Kobojunkie:

Honestly, I think these idiots did all this intentionally -- I think they intentionally useless most of what we have so they could sell it for a buck or two to one of theirs, and in turn own a piece of the result that way.

True talk and so sad

pls clear way for mr adenuga!!!!haterz make way!!

aloy-emeka:

Which growth? . What exactly is attractive in NITEL?. It is a dead company for Gods sake and I do believe he is only buying their fixed assets which will surely enrich his estate business.

The reason you (and I) don't know what's still attractive about NITEL is the same reason why this guy is worth billions and can afford to spend $450m to buy what we consider a rundown company.

Even dead companies have tremendous value in the right hands. I know there are business men who specialize in buying such companies and making profit of them.

Kobojunkie:


Honestly, I think these idiots did all this intentionally -- I think they intentionally useless most of what we have so they could sell it for a buck or two to one of theirs, and in turn own a piece of the result that way.

Spot on.

This, and why we the people let it happen, is the real issue.

We all know that the real source of our problems is that we (the 150 million+ members of the miserable collective called Nigeria) have failed to hold our leaders accountable. That, sir/madame, is the REAL problem. That is our curse and our burden.

Nigerian public enterprises did not run themselves into the ground. People did. I refuse to buy or be sold the argument that public enterprises are destined to fail since they do not have profit maximization as their overriding objective. People made decisions and took actions (some of them criminal) which killed those public enterprises. If we had any spine or morals we would INSIST that those people be held accountable.

That, sir/madame, would be irrefutable proof of our individual and collective morality. Not annual pilgrimages to religious shrines and empty, hollow proclamations of piety at every turn.

Every day that someone says the public officials who destroyed NITEL, ASC, NAFCON, ALSCON, etc. cannot be brought to justice because:  “we cannot dwell on the past” or “we need to move the country forward”, this country dies a little.

Justice is what separates man from the beasts in the field.


And if (just for argument’s sake) it is accepted that public enterprises contain within them the seeds of their own destruction, and that privatization is both inevitable and beneficial, then what can explain the abuse of the process in the Nigerian case? The crony capitalism on display in the case of so-called ‘reforming’ states like Nigeria is a central issue in explaining why ‘reform’ in Nigeria and other client states has failed to live up to expectations. It is interesting to observe how the most fervent defenders of the idea of privatization (or ‘reform’, as they prefer to call it) are strangely silent when confronted with hard evidence of the lack of transparency of the reform process itself (in several of the real world examples we have). They deny or excuse away  the negative impact of this opaqueness on the outcomes we wish for.

This sirs, is fraudulent.

It is the height of deceit for neoclassicists to proclaim the merits of ‘reform’, remain silent in the face of egregious abuse of the ‘reform’ process, and then glibly claim that such examples ‘do not qualify as genuine reforms’.

It is disingenuous to champion the cause of ‘reform’, turn a blind eye to sweetheart deals and outright theft (of state assets) , and then turn around to say: “well, the lack of transparency does not diminish the strength of the concept of reform”, or “privatization and reform is never clearcut and is sometimes messy”.

It is dishonest (and ultimately self defeating) to support the concept of reform and at the same time relegate the transparency of the process to the sidelines. Is the dichotomy not plain to see?

It may well turn out that crony capitalism will pose more of a threat to capitalism than socialism ever did. But that sirs, is a debate for some other time.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, let me emphasize once again – Nigerians need to hold their leaders accountable.

There is no alternative.

Adenuga my man! Gr8 risk hes takn cos of his lv 4 ds debt eaten entity called nigeria. More jobs nd patronage too!

Is NITEL even worth that much, i'm suprised its not going for less than a tenth of the price quoted

chuckdee4:

Is NITEL even worth that much, i'm suprised its not going for less than a tenth of the price quoted

Nitel has the backbone cable on which other networks operate, its worth a whole lot more I am very sure mtn and others have been prevented from participating in the bidding process, glo is about to become their boss.

l hope the deal goes through. when an entrepreneur decides to re-structure a moribund company, all most nigerians talk about is monopoly. even the labour unions. they are all un-informed & naive in their thinking.

in the developed world, government is smalll and what drives the economoy is the private sector.  the likes of MTN, AIRTEL, ETISALAT & GLO are all owned by entrepreneurs.

