Saka Porting To MTN Was A Mistake - Etisalat Boss

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Steven Evans, yesterday described the decision of one of the brand’s artiste, Afeez Oyetoro, popularly known as Saka, to dump its competitor and acclaimed “dominant operator,” MTN, as a “mistake.”
Evans disclosed this at an interactive session with reporters on Mobile Number Portability (MNP) at Raddison Blue Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. He said Saka’s decision was a mistake, arguing that it is not uncommon for people to make mistakes once in a while in life.
“Saka made a mistake. Sometimes in life, people make mistakes. He is still coming back,” he quipped without further explanation.
He was responding to a question bothering on whether the telco will re-examine its policy of not fully converting its artiste to brand ambassadors considering its experience with Saka.
Sources close to the artiste alleged that his promoters had passionately appealed to Etisalat to convert him to its ‘brand ambassador’ after using him for the activation of several ad campaigns that recorded resounding successes but the mobile operator turned deaf ears to these appeals. The source said it made the suggestion to the telco several times without success, lamenting that rather than weigh the option on altar of reasoning, Etisalat preferred to pay him between N200,000 and N250,000 for each campaign and let him go.
The source said when MTN dangled the carrot of N20 million at Saka, he did not wait for any further consultation before jumping at the offer.