Pantami: A minister’s graceful exit and detractors’ anguish

While he held sway as the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, between 2019 and 2023, Prof. Ibrahim Isa Ali Pantami was the target of malicious attacks by persons who have an axe to grind. It appears they are not done yet, even after he bowed out with unrivalled achievements.

Recently, there was a futile attempt to discredit his feat regarding the passage of the NITDA Bill. An article, titled “Telecom: How Gbajabiamila Saved Nigeria from Pantami’s Curious Bill”, highlighted some issues that manifested the author’s ignorance about the legislation.

It would be recalled that in March 2021, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi proposed the realignment of the agency’s Act with “tenets and ideals of the fourth Industrial Revolution” and Nigeria’s Digital Economy Policy.

On 30th August 2021, the Head of Corporate Affairs and External Relations, Hadiza Umar, who urged IT stakeholders to participate in the 2007 Act re-enactment, clarified that the agency was not seeking to regulate the telecoms industry nor operators but to promote the development of the sector.

The NITDA bill seeks to introduce a licensing regime for IT operators and the digital economy. It empowers the agency to issue regulations, approve renewal, suspension or revocation of licenses, and provide conditions that promote free market operation and competition, among others.

After studying the draft NITDA Bill 2021 and NCC Act 2003, 2007, I make bold to state that there is no basis for anyone to think otherwise but the critics are determined to pursue a sinister agenda. Detractors attempt to hide facts in plain sight but have failed to explain the purported clash of NITDA and NCC mandates.

The authority of NCC is derived from the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 (NCA 2003) signed into law by President Olusegun Obasanjo on July 8, 2003, after National Assembly’s approval. It applies to the provision and use of telecommunications services and networks, including on ships and aircraft registered in Nigeria.

It is important to point out that the laws that guide and enable the operations of the commission include NCC decree 75 of November 1992, the National Telecoms Policy (NTP) 2000, (under review), the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1990, and the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.

The NCA 2003 would facilitate telecom investment and entry into the market; protect the rights and interests of service providers and consumers; manage and deploy state-owned assets; ensure quality telecom services, and advise the minister on the formulation of policies and other matters.

In a nutshell, one can understand that the key function of the NCC is to regulate and oversee the country’s telecom industry. Therefore, Pantami should not be the target of abuses for no other reason other than his resolve to leave the digital space in Nigeria better than he met it. And he did.

NCC’s Vice Chairman, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, a loyal and trustworthy public officer, appreciated the ex-ministers efforts in the digital economy and at different times praised his actions and utterances. So why the brouhaha now that he is no more in the saddle?

Pantami came up with innovative ideas that expanded the digital space to accommodate more young citizens who would have been jobless, putting Nigeria’s digital economy on the global map. During his tenure, the ICT sector contributed 18.44 per cent to the country’s GDP, the highest ever.

Also, apart from securing the approval and supervision of the distribution of 6,000 iPads to educational institutions to promote virtual teaching, learning and other scholarly activities, Pantami secured a partnership with Microsoft to train five million Nigerians in ICT and emerging technology courses.

The professor also sealed a partnership with Huawei that led to free training for over 30,000 Nigerians and the establishment of 300 ICT Academies. Another cooperation with KOICA attracted $ 13 million aid to boost digital governance in the second phase of the e-Government Project.

Others are the implementation of broadband connectivity, reinvigoration of the digital economy sub-sector, implementation of a Digital Identity Programme, implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, digitization of government processes, 4G deployment and the launch of 5G network.

The stuff of career attackers is to hit below the belt when their target is no longer in office. But a lie is a lie irrespective of when it is being told, who is telling it, or how often it is relayed. Whether disparagers accept or not, posterity will be kind to Pantami.

Abbas Abdulazeez writes from Federal Housing Lugbe, Abuja.