Dr. Isa PATAMI, the current minister of communication and Digital Education can be said to be an accomplished scholar in both western and islamic education, yet after a close monitoring of his performance as the head of an important Ministry which combines Communication and digital Education, it is difficult to point out his achievements most especially in th area of Digital Education which we believe can empower the youths of Nigeria.
As a young minister what are the interventions and innovation he has brought into the ministry to harness the enormous potentials within the sector?
Very little has been achieved and most of these are white elephant projects which are not sustainable.
The Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) is a key organisation which we believe to be under Dr. Isa Patami’s domain, yet many anomalies persist in the telecoms sector of Nigeria. There is poor voice quality being carried by even grey technology (VOIP) while the customers (Nigerians) are charged the prices for premium service which they have never enjoyed.
In the past, we contacted the NCC with some facts and we also advised they sanction major service providers in mobile communication for errant practices, such as using bulk SMS to send normal text messages for individuals. For instance, when a message is sent from Nigeria to South Africa, the number via which the message is delivered is often an unrecognisable number which will definitely not be on the recipient contact list. The recipient will not be able to call back or reply to such a message unless the sender included his name for identification which many found unnecessary to do, even voice calls are sometimes terminated by local numbers at the destination country which make the calls appear like local calls.
Recently Registration of new SIM card, activation and anything to do with SIM card was suspended for months without consideration for local business and foreign investors just coming to Nigeria and a mandatory order was also given that NIN must be linked to all SIM cards.
Some of these actions are unnecessary frustrations for Nigerians and do not even achieve anything in the long run. Nigerians have BVN, Driver licence and NIMC Registrations why not harmonise all these instead?
Our appointed officials seems to have become too comfortable in their positions, thereby giving little attention to their assigned duties and instead indulging in order activities rather than focus on their primary assignment.
The allegations being leveled against Dr. Isa Patami have become too loud and worrisome and the government should not treat it lightly. We expect this to have been a major issue for discussion at the Federal Executive Coucil Meeting (FEC) especially given the gravity of the allegations.
We also advise, Dr. Isa PATAMI, the current minister of communication and Digital Education to do the right thing by stepping aside to allow for proper investigation while the next senior officers take charge.
If the allegations against him are found to be false he should be allowed back to resume his duties, however if found guilty then he should be prosecuted according to Law of our land.
The inability of our security forces to curtail the terrorism is definitely not unconnected with the fact that some of these terror groups are enjoying sponsorship by powerful individuals and organisations that are bent on seeing this adminstration fails.
We in South Africa and other well meaning organisations in diaspora are ready to support the Federal Government in this fight to eradicate the evil of terrorism in Nigeria.
We support the government of President Muhammadu Buhari and APC and advise that they should listen and work with Nigerians in Diaspora, as we are ready to contribute our quota towards ensuring the positive development of the nation.
Bola Babarinde, South Africa
