Setting the agenda for the Minister of Communication and Technology, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami

By Omogbolahan Babs

Honourable Minister,

Congratulations on your elevation from the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to the substantive Minister for Communications and Technology under the Buhari-led administration. It is an open and shut fact that you are very cerebral, geek-headed and qualified for the job. And there is no denial of the fact that your acclivity or levitation must have been a corollary of your milestones at NITDA within the short space you occupied the seat as the honcho in charge. The implication of this new altitude therefore is to spur you to explore more and deliver quality service to the Nigerian people and Nigeria nation. It is said that to whom much is given, much is equally expected.

Honourable Minister, sir, your ministry has a lot more to do with service delivery when you consider very deeply your portfolio and the agencies that are under your ascendancy. The Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), Galaxy Backbone, Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST), Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), and your erstwhile office, the National Information Technology Development Agency of Nigeria (NITDA) are all agencies under your purview. As a professor of Information Technology from the United Kingdom, a Fellow of both British and Nigeria Computer Societies and a Harvard, Cambridge and MIT/IMD & RGU-trained ICT guru, you possess all the requisite qualities sine qua non to service delivery. Therefore, you cannot afford to fail Nigerians.

Like I stated from the outset, your ministry is more of service delivery to the Nigeria nation and the Nigerian citizenry. A deeper look at that sector reveals a humongous rot that calls for urgent attention. From communications to postal service, from management of the NIGCOMSAT to technical know-how of its workforce; all of these demand your urgent and quick intervention, sir. When we look at the service delivery from the perspective of service to the nation - Nigeria and service to the people of Nigeria, we cannot but conclude that the communications and the postal service sub-sectors are very germane in this regard. We implore you to ensure that efforts are made at checkmating how foreign companies operating within the Nigerian space fleece her citizenry.

THE COMMUNICATIONS SECTOR

Honourable Minister, sir, we ask that you conduct an opinion poll on the quality of services rendered by telecommunication companies such as MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, 9Mobile Nigeria and by extension our own indigenous Globacom Nigeria, notto talk  of the CDMA mobiles. The tendency that you have had bitter experiences with these companies your humble self is as certain as death. Often times we experience drop calls which are no customer's fault, but customers are charged for services not enjoyed. That's on one hand. On the other hand, the amount Nigerians pay for Short Message Service (SMS) as well as call cost is rather too high. Charging N4/SMS is a bit high compared to other economies of the world. A 50% reduction (N2/SMS) is not a bad idea, sir. Same way is the cost of making calls. Added to this 'migraine' is when you are charged for unsolicited SMSs. This has been a recurring decimal with no rescue in sight.

Our woes as Nigerian populace is further compounded by the issue of data usage. The kind of 'thieving' that the telecommunication companies do on Nigerians is legendary! Aside the fact that the cost of data subscription in Nigeria when juxtaposed with other economies like China, India, Brazil among others is ridiculously high; a data that expectedly should last the user for a period of 30 days gets exhausted within 7 days or even less! And when you call to ask these companies, they refer you to your usage. We are therefore poised to ask it is only in Nigeria that people pay for data service. We appeal to you to help use your good office to stop this rip off of many years.

THE NIGERIAN POSTAL SERVICE (NIPOST)

In recent years, the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) has undergone some re-positioning for effective service delivery. However, more still needs to be done. The NIPOST has the potential of generating huge revenue for the country and as well provide high job opportunities for our teeming graduates in the area of logistic provision. The agency is still largely restricted in operation. NIPOST has presence in almost all the 774 Local Government councils that make up the country, if not all. Today, logistic companies flimflam Nigerians with their arbitrary price when you send goods across (states of) the country and even beyond. If those abandoned NIPOST offices around the country can be revived to provide logistic service of transporting goods, it will provide job opportunity for the locals and generate money for government. And companies like DHL, GIGL, UPS, Tranex, Erandex, ABC etc will stop exploiting vulnerable Nigerians.

SYNERGY WITH THE INFORMATION AND CULTURE MINISTRY

In Nigeria today, a South African company - MultiChoice Limited enjoys dominance of the Cable TV industry. At every point in time a competitor had come, such competitors had been muscled out with their co-conspirators within the egregious Nigerian space. DStv can wake up today and tell you it is increasing its bouquet prices. And so it will be. There is no viable competitor in over 20 years of their service. It is instructive to state here that it was the stiff competition between Globacom and MTN in 2003 that forced the latter to bring down its call cost. Why can Nigeria not have an alternative to DStv? In DStv's home country and some other African countries, they operate Pay Per View (PPV). But in Nigeria where they have the bulk of their market, they exploit our people. We implore the Honourable Minister to work out a synergy with the Information and Communications Ministry to address this menace.

THE WORKFORCE AND TECHNICAL KNOW-HOW

The Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited developed an electronic voting (e-voting) facility sometimes around 2010/2011. This project seems to have been abandoned. Now that that the issue of e-voting is gaining momentum in the country, coupled with the agitations of Nigerians in diaspora and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) mouthing same that it might give it a consideration in some areas in subsequent elections; it is important that the software and/or facility developed by staff of NigComSat in about a decade ago be revamped. The workforce should be given the necessary support (trainings, welfare, motivation) to succeed on the project. As the giant of Africa that we mouth ourselves, we should by now have done away with paper voting, but for the malfeasance leadership of yesteryear. Now, it is time we did the needful and got ourselves on the right track. It may be awkward at the outset, but we learn from our failures. Let us give it a trial and then improve upon it subsequently.

Once again, I congratulate you, sir, the Honourable Minister as one of the lieutenants that will deliver the #NextLevel promises of President Muhammadu Buhari in the next 45 months. I wish you resounding supernova as you serve your fatherland.


Omogbolahan Babs, a Forensic and Criminal Investigation Expert sent this piece from Abuja