Abuja — I want to let every Nigerian know that NITEL was one of the most liquid government companies in this country before government decided to frustrate it out of existence. In this interview with Daily Trust, President of the National Union of Postal and Telecommunications Employees (NUPTE) Comrade Sunday Alasan talks on the best way to reposition the ailing Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL), the fate of retrenched workers and other issues.

What is the union all about?

This union came into effect in 1978 purposely to protect and promote the rights and aspirations of telecommunications workers all over the country. Between then and few years ago, things were what they were supposed to be but from the time the issue of globalisation, privatisation, concession and whatever the names are came into effect, the fortunes of the union began to nosedive.

Specifically, that of the NITEL has been an ill wind to the union because the workers in that sector were exited as a result of the privatization of the organization. The problem started when the government brought a London company called IIL to acquire it having won the $1.3 billion bid for the company in November 2001. But the company was not able to pay the mandatory non-refundable 10 percent of its bid; it lost the company because it could not meet the deadline for the payment of the balance.

Then the Pentascope issue came up to the fore when El-Rufa'i took up the position of Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE). The Dutch company actually came in and we discovered that they neither had the money nor the expertise to manage NITEL but at the end of the day, they only came and liquidated every resources accruing to NITEL; they left a huge debt of about N19.15 billion having spent the N55 billion that they met on ground and at the end of the day, they left with the fortunes of NITEL.

El-Rufa'i who contracted that kind of business was actually promoted from being DG of BPE to a Federal Minister. He was the person that started the process of privatizing NITEL before Irene Chigbue took over and that was when the sale of NITEL to Transnational Corporation took effect. All Nigerians know that it was under very controversial circumstances that that purchase was done. They claimed to have borrowed money from the bank to purchase the company but after they took over, they neither repaid that money to the bank, nor injected money into the organization. As it is now, more than 14000 workers that were in NITEL before Transcorp took over have been reduced to less than 4000. For these people, there are a lot of accruing arrears of payment that they have not got.

Right now, over a year's salary of NITEL's staff has not been paid and these were issues we kept pursuing until government listened and revoked the sale of NITEL to Transcorp. Government gave a marching order to BPE and the National Council on Privatization (NCP) to resale NITEL. Our position as a union is very clear on this issue of resale; we are saying that government bid to reposition NITEL should follow another direction informed by the best traditions of patriotism and public interest rather than mindless privatization. The issue is we want to privatize, but when the privatisation is done, to whose benefit is it? That is the question the workers are asking. Right now, there is this bill in the National Assembly asking that the National Postal Commission should come into effect. That means that once it is enacted into law by the National Assembly, NIPOST ceases to be a parastatal in the government ministry, it becomes a public liability company and it may follow the same trend of what happened in NITEL that we are suffering right now and that is our fear.

You have also heard of deregulation; the government wants to deregulate the downstream sector of the economy, we believe that at the end of the day, the public provider of this particular sector becomes the victim at the end of the day because NNPC will no longer be there just like NITEL is no more there. NITEL is supposed to be a public operator while the private telecom companies are the private operators. While the private workers are striving and surviving, the public one is dead and that is the problem we are trying to look at and how to manage in our own union.

Right now, our workers are dying in NITEL, a lot of them have lost their marriages, a lot of them have lost their respect, so many of them committed suicide because of this particular trauma and we want to let the government know that what they need to do as of now, if they must sell, 49% equity of government in NITEL should be taken over by NigComsat to facilitate the rapid rolling out of affordable telecommunication system especially rural telephony as well as crashing the excessively high tariffs of existing GSM companies and creating vital value added services to create massive jobs and expand access to telecommunications services by majority of Nigerian people.

Only the 51% equity is what government, if they so desire, should resale but in doing that, there should be established pedigree with stringent regulations and monitoring by government and regulatory agencies as well the readiness to integrate services with NigComsat. What we are saying is this, if the government still wants to resale, that 51% taken from Transcorp is what they should resale; the 49% equity share, the government should still manage it for the interest of Nigerians but not a wholesale of this organization because that automatically means a lot of job losses. This is because whoever takes over that place will clear the office and then bring in whatever to man the services they want to offer Nigerians with high tariffs and all that. That is what the union is actually trying to get across to the government because right now, if that of the postal industry takes effect, you discover that in Nigeria, there are no public providers of goods and services; all we have is the private sector. Even in the European countries where we seem to be copying these things from, a lot of their services are still operated by public operators; I wouldn't know why Nigeria's own is outright sale of all that we have. That is our position as a union.

You talked of your colleagues in NITEL that have not been paid for over 12 months, what is the union doing?

We have made several contacts with the NCP and the BPE. As of this afternoon, I have been in touch with the BPE and they have always suggested that they have talked with the liquidator who believe that what they have can only carry five months salary and that is what we are discussing as to what to be done in the payment of that five months salary because half loaf is better than none. It is better for them to have what is there than for these people to die before the government think of what they think could be done. Our appeal is to the government, these people we are talking about are Nigerians, even those of us who take salaries monthly, before the month is two weeks, and some people have already started borrowing. Then, how would imagine a man with a family for over twelve months without salaries for no fault of theirs because I want to let every Nigerian know that NITEL was one of the most liquid government companies in this country before government decided to frustrate it out of existence. So, nobody will make us believe that NITEL's problem was as a result of either inefficiency or lack of productivity. It was government's deliberate effort and attempt to give it a bad name in order to hang it.