By eworldnews
The technology I once wrote about has become part of the environment in which I live.
I sometimes think about that difficult period at Post Express. I was deeply worried about survival. For eight months, salaries were not paid. Unfortunately, that was not an isolated experience at Post Express. It was a familiar story in much of the Nigerian media industry, except for a few organisations.
I was worried about how to survive. Yet, out of that uncertainty came an idea.
Phones 4 All was born.
What I did not know then was that the book would mark the beginning of another chapter in my own professional journey.
The thought of writing a book had dropped in my heart. The GSM revolution had given me more than a subject to report. It had given me a story to tell, an opportunity to write, and a platform to document the emergence of a new Nigeria.
But it also gave me something else: the courage to take greater responsibility for my own destiny.
After writing Phones 4 All, I began to think differently about my career. I started to see possibilities beyond the traditional newsroom and beyond the limitations of waiting for a salary that might not come.
The uncertainty at Post Express had become a defining experience. I could continue waiting and worrying about salaries, or I could take a bold step and build something of my own.
I chose the latter.
I resigned from Post Express and began my journey into media entrepreneurship.
It was not a decision made without fear. There were no guarantees and no comfortable safety net waiting for me on the other side. But I had become convinced that I had to take my destiny into my own hands.
The GSM revolution had taught me that technology could create opportunities where none seemed to exist. I decided to apply that lesson to my own life.
That decision opened another chapter.
I moved from being only a reporter to becoming an entrepreneur in the media space. The journey came with its own challenges, risks, lessons, failures and breakthroughs. It was a journey of trying to build, create, survive and remain relevant in a rapidly changing media environment.
That journey gave birth to Communication Magazine in 2001 and subsequently to eWorldForum in 2009.
Eventually, other ICT journalists who were also seeking new paths for survival began to venture into media enterprises of their own.
I remain grateful to God for the people He placed along that journey. Engineer Ernest Ndukwe, in particular, was gracious enough to sustain our efforts by providing advertising support and funding for our various forums. His support was significant in helping many of us keep our media enterprises going.
Subsequent NCC Executive Vice-Chairmen also continued to support some of these initiatives, although not with the same generosity and frequency with which Ndukwe did.
Looking back, I can now see how connected the different stages of my life have been.
The difficult season at Post Express led to Phones 4 All.
Phones 4 All opened my eyes to the possibilities of media entrepreneurship.
Media entrepreneurship became another significant chapter of my professional journey.
And that journey eventually found its way into The Pilgrim Trail, where I documented not just what I did, but the experiences, struggles, lessons, faith and providence that shaped the road.
But the glory belongs to God.
I am careful not to make the GSM story larger than it is, or to make my own contribution larger than it is.
Technology is powerful, but it remains a human instrument.
The opportunities that came through GSM were providential. The people who built the networks deserve recognition. The entrepreneurs who took the risks deserve recognition. The engineers, regulators, journalists, investors and countless workers who built the ecosystem deserve recognition.
And the millions of Nigerians who embraced the technology and transformed it into an economic and social force deserve recognition.
But above all these is God.
Jesus Christ is the One I will exalt immeasurably.
The GSM revolution may have connected Nigerians to one another, but I believe that every good thing ultimately points us back to the One who gives life, ability, wisdom and opportunity.
My GSM story, therefore, is not merely a story about phones.
It is a story about possibility.
It is about seeing something small and imagining what it could become.
It is about finding an opportunity in a difficult season.
It is about having the courage to tell a story before its full meaning became obvious.
It is also about taking a difficult personal decision when circumstances demanded it.
I left the security of a conventional newsroom because I did not want my future to remain tied to salaries that never came. I wanted to take my destiny into my own hands.
That decision became the beginning of my media entrepreneurship journey.
And it is a journey I have continued to document.
From Phones 4 All to Documenting an Industry
Since 2023, I have written several books about Nigeria’s telecommunications and technology industry, including The Story of NITEL, Ndukwe and Telecom Regulation: A Walk in Tandem, NITDA in National Development, and Nigeria’s Digital Revolution: The Trajectory.
The journey that began in 2003, largely on account of the GSM revolution, has continued to evolve into a sustained effort to document the history of Nigeria’s telecommunications and digital industry.
It also led to The Guardian: The Story of Nigeria’s Flagship Newspaper, which I co-wrote with a colleague.
My latest effort is Nigeria’s GSM Revolution at 25: The Hall of Digital Pioneers and Players, an attempt to document the history of the GSM revolution, the pioneers and players who shaped it, and the profound transformation it brought to Nigeria.
And then there is The Pilgrim Trail.
If Nigeria’s GSM Revolution at 25 tells the story of an industry and the transformation it brought to Nigeria, The Pilgrim Trail tells a more personal story.
It documents my journey through journalism, media entrepreneurship, the challenges along the way, the decisions that shaped my career and, above all, the role of faith and God’s grace in the journey.
The two books therefore represent different sides of the same journey.
One looks outward at an industry that transformed a nation.
The other looks inward at the life of a person who found himself travelling through that transformation.
On 24 September 2026, both books will be presented to the public at the eWorldForum and Book Launch at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos.
When I look back, I realise that what began with a simple idea during a difficult season in 2003 became much more than I imagined.
The GSM revolution gave me a story to report.
That story became Phones 4 All.
Phones 4 All opened my eyes to another possibility.
That possibility led me from the newsroom into media entrepreneurship.
And the journey that followed eventually became part of The Pilgrim Trail.
So, 25 years after the GSM revolution, I find myself looking back at a remarkable chain of events:
From reporter to author.
From author to entrepreneur.
From participant to chronicler.
From uncertainty to a journey of purpose.
The future I once imagined has, in many ways, become the present.
Phones 4 All.
That was the dream.
Today, the phone is everywhere.
And I am grateful that I was there, not merely to witness the revolution, but to tell my own story of it.
Above all, to God belongs the glory.
eworldnews