Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently revealed a shocking story about how Nigeria almost lost out on a $280 million telecommunications deal due to the actions of General Abdulsalami Abubakar, a former military Head of State.
Speaking at the launch of “The Catalyst: Nigerian ICT Evolution through a Journalist’s lens” in Lagos on Tuesday, Obasanjo shared that Abubakar had planned to award the contract to his friends for a mere $3 million.
Obasanjo’s decision led to a massive $280 million sale, a staggering 93 times the initial offer. “The story of telecommunications, particularly mobile telecommunication, is a very interesting one,” Obasanjo said.
“Before mobile telecommunication, we had spent a lot of money, we had all sorts of companies invited from America, France and even from Britain, but we did not get more than 500,000 lines.
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“People had to queue at the telephone kiosk to call their loved ones abroad. And then, of course, the mobile telephone age came in.
“When it came in, my predecessor in office was trying to give it away, I think, to their friend for $3 million. Then we said, what we would do was to auction it. The three that came in first, I think, paid $280 million for the line. $280 million for something about to be given away for $3 million. That was the first thing we did. Not only that, we achieved competition.
““The three of them were competing. And, of course, the one that had the upper hand in terms of spread, I think, was MTN, followed by Glo. And then, there was Econet. They are now Airtel. And then, of course, later on, we had the fourth one, Etisalat. When Etisalat came, I told them the last one we did was $280 million. We told Etisalat to pay $450 million. They did.
“What we did or what Nigeria has done in the good days when things were going well, are still there and can still be done today only if we put ourselves and we are honest to ourselves. We have to show character and attitude.”
This transformed Nigeria’s telecommunications landscape, introducing competition among major telecommunication companies like MTN, Glo, Econet (now Airtel), and Etisalat.
Obasanjo further emphasized that Nigeria can still attract significant investments, but only if the country creates a conducive environment. “The money to develop Nigeria is out there, but that money will not come in unless we create a conducive atmosphere for that money to come in,” Obasanjo stressed.
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