There is much trepidation right now at the Nigerian Communications Commission headquarters in Abuja as the staffers are counting down to an imminent shake-up by the substantive Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta. Apparently, Prof as he is now fondly referred to in the commission is getting set to assemble his own team. Those that may be affected by a shake-up include every other official employed under the authority of the last two EVCs of NCC, Engr Ernest Ndukwe and Dr Eugene Juwah. Though these officials are now civil servants, there is the possibility of redeployment to redundancy. Hence, there is a loy of uncertainty hanging in the air as the good Prof is almost through with an assessment of his staff. Sources say that Prof. Danbatta is obviously going to bring in people he is more comfortable to work with and this is bound to rub off negatively on those who are already there. This may not be akin to clearing up of desks by staffers in the office of the EVC but there will be changes which will definitely result in seeing new faces around the EVC. Since he took over at the commission from Dr Eugene Juwah almost 2 months ago, Prof Danbatta has been silently getting used to the office of the EVC and familiarising himself with the personnel around the office. A number of these persons were employed under Dr Eugene Juwah while the rest were employed under Engr Ernest Ndukwe.
President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Prof Danbatta after rejecting the offer of the erstwhile EVC, Dr Eugene Juwah to serve another term of five years. EVCs are allowed to serve a maximum of two terms of five years if they are reappointed by the President. Dr Juwah’s predecessor, Dr Ernest Ndukwe served 2 terms but Dr Juwah has been dealt a bad hand by circumstances that were beyond his control, chief among them being the loss of his principal, Dr Goodluck Jonathan in the presidential poll last march. Unlike the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele who was lucky that his tenure of 5 years was effectively just beginning when Jonathan lost the presidential election, Dr Juwah’s first tenure of 5 years was just ending after President Buhari took over. His Tenure ended in July and even industry watchers knew it would have been easier for the proverbial camel to pass though the eye of the needle than for Juwah to be reappointed by Buhari for another term of five years.
Apart from the obvious reason that a new administration would want to work with new people, the Nigerian Communications Commission was enmeshed in controversies during the presidential campaigns when it was accused of being in the tank for then ruling People Democratic Party, PDP. This was predicated upon the fact that the NCC prevented the All Progressives Congress from using mobile text messaging format to receive campaign donations from supporters. Although the NCC claimed that the regulation of the NCC does not permit that, there was a school of thought that felt that the action of the regulator was political. Hence, everyone, probably except Dr Juwah knew that Buhari will not reappoint him, Dr Juwah had written President Jonathan before the election, asking to serve another term in office. In the letter, he was said to have enumerated all the achievements of the NCC under his watch. He was also said to have intimated Jonathan about his future plans as NCC boss but Jonathan who was defeated in the election and Juwah’s chances of retaining the post became razor slim. Juwah was once again said to have written a letter to Buhari, making the same case he made to Jonathan. He also let Buhari know that he has helped in reducing the overhead cost of running the commission and has generated a lot of revenue for the commission. This was in line with Buhari’s promise of cutting down the cost of running government. As it turned out, Buhari later appointed Prof Umar Garba Danbatta to run the commission for the next five years.
A former Vice Preident of the Digital Bridge Institute, Prof Danbatta is a well educated telecommunications engineer who has supervised over 60 PhD, MEng and BEng projects in diverse areas of telecommunications. He was also a member of over 60 University committees and task forces, including numerous stints as Chairman. Prof Danbatta served as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the Kano University of Science & Technology, Wudi until his appointment.
-KELECHI OKORIE
The post panic @ NCC as shake up is imminent appeared first on citypeople.com.ng.
...Continue to read
0
Comments
