DR. Eugene Juwa, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has advocated the control of content that appears on the internet.  Juwah spoke with newsmen in Geneva, Switzerland, where he is attending the 2011 Expo of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

“There has to be some measure of control on content in a volatile political situation where messages, anonymous messages, are coming through internet and exacerbating this volatile situation; it cannot be allowed.’’ Juwah, who spoke against the backdrop of recent events in North Africa, said that regardless of who was in charge, it was necessary to have an authority in charge of the content of the internet.

“We must find a way to regulate it; whether it is left to the regulators to do or to government, or to the service providers to do – it has to be worked out, but there has to be control of content.’’ Juwah also spoke on the quality of the services which the GSM companies were rendering Nigerians, saying that only substantial investments could improve the situation.  He said that although the networks were investing in improvement, they were still being hampered by legal requirements, especially on issues bordering on the environment.

“In Nigeria, if you want to do environment impact analysis, it takes 18 months – that means 18 months to build a base station; it is unacceptable – one of the major causes of the quality of services you are seeing.  He said it was unfortunate that the operators had failed to plan ahead as they were expected to do.

“It has caught up with all of us. And although they are spending their billions, their billions are not showing up in their network quality early for us to see that they are investing.’’ Juwah added: “So, although we are flogging them – we have given them 30 days ultimatum to do something or else we come down heavily on them.’’ On the possible reduction of tariff further on GSM calls, the NCC boss explained that competition rather than the commission controlled tariff.”

“Our policy is that tariffs drop by competition and wherever competition takes it that is where it is going to stay.’’ On Nigeria’s participation in the ITU event, he said that their intention was to seek investments from foreign investors on Nigeria’s broadband technology.  “At least, from the response we have been getting, we have to go back to Nigeria and watch the investments come in.’’