The Second Edition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Scorecard Series (a Parley between policy-makers, Party Stakeholders and the Media), held today in the Conference Hall of the APC National Headquarters in Abuja.
The Series, organised by the APC Professionals Forum in collaboration with the APC Press Corps, aims at assessing and issuing periodic public Reports on the next-level agenda of President Buhari and the APC-led administration.
Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, Ph.D. (the APC National Secretary) represented the Party's National Chairman, H.E. Mai Mala Buni, as Chairman of the event.
Also present were: Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami (Hon. Minister of Communication and Digital Economy); who was the Special Guest of Honour; and Malam Garba Shehu (SSA Media and Publicity to the President) who was Guest of Honour).
Prof. Mohammed Bello Mohammed, (MD Galaxy Backbone Ltd) a parastatal under the Ministry of Communication); Prof. Garba Umaru Garba Dambatta (Executive Vice Chairman, NCC); and Dr. Abimbola Ale (of NigcomSat) were also present.
Barr. Ismail Ahmed (National Youth Rep. APC Caretaker Committee); Prince Jide Oruntusin (Chairman APC Press Corps); Hon. Alex Attah; and Hon. Akeem Akintayo (Coordinator of the APC Professionals Forum), were also in attendance.
Discussions centered around the three-pronged approach of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (under Dr. Pantami), which he enumerated to include (1) Economic Development (2) Transparency and Fighting Corruption; and (3) Security.
Dr. Pantami stated that government was making great progress at diversifying the economy from an oil-reliant to a digitally reliant variant, in cognizance of the leading position of Info Tech and Digital Economy in the world today.
This effort he said, had resulted in Nigeria being able today, to produce SIM cards, smartphones and some of the software applicable in the industry.
He stressed that the NIN and SIM card Registration initiatives were necessary to provide a citizens database, equivalent to what obtains in developed societies, to guide government in budget-planning, education, healthcare, employment, etc.
Dr. Pantami said his Ministry had provided free training to intelligent citizens in Digital Technology, and operated two Virtual Technology Centers to sustain the effort through the Covid-19 inspired lockdown.
He said the Federal Government had established over 300 ICT Centers across the country, many of which have been donated to organisations, communities, etc; and that beneficiaries of the gesture had been awarded Certificates; and work in ICT related fields or own their own ICT Centers.
He also recounted that ICT was growing fast in Nigeria, and contributing so much to the country in revenue; and labelled the remittances he had made to the federal coffers through NCC and other channels as "unprecedented".
TRANSPARENCY AND FIGHTING CORRUPTION
Dr. Pantami stressed that Digital Technology had brought great ease and efficiency into the Fight against Corruption especially with the introduction of e-Governance, across the three tiers of government.
Virtual Platforms have today, saved so much money, which government officials could have used to travel to other States or outside the country for Conferences, Seminars, or other official engagements.
He decried the rot he inherited, where some of the country's prime economic interests were sometimes handed over by influential officials, to others as favours, rewards or other undeserved gratification.
He said he promptly proceeded to block so many of these leakages, and deflate the 'Business as Usual' mentality of staff; which has paid off so well that from March 2021, his Ministry had saved over N22.4 Billion for the Federal Government.
SECURITY
On Security, Prof. Pantami disclosed that the issue is not the mandate of his Ministry; but that as a member of the government, he had to key in to help resolve the challenge.
He didn't detract from the importance of Security; but rated it above economic development, which he said was justified in the Constitution.
Dr. Pantami disclosed that the menace of the markets being flooded with unregistered, partially-registered and pre-registered SIM cards encouraged crime greatly, which is why he adopted the approach of mandating the NCC to regulate SIM Cards and flush out the excesses used for criminality.
He said this had greatly reduced banditry and kidnapping, as well as frustrated the illegality of criminals compromising like-minded ICT agents and SIM-card operators into using innocent subscribers biometrics to register thousands of SIM Cards for their criminal allies to use to commit crimes.
Dr. Pantami said that the National Policy on National Identification and SIM Registration was implemented to ensure that nobody can use another's biometrics to commit crime, which made a database necessary, to ensure
data confidentiality and regulation of citizens private information.
Prof. Garba Umaru Garba Dambatta (Executive Vice Chairnan NCC) also spoke on the rumored link between 5G Network and two ailments (Cancer and Covid-19); stating that there was absolutely nothing to establish even the remotest link between both ailments and the technology.
Senator Akpanudoedehe pointed all to the fact of credible performance of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari on several fronts, but stated that the seeming silence over these, stemmed from the fact that too many ungrateful people and opponents of the government were beneficiaries of the government's good gestures.
He praised President Muhammadu Buhari for his excellent performance in office, and for the caliber of seasoned technocrats and administrators appointed into the government, and called for more robust dissemination of the programmes and policies of the government.
Publisher: Don Martyn L.O Nwosu
Ikeduru APC Media Hub
08032950897
Ikeduruapcmediahub@gmail.com
 AND APC PRESS CORP, HOLDS SECOND EDITION OF APC SCORECARD SERIES ...){kind=link}
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