A Country of gamblers?

When the GSM service providers came to our rescue at the height of the gross incompetence of NITEL, everybody thought we had arrived, at least with regards to telecommunications. For sometime everybody rejoiced. We stopped buying cables to replace bad portions of their infrastructure. We were no longer required to transport ladders for their labour staff whose duty it was to repair your phone line. The honeymoon appears to have ended.

I don’t know if these GSM service providers have heard the word “spam” before but the way my phone is being bombarded with gambling messages leaves much to be desired. In any 24 hour period, I receive a minimum of 5 or 6 messages from these service providers asking me to text something to somebody so as to win millions of Naira. My reply is very simple. I don’t gamble. Besides, if for any reason I want to gamble I’ll go to my Lebanese friend’s casino and burn money.

My problem is that the originators of these messages do not make room for any reply so I cannot contact them to give them a piece of my mind. My friend Ernest Ndukwe must hear this and come to our rescue. Any unsolicited email, phone call or any other means of contact is defined as “spam” and there is an international protocol regarding spam to which Nigeria is a signatory. Our GSM service providers, MTN, Glo, Zain etc must be made to abide by the provisions of Nigeria’s anti-spam policies.

It would appear gambling is now a legitimate business in Nigeria. You hardly find any ad on TV, Radio or Newspaper which gives me reasons why I should buy their product other than that I will suddenly become a millionaire! How absurd and ridiculous. That’s okay by me because they pay for these ads. In addition you have a choice whether or not to read or listen to them. But my phone is a different ball game. I do not seem to have any choice. Not all of us want to be millionaires for doing nothing. So for now, please keep off my phone! I don’t gamble.