Bennett Oghifo
The Nigerian telecommunications sector is currently engulfed in a major constitutional clash as the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), along with industry giants MTN, Airtel, and Globacom, has formally approached the Federal High Court to halt the House of Representatives’ investigative activities.
The legal action follows a highly volatile investigative hearing where the industry’s official representatives were threatened with detention and barred from future appearances by lawmakers. The clash comes amid broader legal critiques, including constitutional analysis by legal experts like Ilemona Onoja, who argue that under Section 88 of the Constitution, legislative inquiry powers are strictly confined to lawmaking and public funds oversight rather than regulating private commercial operations.
The matter reached a boiling point during a resumed hearing of the House Committee on Communications on November 4, which is investigating poor network services across the country. The session, chaired by Hon. Sunday Uneha in the absence of the substantive Chairman, Hon. Olamide Oshoba, quickly degenerated when lawmakers objected to the presence of ALTON executives who had arrived to represent the operators.
According to accounts of the proceedings, the atmosphere became hostile as members of the Committee described ALTON’s presence as an “insult on the integrity of the Committee.” Hon. Uneha stressed that previous directives had clearly mandated the individual appearances of telecommunications chief executives, framing his demands to ALTON as a final warning.
When ALTON representatives tried to explain that the committee’s jurisdiction was already the subject of a pending court case, the Chairman swiftly dismissed the constitutional argument, declaring that it was “not the Committee’s business who goes to court.” He further directed the association to “follow your case and not disrupt the work of the Committee,” before pointedly asking the industry body, “We don’t know you?”
The confrontation culminated in Hon. Uneha ordering security personnel to detain the ALTON representatives, warning them never to appear before the Committee again. ALTON, through its Chairman, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, has argued that shutting out the recognised industry body undermines any genuine effort to address the structural challenges of infrastructure vandalism, power supply deficits, high diesel cost surges, and multiple taxation that plague service delivery.
Industry experts have also questioned the committee’s jurisdiction to wade into the matter.