Airtel’s many sins

A colleague, Anne Agbaje, was the first person who called my attention to Airtel’s unwarranted deduction of ‘airtime’ from customers’ lines. I did not believe it until I had similar experience. I have been a loyalist of the network for many years now and it is difficult to part with my number because of friends who have it on their contact list. Anne had just changed her SIM from the old phone she was using to a Blackberry. She had paid N3, 000 for the monthly internet plan. However she noticed that anytime she browses or a mail enters her mailbox, any attempt to read it means money would be deducted from the call credit on her phone. She would normally receive a message like this: “Your last call was: 3.00NGN. Your Balance is 435.02NGN.” This continued for a while until she was forced o change to another network. Early this year, I got a new android phone and I decided to put my Airtel SIM in it. I went to the Airtel Friendship Centre at the Palms Shopping Mall, Lekki to have it connected to the internet as previous attempt to send the activation code I got from their website to a particular number, for the internet service to be activated proved abortive. After the successful activation, I migrated to a monthly plan but I was shocked when at the end of the month, Airtel began deducting money from my line anytime I browse on it. Of course, like most subscribers, I did remember that my plan had expired. I was expecting Airtel to notify like other networks do to notify me for renewal. Rather, Airtel prefers to deduct my money without informing me. I think it is unfair for a ‘loyal’ network to treat her customer in that manner. A friend of mine, Stephen Ipalibo-Lawson, who is also an Airtel loyalist was forced to make a public cry on his Facebook page last week Sunday when he wrote on his wall: “How can I get Airtel to stop sending me these promos. I am not interested and it is becoming annoying. They don’t even honour their deal.” As a response to Stephen’s outcry, Temitope Felicia, a friend of his replied: “Lolsss....I have the same problem with them. Their texts are beginning to choke me.” Stephen Ipalibo-Lawson later wrote: ‎”Exclusive offer for you. Get a combined 70% bonus of FREE airtime, data and SMS on recharge of N500. Hurry, recharge now. Call 141 NOW to get this amazing offer” This is what they sent the last time and even when you load N500 or more, u no go get anything.” I also get several of these text messages myself. They could really be very annoying. At times, I get calls from strange numbers and when I picked they turn out to be some voice announcing the latest service Airtel is offering. And I begin to wonder who could have put that call through if when I was not ready to listen! A colleague, Pius Anakali, also complained about unsolicited messages from the Airtel. As I was putting this piece together he showed me a text he received from Airtel. “Dial 399 now to listen and dedicate latest songs on our Music Messaging Service now. You get 2 Free dedications per month. Costs NGN 5/Day. IVR charges only. Peter Ehigiator also complained about calls coming on his phone from unknown numbers. “A call from 14158 when I saw it I decided not to pick it. The person close to me queried why I didn’t pick my call and I told him it was a promo call from Airtel.” Yours sincerely have also received calls from this number: 07080604006 announcing one promo or another. Airtel should please up their game and give their customers value for money.

Death, be not proud

“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not soe, For, those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow, Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee. From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee doe goe, Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie. Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well, And better then thy stroake; why swell’st thou then? One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.” How best do I start writing this week if not to mourn with the families of those people who lost their lives in the ill-fated Dana plane crash? I was at home that evening watching the Diamond Jubilee anniversary celebration when my phone beeped. It was a BB messenger, a newsflash from a friend announcing a plane crash. I didn’t take it seriously at first until more updates started coming in. CNN and BBC were broadcasting it. It was also running on the news bars of both stations. I changed the channel to see what our local TV stations had to say about it, but I was disappointed to discover they were showing other programmes. I logged on to my Facebook page only to see a posting which stated that Levi Ajuonoma, NNPC’s group general manager, was involved. I was pained beyond measure. Levi was a member of my church. He used to attend service in the company of his wife. I could recall vividly the day he gave testimony in church after he got his job as NNPC’s spokesperson. I knew Levi as a presenter on NTA in those days. If you know what I mean, presenting a programme on TV as an independent producer means you may be struggling to make ends meet. It only comes with fame but no money. So when Levi got the job, he was happy and it meant fortune had indeed smiled on him. His ‘fall down and die’ prayers were not in vain. Since he moved to Abuja, I only saw him occasionally in church. Only to hear that Sunday evening that he was no more! One of our columnists, Nkiru Olumide-Ojo, got me thinking about the whole incident again after reading through her piece for the week. She knew someone on the crashed aircraft. Her friend’s husband was on board. She had taken many safety courses while working as a communications manager with some airline herself. I could not help but ask her if she thought she would remember to take any of those safety measures when the plane was about to crash. I had taken a course on airline safety but I don’t think I would have been able to do anything at that time because the fear of death wouldn’t have let me. The confusion and pandemonium in the aircraft would have taken over. The nearest exit would not have crossed anyone’s mind. Even if you make an attempt to open the door, the plane hasn’t landed and you don’t know where you are headed. Like Nkiru said, only God knows what was going on in the minds of those passengers when the plane was in trouble. What else can I do but remember the above poem, a sonnet written by John Donne in England around the year 1618 for those who died during the World Wars. It is one sonnet I love, and it’s one of nineteen that are part of a collection entitled ‘The Holy Sonnets’. The poem exemplifies the popular Christian philosophy of the period that heaven is eternal. John Donne starts the poem using the figurative language of personification, ‘Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not soe.” In using this technique, the author is able to apply human qualities which make Death tangible and a being with which the narrator can entertain an argument and eventually win his case based upon Christian philosophy. Through the use of personification and irony, John Donne has set the stage for death to become just as undone as any man. The sonnet shows that rest and sleep are nothing but pictures of death, an image of what death is, and that they provide much pleasure so that when death actually does happen, the pleasure will be much greater. And I do hope the pleasure is indeed greater for those who died. I do hope they are resting somewhere in the Lord’s bosom, even though they departed unexpectedly. Adieu to them all!

