Abuja — Four international communications firms, Messrs Telkom South Africa, Orascom of Egypt, Vodacom and France Telecomm have expressed their interest to take over the running of the crippled national carrier NITEL and its mobile telecoms arm M-TEL following weekend's revocation of their sale to Transnational Corporation (Transcorp).

Minister of Information and Communications Mr. John Ogar Odey, in response to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's earlier letter about the state of NITEL in the hands of Trancorp, said the four companies have intimated the federal government about their interests, "should government decide to review its position in the company".

The memo entitled, "Re- unmerited six (6) months tolerance of TRANSCORP's sloppy management of NITEL/M-Tel" and dated 28th January, 2008, said, "Presently a number of companies have approached the Ministry and BPE expressing interest in NITEL/M-TEL, should government decide to review its position in the company. Notable amongst those that have expressed interest are; Telkom South Africa, Orascom of Egypt, Vodacom, and France Telecomm."

"Your Excellency may consider the setting up of a Technical Board to be chaired by the Minister of Information and Communications to oversee the concessioning of the diluted shares to the new core investor/operator on a selective tendering basis. This option is informed by the need to speedily address the sale within ninety (90) days in order to avoid imminent collapse of NITEL whose effect will affect the entire telecommunications industry in Nigeria", Odey said in the memo obtained by Daily Trust.

Odey, while giving a general assessment of NITEL/M-tel since TRASCORP took over the company in 2006, said the fortunes of NITEL/M-tel has been nose-diving despite public commitment made by the corporation to, within two years of taking over, inject about $1 billion towards rehabilitation and acquisition of new equipment and technology. He said "to date, no new funds have been invested".

Also, the Minister said there has been constant disagreement among Board Members of the company, leading to instability in strategy and programme implementation, inability of the corporation to raise money from the capital market due to poor subscription during its recent IPO which was only 36.2 percent subscribed. The former PDP spokesman similarly said that Transcorp failed to implement Schedule 3 of the share sales purchase agreement, leading to the pulling out of British Telecom (BT) from the technical services agreement with Transcorp.

Odey also said, "Transcorp, in addition to sacking thousands of staff, has consistently failed in making regular payments of salaries to the remaining 4,000 staff. Presently all NITEL staff have not been paid salaries/allowances for the past four months. Transcorp's mounting debt to the banking syndicate that lent it $500m for the acquisition of NITEL. These along with plethora of other debts owed by NITEL/M-TEL to suppliers, banks and other telecomm operators."

The action of government, according to a source, may not be unconnected to the various options put forward by the National Security Adviser, General Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar on how to resolve the quagmire surrounding the request for the privatisation of the Nigerian Communications Satellite, NIGCOMSAT.

In a memo to President Yar'Adua dated November 5, 2008, the NSA had recommended various options, including a directive on NIGCOMSAT "to acquire the 49% Government share in NITEL and turn NITEL into the last mile service company through which it deploys all the value added last mile services it proposes to roll out in the market."

He added, "The committee considers that the advantage of this option, apart from the fact that it is already the status quo and would not upset market stability in the industry, is that it would take the least time to consummate; NITEL already has operating licence so NIGCOMSAT would not need to apply for it; makes for integration of new technology and innovation into NITEL operations; may provide the much needed funding for NITEL as financial organisations may become attracted to the potential of a revived NITEL."

According to documents obtained by Daily Trust, the government's intention may have been influenced by the desire not to privatise NIGCOMSAT as advised by the NSA. The NSA had advised against the outright sale of NIGCOMSAT, which he said could compromise its responsibilities in the area of gathering and passing sensitive security information for the benefit of the military, national security agencies and law enforcement agencies.

The revocation of the NITEL sale by the government did not come as surprise as some Nigerians had always described the privatisation exercises done after the sacking of the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar as Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation by former president Olusegun Obasanjo as illegal. Alhaji Njidda Gella, Chairman of the House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation had declared that all privatisation done after the sacking of Atiku as chairman of the NCP was illegal. Gella told Daily Trust that the NCP Act has made the office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Chairman and every transaction conducted must be endorsed by him.

Obasanjo had removed Atiku in November 2006 due to irreconcilable political differences. Despite protests from Atiku, BPE went ahead to privatise several public enterprises, including the country's steel companies, NICON Hilton Hotel, Kaduna and Warri refineries, NITEL and M-tel, among others. Describing all privatisation exercises done after the sacking of Atiku as chairman of NCP by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as unconstitutional and illegal, Gella said, "Those were illegal transactions; those are some of the new things we intend to check that were not properly done. You and I know that what they did was wrong. Mr. Speaker is ready to support us to make sure we do our job properly as well as all the technical assistance we will require to do our work."

Meanwhile, a member of the Federal House of Representatives, Emmanuel Bello has commended the government for revoking the sale of NITEL. He expressed the hope that government would now pay attention to the circumstances that led to the sale of NICON Hilton, Le Meriden, now NICON Luxury and NICON Insurance, among several others.