Why you should read it.
Those who argue that governments have no business managing enterprises will find a perfect case study in Nigeria’s Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), NITEL. Since its establishment in 1984, the company has been marked by twists and turns—an account of wasted opportunities and a deliberate hemorrhaging by successive governments and their operatives.
This work documents the creation of NITEL in 1984, its years of monopoly, the opportunities it squandered, the conspiracy against its survival, the many failed privatization bids, and its eventual sale in 2014.
It presents a researched narrative of how the nation’s once-proud telecom monopoly was reduced to beggarly status, reflecting the broader pattern of how public enterprises are often run in Nigeria—where national interest and collective wellbeing are too frequently sacrificed on the altars of personal and sectional gain.
The book seeks to illustrate the path that other organizations in similar situations must avoid.
NITEL’s story clearly supports the argument that governments, especially in Africa and particularly in Nigeria, are poor managers of enterprises. This is not necessarily due to a lack of expertise within government ranks, but largely because political patronage undermines effective and efficient management, and because government-owned businesses are often perceived by officials as “no man’s business.”
It is hoped that this book will serve as engaging reading material for management students, corporate executives, scholars of Nigeria’s corporate and economic policies, foreign investors, journalists, and others.
The facts and perspectives presented here are drawn from extensive interviews with individuals who played critical roles in the company’s affairs—past ministers, chief executive officers, senior management, and staff—as well as documents obtained in the course of the author’s nearly three decades of reporting on NITEL from its inception in 1985. Some of those interviewed requested anonymity.
By Aaron Ukodie
