Juwah confirmed by Senate, as NCC gets new chairman, 2 commissioners

Nigerian Senate, Thursday in Abuja, confirmed Dr. Eugene Ikemefuna Juwah as the new Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

This is coming as the Senate Committee on Communications, where at the same session disbanded for purported irregulaties and poor screening of the latest list of candidates sent by the presidency for the post of EVC, some commissioners and chairman of the commission.

Juwah’s confirmation brings to an end the four–month search for replacement of Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, the erstwhile chief executive of the Commission whose two-term tenure ended in March, 2010.

ITRealms Online gathered that Juwah was confirmed alongside other nominees for the vacant positions of two commissioners at the telecom regulatory agency board including Mr. Peter Egbe Igho, a retired Permanent Secretary from Benue State who replaces Alhaji Ahmed Joda as Chairman, Dr. Okechukwu Itanyi, former Deputy Governor of Enugu State, who replaces Engr. Stephen Bello as Executive Commissioner, and Alhaji Mohammed Bintube from North East who replaces Engr. Patrick Kentebe as Commissioner.

Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Communications, chaired by Senator Sylvester Anyanwu, was disbanded on Thursday by Senate President, Senator David Mark. He then ordered that the nominees be screened by the Senate during the plenary, and were subsequently confirmed.

Since the names of the nominees were read on the floor of the Senate last week, with telecom industry stakeholders applauding the appointment of Dr. Juwah, a strange delay was set in by the Committee in screening the nominees, which generated a palpable fear that the Committee leadership may have been working on a script to delay the nominees until October when the Senate resumes.

Dr. Juwah, with about 30 years hands-on experience as a telecoms engineer is seen by the Presidency as having the necessary credential to manage Nigeria’s telecom regulatory agency to maintain its international reputation.

The Delta State born telecom expert with a doctorate degree in Systems Engineering from the University Of Manchester, England, served as a Member, Subcommittee for Telecommunication Sector Liberalization and Restructuring in Nigeria in 2002, the committee that laid the solid foundation for the liberalization of the industry and enactment of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003.

With his 30 years telecom experience in Nigeria spanning from the early 1990s when he managed the network operations of MTS Firsts wireless’ ETACS mobile telephony to the late 1990s when he superintended over the deployment of CIL, up until the early 2000 when he managed the deployment of CDMA network which saw MTS back into the fold, Dr. Juwah is seen to have traversed the entire Nigeria’s telecom industry.

He is said to be knowledgeable in digital exchanges, base station, data communication and subscriber access networks construction and operations having played coordinating roles in the set up of an ETACS, GSM and CDMA Mobile Networks in Nigeria at various times in Nigeria. Engr. Juwah’s forte is said to be his profound practical knowledge of pricing, billing, interconnection, licensing and regulatory affairs and network fraud control within the Nigerian environment.


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Stop lotteries, NCC tells telecom operators

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Thursday in Abuja, directed telecom operators in the country to stop forthwith, all the lottery-related activities and desist from charging premium rates for non premium services.

Head, Media & Public Relations, Mr. Reuben Muoka, who confirmed this to ITRealms Online, said that this directive was based on its statutory responsibility to protect the interests of consumers against unfair practices and consequent upon incessant complaints received from various stakeholders about telecom operators engaging in lottery activities and unsolicited Short Messaging Service (SMS).

A press statement endorsed by Mr. Muoka also declared that “Sending of SMS prompting telecom subscribers to participate in lotteries is suspended until further notice.”

Also, he said, the Commission noted that while promotions are allowed under the guidelines already published by NCC, with set minimum requirements and standards of advertisements and promotions, lotteries are excluded from such activities.

“Promotions as defined in the guidelines do not include lotteries where the consumer does not receive commensurate service or value for money spent,” he said.

The Commission, therefore warned Nigerians, saying that operators should henceforth be guided accordingly, stressing that all promotions carried on by telecom operators must be in accordance with the Guidelines on Advertisements and Promotions published by the Commission.

“No telecom operator is allowed to carry-out any lottery activity as defined above under the license issued by the Commission; Operators are also advised to take due care in the timing, frequency and content of their multi-cast messages to subscribers to reduce nuisance associated with these messages,” Muoka noted in the press statement made available to ITRealms Online.

Additionally, NCC pointed out that sending of SMS prompting telecom subscribers to participate in lotteries is suspended until further notice.

“Operators should desist from charging premium rates for non-premium services,” part of the statement read.

