Senate screens Juwah, NCC boss nominee, others today
By Emeka Aginam & Prince Osuagwu
THERE appears to be anxiety over who becomes the boss of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, as the presidential nominee for the post of the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, and three other commissioner-designates, including the Chairman, Mr. Peter Egbe Igho, will today, face the Senate Committee on Communications for a screening exercise, after which they will be confirmed.
Dr. Juwah is said to have become the toast of the Presidency after consultation and deliberation which put the telecoms expert of about 30 years experience above all contenders to the position of Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigeria’s telecom regulatory agency for the next five years.
It would be recalled that the presidency had earlier submitted the names of Dr. Juwah’s alongside the chairman-designate, Mr. Peter Egbe Igho, a retired Permanent Secretary from North Central, Alhaji Mohammed Bintube from North East as Commissioner, and Dr. Okechukwu Itanyi, former Deputy Governor of Enugu State, as Executive Commissioner from South East.
The candidates, when confirmed, is expected to complete the legal requirements for the 9-member Board of Commissioners of the NCC.
The nomination of Dr. Juwah, it was gathered, brings closes, the wide gap left at the Commission with the departure of Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, the erstwhile EVC whose tenure ended in late March, 2010, alongside former chairman, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, without the Presidency making an immediate replacements.
The telecom and ICT industry received the nomination of Dr. Juwah with excitement as he was one of the egg heads in the committee that prepared Nigeria for telecom liberalization in 1999, having also gathered huge experience of over 30 years in Information Technology and Telecommunication with more than 20 years at top management levels, with more than 20 years experience on directorial level.
He is also said to be extremely 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.
Meanwhile, the President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu, had said that the choice of Dr. Juwah may have compensated the delay in the replacement of the EVC of NCC.
According to him, Juwah is rounded for the job at hand, adding that, “Juwah I know is a fitting and very ready material for the job. Intellectually and in industry equipment, he is round. If the time it has taken to find the candidate was meant to get one of the fine guys around, I think we can forgive the uneasy delay that has come to a good end. This is the kind of candidate Nigerians say is ‘a round peg in a round hole’, Engr. Omo-Ettu said.
