which are
Poorly maintained or outdated network infrastructure leading to frequent breakdowns and service interruptions.
There are also insufficient investments in expanding network coverage, especially in rural areas.
The recurrence of poor and
unreliable electricity supply forces telecom operators to rely heavily on expensive generators, increasing operational costs and causing downtime.
High subscriber density without proportional infrastructure expansion causes network congestion, leading to dropped calls and slow data speeds.
Regulatory challenges especially in delays and inconsistencies in government policies and regulatory frameworks hinder timely upgrades and improvements in telecom services.
Lack of efficient customer support and service management contributes to unresolved complaints and customer dissatisfaction.
Frequent vandalism of telecom equipment and theft of cables disrupt network services and increase maintenance costs.
Scarcity of adequate frequency spectrum allocated to operators restricts network capacity and quality.
There is deficiency in expertise through Shortage of skilled technical personnel that affects the maintenance and optimization of telecom networks.
Above all high operational costs and economic instability limit the ability of operators to invest in quality infrastructure.
“Difficult terrain and dispersed populations make infrastructure deployment costly and challenging, impacting service consistency” operators lament.

By Tunde Olusunle

You would think I had personal relationships with Chukwuma Soludo and Alex Otti Governors of Anambra and Enugu states, the way I’ve followed their governance trajectories. I was only doing my job as conscience of society and documenter of history. Soludo I know somewhat because he was Economic Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in whose administration I also served. He was subsequently appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN). We met a few times during meetings he attended in the State House, which I covered as a component of the President’s official secretariat. Otti I never met though. But in two separate essays, *Plaudits for Soludo, Otti and Bago,* and *Soludo, Otti and Prospects for National Integration,* I took specific note of their efforts in prosecuting people-oriented developmental agendas. With Soludo and Otti appointing non-indigenes of their respective states to the pinnacle of the civil service as Permanent Secretary and Head of Service, respectively, I reckoned elsewhere, that national integration was indeed feasible despite our fractious sociopolitics.

Enugu State began to feature in my thoughts in the aftermath of President Bola Tinubu’s visit to the state early January and the jaw-dropping projects he commissioned. I tracked the 2025 budget of the state and discovered it nearly approximated the one trillion naira mark, frantically chasing after established deep pockets like Lagos, Rivers, and now Niger State. Enugu now nestles with Ogun, Delta and Akwa Ibom states, on the column next to the big spenders. A substantial part of what the state intends to spend this year would indeed be generated via internal revenue, which was surprising. When the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE), served notice of its 2025 Biennial Convention for Thursday June 26 to Sunday June 29, with Enugu State as host, I reckoned it was a fitting opportunity for the verification of the good tidings from the famous, primordial headquarters of Nigeria’s South East.

Enugu welcomes you, wide-armed, with smooth, motorable roads as you drive out of the *Akanu Ibiam International Airport.* Your driver is not dodging ditches or running into potholes. Mbah’s government you get to know, has rehabilitated 90 urban roads within his initial two years in office. Very evidently, Enugu has profited from quality leadership all through the past 26 years. The baton passed down from Chimaroke Nnamani, to Sullivan Chime, and thenceforth to Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and more contemporaneously, Peter Mbah, has steadied the state on an upward developmental trajectory. Whereas every dispensation etches its name on the whiteboard of time, the collective interest of the people of the state, are primary. Mbah, soft-spoken, with no airs around him, welcomed us at the formal commencement of the Convention on Friday June 26, 2025, at the very stately, purpose-built *Enugu International Conference Centre,* also developed by his administration within the first two years of his administration. Adjacent this and under fast-paced construction is a 340-room five-star hotel, consistent with growing Enugu into a tourism and conferencing hub. Mbah’s strategic vision indeed is to elevate the economy of his state from its present $4.4Billion to $30Billion in eight years.

The opening ceremony of the Enugu Convention of the Guild of Editors, also had in attendance media heavyweights like *Aremo Olusegun Osoba,* CON, a living legend of the Nigerian media, who edited *Daily Times,* the flagship of the erstwhile Daily Times conglomerate and served as two-time Governor of Ogun State. Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, FNGE, CON, media icon, who holds the record of having edited three major titles in the *Daily Times* stable in his time, *Business Times,* the London based *West Africa* magazine, and the flagship newspaper, *Daily Times* itself, was present. Nonagenarian Sam Amuka-Pemu, publisher of *Vanguard* newspapers, one of the elder statesmen of the profession who was expected, sent his apologies. Proprietor of Channels Television, one of Nigeria’s media bright lights, John Momoh, and the Director-General of the Department of State Services, (DSS), Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi, were equally in attendance. Media Adviser to former President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina; long-serving Adviser to Babatunde Fashola, SAN, Hakeem Bello, and Senior Special Assistant, (SSA) to President Bola Tinubu on Media, Tunde Rahman, were present. For the avoidance of doubt, the Enugu Convention of the Nigerian Guild of Editors could rank as the most enthusiastically attended in recent years, commanding over 400 delegates. It was star-studded.

