LAGOS, Nigeria
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari is to have the final say in the negotiations on the $5.2 billion fine imposed on the telecoms giant MTN on Oct. 26 for breaching rules governing registration of subscribers, the country's communication minister said Thursday.
"I don’t think there is any conflicting position on where government stands on the MTN issue," Adebayo Shittu said in a speech.
"Recall that there were violations by MTN. The violations were to the tune of five million subscribers. There are many countries where subscribers,
in the entire country, are not up to half of the five million," Shittu said.
"In the case of Nigeria, we had more than five million violations. However, both the government and MTN are on the same page that rules have been broken in this instance. The issue is now before Mr. President. He will take the necessary decision at the appropriate time. And the president will do what is best for the public interest," Shittu added.
The minister said MTN has not denied violating the rules, has apologised and gone ahead to make a commitment not to repeat the violations.
"And, of course, they made a plea for review of the payment terms," according to the minister.
Many commentators have criticized the minister's comment, questioning why the president should have a say in what was clearly an issue between the operator and the regulator -- the National Communication Commission -- which imposed the fine. Some critics say the intervention by the president exposes institutional weakness in Nigeria.
Ayo Sogunro, a lawyer and public affairs analyst, said much of the criticisms were misplaced as the law empowers the president to make such interventions where necessary.
"From years of military rule, the president has, by practice, been vested with near-absolute powers to intervene in the affairs of any federal body," Sogunro told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.
"In particular, the Nigerian Communications Act empowers the president in the appointment and suspension of NCC commissioners, as well as in the budgeting of the body. The NCC itself is empowered by the law to make rules and regulations and exempt bodies and individuals from the application of those rules or even some parts of the Act."
Sogunro said the MTN issue "merely highlights the fact that Nigeria's legal system is intrinsically tied to the desires of the presidency, and not to objective laws."
He added: "The NCC recognises this fact, and it believes that the MTN issue is too big a decision for them to make under their enabling law alone. So, they have simply passed the buck to the president who (by law and practice) is empowered to make a judgement call on such issues, and then to ask the NCC to implement his opinion.
"This situation is not strange to Nigerian law. A lot of other laws directly empower the president or minister to personally overrule the legitimate activities of the agencies through waivers and exemptions," Sogunro added.
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