NCC Urges Nigerians to Protect Telecoms Facilities

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has called on Nigerians to jealously protect telecoms facilities from being vandalised, noting telecommunications remain the biggest dividend ever, from the era of the return of democratic governance in Nigeria 17 years ago.

The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, who made the call in Lagos recently, during a road show organised by NCC to sensitise Nigerians on the need to protect telecoms facilities in and around their environment, said: “Telecommunications has become an indispensable device in the hands of most Nigerians, going by the records that Nigeria has 152 million active telephone users as at November 2015, with over 80 million people having access to the internet.”

Danbatta, who was represented by NCC Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo, 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 per cent 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,” Danbatta said.

He expressed worry 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, and called for a rethink.

Besides slowing down the pace of growth and contributing to poor telecoms service quality, Dabatta said the deliberate cutting of telecoms cables, destruction of base stations, stealing of generators and general pilfering of telecoms equipment in some host communities, are monumental waste to the Nigerian economy.

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

“The campaign 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, Danbatta said.

He explained that “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, during the campaign.