Daily Independent (Lagos)
Aaron Ukodie
17 November 2008
The $311 million (about 32 billion) that Nigeria spent in launching the country's communication satellite two years ago may have gone into the drains. At the time of going to press, there were no sure indications that the satellite, which has been reported 'missing' in orbit was recoverable. Both the management of NigComSat and the Chinese agency that launched the communication satellite on May 14, 2007 have admitted that the satellite has failed, even though their separate admissions are couched differently..
What is clear is that the satellite is currently not functioning. NigComSat officials believe the satellite is recoverable. The boisterous Managing Director of NigComSat, Ahmed Rufai and his team, are hoping to invoke the terms of the satellite insurance cover to recover (replace?) the satellite. The Chinese who should know better have not shared this view.
When news broke that NigComSat was missing, the management of the Nigerian satellite agency came up with a statement on Wednesday last week which read thus: "We noticed a service disruption on NigComSat due to a technical problem with the solar panel causing outage. The tradition in the industry is to carry out a fault tree analysis to narrow down on the course, effect and mitigation of the problem.
"This usually takes some time and as soon as we are definite, a statement on this matter will be issued"
The statement was signed by Abimbola Alale on behalf of the Managing Director, Ahmed Rufai
The statement argues that the satellite was only put in an emergency mode operation in order to effect mitigation and repairs.
It also admitted that the satellite was in the process of recovery and once the process was completed, the satellite would become stronger.
"The satellite is fully insured and recovery plans will bring us stronger and that NigComSat was currently working expeditiously with its technical consultants and all relevant parties to reduce the problem and regrets any inconveniences to our esteemed customers" the NigComSat statement argued.
But a statement made available to the Beijing news agency, XNA, appeared to have taken the lid off the veiled statement by NigComSat. The China Great Wall Industry, the Chinese agency that manufactured and launched Nigerian Communications Satellite, said on Thursday that the Nigerian satellite failed to work because of electricity power exhaustion.
The Beijing-based company attributed the power exhaustion to a technical error of the satellite's solar wing.
The agency said commercial communication satellites involve complex technologies and are regarded as highly risky projects globally, said an unnamed official from the company.
"Chinese aerospace industry will be able to overcome the current difficulties and provide reliable communications satellites to international customers," he added.
It would not be the first time a government funded telecom project will be flushed down the drain due to shoddy execution and poor management. Aerostat Balloon Project, Trans-Nigeria Coaxial Cable Transmission project, Rural Telephony Project, were but only a few of several of similar major investments which Nigeria has been railroaded in the deceptive search for providing cheap service to rural populace.
Unheeded Warnings
Before, during and after the launch of NigComSat, several Nigerian experts had criticised it because they considered it ill-conceived, ill-timed and poorly managed.
The main planks of the criticism were that the communication satellite which was conceived to provide transmission infrastructure for African markets will have a hard time getting African customers because of the alternative and more reliable and even cheaper transmission infrastructure that were being provided by several consortia across the continent.
In mid August 2007, the Director General of South Africa's Department of Communications, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, announced that The NEPAD Broadband Infrastructure Network (NBIN) will lay its own East African undersea cable, despite two commercial ventures already on the marks to go. That statement did not give consideration to Nigcomsat's existence. It dwelt on fibre optics, the preferred system for transmission of this age.
At the time of its launch in East Africa, two commercial cables were being planned for East Africa. They were the East African Submarine Cable System (Eassy) ' made of a consortium of African and several international telecommunications operators, including SA's Telkom and the UK's BT. There was also the Nepad Broadband Infrastructure Network which falls under the e-Africa Commission of the African Union and consists of a terrestrial phase, running from SA through Zimbabwe to Rwanda and, possibly, an undersea system as well.
In West Africa, there was also the Globalstar, a satellite company which has spent years on researching the commercial potential in Nigeria and West Africa had plans to take service into rural Nigeria on commercial basis.
It was these realities that made experts, including a telecom analyst and Chairman of Lagos Executive Cyberschuul, Titi Omo-Ettu and Mrs. Funke Opeke, Managing Director of MainStream, a submarine fibre Optic project and a host of others to warn government of the futility of the project.
Many had also knocked the management structure as being too inexperienced to manage such a complex telecommunication infrastructure operation.
But Nigcomsat officials shot back at those who criticised it, saying that the project was being opposed because "its full operation is rooted in the fact that it is deploying state-of-the-art facilities to offer world class services at cheaper rates".
They pursued this line of argument and even battled the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), using members of the House of Representatives. They even railroaded the Presidency into forcing the NCC into granting the organisation a GSM operating license.
President Yar'Adua was nearly hooked when in August 15, 2007 he approved the immediate privatisation of NIGCOMSAT Ltd to pave the way for it being awarded a license.
The government was to later dump the idea of privatising NigComSat. It nevertheless granted NigComSat 15 per cent stake in NITEL and recently appointed its Managing Director to the board of the beleaguered telecom company..
Since its operation NigComSat had failed to get business from the private sector. It could only find business from government, its owners through the Galaxy Backbone which uses its transponders to provide services to government agencies.
Sad commentary
Many Nigerians have begun to express their anger over the news of the fate of the Nigerian communications satellite.
Tayo Ekundayo, Corporate Executive of MultilInksTelkom, one of those who had knocked the project at launch, said the news was not coming as a surprise to him and many industry watchers as it goes on to confirm initial suspicion that Nigeria's investment in that venture might have been a monumental waste of public funds.
He said only the Obasanjo administration saw the project as Nigeria's panacea to technological advancement as well as an infrastructure which would enhance communications, security, weather monitor and agriculture, when he hurriedly signed the contract in December 2004 between the National Space Research Agency and the Great wall Industry Corporation of China at over N32billion.
"Only the Obasanjo administration saw the urgency and necessity of that project at a time when the satellite is becoming less useful for communications purposes. Alternative platforms, such as optic fibre with more revenue earning capacity are presently making waves, while launching of satellite has become largely a private sector initiative.
Ekundayo recounted how the satellite was touted by the promoters as going to reduce the so called high cost of making calls in the country and as a result expectation on the project was expectedly high from all corners of the country as everyone believed that a new dawn had truly come.
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Hold the builders, launchers and those involved in the contract for repayment back to the federal govt.