Nairametrics| The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Gilbert Nnaji, has along with other lawmakers frowned at what they label as the indiscriminate sacking of competent Nigerian employees by telecommunication companies.
He noted that this situation was further annoying considering the fact that these competent Nigerians were being replaced by foreigners, which is in contravention of expatriate quota, increases casualization and is tantamount to “intimidation and discrimination against indigenous staff by these network providers”.
As if these were not enough, the Committee further noted that telecommunication companies had now begun relocating their Network Operation Centres (NOCs) from Nigeria to India, which could have grave implications on national security, as these centres would be monitored by foreigners from outside the shores of Nigeria.
The Minister of Communications said that steps would be taken to correct these anomalies as adequate local manpower for the modern GSM industry is sufficient considering the attempt to transform the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) into an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) University.
A general review of the political and economic set up in Nigeria will evince some marks of international conspiracy to thwart the efforts of the Federal Government toward the realization of modern technology! The plan by these enemies is not limited to the communication industries, it cross across all economic activities in the country. My advice is for the Federal Government to come up with a blue print ideology that will guide all foreign establishments to follow. A deeper look at the structures of most foreign controlled establishments in the country appear not to have any laudable rules and regulations that will truly guide the employment of qualified Nigerians. From experience, most of the so called expatriates in their own countries, are glorified technicians there. No country will allow fully qualified engineer, physician, or order highly classified profession to migrate to any developing country because there are guidelines as to what level of professions that can be released to the developing nations such as Nigeria. Today, you can see what is going on with the multitude of our brains migrating to Canada and other developed world, because of the unemployment situation in the country. Let there be some sort of control that will bestowed self respect and dignity to our own qualified professionals. Where there are no qualified Nigerians for the job, the Minister of Labour or any other body that may be constituted should review the qualifications of the so called expatriates before they are employed. Nigeria must work hard to keep what it has in terms of manpower hence, the expected development in the country may never be achieved.