Browsing: Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami

The Senate Committee on Communications recently organised a one-day public hearing where stakeholders gathered to make valuable contributions and observations on two bills by the Senate Committee on Communications. These are the Nigerian Postal Service Act (Repeal and Establishment) Bill, 2021 and the Nationwide Toll-Free Emergency Number (Establishment) Bill, 2021, being sponsored by Senator Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State.

With the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector now in place, Nigerian start-ups will have the benefits of handling more government contracts. It is in line with the eighth pillar in the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy Document, which President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled in November 2019. That was just three months into the tenure of Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami as the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.

The extension was as a result of the virtual meeting chaired by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, and attended by the Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Adeolu Akande; Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Dambatta; and Director-General/CEO, National Identity Management Commission, Engr. Aliyu Azeez.

Pantami has however been struggling to disclaim the allegations. To buttress his declamation of the allegations, the Minister has been fighting frenetically to defend himself. For instance, though he admitted that he had been an Islamic preacher since age 13, he claimed that, in the last two decades, he had been invited and travelled to countries like Niger Republic and Katsina, Borno and Gombe among other northern states and his preaching was a singeing denouncement of Boko Haram’s ideology and Islamic fundamentalism.

The projects include the NCC’s Emergency Communications Centre, Ado-Ekiti; Digital Awareness Programme for Secondary Schools, whose beneficiaries are Methodist Girls’ High School, Yaba, Lagos State and Bishop Okoye Girls’ Secondary School, Ukpor, Anambra State; as well as the School Knowledge Center at Ijaloke Grammar School, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, executed by the USPF.