By Ben Agande, Prince Osuagwu & Inalegwu Shaibu
ABUJA — The Senate yesterday dissolved the Christopher Anyanwu-led Committee on Communications on the basis of non performance. This is even as it clears the former Senior Vice President of MTS First Wireless, Engr Eugene Ikemefuna Juwa as the substantive Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.

Senate President, David Mark who ordered the immediate dissolution of the Committee said it was following the protests and allegations by other members of the committee that the Committee Chairman, Senator Sylvester Anyanwu, unilaterally screened the nominated NCC board members without the consent of other members.

Mark described the protests and allegations as “a shame and an embarrassment to the Senate.”

After presenting a report purportedly emanating from the screening, a member of the Committee, Senator Abubakar Argungu, PDP, Kebbi reported that the screening never took place as alleged by Senator Anyanwu due to absence of security reports on the nominees.

Our signatires were forged
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 (Wednesday) till about 4.pm and were not screened because there was no security report.”

It’s a shame—Mark
Mark, who also confirmed that he personally sent the security report to the Committee, described the action of Anyanwu as a shame and an embarrassment to the Senate.

His words: “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 this, a Senator accusing the others of forging signatures.”

After the dissolution of the committee, the Senate resolved in the committee of the whole to confirm the nominees after undergoing fresh screening in the Senate, which invoked Order  17 of its 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, Executive Vice Chairman; Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi, Executive Commissioner and Alhaji Mohammed Bintube, Non-Executive Commissioner respectively.

With the appointment of Juwa, President Goodluck Jonathan may have decided to follow the Communications Act which stipulated that any substantive Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, must be recommended by the board of the commission.

The President last week, reverted to the list of nominees forwarded to him by the board which pitched Engr Juwa as the preferred candidate for the job and forwarded same to the senate for approval.

Vanguard gathered that Juwa did not have hassles in securing the nod of the National Assembly having being already tipped for the job, by the recommendation of the NCC board.

An impeccable source at the commission told Vanguard 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.”

However, intrigues have followed the appointment of a substantive EVC 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 Friday.

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.