- Woos The Fourth Estate of The Realm
By Angeline Ngbele, Correspondent Abuja
Not weaned from the massive media support he enjoyed in his first term on the helms as Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer(EVC/CEO) of the Nigerian Communications Commission, and, barely a few weeks into his second term, vital signs have emerged from the desk of Professor Umar Garba Danbatta indicating he would like to continue to savour the support of members of the journalism fraternity including, but not limited to, technology reporters, as partners in progress.
We gathered that Prof Danbatta has instructed the Director of Public Affairs(DPA) at the Commission, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde to ensure the relationship between the Media and the Commission remained stellar and on a northward trajectory. Accordingly, Dr. Adinde has mobilized his lieutenants to activate the EVC/CEO’s instruction. The PAD of the NCC has reached out to Nigerian Technology Reporters Association(NITRA), for the purpose of cementing the relationship between the Commission and technology reporters. Zoom sessions have been planned wherein technology reporters and the Director of the PAD of the NCC would interact and firm up strategies towards achieving the Commission’s specific and generic mandate towards the achievement of the broadband target of 70 per cent as enshrined in the NBP (2020-2025) in particular and the Digital Economy in general.
Danbatta’s resolve to carry the media along in his agency’s regulatory functions dates back to 2015 when he assumed duty as the chief telecoms regulator of the federation. A few months later, precisely on Wednesday, January 27, 2016, the EVC/CEO of NCC addressed an international press conference, the first formal meeting between him and the media. It was on this day that he unveiled his 8-point agenda including, but not limited to facilitating strategic collaboration and partnership with stakeholders of the ICT industry.
The vision of this pillar of the 8-point agenda is to “develop effective partnership with relevant stakeholders to foster ICT for sustainable economic development and social advancement. It’s strategy is to foster avenue for synergy with government MDAs, communities and relevant local and international non-state actors to advance the use of ICT for Development(ICT4Dev) by facilitating and supporting the development, adoption and usage of technology innovations for improvement in Agriculture, Healthcare Education and Security.”
