By Prince Osuagwu
ICT is one area of the economy where politicking is a mis-norma. Mixture of the two is like water and oil and in no distant time, there would surely be a separation.

NCC building

This was a clear case in the cheers and cries that followed the confirmation of former Senior Vice President of MTS First Wireless, Engr Eugene Ikemefuna Juwah as the substantive Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Thursday last week, President Goodluck Jonathan had penultimate week appointed Juwah and forwarded his name alongside other members of NCC board as the preferred replacements for Engr Ndukwe and the Ahmed Joda led board who left office since March 2010.

Following that appointment, the leadership of the upper house according to its tradition forwarded the appointees to its Senate Committee on Communications, headed by Senator Anyanwu.

However, a little drama was to play out. Wednesday last week when the appointees were to be screened, Hi-Tech gathered that the leadership of the house committee denied having received security reports on the appointees and therefore could not screen them.

The incident produced a very strong rumour that some powerful interests that wanted Juwah out of the way had moved in some Ghana must go to ensure that his screening gets stalled till the Senate goes on recess.
But while no one could provide an authentic reason why the screening could not take place, the cause and effect were to produce gainers and losers the following day.

Open screening
Piqued by the level of protests and complaints, Senate President, David Mark ordered an open screening and threw out the screening report of Sen Anyanwu which his members alleged was done unilaterally.

That, however, was not without dissolving the Anyanwu led committee for non performance and embarrassing the senate.

The dissolution led the senate to resolve in the committee of the whole to confirm the nominees invoking Order  17 of it standing rules to admit the nominees into the chamber for screening and subsequent confirmation.
Those screened and confirmed by the senate yesterday were Mr. Peter Egbe Igoh  as the Chairman of NCC board; Dr. Eugene Ikemefuna Juwah as Executive Vice Chairman, Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi as Executive Commissioner and Alhaji Mohammed Bintube as Non-Executive Commissioner respectively.

Anyanwu as casualty
As if Senator Anyanwu was ambushed, after presenting a report purportedly emanating from the screening, a member of the Committee, Senator Abubakar Argungu, countered the report, saying that no screening took place as reported by Anyanwu, due to absence of security reports on the nominees.

Two other members of the committee who allegedly signed the report,  Senators Odion Ugbesia and Yisa Braimoh, also alleged that their signatures were forged in the report presented to the Senate.

Senator Argungu said, “no screening took place. I am a member of the Committee and there was no screening. The nominees were at the office of the Chairman yesterday till about 4.pm and were not screened because there was no security report.”

Meanwhile Mark, confirmed that he personally sent the security report to the Committee and described the action of Senator Anyanwu as a shame and an embarrassment to the Senate.

He was to use strong words to express his disappointment: “the point that Argungu has raised is a very serious one. I sent the security report from my office to the Chairman and marked it secret. There won’t be a close door session.

If the Committee puts itself in an embarrassing situation, they should carry it and not all of us. I am very saddened by this development and I am truly disappointed in that Committee. This is an embarrassment to the whole Senate and I feel very saddened about  a Senator being accused of forging signatures.”

However, an impeccable source at the commission told Hi-Tech that irrespective of the politicking that was going on over the appointment, it was obvious that Juwa would finally emerge, unless the president wanted to shoot himself on the foot, by perverting the law which he had sworn to uphold.

According to the source, the board of NCC at the expiration of Engr Ernest Ndukwu’s tenure March 2010 had recommended and forwarded to the Presidency the possible credible candidates to the position in this order; Engr. Eugene Ikemefuna Juwa, most preferred, Engr Stephen Bello, who was the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management and later became the Acting EVC, Engr. Stephen Adedayo Bello second preferred and the Vice President (Academics & Student Affairs) in Kano Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), Engr Umar Garba Danbatta as third preferred.

The source said that unless if there was security or other impediments working against Juwa, it would have been out of order to make another person the substantive EVC, if the Communications Act was followed accordingly.

The Telecom Act, stipulates that “the NCC Board shall make recommendations to the President on suitably qualified persons for appointment as the Commission’s Chief Executive and Executive Commissioners and the President shall take the Commission’s recommendations into consideration for the appointment.”

Succession intrigues
Intrigues have followed the appointment of a substantive EVC of the NCC following some ethnic, political and some primordial reasons by several interests on the EVC top management spot.

The intrigues were alleged to have been responsible for having two Acting EVCs for the commission before the appointment of a substantive last week.

At the expiration of  Engr Ndukwe’s second tenure as the commission’s EVC March 2010,
Engr. Bello who was the most senior officer of the commission at the time assumed office on acting capacity.
However when the industry was expecting his position to be confirmed and perhaps made substantive, he was allegedly eased off following government’s directive that he proceed on his formal retirement after his five-year tenure as an Executive Commissioner with the Commission expired July 5, 2010.

That directive incidentally brought the other most senior official, Dr. Bashir Gwandu, who is the Executive Commissioner in charge of Engineering and Standards, as another acting EVC with effect from June 21, 2010.

However, it was later to be reported in some national dailies that the presidency had forwarded the name of one Mr Onuoha Nnaji, a former Special Assistant to the Minister of Information and Communications, Prof Dora Akunyili to the senate for approval to head NCC.

Onuoha’s entry into the race opened another vista into the politics of Ndukwe’s successor as he was allegedly not really known in either the telecoms or entire ICT sector apart from his stint at the information Ministry.

However, unconfirmed reports said that Onuoha could not scale the huddle at the security point and therefore immediately dropped off the radar.

At this point the industry was getting agitated and the tension was apparent. Sources at the presidency said that the president decided to wave off all sentiments and swore to restore the confidence in the telecom sector by following strictly the Act.

So Thursday penultimate week, the Presidency submitted the names of Dr. Juwah 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 commissioners are to complete the legal requirements for the nine-member Board of Commissioners of the NCC, with all the geopolitical zones represented.

Now the appointment. Juwah brings to a close, the wide gap left at the Commission with the departure of Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, due to unnecessary politicking.