A wag once said that the death
of a wise old man is akin to the burning down of a huge library.
That aphorism rings very true
in the contemplation of the highly accomplished life of Engineer Victor
Adetunji Haffner, FNSE, FAEng who passed away about a month ago and was
committed to mother earth on Friday November 27, 2015.
For an industry player with
over 20 years’ experience on both the regulatory and operator sides of the
fence, the name Engineer Haffner was a familiar and recurring one even though I
did not have the pleasure of meeting the legend until a few months ago when I
paid him a courtesy visit at his Ikoyi home in company of a colleague.
The visit was necessitated by a
letter Engineer Haffner had sent to our office here at ntel. Following a
publication in the newspaper requesting an audit of customers using fibre ducts
of erstwhile NiTel and Mtel, the octogenarian had sent us a letter in which he
expressed his happiness at the conclusion of the drawn-out acquisition process
of the old NiTel.
In his letter, Engineer Haffner
expressed his delight at NatCom’s emergence and eventual acquisition of
NiTel/Mtel’s assets by the NatCom consortium via a guided liquidation process.
“I read your notice in the publication of the Punch newspapers on Tuesday 7th
July, 2015. I was very happy about your success in a matter which has dragged
on for so many year.”
Pa Haffner, as he was fondly referred to in the industry, was the first
Nigerian to head a Telecoms company. He was CEO of Nigerian External Telecommunication
Limited.
A trained engineer, he began his career during the colonial era and
climbing through the rungs, emerged at the pinnacle as the Chief Executive Officer
of the Nigerian External Communications Limited in 1964 at the age of 49.
Engineer Haffner had a string of accomplishments under his belt,
accomplishments that helped launch Nigeria into the modern telecommunications
age. He was instrumental, as Contracting Officer, in the setting up of
Nigeria’s first Satellite earth station at Lanlate, first in 1969 and then with
an upgrade in 1972 for the Lanlate II Earth Station which was expected to
provide commercial services via INTELSAT satellite in the Indian Ocean with the
East African and Asian Telecommunication administrations.
As General Manager of NET Limited, Pa Haffner was thrust into the thick of
Nigeria’s first coup d’etat as head of Nigeria’s communication company. His
account of the heady days beginning January 16, 1966 and terminating in the
counter coup makes for interesting reading in his published memoirs,– Memoirs on my Engineering Career and
Reflections on Nigeria (1960 -1999)
In the book, Engineer Haffner who described himself as ‘a cat with nine
lives’ having survived a terrible car crash and a vicious armed robbery attack
at 78, recalls how he provided refuge for Chief Remi Fani Kayode after the coup
and being present at meetings between important government functionaries like
General Aguiyi Ironsi, Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya, Dr. Elias and Zana Buka
Dipcharima.
His recollections of those exciting days read almost like fiction but are
borne out by the political history of Nigeria as we know it.
Listening to Engineer Haffner speak one was struck by his intelligence,
lucid recollections and expansive knowledge of the telecoms industry. What also
became immediately evident was the fact that he was a man who had served his
nation with diligence and commitment.
He oversaw Satellite communications in Nigeria as
part of the Syncom Project, ("synchronous
communication satellite") an initiative of the United
States of America’s NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) which
pioneered Nigeria’s space project with the launch, in 1963, of an experimental
satellite into orbit from Lagos.
Pa Haffner supervised, as Chief
Executive Officer of NET Limited, the construction of the 32 storey NECOM
House, a towering skyscraper built by Costain (West Africa) and which currently
ranks as the tallest building in Lagos.
In 1990, fifteen years after his forced retirement, Engineer Haffner was
drafted as a founding member of the nascent Nigerian Communications Commission
(NCC), the brain child of Engineer Olawale Ige, the Federal Minister of
Communications under President Ibrahim
Babangida.
The establishment of the commission was signed into law by Decree 75 of
November 1992. Prior to this, Engineer Haffner had served previously as African
president of the Administrative Council of the International Telecoms Union
(ITU) and first president of the Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria (COREN)
Engineer Haffner, even at the ripe old age of 96, exuded knowledge,
affability, integrity as well as an abiding love and interest in the industry and
a nation to which he had committed his whole life but his recollections were
tinged with regret something he took out time to point out in his memoir where
we read “I was shortlisted to be given national honour of OON in 2006 but did
not show up in Abuja to receive the award because I considered it an insult.
There are some people who perhaps passed the examination of unrecognized bodies
and you give them Commander of the Federal Republic. If you can only give
somebody who has achieved what I have achieved OON, the best thing is to forget
the person.”
Inspite of the apparent regret and disappointment, Engineer Haffner evinced
no trace of bitterness which was not surprising because many who knew him well
either as a boss, mentor or industry legend speak about his kindness and
integrity.
Go well, Pa Haffner and you will never be forgotten.
*Osondu C. Nwokoro is Director, External Affairs at ntel and wrote this from Lagos.
ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!
No comments:
Post a Comment