Former presidential candidate for the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has demanded “total occupation” of MTN Nigeria over chronic service failures.

In a post on his official X account on Thursday, Sowore called on Nigerians to occupy MTN, lamenting the telecom company’s unexplained data loss and dropped calls despite its market dominance.

The activist also attached a 2026 chart by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showing that MTN controls 51.8% of the nation’s 182 million telecom subscribers, far ahead of Airtel (34.1%), Glo (12.3%), and 9mobile (1.8%).

“Why MTN must face total occupation by Nigerians! They dominate Nigeria’s telecom space but operate with reckless disregard for their customers. Data vanishes without explanation, calls fail repeatedly, and accountability is nonexistent. MTN is totally and irreversibly irresponsible,” Sowore wrote.

Replies echo customers’ anger at poor accountability, with some calling for boycotts or stronger regulation while others debated whether occupation or competition better addresses the frustrations.

Reacting, an X user, Olu of Rage wrote, asking for accountability rather than occupation: “I feel the frustration from MTN’s service issues (vanishing data, failed calls) are real and unacceptable for Nigeria’s biggest network.

“But “total occupation” isn’t the answer. Stronger regulation, real enforcement by NCC, and genuine competition will serve customers better than government takeover. Let’s push for accountability, not occupation.”

Viasgris said Glo needs to ask Dangote group how they are achieving dominance as an indigenous manufacturer that also holds ground in most African countries.

“With the Glo1 cable, Glo should be the one holding the largest share of the internet space, sadly, I don’t know what they are actually doing towards internet services stability,” he lamented.

Joining the conversation, Mani posted: “I’m surprised Airtel has more subscribers than Glo. Meanwhile, sowore, before fighting network providers, fight bad Tinubu government actively. That is the major issue now.”

Trende Oracle said MTN is the highest telecom company in Nigeria and that is the advantage they are taking in cutting of the nation’s network in a single eye, adding: “Imagine a company does massively in all angles and if they are been controlled by corrupted personals, what great damage they can do.”

Benald Best poured out his grievance over the rate at which his data gets consumed, saying: “Seriously, I don’t know how my data runs out, it is so annoying. When I noticed it, I stopped doing data on MTN and I tried Airtel if my data will vanish as well.”

John Emodi said he believes MTN has failed to live up to the expectations of Nigeria simply because they know that there is less competition in Nigeria’s telecom industry.

“MTN understands there is no much telecom competition in Nigeria because the citizens overwhelmingly depend on their services. We really need a different internet service providers to step up and offset this imbalances. Even the government is complicit for tolerating their activities,” Emodi wrote. (Guardian)

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