Communications: A memo
to the Rivers State Ministry of Information
By Onwumere
Sunday,
May
4, 2008
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Photo: Sun
News Publishing |
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By 3500 BC to 2900 BC the Phoenicians has developed an alphabet.
The Sumerians has developed cuneiform writing - pictographs
of accounts written on clay tablets. The Egyptians has developed
hieroglyphic writing.
By 1775 BC Greeks used a phonetic alphabet written from left
to right. After years of many other communication inventions,
in 1985, the Cellular telephones in cars became widespread.
CD-ROMs in computers.
By 1994, American government releases control of Internet
and WWW is born - making communication at light speed, without
waiting for the world: the United Nations (UN).
In Nigeria, the year 1999 brought about the full deregulation
of telephone. This market known as the Global System for Mobile
communication (GSM), its network providers operate on the
900/1800 MHz spectrum. The providers are as follows: MTN Nigeria
Celtel, Globacom, and Mtel.
When MTN Nigeria first hit the market, the prices for their
phones and lines were very costly and not everybody could
own a GSM, as it is popularly called. But today, the users
of cell-phones have soared. The GSM has replaced the erratic
services of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL).
And as at August 2007, users estimate lies at about 45.5 million
mobile phones.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which is Nigeria's
telecom regulator, introduced the Unified Licensing Regime
with the expiration of the exceptionality period of the main
GSM network providers. According to reports, it is hoped that
the telcos with the unified licence would be able to provide
Fixed and mobile telephony, Internet access as well as any
other communications service they choose to offer.
It was the inadequate NITEL system, restricted by poor maintenance;
that propelled the introduction of GSM. Major expansion has
been said by experts to be required and a start has been made,
and the cellular phone introduction has fixed the communication
problem to a large part. Nigerians knew that domestically,
coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, a domestic communications
satellite system with 19 earth stations, and a coastal submarine
cable carry traffic; mobile cellular facilities and the Internet
are available.
And internationally, satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat
(2 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean); coaxial submarine cable
SAFE (South African Far East). AM 83, FM 36, shortwave 11
(2001), were the only radio stations in Nigeria. But the deregulation
of 1999 to 2007 Olusegun Obasanjo-led government brought about
new stations. Nigerians owned 23.5 million radios in 1997.
The largest are the government-owned Federal Radio Corporation
of Nigeria (FRCN)[5] and the Nigerian Television Authority
(NTA)[6].
The NTA has two television services. One is NTA 1, which is
distributed among NTA's six television zones. The other is
NTA 2, which is distributed, nationwide and is funded mostly
by advertising. Nitel owns a majority of the transmitters
that broadcast FRCN and NTA programming.
Also, according to reports, by 2007, Television broadcast
stations were 116 stations (40 cable stations). Each state
also has a broadcasting company that broadcasts one or two
locally operated terrestrial stations.
This means that there are about 50 government owned, but partly
independent television stations. A new player in the Nigerian
television scene is a private company called Minaj Broadcast
International (MBI). http://www.minajmedia.com/ . Most of
their programming is aimed for the African and Caribbean TV
markets, but is broadcast globally from Lagos, Abuja, Obosi
and Port Harcourt centers. With several affiliate TV stations
in some African countries. The African Independent Television
(AIT) http://www.aittv.com/ is also a high profile satellite
television station broadcasting globally from its Lagos and
Abuja centers. Other direct satellite television stations
with international reach operating in Nigeria are Channels
Television and Murhi International Television both in Lagos.
There is general access to M-Net, a South African cable television
station, broadcast over satellite. M-Net has offices in most
Nigerian cities, and is watched by a large number of people
As of the year 1997 6.9 million Televisions were recorded
in Nigeria. But is it not shameful that Internet Service Providers
(ISPs): 11 (2000), Nigeria is still accessing satellite to
European Satellite Internet providers, all over the countries?
And this has made accessing information on the Internet a
very difficult thing for the citizens. It is no longer news
that in most towns in Nigeria, there are 5 or more public
Internet Cafes, privately owned and operated, and often connected
over European Internet connections. What a shame! Upon the
trillion-naira oil revenue Nigeria gets from its oil market?
Even that a new dimension to internet connectivity has been
introduced with hundreds of thousands of young people now
accessing the internet on their WAP-enabled mobile phones,
smart phones and on their PCs using their phones as a modem,
the gusto that internet should be to the reach of every Nigerian
has not been treated. So, belonging in the age of the Information
Technology and Communication (ITC), Rivers State is well known
for its vibrancy and oil richness. It will be recorded in
history as the first state, not only in Nigeria, but indeed
in Africa, if the government can make the state, (browse from
home) an internet connected state in Nigeria before other
states could follow or even Nigeria. Rivers State has the
wherewithal to do so. Or does it not has?
•Onwumere, (2348032552855) poet, author and Founder,
Poet Against Child Abuse wrote from Rivers State.
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