By Cyber Era Correspondent
Jim Collins, one of the world’s most influential management researchers and commentators, calls them the “right people.” Jack Welch, arguably the most successful CEO of the twentieth century, says they’re “stars,” while famed author and professor Peter Drucker, pictures them as “masterful conductors.” These experts are describing the people who truly determine whether an organization thrives or fails. This is how the author of What All Great Leaders Have Executive Intelligence.
To many analysts and watchers of the Nigerian ICT industry in general and the telecommunications sub sector in particular, the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer(EVC/CEO) of the Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, who was recently reaappointed in his position by Nigerian Leader on the recommendation of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Ali Isa Ibrahim Pantami, is not only himself one who possesses a high degree of executive intelligence to take the Commission to greater heights, but one on whose shoulders, consolidating the grooming of generations of successors rested, pursuant to the succession plan template he inherited on assumption of office in 2015.
It is within this context that his recent move of redeploying four members of his management team, is seen, for contrary to speculations and conspiracy theories flying around the move is punitive, even those affected by the reshuffle see it as a normal administrative procedure. “It is okay. Normal Public Service assignment requires that one can be moved from one position to another depending on exigencies,” one of the affected officers, who pleaded anonymity, told Cyber Era over WhatsApp weekend.
But, what could this expediency at this time be? Another officer affected by the redeployment, who also chose to remain unnamed, told us in a telephone conversation the same day: “When your organization{Cyber Era} hammered on the implementation of the Oronsaye Report, do you think relevant authorities were not listening? What you’re seeing play out at the NCC is normal and preparatory to the implementation of that report as the Commission is expected to assume the responsibility of a converged regulator.
As you can see, the officers affected are highly experienced and resourceful and still are very relevant, but they are being redeployed to areas now they are adjudged to command comparative advantage over others. Something akin to what you guys in journalism describe as “knowing everything about something and something about everything, qualities that are required in no small measure as the Commission enters a new phase in its regulatory functions.”
The management team members affected by the redemployment, include the Director, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Department, Efosa Idehen; Director, Public Affairs Department, Dr. Henry Nkemadu; Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, and Director, Research and Development (R D) Department, Ephraim Nwokonneya.
Redeployment of the officers took immediate effect, Idehen has now assumed his new position as Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, while Nwokonneya is the Director, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Department. In a similar vein, Adinde is going to be the new face of the Commission’s public relations as the Director, Public Affairs Department(DPA), while Nkemadu has moved to the Research and Development department of the commission, where he was a deputy director before he was promoted and moved to Public Affairs department IN 2019.