If Nigeria must develop fast, we must encourage trends like this & embrace privatisation. few years ago,  two refineries(kaduna & port-harcourt) was acquired by blue star consortium(a partnership of dangote group/zenon group & river state govt). the plan was to revive these refineries and make its shares available to all Nigerians on the stock exchange. the succeeding govt came & reversed it

now tell me since 2007, has the federal government revived the two refineries. it was their loss as they had to pay back over $785million(with interest) to blue star consortium. privatisation is the key to our development. lets stop hating business moguls. they create jobs, generate income for govt through taxes & attract foreign investors.
Chin is a good example

blink182:

Nitel has the backbone cable on which other networks operate, its worth a whole lot more I am very sure mtn and others have been prevented from participating in the bidding process, glo is about to become their boss.

Thanks for the info jare, never knew they had such infrastructure with the way they were run.

In that case, its better GLO bought them than some foreign company that would end up hiring their own and treating us like crap.

maxpro-xl:

l hope the deal goes through. when an entrepreneur decides to re-structure a moribund company, all most nigerians talk about is monopoly. even the labour unions. they are all un-informed & naive in their thinking.

in the developed world, government is smalll and what drives the economoy is the private sector.  the likes of MTN, AIRTEL, ETISALAT & GLO are all owned by entrepreneurs.

If Nigeria must develop fast, we must encourage trends like this & embrace privatisation. few years ago,  two refineries(kaduna & port-harcourt) was acquired by blue star consortium(a partnership of dangote group/zenon group & river state govt). the plan was to revive these refineries and make its shares available to all Nigerians on the stock exchange. the succeeding govt came & reversed it

now tell me since 2007, has the federal government revived the two refineries. it was their loss as they had to pay back over $785million(with interest) to blue star consortium. privatisation is the key to our development. lets stop hating business moguls. they create jobs, generate income for govt through taxes & attract foreign investors.
Chin is a good example


 

What you have said makes little sense, we can not put so much in the hands of one man in such a small almost unregulated economy.

A good example of things going wrong from an act that was suppose to be good was the artificial scarcity of dollars that made the dollars gain N30 or so against the naira on the black market whereas official rate was still N149 but only a few that were rightly positioned could access it at that rate.

Now to our discourse, Mike Adenuga can decide to increase renting rate to use his backbone which is a nitel's asset and at the same time keep glo call rate low thereby forcing nigerians to migrate to his network and eventually suffocating other networks out of business even the mighty MTN.

What of his gas field, please do the math if sometime in the future he wakes up one morning and decides to shut down operations for some reasons known to him, imagine what will happen to our power stations, electricity generation and eventually us the end users?

Lets wait and see if the deal materialises.

blink182:

What you have said makes little sense, we can not put so much in the hands of one man in such a small almost unregulated economy.

A good example of things going wrong from an act that was suppose to be good was the artificial scarcity of dollars that made the dollars gain N30 or so against the naira on the black market whereas official rate was still N149 but only a few that were rightly positioned could access it at that rate.

Now to our discourse, Mike Adenuga can decide to increase renting rate to use his backbone which is a nitel's asset and at the same time keep glo call rate low thereby forcing nigerians to migrate to his network and eventually suffocating other networks out of business even the mighty MTN.

What of his gas field, please do the math if sometime in the future he wakes up one morning and decides to shut down operations for some reasons known to him, imagine what will happen to our power stations, electricity generation and eventually us the end users?

First you call the Nigerian economy small. By what standards please? Its one of the largest and most important both in Africa and the world then you start with such far fetched "what ifs". What if the federal government/shell/chevron or any other dominating firm in any sector wakes up one morning and decides to shutdown operations for some reasons known to them, imagine what will happen to our power stations, electricity generation and eventually us the end users?

Next you start yarning dust about running MTN out of business Gerrout of here! You and your south african bosom buddies have been milking and disrespecting Nigeria and Nigerians for too long. In fact if only to run MTN out of Naija, I support Adenuga 100%.

Believe this: At the current stage our developing economy is in, anything that raises the level of competition is great for Nigerians.

Nigerian economy. Nigerian owned businesses. Nigerian controlled industries.

@ Dayokanu, even if they are willing to pay, who seats in NITEL office to collect the money?

Not suprised. Let Adenuga buy what he wants to buy. I only hope it wont come to when someone will one day bid to buy the whole Nigeria.

IF Adenuga wants to buy and run the dam thing  - let it be - The other alternative is a dead company .

el_cij:

First you call the Nigerian economy small. By what standards please? Its one of the largest and most important both in Africa and the world then you start with such far fetched "what ifs". What if the federal government/shell/chevron or any other dominating firm in any sector wakes up one morning and decides to shutdown operations for some reasons known to them, imagine what will happen to our power stations, electricity generation and eventually us the end users?