NCC further cautioned that “all network operators are to ensure strict compliance with this Notice, as appropriate sanctions in accordance with the Act and the Enforcement Regulations, 2005 shall be applied to erring operators”.

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Remmy Nweke bags Deutsche Welle, FOSSFA Reporter award 2010

Lead Content Strategist at ITRealms Online and Senior Reporter and Head of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) desk at Champion Newspapers Limited, Lagos-Nigeria,Remmy Nweke, has bagged the first-ever African Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Reporter award.

The award which was the first of its kind by the Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) and Deutsche Welle (DW) under FOSSWAY project, was presented to Mr. Nweke in Accra, Tuesday night by the Director, Deutsche Welle Online, Mr. Thomas Bastian in company of FOSSFA chairperson, Ms Nnenna Nwakanma, as part of the weeklong fourth Idlelo conference organized at the State House, Banquet Hall, Accra.

Speaking at the ceremony, chairperson, FOSSFA, Ms Nwakanma noted that the award was open to Africans living on the continent, authors of articles or broadcasts that were published or aired in the last two years and were also made available both in the traditional media and new media.

Winning entries, she pointed out was an article described as valuable to an African audience, which showed clarity in communication and significantly explaining, interpreting and reporting the impact of FOSS on the development of Africa and recognizing newsworthiness thereof.

Therefore, she said that Mr. Nweke’s piece on ‘Open Source as business solution’ met the aforementioned criterion based on the voices reflected and juries declaration, therefore, it was pronounced the best.

She also promised that FOSSFA would continue to support African media practitioners, even as she solicited for more reportage on the activities of group on the continent.

Also speaking, Mr. Bastian of DW said that they are partnering on the media award project because Africa is very important continent to them, disclosing that the winning article was well articulated and would be serialized in one of their projects in Latin America and particularly Brazil to showcase the kind of efforts Africans are making in FOSS adaptation.

He equally congratulated Mr. Nweke accompanied by his wife and a professional journalist, Nkemdilim, for coming up with the award winning piece and urged him to keep up the touch.

The Chief executive, Mandriva West Africa, Mr. Dele Ajisomo, in his congratulatory message, said that Nigeria is proud of Mr. Nweke’s achievements on the continent and asked him to remain steadfast.

Mr. Nweke is not new to professional prizes as he had in the past won the Siemens African Profile Award for 2004 and 2005; thus becoming the first Nigerian to win such awards on excellence in science and technology reporting twice in addition to a merit awarded him in 2008.

In addition, he is a pioneer Nigerian editorial board member of the Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) based at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, and won the second prize in Local Content Application category at the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) awards in 2005 organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In 2006, Mr. Nweke was honour with the Hewlett Packard (HP) Nigeria’s top prize for Nigerian ICT journalists in technology reporting, whereas he was the first runner up in the Nigerian IT & Telecom Awards print category.

Currently, a Master of Arts student of University of Malta in Contemporary Diplomacy, Nweke was at the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP-07) in Malaysia, where he took the second prize in ICT Research and Innovations category of AISI.

While at the 10th Highway Africa conference-06, he was adjudged the SABC-HANA Journalist of the Year in recognition and promotion of creative, innovative and appropriate use of new media technology on the continent, even as he emerged the Publicity Secretary, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) a not-profit organisation.

A founding member of the Joint Action Committee on ICT Awareness (JACITAD) and focal point for the African ICTMedia for Nigeria, Mr. Nweke, and last year was nominated into the International WHO'S WHO of Professionals in 2009 Edition.

The ceremony was graced by the Director, ICT at ECOWAS secretariat Abuja, Dr. Sola Afolabi who also represented the Ghanaian Minister of Communications, Mr. Haruna Idrisu as chairman of the occasion, former Microsoft Country Manager for West Africa, Mr. Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu, Developers Team Leader, Microsoft West Africa, Mr. Ken Spann, one of the fathers of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Latin America, Mr. Jon Hall, General Manager, Zain Ghana, Director-General Kofi Annan Indian Centre of Excellence in ICT, Ms Dorothy Gordon among FOSSFA council and members across the continent and partners.


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Court upholds sale of 2.3GHz, orders NCC to release license

A Federal High Court sitting in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, yesterday, Thursday, upheld the sale of 2.3 Gega Hertz (GHz) by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), saying the Ministry of Information and Communications does not have the powers to cancel the auction in the first instance.

