If you wonder why I detest the social class I was born into so much, consider the following 2 scenarios:

It's 1987, and my dad is sitting in on a meeting involving Mike Akhigbe, MKO Abiola, and a few other big names of the time. MKO needs to speak to someone urgently, so he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a mobile phone.

My dad's eyes widen because apart from the satellite phones that he has occasionally seen military officers use, he has never laid eyes on a mobile phone in the hands of a civilian in real life before. After the call, MKO notices my dad's silent amazement and chuckles, "This thing is not for the masses." He and Akhigbe share a laugh as he stuffs it back into his pocket. "Kunle, you bloody civilian."

Fast forward 11 years to 1998, and mobile phones are still not "for the masses" in Nigeria. My sister is studying at Queen Mary & Westfield College in London, and she visits home for Christmas. All 6 of us crowd around her Nokia 3210, cooing in amazement. Of course, there is no mobile network in Nigeria, and we can't do anything with it, but that is where we first learn how to play 'Snake.'

Fast forward 3 years to 2001, and mobile phones are STILL not "for the masses" in Nigeria. My brother and sister come visiting from the University of Ghana, and I find myself playing Space Impact on my sister's Nokia 3330 and Tetris on my brother's Ericsson T28. They are coming from Ghana, where at the time, GSM mobile phones were already common and unspectacular enough for students to have them.

And it was STILL "not for the masses" in Nigeria.

In fact, were it not for Obasanjo's relative economic literacy, which motivated the drive to liberalise Nigeria's telephony space, mobile phones by now would probably still be available only to a select few in Nigeria. There would be a NITEL 2G network available in maybe 5 cities, and it is a few of us that would have SIMs. Most of you wouldn't have even heard of Twitter because where do you want to see internet?

That. That is why I despise the class I come from.

Of course, to many of you reading this, what I've just recounted isn't a horror story from the Dark Ages, but a memoir from the good ole days when I was better than my neighbour. Because despite the abolition of slavery over 120 years ago, nothing still captures the imagination of a Nigerian human being like being marginally better off than the slave next to them.

https:///DavidHundeyin/status/1721137635203129841?s=20

Iro labi

How will a country under United Nations Sanction, Global sanction get mobile phone technology

I mean we can't even get cooking gas and use sawdust stoves.. we use smelling toxic fuel, all borders shut

Only the rich could drink coca cola, the rest drink Zobo, kunu and limca


.

He's not far from the truth

Truth.

But what you hate another man likes it

What has your hate changed.

And what have you done for the ones you don't hate?

Abeg look for any nearest headless mob and narrate this useless story to him or go say them to the marines.

I'm beginning to understand David Hundeyin's politics a bit better after reading this.

He seems to want to identify as an iconoclast. An iconoclast is someone who is a member of an established social class but who decides to turn his back on his privileged position in order to fight for the less privileged.

Time will tell if he's really being sincere about his objectives, but in the meantime, I admire the courage and resourcefulness he has displayed in taking on the Nigerian political establishment, instead of begging for crumbs like so many other young Nigerians have done and continue to do.

Na so. Elites always exploiting gullible masses...

In a whole city then just one or two centers to make calls. You have to travel across cities and pay through your anus just to place a call. Imagine how the early 90s was. Darn frustrating

His paymasters, the Dokpesi, Atiku, Obi, which class are they?, very useless refugee boy.

The political class think they are demigods, but e go soon clear for their eyez.

Only urchins worship a corn god that can't put one grain of corn in their pot. That hungry lunatic called yarimo just got his online miscreansy fee of 30k next is yaba brothel.

God will continue to protect you Hundeyin

Nigeria is dysfunctional society.


Everything about the country is wack, a very poor yet corrupt nation with citizens that have been brainwashed just to accept the status quo. Explains why are Nigerians are very religious and resilient, the resilient part is actually due to our docile nature and ability to accept anything the government throws at us. The politicians have also succeeded in dividing us across ethnic and religious lines and people keep falling for it.

The Nigerian dream now is to either Japa or own an overpriced piece of property in Lekki, and buy a foreign used Mercedes or Range Rover at any means necessary.

Ms202309:




Iro labi

How will a country under United Nations Sanction, Global sanction get mobile phone technology

I mean we can't even get cooking gas and use sawdust stoves.. we use smelling toxic fuel, all borders shut

Only the rich could drink coca cola, the rest drink Zobo, kunu and limca


.

Your kind is the worst. Willing to pervet the truth for the crumbs you eat.

