…Declares NCC “an Island of Excellence in Public Service”
The President of TELL Communications Limited – publishers of Tell
newsmagazine and Broad Street Journal – Mr. Nosa Igiebor, yesterday led a
team of top management staff of the organization on a visit to the
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to convey the nomination of the
Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta as the
CEO OF THE YEAR 2016.
Mr. Igiebor, MD/CEO OF Tell Communications told Professor Danbatta, that
he was greatly pleased to be at the NCC “a public sector organization with
an uncommon excellent culture of public service”. “There was a massive
response when we called for nominations, the choice narrowed down to the
CEOs of NCC, BOI and NNPC but ultimately NCC emerged topmost, though the
votes were quite close” Mr. Igiebor narrated as his revelation was greeted
with a loud applause.
Igiebor stated that TELL had devoted its entire history to publishing,
championing issues of freedom and advocating good governance as a
springboard to national development, but the TELL AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE is
instituted to celebrate organizations and persons inhabiting “the island
of excellence where NCC stood out preeminently in the public service”. In
the course of this exercise, Mr. Igiebor said his organization interacted
with the public extensively and found that some members of the public
sphere did not even realize that NCC is a public sector organization –
because of its performance.
He said although public complaints about services rendered by telecoms
companies persists, NCC has performed creditably well in reining in the
malfeasance through its distinctive regulatory role and continuity of
focus and actions by successive leadership of the Commission. “We have the
honour on behalf of the Board of TELL Awards for Excellence to convey the
decision of the nomination of Professor Danbatta as the CEO of the Year
2016 because he has raised the bar in excellent public service and we pray
he sustains the trend and that his successors continue on that path” Mr.
Igiebor declared.
Responding, Prof. Danbatta thanked the TELL team for the visit to NCC and
acknowledged the recognition on behalf of Management and staff, describing
the honour as historically significant because he had always seen TELL as
a highly respected, greatly analytical and not sensational media, adding
that TELL is indeed fitting in the category of The Economist, Newsweek and
other magazines of that genre.
Prof. Danbatta told his visitors that this is the first time the
Commission will have no hesitation receiving an award from a media
organization because TELL is a reputable medium. “Coming from the academia
where we are used to incisive sometimes radical analysis of issues, I
particularly appreciate TELL’s courageous analysis” Professor Danbatta
said adding that it is that pedigree that has helped him to fit in to a
world class organization like NCC where very noble Nigerians had done
spectacular foundational work which his predecessors built upon to put NCC
on the world map, promising to make NCC better.
Sounding quite conceptual and philosophical Danbatta said there are issues
naturally “associated with making things better. This is precisely why we
rely on the public to tell us how to make things better and the result is
what you find in NCC, the real culture of public service to the people is
what we endeavour to do and that attitude explains why people come from
different countries around the world to study what we are doing and how we
are doing it in order to benchmark with their works in other
jurisdictions”.
Professor Danbatta expressed gratitude to TELL for the honour which he
said is dedicated to the staff of the Commission who work tirelessly to
ensure NCC focus on the accomplishment of its mandate. He stated that he
was particularly gratified because the recognition is coming from a
leading light of the Fourth Estate of the Realm which aggregates public
opinion and speaks for the public describing TELL as “an existing and
enduring legacy”.
Professor Danbatta also spoke to the challenges in the telecoms sector. He
recalled theft and vandalism of infrastructure among myriads of challenges
facing the sector and the collaborative partnership which the Commission
has instituted with security agencies and other critical stakeholders to
address these and other challenges. He noted that telecommunication
technology impacts so much on socioeconomic development of the nation and
every stakeholder’s support is needed to consolidate the strides in the
telecom sector. This explains why Commission has built several
conversations and programmes around the challenges of the consumer as
clearly articulated in the ongoing 2017: YEAR OF THE NIGERIAN TELECOMS
CONSUMER campaigns. Danbatta said the Commission looks forward to working
with TELL magazine to accomplish its enunciated vision for the telecom
sector.
The Award will be formally presented to Professor Danbatta at an event in
Lagos on June 10, 2017