Next you start yarning dust about running MTN out of business Gerrout of here! You and your south african bosom buddies have been milking and disrespecting Nigeria and Nigerians for too long. In fact if only to run MTN out of Naija, I support Adenuga 100%.

Believe this: At the current stage our developing economy is in, anything that raises the level of competition is great for Nigerians.

Nigerian economy. Nigerian owned businesses. Nigerian controlled industries.

By all standards, Africa is so backward that we tend to look big.

How is that, pls explain?


My friend its not compulsory you must critique, the word if is used to describe future events that are under probability. The blue star consortium deal flopped because of[b] if'[/b]s in the mind of labour and the nigerian populace. Please I am tired of replying people who have no knowledge of economics and the workings of supply and demand. I want someone with in depth knowledge of economics, finance and borrowing and how it affects the subject to say something

I beg you o, I am proudly nigerian.

blacksta:

IF Adenuga wants to buy and run the dam thing  - let it be - The other alternative is a dead company . 

Bingo.    This is what I find difficult to figure out about Nigerians.  The same NITEL has been on the sale block at least 4 times and the sale has fallen through for one reason or the other.  The company has been mismanaged and run to the ground, and people are still complaining that a local telecoms entrepreneur has shown an interest in acquiring it.   It appears some people would rather prefer for us to have dead or sick government owned companies like NITEL and PHCN,  instead of  private owned and managed ones,  which provide  much needed services.  At the end of the day if Adenuga acquires NITEL and does not run it properly, the millions he invests in the company will go up in smoke.  If a government official  runs it and it collapses, he just moves on to another government run "parastatal".   This is one of the basic laws of economics: when people have a vested interest in the outcome of a commercial enterprise, they somehow find the will to make it work.  That is why it is as stupid for a government to be involved in running a business, as it is stupid for a business to be involved in running a government.

Whether Adenuga or whoever is buying, all we need is to get value for service paid for PERIOD.

ekt_bear:

He will make a killing off of this if he wins the bid. Faster/cheaper internet access I think will be an end result of this too, I hope? Anyway, good for Nigeria (and Mike's pocket) if he can revitalize NITEL.

Nigerian government shouldn't sell it off too cheaply though. . . NITEL has Ma Bell-like profitability potential (well, at least on a Nigerian scale) if it is managed properly.

The Guy is Buying it for $450 Million , hmmm

1 - He is not going to use his own Money to buy it (so that means he gonna loan the money)

2 - When he buys it, he could use it to capture the internet market in Naija
plus corner the "Cable TV/Satelite" Market

3 - Then he could develop the infrastructure and sell the Bandwith to other
west african telcom companies.

Ist we have to see which Financing Company is playing "Lead Advisor" on this

Lets wait and see.

Major companies taken by private,capitalism laodin, Major companies taken by private,capitalism laodin,

blink182:

By all standards, Africa is so backward that we tend to look big.

How is that, pls explain?


My friend its not compulsory you must critique, the word if is used to describe future events  that are under probability. The blue star consortium deal flopped because of[b] if'[/b]s in the mind of labour and the nigerian populace. Please I am tired of replying people who have no knowledge of economics and the workings of supply and demand. I want someone with in depth knowledge of economics, finance and borrowing and how it affects the subject to say something

I beg you o, I am proudly nigerian.  

LOL you funny gan! FYI my first degree is Economics with a very heavy focus on macroeconmics. No need to argue about importance or relative size of the economy, accurate statistics and facts are freely available online.

With regards to your comments on the word "if" thanks for the clarification. Now, IF you use the probability of a random event as support for a position, I can equally use that same IF to support a very different position. IF Adenuga does X does not mean Adenuga WILL do X. Neither can such random IF's be used to justify anything.

Now to our discourse, Mike Adenuga can decide to increase renting rate to use his backbone which is a nitel's asset and at the same time keep glo call rate low thereby forcing nigerians to migrate to his network and eventually suffocating other networks out of business even the mighty MTN.

What of his gas field, please do the math if sometime in the future he wakes up one morning and decides to shut down operations for some reasons known to him, imagine what will happen to our power stations, electricity generation and eventually us the end users?

I stand by my earlier IF though I will rephrase:

Now to our discourse, The Federal government/shell/chevron or any other dominating firm in any sector can wake up one morning and decide to shutdown operations for some reasons known to them, imagine what will happen to our power stations, electricity generation and eventually us the end users?

Such probabilities cannot be used as justification for anything. Will you refuse to marry because of: what if my wife cheats on me? or what if my in-laws become unmanageable?

Smart man Adenuga. I am not a socialist so all the talk about monopoly passes my ears by.
I am in for a working system. Those that can afford it will and those that cannot will find alternatives.