Typically, the third days of our Conventions are devoted to touring projects executed by our host governments. En route the *Michael Okpara Square* where editors converged before breaking into groups, Enugu residents were seen walking, jogging, exercising on sidewalks across the city in good numbers. It was for me, a reflection of contentment by the people with the leadership of their state. People being owed salaries, benefits, allowances and pensions wouldn’t prioritise exercising when there’s crippling hunger in their homes. It was also a reflection of the people’s confidence in the security regimen emplaced by their government for their safety. I found myself in *Group B* of the tourists, guided by the Secretary to the State Government, (SSG), the US-trained Professor Chidiebere Onyia. Emeritus Editor Ugochukwu, pioneer Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), was our team leader. My colleague and sister from our days in *Daily Times,* Angela Agoawike said that once she sighted Ugochukwu at the Convention, she could swear I was somewhere in the audience!

Mbah’s *Smart Green Schools* which are being replicated in each of the 260 electoral wards in the state, must provoke the envy of many tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Thirty of this prototype have been completed. Under Mbah, education is free and imperative from kindergarten to JSS 3, to avail children of basic education. For starters, computer literacy is compulsory for every student. Side-by-side with approved curricular, Mbah’s vision is for each child, each graduate to acquire specific skills to help them become gainfully self-employed, rather than wait despairingly, for white collar jobs which may be slow in coming, or may never come. Each school has departments or laboratories or workshops for practical teaching of dressmaking, vulcanising and mechanical artisanship, hotel management and so on.

Mbah is as passionate about the agricultural sector and has indeed established a tractor assembly workshop. Completely knocked down parts, (CKDs) are imported and cobbled together in the workshop, ensuring value chain benefits at every intersection. Patrick Nwabueze Ubru the Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro-Allied Industries briefed editors about the vision of the Mbah administration, to establish farm settlements of a minimum of 200 hectares, in each local council area. Each settlement is to grow crops compatible with its soil texture and environment to minimise crop failure. Agro-processing will be vigorously encouraged to ensure that benefits accrue to food producers down the line. The state hopes to have 1000 tractors working across the state in its bid to achieve self-sufficiency and food security. One hundred tractors have been coupled, one of them tested by Ugochukwu. It is expected that a similar number would also have been assembled before the end of the outgoing year.

With video clips of the deployment of cameras across roads in Lagos State which trended recently, it would seem, from what editors were shown in Enugu, that both states are racing for the medal for positively leveraging technology for security management. The *Command and Control Centre,* (CCC), in Government House, Enugu, is a specifically developed facility from where the entire state is monitored. Visible and invisible cameras mounted around and about the state, transmit information, real-time, to the Command Centre. As at the time of our visit to the CCC, 137,000 vehicles had moved around the state or driven through, that very day. The cameras can zoom to the faces of security personnel manning various outposts and pin-down points, and have the capacity to pick their name tags for disciplinary purposes in the event of misconduct in their area of responsibility, (AOR).

Mbah’s precedence demonstrates in graphic, practical terms, that artificial intelligence can be successfully deployed in crime tracking and security management in Nigeria. Every state Governor sincere with the pursuit of the security of his people needs to visit Peter Mbah in Enugu. They need to experience what he has put in place, with the aim of replicating and operationalising same in their domains. The Mbah concept is powered by renewable energy and totally immune from the irascible instability of public electricity. Indeed, unabating insurgency culminating in the loss of the innocent lives of ordinary folks and soldiers, crimes like banditry and kidnapping, genocidal attacks on unsuspecting communities, can be pre-empted and mitigated with the aid of modern technology. It will unmask so-called “unknown gunmen,” outlaws and similar sadists who derive joy in the pain and grief of others.

Governor Peter Mbah treated the Guild to a beautiful gala night, after a day of trekking and climbing projects and sites being developed by his government. Very instructively, classy, top-of-the-range alcoholic beverages and wines were served, demystifying pretentiousness elsewhere. As one who has worked with and followed three Governors and at least one President over the years, one observed Mbah’s genuine resentment for needless exhibitionism. When he got up to address editors at the revelry, he needed no podium before him, no security aide behind him. He was just himself. He capped a beautiful Convention for the Guild by confirming that Enugu State will host the next conference of the body. He can be sure we will be back with our sneakers next time. We would be delighted to continue our project tours from where we took a break from today’s Enugu State, where Peter Mbah is noiselessly taking legendary strides.

*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja*

BY AUSTIN ORETTE

While Africans opine about imperialism of the west and others, the least talked about and the most lethal of all the isms, is the imperialism of religion in African society.

We can criticize our tribes; we can criticize our politicians and politics but the moment we try to examine the role of religion in our backwardness we are considered pariahs. Soon or later a death decree or fatua is issued. Why is it so? What is so special about religion that cannot be criticized?

