Afrigather 
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economic system, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has suffered greater than a justifiable share of abuses from ignorant of us for no different purpose apart from his willpower to depart the digital house in Nigeria much better than he met it.
Since his foray into public service underneath this administration, Pantami has little doubt exceeded expectations by constantly working around the clock to provide you with progressive concepts to increase the digital house to accommodate extra younger Nigerians who would have been left jobless.
In higher climes, individuals like Pantami are known as and handled as nationwide treasures. They’re serenaded with awards and commendations for his or her dedication to the frequent good. The Minister has nonetheless been the butt of tasteless jokes on social media by the identical lazy youths he’s working day and night time to make their lives higher.
Professor Pantami has not too long ago develop into the sufferer of mercenary writers and paid social media influencers over the extensively held false impression that the NITDA Invoice 2021 is his concept and his intention is to pocket the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) and take away its regulatory perform.
It might be recalled that the Nationwide Meeting referred to as for a public listening to of ICT Stakeholders on the Nationwide Info Expertise Growth Company (NITDA) Modification Invoice, which was later placed on maintain as a result of a quorum was not shaped. Afterwards, coordinated assaults have been unleashed on the Minister over the provisions of the Invoice which clearly intention to repeal previous legal guidelines which don’t empower NITDA to take care of sure developments within the trendy digital period.
It’s straightforward to decipher the sources of the assaults and their malicious and damaging intent. Utilizing the duvet of NITDA Invoice 2021 to launch the pointless assaults on the Minister, the assault canines attempt to fake to defend the NCC as a part of the phantom superiority conflict between the NCC and the Ministry.
Sadly, whereas their actions would possibly create an impression that they have been sponsored by the Chief Government Officer of NCC, Professor Umar Garba Dambatta, easy background checks present clues to their relations with the company.
I can vouch for the integrity of Prof Dambatta, who I strongly consider would by no means stoop so low and provides in to the antics of overzealous retailers and mischief makers. Danbatta is a revered, jovial and unassuming persona who has contributed immensely to the telecommunication sector similar to Kashifu Inuwa of NITDA in Info Expertise underneath the supervision of the identical Minister!
As a targeted public officer, Dambatta is not going to even harm a fly not to mention assign individuals to assault his supervising minister. It’s most unlucky that the identify of his Fee is getting used to create dangerous blood between the businesses.
Probably the most scornful and irrational assaults argued that Pantami seeks to curtail the liberty of Nigerians by means of this invoice and in line with the author: “Earlier than he leaves, Pantami seeks to provide Nigerians a invoice to curtail their freedoms and at last put the ICT trade underneath his grip and pocket.” Think about essentially the most puerile pondering of a author!
I discover it personally perplexing that Pantami’s sterling efficiency as Minister doesn’t irk the conscience of the traducers sufficient to immunise him from their venom. So long as his imaginative and prescient of a digital economic system for the nation threatens their very own egocentric pursuits, all they want is to see him underneath the bus.
Since changing into minister, the cybersecurity Professor has selflessly devoted himself to offering an enabling surroundings for creativity and innovation to thrive in an alternate economic system from the oil-based to a digitally pushed one. That is no imply feat which Pantami has achieved in nearly 4 years. No Nigerian Ministry has ever achieved such accelerated reform since Independence and I stand to be corrected! ICT is now the quickest rising non-oil sector as newest information from the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveals that its contribution to the Nigerian economic system grew by 18.44 p.c in 2022.
Based on the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics,NBS, the Digital Economic system sector continued its contribution trajectory within the quarter underneath evaluate by enjoying a key half within the progress on Nigeria’s economic system.
That is the very best contribution of ICT to the GDP and is truland marks the third time that the sector has achieved an unprecedented contribution to Nigeria’s GDP in the course of the tenure of the Minister- in Q1 2020, Q2 2021 and now Q2 2022.
Compared, the oil sector – Nigeria’s financial mainstay contributed 6.33% to the overall actual GDP in Q2 2022, which was decrease that the contribution in Q2 ‘2021 and Q1 ‘2022, the place it contributed 7.42% and 6.63% respectively.
Below the supervision of Professor Pantami as a minister, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Nigeria Startup Invoice into regulation a lot to the delight of trade stakeholders. The brand new act, which seeks to offer an enabling surroundings for technology-enabled companies in Nigeria, has been described as a game-changer for the burgeoning startup ecosystem within the nation.
Equally, Pantami ensured the institution of the Nationwide Heart for Synthetic Intelligence and Robotics, NCAIR by means of certainly one of its company, the Nationwide Info Expertise Growth Company (NITDA) .
NCAIR will foster the event of rising applied sciences in making ready Nigeria for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Additionally, the Nigeria Information Safety Bureau, NDPB was established following the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari after a request made by the Minister.
NDPB was established in keeping with international greatest apply and can deal with information safety and privateness for the nation, amongst others.
The Minister signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of Nigeria at the same time as he introduced partnership with House Exploration Applied sciences (SpaceX) to offer broadband entry throughout the entire of Nigeria.
As a part of the partnership, “House X is to offer broadband entry throughout the entire of Nigeria, enabling nation-wide entry to broadband connectivity manner forward of the December 2025 schedule, as outlined in our Nationwide Broadband Plan. With this collaboration with SpaceX’s Starlink, Nigeria is about to be the first African nation to introduce the service.
Below the supervision of the minister, NITDA, partnered with quite a few international tech giants like Google, Coursera, Domenium Blockchain Applied sciences amongst others to coach thousands and thousands of Nigerian Residents on digital expertise and rising applied sciences which in flip creates thousands and thousands of jobs for unemployed graduates.
These are the few of the numerous achievements of the Minister. So, it’s unfair to accuse a person who desires to place Nigeria to faucet into the about $24trn ICT market of attempting to ‘curtail your freedom,” what freedom precisely?
Pantami doesn’t must hassle concerning the antics of sadists and cynics. All he has to do is to maintain up the nice work he’s doing and posterity will vindicate him.
Zeenat Sambo, a co-author of a guide on digital economic system, is a workers author with Tech Digest, Abuja.