The court also ordered that all the relief sought by the plaintiff be granted, and directed NCC to release for the applicant (Mobitel) the 2.3GHz license.
Daily Champion recalls that on May 22, 2009, the Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. (Mrs) Dora Akunyili announced the cancellation of the sale, with a directive to NCC to re-offer the 2.3 spectrum for sale afresh.

Prior to the cancellation, NCC had pronounced three companies winners out of the 40 applicants that contested for the spectrum, including Mobitel Nigeria Limited, Spectranet Limited and Multi-Links Telkom Limited, while the fourth contestant, Galaxy Wireless was reportedly unable to meet up with the payment terms, thereby stood disqualified. The sum of N4,104,000,000 was realized from the auction.

But delivering his judgment, in the suit file by one of the winners in the 2.3GHz auction, Mobitel Nigeria Limited, against four defendants namely the Hon. Minister of Information and Communications, Federal Ministry of Information and Communications, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and NCC, Justice Umar Garba of Federal High Court Abuja, on the purported cancellation of the 2.3GHZ sale, upheld the sale.

He also said in the suit number FHC/ABJ/M/312/2009, that the respondent’s objections have no merit and it must fail, even as the objections of the first and second defendants have no merit and were dismissed.

A copy of the judgment made available to ITRealms Online, Justice Garba, noted that having seen all the preliminary objections, that he considered the sustentative application of the matter before his court.

“Pursuant to leave granted to the applicant by this court on the 27th of May 2009 to apply for an order for a judicial review, the applicant filed an originating motion on the 1st of June 2009 and same was supported by a written address. The first second and third respondents filed written addresses. The third respondent initially appeared at the proceedings and subsequently disappeared. I hereby treat all processes filed by the third respondent as being abandoned and I do hold,” he said.

Garba further said that in taking his judgment, he had considered “Whether it is within the powers of the first and second respondents to cancel an auction conducted by the 4th Respondent for the issuance of license in the communications sector.

“The applicant’s case as taken clearly from the facts in the statements and supporting affidavits is that the applicant participated in the auction of the 2.3GHz spectrum licensing by the fourth respondent (NCC) and met all the criteria as advertised, awaiting the issuance of the license to operate.

When the first and second respondent issued a letter on the 25th of May 2009 ‘ Exhibit NCC’ and Exhibit ‘N’, the applicant (Mobitel) ran to the court for judicial interpretation of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, which is the law providing for the allocation of frequency.

According to him, the law conferred on NCC, the sole and exclusive powers to manage and administer the frequency spectrum for the communications sector to its end users by grants of license for the use of the said frequencies, buttressing his point with reference to Section 121, (1) & (2) of the Act which provides that “Notwithstanding the provisions of any other written law or subject to the provision of this Act, the
Commission shall have the sole and exclusive power to manage and administer the frequency spectrum for the communications sector and in that regard to grant licenses for and to regulate the use of the said frequency spectrum.

In addition, Justice Garba quoted Section 121, (2) thus, “The Power of the Minister under the Wireless Telegraphy Act as far as they relate to the Communications are hereby vested in the Commission.”

Stressing that by the provisions of this Act, the Commission is independent of any interference in the performance of its statutory duties, pointing out that the purpose has been to insulate the Commission in the performance of this crucial a highly sensitive function of regulating the Communications sector.

The end user, he pointed out is for the purpose of the function of the Commission, the operators in the communications sector.

From the foregoing, Justice Garba said that he upheld the Act conferment of ‘NO power’ in the first respondent (Minister of Communications) to impose any directive or instruction on the Commission, or any of its officers or intervene in the performance of the Commissions functions.

“It is clear that the express intentions of the Act regarding the role of the first respondent is to limit its powers to only board matters on policy and issues that affect treaties in view of section 23 of the Nigerian Communications Act,” he noted.

Emphasizing that Section 25, sub-section 2 goes further to impose on the Minister of Communications the statutory obligation of ensuring the sanctity of the independence guaranteed to the Commission by the Act.

Therefore, “The first respondent’s (Minister of Communications) purported cancellation of the Auction is absolutory and totally arbitrary as it relates to Section 123 of the Nigerian Communication Act 2003, which provides that ‘the Commission may make regulations in any matter under this chapter. Section 123 (2), the regulation may include procedure for assignment of spectrum such as but not limited to the following a) Auctions; b) Tender; c) Fixed price to be determined by the Commission,” he said.

The above provision gives the Commission the exclusive powers regarding the sale of frequency and makes absolutely no mention of the first respondent (Minister of Communications).


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