All over the world, religion has led to the death of many. Any comment on religion that is not in good light is considered blasphemy and the penalty is death. Why this and why Africans should kill each other because of foreign religions. How did these religions enter our society with so many disregards for the life of the African? I have thought about this and came to the conclusion that the fear that religions impose on its adherents in Africa is not only the fear of hell fire but also the fear of physical harm and social ostracism.

How did foreign religions become so powerful to supplant our cultures and assume primacy of place that we are willing to torture and fillet our neighbors because he does not agree with our concept of God? The two religions tearing Nigeria apart are Islam and Christianity. The homeland of these religions has no respect for the humanity of black people. These religions were the tools used to enslave black people and still use to this day to discriminate against black people in the Western and Islamic world.

The practitioners of Islam and Christianity in Africa will form a common cause to kill on behalf of the religion of these invaders. We see all these anomalies in these religions, but our people have been severely and thoroughly mentally enslaved that they are blind to these realities. They are blind to these abominations and continue to revere these foreign gods whose goodness is bestowed on Caucasians or Arabs only. They ravaged and desecrated Africa and the African people and we stupidly believe that their god that told them the African was inferior, and worthy of slavery is also our God. Until we abolish the imperialism of religion in Africa and Nigeria in particular, we are going nowhere with our so-called independence. The reason we cannot criticize these religions is a carryover from their homelands. When the religions were practiced by the villagers and so-called primitive people, it was okay to throw these primitive people into the lion’s den. When the kings adopted these religions for their political survival, it became sacrosanct to criticize these religions because doing so became equivalent to criticizing the king. The king was the church, and the church was the king. These religions became tools of conquest. The penalty for criticizing the king was death. This is how religion became sacrosanct. The king could do no wrong because the king was God. The adoption of any religion by the reigning monarch was the quickest way to spread any religion in early times. The Monarch is converted, and all his subjects are decreed to follow suit.

In Africa, attempts to convert kings were rebuffed and the king was overthrown, killed or exiled. The Western societies dug themselves out of this conundrum. They fought many wars, and Europe became scattered all over the World. A nation called America was born. America looked to the ills of Europe and distilled a blueprint of a society that is not beholden to religion. In America you are free to practice your religion, but the state cannot establish or practice a religion or impose any religion on you. Their constitution has stood them well and the old countries of Europe have gradually ceded their monarchies and religion to the personal realm. In fashioning the American constitution, the good Christians there still considered the African an inferior being that was only three fifths human. This is how far the western religion went in denigrating the African. Islam did worse. The only difference is that the Arab world has done so much to hide their brutality against the African. The Arab world is still under various monarchies and Islam is the religion of the Monarchs. Like their western counterparts, the Monarch is Islam, and any criticism of the king is the criticism of Islam. This is the reason why the crown prince of Saudi Arabia sent murderers to kill Khashoggi, who criticized him in Turkey. Since the King is Islam and Islam is the king, why has the Arab world not issued any decree that prohibits discrimination against Africans.

A stroll through any Arab city will tell the African he is not wanted. This is why I will prefer the west any day. They have made attempts to enact laws against discrimination. No such laws in the Arab world. In the Western world the people may be racist, but the system is being refined not to be. In the Islamic world, the people and their system are racist. It has been observed that during the hajj, punitive conditions are rolled out for those attending from black Africa. It is obvious that they only want the money. Don’t pay attention to the feigned nicety of their big cities.

As I observed earlier, in the Arab world, there is no difference between Islam and the state because the monarch is Islam. So, the concept of separation of the state and religion is still in the horizon (and the future when the church or the state will become so corrupted that people will cry and fight for reformation). It is already happening in Yemen. It is this system that is called Sharia that Muslims in Nigeria want to impose on Nigeria. They forget that Nigeria, unlike the Arab world, is a plural society.

Inspite of all these clear observations, Nigerians are at war with each other to prove the superiority of their imported religions. This is not a religion that originated in Africa. Why are we the ones to keep alive the religions that are dying in their homelands? The imperialism of religion has forced the African, who is a loving being to become the blood thirsty and bloodletting tool of western and Arab imperialism.

It is time we begin to jettison these foreign religions and rely on the culture that saw Africans through the travails of foreign invaders who introduced their gods to us without recognizing our humanity. Nobody should tell us about our divinity except us. Any explanation of our divinity by non-African (the so-called pastors and Imams) will always be fraudulent. This is why they don’t respect us. They cannot believe we worship their gods’ inspite of what they did to us in the name of their gods. Call it Christianity or Islam, they cannot talk more about God and love more than Orissa. This is a call for Africans to remove themselves from the worship of these foreign gods whose holy books were used to enslave the people of God that live in Africa. Until we take this drastic step, the African will always be a creature of pity and contempt. He will always be seen as a slave by the west and a kaffir by the Arabs.

Austin Orette, a physician, lives in Texas, USA