By Chibisi Ohakah
There was mild drama in the Senator as the nomination of Adeleke Adewolu as executive commissioner on the governing board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) was confirmed.
The Senator representing Imo West, Rochas Okorocha, had lamented the absence of representation in the board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), but his fellow senator, and minority leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, from Abia South, stood and announced that the South Representative on the NCC board resigned his position to contest the 2019 general elections but lost.
Adewolu’s confirmation is sequel to the favourable consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Communications on the screening of the nominee. The report was presented during plenary by the committee’s chairman, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.
In his response to the absence of a board member from the South East, senate president, Ahmed Lawan said, “We still have to go back to find out if there is no replacement. If there is none, what we need to do is to request the executive arm of government to send a nomination to fill in that gap for the South East.
“Our committee on communications is supposed to let us know what the true position is and if the South East is completely missing, we will ensure that the law is adhered to and, therefore, a nomination for the South East is brought in for confirmation. I believe this senate will continue to do the right thing.”
Lawan bemoaned the inefficiency of the NCC and, therefore, urged the agency to improve on its revenue earnings and service delivery to Nigerians. He also warned that the continued use of unregistered lines by subscribers on various telecommunication networks posed serious security risk to the country.
“Let me say that the NCC has not done so well. We still have millions of people with lines that are not properly registered. This continues to be a security risk to us; the NCC needs to sit up. The revenues from NCC have not been meeting the target; so many of these operators don’t pay the proper taxes.
“The NCC, especially the management, must ensure that we get our revenue from these operators. Similarly, Nigerians don’t get the right services from these operators as their services are not reliable.
“We expect that by the time they have the full complement, they must ensure that Nigerians get the best of services and NCC should live up to its billings and mandate,” Lawan said.