A visit to NITEL offices in Lagos including the ones located at Race-Course, Kingsway Road, Ikoyi and Marina revealed shock findings. At the NITEL Headquarters, Tafawa Balewa Square, Race-Course, the building has been occupied by Lagosians.The only thing showing that it is a NITEL office is the signboard in front of the building boldly written Telecommunications Headquarters 3/5 Tafawa Balewa Square Race Course Lagos. No NITEL official cars were sighted.
But one thing is clear. Lagosians have converted the building to a residential area.
“We are living under the protection of a human rights lawyer. A room and parlour here goes for about N250,000. Once you pay it to the occupant, you can live in it as long as want. But government can come in any day to take possession of the building. That is why we are not paying annually a woman who runs a small shop inside the building told SaturdayVanguard in an interaction.
At the NITEL zonal headquarters, a Kingsway Road, Falomo, the buildings are lying in waste without human presence. It was learnt that only the office of the General Manager and Operations are still functional.
Attempt to speak to the GM failed as at press time but a NITEL staff disclosed that most staff have been retrenched. It is only Engineering staff working at Marina where you have SAT 3 that you can see. This is because the SAT still provide services to Private Telecoms Operators (PTOs),†he said.
Looking around, there were many NITEL cars abandoned in the premises. There were dusty files and furniture inside the offices.
Although security officials did not allow our reporter to enter one of the Nigeria's tallest skyscrapers, NECOM House, which currently houses SAT 3 sold to a firm owned by Chief Suarau Olayiwola Alani Bankole, the father of former Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, further investigations revealed that only operation staff of NITEL go there for technical works with regards to facilities provided to PTOs.
Come to our aid, staff cries out in Akure
In Akure, the two-storey NITEL office at Alagbakan is still been occupied by a few staff while other bungalows are now inhabited by reptiles and other animals like goats and sheep.
The bungalows are covered by bushes and weeds. Most of the window blades have broken while doors to many of the offices were left ajar. It was gathered that electricity supply to the office has been disconnected by PHCN many years ago. Pockets of staff of the hitherto telecommunication giants were seen sleeping and playing under the trees within the office complex.
The once ever-busy complex is now a ghost yard Mobile Policemen who manned strategic places prevented non-members of staff from going into the dilapidating building, which roof top has been blown off by wind.
Rain falls directly into the office destroying equipment and gadgets. Vehicles belonging to the telecom agency littered the car park with deflated tyres, broken windscreen while trees have fallen on some destroying them.
The security men manning the office prevented this reporter from going into the office while the few staff lazying around declined comment. But one of them who spoke on phone lamented total neglect of the Federal Government.
Speaking in confidence he said that government was responsible for the total collapse of the telecom company and appealed to the government to have a rethink by coming to their aid. A stakeholder, Chief Akeem Adedipe, said that the inefficiency of NITEL staff was responsible for their plight, noting that the new Telecom companies had finally sealed the coffin of NITEL.
According to him unlike before when people queued and begged NITEL officials to help rectify faults on their land lines, things have changed with GSM. He however pleaded with government to do something about the telecom infrastructures and buildings now rotting away across the country.
It's senseless abandonment” Imo citizen
In ImoState, properties of NITEL are now in a very sorry state. The story is the same in Owerri, Orlu, Okigwe and Oguta, where NITEL staff operated before the turn of event in the establishment. When Vanguard visited the facilities weekend all the buildings were found to be in varying degrees of dilapidation and no staff of the company was around.
At the deserted Owerri premises, somebody, who simply identified himself as Emmanuel, bemoaned what he called the senseless abandonment of the establishment by the Federal Government. Apart from abandoning the establishment, government has equally abandoned everybody working in the place. A lot of us have died out of frustration, hunger and disease. Most of our children have been sacked from their schools, Emmanuel lamented.
He expressed serious fears that most of the moveable equipments must have been lost to thieves, especially as those originally charged with the responsibility of guarding them have lost interest in the job. Weeds have taken over virtually all the NITEL compounds. Similarly, the establishments cable network has suffered serious degeneration. More importantly, the underground cables have since been vandalized by either the construction firms working on roads in the towns or completely dug up and stolen by miscreants.
Reacting to the ugly development, a youth leader in Umuoyima, Owerri, Mazi Ikechukwu Ukaegbu, said he was happy about the introduction of mobile phones but quickly added that it was not enough reason for government to allow the establishment to die.Mobile telephone is a fine development. However, it is not fine that government has allowed NITEL to go moribund. I am more worried that workers and retirees from the establishment have been left to die in abject poverty,†Ukaegbu lamented.
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