The good, the bad and the ugly sides of GSM

By Clem Oluwole

The GSM, an initialism of Global System for Mobile (Communication), made an inroad into the modern telecommunication space a little over three decades ago. Before then, it was the landline telephones that held sway, invented in the 19th Century by Alexander Graham Bell… from the cranking device to dialing and punching the buttons.
The GSM was introduced to Nigeria in the early 2000s. The fever soon caught on and Nigerians decoded the initialism as General Street Madness because of the way and manner users carried their handsets all over the place, shouting at the top of their voices. Initially, owning a cellphone was a kind of status symbol because not many people could afford it.
The popular handsets in the early years were Nokia 3310 and blue-face Samsung with limited features. And they never came cheap. A brother-in-law of mine lecturing at the University of Jos came to visit me and my family, armed with his cellphone he bought for about N120,000. He asked us to have a feel of the new technology and we made some calls on the device. He was among the first set of handset carriers in the Tin City. We were so fascinated. Even the sim cards were expensive with service providers such as MTN and Econet as the trailblazers. I cannot remember what I paid for my Nokia 3310 later but it cost me a whopping N6,000 to get my MTN line that is now sold for as low as N300!
As time wore on, owning a handset became a common sight across the land. Today, virtually every Tomiwa, Dike and Haruna are bearers of cellphones. The GSM came to break the monopoly and put to shame the elite that believed that telephones were not made for the poor! After all, the main essence of the device is to communicate. It does not matter if you use a cellphone of N6,000 or the one going for N2m!
The cellphones have gone through evolutions that today, you do virtually everything with a tip of your finger. There are many Apps in the cellphone that enable you to carry out all manner of activities. You can communicate with anyone, anytime and from anywhere. You can chat with anyone on such platforms as WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, etc., and get a feedback instantly. Not to talk of e-mail. You can download and watch movies and sports on YouTube. Not to speak of Instagram. You can also Tiktok and Tweet without having to break a sweat! Above all, you can Google-search any information with a tip of your finger. Those are among the good sides of the GSM.
The bad sides of it are many. Addiction and misuse of the device have led to disastrous consequences for many folks. Those who are afflicted with the general street madness have been run over on the highways while making or receiving calls. There are those who are in the dangerous pastime of making, receiving calls or text messaging while driving, and many of such people have either been sent to their early graves or maimed.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) saw the need to save Nigerians from themselves by imposing all manner of fines for engaging in the deadly habit. Some are even sent for psychiatric evaluation, while vehicles and driver’s licences are seized from violators for a period of time. However, some dyed-in-the-wool contraveners stick to the practice.
There have been instances where some motorists endangered their lives and those of others by receiving or making calls while driving. A few years ago, a woman nearly got killed, endangering the lives of other road users and pedestrians along the Airport Road in Lugbe, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. A call came to her cellphone announcing a piece of bad news from a relation living overseas. Out of shock, she instantly lost control of her car and ended up in a ditch, narrowly avoiding running into a stationary tipper.
Similarly, a friend of mine travelling from Jos to Abuja in the mid-2000s was involved in a ghastly accident while receiving a call and his BMW Series 5 car hurtled off the highway at a notorious bend called “Many Have Gone”. He was fortunate that some villagers sighted his car as it avoided a bridge and plunged into the bank of the river. The locals raced to the spot and rescued him minutes before the car burst into flames. He broke some bones and ended up at the Bima Orthopedic Hospital located between Dadin Kowa and Bukuru in Plateau state where he spent several months encased in POP.
There are also those that are in the habit of making or receiving calls while handling inflammatory products. The radiation emitting from the cellphones are not cooking gas and fuel friendly. A family friend once suffered severe burns from a fuel explosion. He answered a call while funneling fuel into his generating set. Some have been incinerated because they kept their handsets under their pillows while retiring to bed, apparently for the safety of their devices while they were asleep. Some folks use cellphones in the kitchen while cooking. There are also motorists who ignore the warning signs prohibiting the use of cellphones in and around pump areas in the filling stations.
Then, there are the ugly sides of the cellphones. These ugly sides are the ones fueling the pervasive crimes of kidnapping. Cellphones have become the major tools fueling the multi-million Naira industry. It is the instrument used for negotiating ransoms with relatives of victims.
It was in the light of these ugly sides that I looked forward to the media parley organised by the leadership of the National Communications Commission (NCC) at the Fraser Suites, Abuja, on Monday. At the parley attended by top media chiefs and senior editors based in Abuja, the Executive Vice Chairman of the regulatory body, Dr. Aminu Maida, and his management team dwelt extensively on the myriad of challenges facing the telecommunications sector. They took enough time to explain the efforts the commission is making to tackle them to ensure that both the service providers and the consumers are happy in the long run.
One major issue that agitated my mind which was brought up by an editor was the free use of unregistered cellphone lines by the criminal elements to negotiate for ransoms without the fear of being traced. This is contrary to the belief that sim card registration tied to the National Identification Number would enable such caller’s identity to be revealed. The development was hailed across the country. But more than five years down the road, nothing has changed. The kidnappers are still smiling to their enclaves ever and anon, raking in millions of Naira.

Clem Oluwole is a Public Policy Analyst.