The way I see it is, Glo already have a Fibre Optic gateway and are building a Fibre Optic network around the country as well.
Last time I checked Nitel has copper wiring to at least every neighbourhood in the country.

They can put a hold on building fibre around the country, channel the funds into upgrading the existing Nitel network and infrastructure (Exchanges, Copper Cables, Roadside cabinets etc).

This way Glo can offer HSIA to consumers through Nitel's existing telephone exchanges using Nitel copper network for last mile connectivity. They can conveniently offer ADSL and ADSL2 speeds over copper. I am talking speeds of up to 12Mb.

They can then extend their Fibre Optic to business districts offering gargantuan speeds.

Other ISPs can then offer high speed internet access over the same Glo/Nitel infrastructure using Local Loop Unbundling to whoever decides to not use Glo as their ISP.


Win win situation for us all. . . Well except those who moan about everything.

COL, coughing out loud. . . please lets seat and watch instead of arguing over another's money while he seats at his golden office and counts his money laughing

, Its a pity govt is playing dilly - dally with NITEL, dis was a company that used to cave in huge millions for the country wen it was functioning properly, I see no rizon y govt cannot revitalize and man d company itself if it refuses to be sold, My dad was an ex- staff of d company, so i kan authoritatively tell anyone who cares to listen that selling it 450M dollars is a fraud taking into cognizance how it wuld start raking when it comes back to lyf. . . H. I. M

His Majesty:

, Its a pity govt is playing dilly - dally with NITEL, dis was a company that used to cave in huge millions for the country wen it was functioning properly, I see no rizon y govt cannot revitalize and man d company itself if it refuses to be sold, My dad was an ex- staff of d company, so i kan authoritatively tell anyone who cares to listen that selling it 450M dollars is a fraud taking into cognizance how it wuld start raking when it comes back to lyf. . . H. I. M

We only know a little about this deal, Mike definitely is only a front

blink182:

We only know a little about this deal, Mike definitely is only a front

front for who? pls stop this beer parlor rumor. if you have any proof, let's see.

lagcity:

front for who? pls stop this beer parlor rumor. if you have any proof, let's see.

I stand my ground that he's a front, I do not see any other reason why nigeria should sell such a company for such sum. There are others with interest in this business and when I said front I meant active partner, true its unconfirmed but you also can not prove he's sole financier of this project

Is he not the owner of GLO? The first and second national carrier can not be owned by the same person.

The main problem is our act of nepotism!!

STARCOMM AND THEIR AWUFF PROMO! I EWNT TO CHANGE MY OLD STARCOMM PHONE AT STARCOMM OFFICE IN IKEJA NEAR ALADE MARKET. I PAID TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED NAIRA. THE PHONE THEY GAVE ME IS NOT WORKING. TO CHANGE THE PHONE, THEY SAID UNTIL THE HAVE A NEW STOCK OF SAME PHONE. THIS IS ALMOST A MONTH NOW. MEANWHILE THEY HAVE COLLECTED MY OLD STARCOMM PHONE. NOW THE LINE HAVE TO WAIT AS WELL. WHAT IF THEY DONT HAVE THAT SET OF PHONE AGAIN. THE MONEY WILL JUST GO LIKE THAT OR WHAT. PLEASE ADVISE ME ON WHAT TO DO. THIS IS DAY LIGHT ROBBERY O. ITS PAINFUL. I HAVE BEEN THERE MORE THAN 4 TIMES NOW, ALWAYS THE SAME STORY.

stainny:

STARCOMM AND THEIR AWUFF PROMO! I EWNT TO CHANGE MY OLD STARCOMM PHONE AT STARCOMM OFFICE IN IKEJA NEAR ALADE MARKET. I PAID TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED NAIRA. THE PHONE THEY GAVE ME IS NOT WORKING. TO CHANGE THE PHONE, THEY SAID UNTIL THE HAVE A NEW STOCK OF SAME PHONE. THIS IS ALMOST A MONTH NOW. MEANWHILE THEY HAVE COLLECTED MY OLD STARCOMM PHONE. NOW THE LINE HAVE TO WAIT AS WELL. WHAT IF THEY DONT HAVE THAT SET OF PHONE AGAIN. THE MONEY WILL JUST GO LIKE THAT OR WHAT. PLEASE ADVISE ME ON WHAT TO DO. THIS IS DAY LIGHT ROBBERY O. ITS PAINFUL. I HAVE BEEN THERE MORE THAN 4 TIMES NOW, ALWAYS THE SAME STORY.

Somebody needs to be slapped in that office