Telecoms, Biggest Democracy Dividend, Protect it, says Danbatta

Nearly 17 years after the return of democratic governance to Nigeria, telecommunications remains the biggest dividend from this democracy, according to Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

“Over 80 million people have access to the Internet, 152 million active telephone lines as at November, 2015, so much that telecommunications has become an indispensable device in the hands of most Nigerians”, Danbatta explained.

He spoke at the flag off of a roadshow campaign against telecom infrastructure vandalism in Lagos.

Represented by Mr. Tony Ojobo, director, Public Affairs, NCC, the EVC said besides being the “biggest dividend in our growing democracy”, telecommunications is also one of the biggest contributors to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with over 10 percent pushing up the economic growth and complementing government’s diversification into non-oil revenue in the face of dwindling oil price.

“Millions of Nigerians are directly and indirectly employed by the same industry, earning reasonable incomes”.

A worried Danbatta however lamented that the benefits and all the useful services enjoyed today from telecom industry are being threatened “by the spate of vandalism of telecom infrastructure across the country”.

Besides slowing down the pace of growth and contributing to poor Quality of Service (QoS), there are vices arising from this including cutting of cables, destruction of base stations, stealing of generators and general pilfering of telecoms equipment in some host communities.

“That is why we are here to campaign against vandalism and to tell our fellow citizens to be part of the war against vandalization of telecom infrastructure.  We need to be more vigilant. We need to report any form of vandalization to security agencies. In the existing laws of this country, vandalization of telecom infrastructure carries heavy penalties including a jail term if found culpable. In addition, the Commission is currently consulting with our law makers to finalize on a Bill called Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill which seeks to treat all telecom infrastructure as public property, to be protected as such”.

“Today provides another unique opportunity to urge the National Legislature to give an urgent consideration in passing the bill into law in order to give more legal teeth in the prosecution of offenders and enable us protect telecom infrastructure for the benefit of our citizens.

On our part as the regulator of the telecom industry, it is our desire to make Nigeria better, using telecommunications services.  It is our desire to improve on the varieties and quality of services that Nigerians are getting from the telecom industry.  It is our continued desire that telecom services are available to Nigerians wherever they may live, be it in the city, or in sub-urban or rural areas”.

He said NCC is “working round the clock to ensure that broadband services are also available for the Nigerian populace.  When broadband is fully available, it will advance the sophistication and speed with which we carry out our various activities within the telecom industry.”

Maverick musician, Charles Oputa (Charlie boy) led motorcycle riders round the city of Lagos in this flag off.