By Prince Osuagwu, Hi-Tech Editor

President Bola Tinubu has removed the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta and named Aminu Maida in his stead.

Maida before this appointment was Executive Director, Technology and Operations at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems PLC. He also worked in Cisco as Solutions Architect/Senior Manager, and in ARCA Payments Company Ltd, as CTO/Co-Founder. He has a doctorate degree in Signal Processing from the University of Bath.

The removal of Danbatta was contained in statement by the Presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale which saw to a shake-up in the agencies under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy.

The statement which Ngelale said was “In line with President Bola Tinubu’s determination to maximally leverage on Nigeria’s proven technological and digital economic prowess to reposition the nation’s economy toward greater financial inclusion, also announced the appointment of a new Special Adviser to the President on Technology and Digital Economy, Idris Alubankudi

The removal of Danbatta came as a surprise to the ICT sector professionals because he was only reappointed for a five-year second term in office, July 2020, meaning he had roughly two years away to complete his tenure.

However, Danbatta was not alone as the President also terminated the appointment of the recently appointed MD/CEO of Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), Tukur Mohammed Lawal.

Lawal was appointed in December 2022 following the retirement of the erstwhile Managing Director, Dr Abimbola Alale. In the stead of Lawal, President Tinubu announced Nkechi Egerton-Idehen.

Another agency of the Digital Economy ministry that was affected by the shake-up is the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), as its Postmaster General /CEO, Hon. Adepoju Adeyemi Sunday, was relieved of his appointment and a new person, Tola Odeyemi was named the new Postmaster General /CEO.

But, it was not just all removals, the President also renewed the appointments of the Heads of some of the agencies, including that of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), whose DG /CEO, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi was asked to continue in his job.

Also, the appointment of Dr. Vincent Olatunji as National Commissioner /CEO of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) was renewed by the President.

Vanguard had tried without success to get responses of the affected officers in the agencies