Abiola embezzled ITT funds that were approved for mass telecommunications for the country.

This was clearly his motivation...not for the masses

LIES! LIES!! LIES!!! Karya ne!

Obasanjo did not make phones cheap for the masses

What happened was that

1. Nitel's monopoly was broken

2. Advances in technology IE GSM made mass mobile telephony possible

3. Phones became cheaper to make


In the 1980s,most people living overseas did not own mobile phones. That was the same thing in the 1990's ( the American movie clueless features a young rich girl who we know is rich because she had a mobile phone in 1996!).

It was only as technology improved and manufacturing improved that phones became cheaper. Also from 2001-04 it was very expensive to get a GSM phone. As competition among the GSM companies improved plus technology getting better and making it cheaper to make phones ( Nokia and many Chinese companies are to be thanked) tha is when phones became available to most of the masses.

But in the 1980s getting a phone would have been expensive. Even now, it is mass technology that has made it cheaper

Radios and TV sets used to be far more expensive. Technology and cheaper cost of manufacture has made them more affordable.

It would have bankrupted the Nigerian economy if every Nigerian had a mobile phone like MKO. In the 1980s. Or even the 1990s. Not only would it have cost a lot of money to pay for the supporting infrastructure, it would have cost too much for one Nigerian to use the phone per minute

Remember,not everyone in the developed world had a mobile phone in the 1980s or 1990s, so how would a developing country like nigeria be expected to provide everyone with a mobile phone?

D guy talk make sense..

LeoDeKing:
What has your hate changed.

And what have you done for the ones you don't hate?

Abeg look for any nearest headless mob and narrate this useless story to him or go say them to the marines.

is either you belong to the class of people he is referring to or you don't understand he is saying or better still, you are one ot those follow follow suffering masses who are yet to realise that, politicians are Nigerian major problem

Islamisformumu:
I never expected a mentally and psychologically stunted agbero like you to understand where David is coming from. Some men are like a river. They just go with the flow no matter where it takes them.
Others are like rocks. Once they have taken a principled stand, nothing can move them.
Remain in your political harlotry because you will never be capable of rising above your mental limitations.

How is the fault of the elites that telecommunication didnt become a thing for the rich and poor in the dark days

Nigeria had successive rule of military governments that destested modernization/civilization how is that the fault of the elites

There is a wide gap between the Rich and Poor cos Nigerians are push overs, the govt/leaders are the culprit not the elites.

Islamisformumu:
If you wonder why I detest the social class I was born into so much, consider the following 2 scenarios:

It's 1987, and my dad is sitting in on a meeting involving Mike Akhigbe, MKO Abiola, and a few other big names of the time. MKO needs to speak to someone urgently, so he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a mobile phone.

My dad's eyes widen because apart from the satellite phones that he has occasionally seen military officers use, he has never laid eyes on a mobile phone in the hands of a civilian in real life before. After the call, MKO notices my dad's silent amazement and chuckles, "This thing is not for the masses." He and Akhigbe share a laugh as he stuffs it back into his pocket. "Kunle, you bloody civilian."

https:///DavidHundeyin/status/1721137635203129841?s=20

David, who was born in 1990, conveys the impression that he was present in the room.
Methinks he needs a lesson on what embellishment and intellectual fraud is.

reddingtonblack:




How is the fault of the elites that telecommunication didnt become a thing for the rich and poor in the dark days

Nigeria had successive rule of military governments that destested modernization/civilization how is that the fault of the elites

There is a wide gap between the Rich and Poor cos Nigerians are push overs, the govt/leaders are the culprit not the elites.

Even if Nigeria was an industry developed nation in the 1980s and 1990s, mobile phones would have still been the preserve of the rich.

Even in the USA, it was only the very rich who had cell phone in the 1980s.

Also, even using land land lines back then cost money.

There is a reason why phones used to be a rich man's gane

nairalanda1:
Obasanjo did not make phones cheap for the masses

What happened was that

1. Nitel's monopoly was broken

2. Advances in technology IE GSM made mass mobile telephony possible

3. Phones became cheaper to make


In the 1980s,most people living overseas did not own mobile phones. That was the same thing in the 1990's ( the American movie clueless features a young rich girl who we know is rich because she had a mobile phone in 1996!).

It was only as technology improved and manufacturing improved that phones became cheaper. Also from 2001-04 it was very expensive to get a GSM phone. As competition among the GSM companies improved plus technology getting better and making it cheaper to make phones ( Nokia and many Chinese companies are to be thanked) tha is when phones became available to most of the masses.

