Saka's Porting to MTN was a Mistake - Etisalat Boss Steve Evans says

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.