Good old Unilag

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the sudden demise of the University of Lagos, a.k.a Unilag. Unilag died on Tuesday, May 29, 2012. He is survived by Moshood Abiola University. That is the best way I think I can start my piece this week. I was furious, nay mad, when the announcement was made. Mind you, I did not watch the live broadcast made by President Goodluck Jonathan on national TV early Tuesday morning. Why? Because PHCN struck! There was no power for me to watch an important broadcast by the president of my dear country on the day we were celebrating our democracy. I got to know about the renaming of Unilag through a friend’s update on his Blackberry. Initially, I thought it was a joke until other friends on my BB began to update their status accordingly. I was shocked because I could not see how that should be an important item on the president’s list. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong about naming a federal university after late Moshood Abiola. Absolutely nothing! But I think there are more important issues President Jonathan should deal with. For instance, on a day like that, and I bet I am speaking the minds of many Nigerians, I will expect my president to tell me the number of kilowatts of power he has been able to generate in one year and how many he will generate in the next year; the number of employment opportunities he has created; how much improvement the economy has recorded, and not announce the change of name of a university! Perhaps it is just a case of misplaced priority. Without being passionate about the issue, and like my good friend Phillip Jakpor wrote on his Facebook wall: “The political motive for renaming UNILAG MAU may be wrong but there is nothing wrong in naming the institution after Abiola.” I agree with Jakpor, but I still believe President Jonathan has done more harm than good to the brand Unilag. It is more than a name. It is about the brand and all that it stands for. I recall with nostalgia how some of us longed to bag a first degree from that university. There is the prestige that comes with telling people, “I am a student of Unilag”, with emphasis placed on the way the name is pronounced. This says a lot about the school and the person as a student. Even foremost Nigerian designer, Lanre Da Silva Ajayi (LDA), whom I met on Tuesday, the day the announcement was made, understood what it meant to attend an institution of that standing. LDA told me how much she wanted to be a student of that school before she travelled to England for study. “If I had not gone to England, it would have been Unilag,” she told me. Yours sincerely also had to return to Unilag for a Masters since I didn’t get my first from there. There have been many arguments regarding the renaming. And I couldn’t agree less with my friend Jakpor when he argued that the political motive is wrong: “Placating the South-west for what I don't know. But if we have Ahmadu Bello University, Nnamdi Azikiwe University and Obafemi Awolowo University, what's wrong with having Abiola, judging by his contributions to attainment of democracy? Most of the students protesting are too young to understand what the June 12 election and the events immediately after gave birth to. However, I am against the political motives. And yes, there are more pressing issues than the renaming of a university.” Abiola deserves to be immortalised, yes, but not at this time and not with a university like University of Lagos. What we want from President Jonathan is his deliverables in the past one year. Whatever happened to all his campaign promises? It is when he has been able to name what he has achieved since he assumed office last year that we can say he has a right to immortalise Abiola. Part of the gains of democracy which Abiola died for is to have steady power supply for us to watch the president talk on TV, have a stable economy, create more jobs, and more.

President Jonathan should hearken to the voice of the students who took to the streets for their university to be returned to them. Unilag has been stolen from all of us and we want it back as soon as possible. No name change is acceptable. We want our good old Unilag back!