But in the 1980s getting a phone would have been expensive. Even now, it is mass technology that has made it cheaper

Radios and TV sets used to be far more expensive. Technology and cheaper cost of manufacture has made them more affordable.

It would have bankrupted the Nigerian economy if every Nigerian had a mobile phone like MKO. Not only would it have cost a lot of money to pay for the supporting infrastructure, it would have cost too much for one Nigerian to use the phone per minute

Remember,not everyone in the developed world had a mobile phone in the 1980s or 1990s, so how would a developing country like nigeria be expected to provide everyone with a mobile phone?

It is important to correct the historical falsehoods that have become accepted folklore.
Thanks for taking the time and effort to do so.

Not just phone. Till today 24 hrs electricity is not for the masses, quality health care is not for the masses, quality education still is not for the masses, clean pipe borne water is not for the masses, good road, housing, cheap food, living wage is not for the masses

The Eguns have always been 10th Class citizens in Yoruba land.

APCNig:
The Eguns have always been 10th Class citizens in Yoruba land.

And in what class does yoruba Mozulem pigoids like you fall??
Just when I think your kind can’t be any stupider y’all surprise me with even deeper levels of dangerous stupidity!

nairalanda1:
Obasanjo did not make phones cheap for the masses

What happened was that

1. Nitel's monopoly was broken

2. Advances in technology IE GSM made mass mobile telephony possible

3. Phones became cheaper to make


In the 1980s,most people living overseas did not own mobile phones. That was the same thing in the 1990's ( the American movie clueless features a young rich girl who we know is rich because she had a mobile phone in 1996!).

It was only as technology improved and manufacturing improved that phones became cheaper. Also from 2001-04 it was very expensive to get a GSM phone. As competition among the GSM companies improved plus technology getting better and making it cheaper to make phones ( Nokia and many Chinese companies are to be thanked) tha is when phones became available to most of the masses.

But in the 1980s getting a phone would have been expensive. Even now, it is mass technology that has made it cheaper

Radios and TV sets used to be far more expensive. Technology and cheaper cost of manufacture has made them more affordable.

It would have bankrupted the Nigerian economy if every Nigerian had a mobile phone like MKO. Not only would it have cost a lot of money to pay for the supporting infrastructure, it would have cost too much for one Nigerian to use the phone per minute

Remember,not everyone in the developed world had a mobile phone in the 1980s or 1990s, so how would a developing country like nigeria be expected to provide everyone with a mobile phone?

Tissue of lies
People did not own mobile phones in the 1980s not because they were expensive but the technology was not well developed. The average American or UK home, school and office had landlines(fixed telephony) which were the prevalent technology in use then. 1G which was prevalent in the 80s had very low bandwidth and the technology was not optimised for large carriers. How many people are even aware 1G existed?
It was not until 2G(GSM) was launched with over 200kbps bandwidth that mobile telephones became commercially realisable and that was in the early to mid-1990s.
3G was launched in Japan and Finland in 2001 the same year 2G was launched in Nigeria.
Also, I doubt Hundeyin's 1987 story happened in Nigeria because fixed telephony was available in Nigeria then and not mobile telephony.
Your claim that Nigeria would have gone bankrupt if everyone had a mobile phone is very absurd. Mobile phones are personal gadgets. Besides, by the 1990s, some average homes and business had fixed telephony throughout the country ran by NITEL because they later upgraded their PBAX from 100k lines to a much larger number.
Stop telling lies to defend corruption

Qadaffi2idiamin:
The political class think they are demigods, but e go soon clear for their eyez.

Only urchins worship a corn god that can't put one grain of corn in their pot. That hungry lunatic called yarimo just got his online miscreansy fee of 30k next is yaba brothel.

stop beating your dry chest. Obi lost election suck it up

Ever8090:
D guy talk make sense..

Everything wey he talk na nonsense.

I am more inclined to believe this is another lie from the inveterate liar.
There was no cell phone service anywhere in Nigeria in 1987. I doubt if the UK had any commercial cell phone services in 1987.
I don't remember the name of the military officer who said telephone is not for poor people but was definitely not MKO.
This boy can lie, it's not even funny.

ElSudani:
I am more inclined to believe this is another lie from the inveterate liar.
There was no cell phone service anywhere in Nigeria in 1987. I doubt if the UK had any commercial cell phone services in 1987.
I don't remember the name of the military officer who said telephone is not for poor people but was definitely not MKO.
This boy can lie, it's not even funny.

Colonel David Mark.