Power Sector Illegally Sold, Fashola Says

The Federal Government and labour agreed yesterday that the power sector was illegally privatised but they differed on how to redress the “illegality.”

Labour leaders are demanding for the cancellation of the sale and reversal of 45 percent increase in tariff effected in February.

However, the government said though it agreed the deal was fraudulent there were legal issues that might make it impossible to reverse the sale.

Speaking at a Senate public hearing on the electricity tariff yesterday, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said government’s interests were illegitimately sold to some private businesses.

What Went Wrong Between MTN and Nigeria?

The cliché “To whom much is given, much is expected” seem to be true for telecommunications giant, MTN, especially as it pertains to its operations in Nigeria.

MTN launched its Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM), service on August 8, 2001 connecting 100,000 lines (24 hours after another licensee, Econet Wireless began) and from the get go; it benefited a lot from being a pioneer.

Not only was a sim card sold for as much as N30,000 (today it is virtually free), MTN got loads of tax reliefs and concessions, because the then Obasanjo government wanted to make sure that its plan to democratize telephony had no hitches.

That early lead helped MTN grow in leaps and bounds, and today, it is the largest network in terms of subscriber base in Nigeria. In addition, MTN Nigeria contributes a huge chunk of the profit declared yearly by the MTN Group.