by Alexander O. Onukwue

After the troubles of the past weeks, the feeling is that it should take more than just a name change for the company formerly known as Etisalat to rebound.

If you followed them on Twitter, it would appear as though nothing has really changed. Customers are still being attended to like before, there has been no radical disturbance in making calls and using their other services. They are being defiant of the challenges that lie ahead as though they don’t exist.

But we know they do; 9Mobile will not just start and keep up the momentum.

Etisalat was in debt, a huge profile that was half way to becoming a trillion naira. It involved ten banks who had threatened to take over, save for the intervention of the NCC that the license is not transferable. So the company has retained, you can say, its soul and will continue to possess control.

However, we know there needs to be some serious bodywork ahead.

The change in name and, essentially, the brand of the communications company requires a massive capital-intensive face lift. All of the paraphernalia that are associated with a brand that has a national reach will have to be re-christened to the new tag. Sim cards, branded offices, and the entire publicity approach of 9Mobile will undergo remodelling to change to Etisalat.

Unlike Celtel, Zain and Airtel, it will not be easy; Etisalat Nigeria has not been purchased by another big African or Global brand. It is now like a soldier who came to a battleground but midway into the quest, has been stripped of significant aspects of its armoury, and left with intuition and local sense.

This stripped soldier has not been done the indignity of been recalled from the battlefield, but what are its chances that it will thrive in the often unfavourable conditions of the wild desert?

Editor