By Clifford Agugoesi, Editor-in-chief
Management of telecommunications sector regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC), ever determined to ensure the agency retains the captain’s hand band, among its peers, in the telecommunications regulatory space in Africa, and sustain this position going forward, rallied its media partners to a virtual interactive session on August 12, 2020. That event would not be the first time the telecoms umpire would organize such an event, but it was the first to happen since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, that has literarily turned the world upside down and dealt a heavy blow to many a life and livelihoods!
To underscore the importance the NCC attached to the event, the Public Affairs Department,(PAD) now under the watch of the immediate past Administrator of Nigeria’s foremost digital capacity building institution and subsidiary of the NCC, the Digital Bridge Institute(DBI), Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, kept sending emails and reminders through other media. The pre event mobilization, from the perspective of the Commission, was diligent while the response from the media, was faithful.
I believe the major point the chief regulator at the NCC wanted properly communicated is that the Commission wants to be perceived as the foremost telecommunications regulator in Africa and to underscore unequivocally that the media are critical to this perception building matrix. I can testify that this was intelligently communicated to the media. Kudos to Adinde and his gang at the DPA.
Dr. Adinde’s marketing prowess came to the fore as he masterfully amplified ‘oga’s voice’ while retaining his. You wouldn’t begrudge him on this. “My job and that of my colleagues in the Public Affairs Department,” he began, “is to protect and defend the NCC brand and we can’t do this without the press,”said.
Having established the Commission’s overall strategy of ‘competing with itself’, another way of saying, though the Commission is visible and active, the managers are not relenting in their efforts, as the only biggest room in the world remains that of improvement on real or perceived achievements, Adinde coursed further by stating that the Commission’s culture of continuous improvement, evolution and redefinition was underway, saying at no time had increased publicity and focus on the activities of the NCC become more dire than under the COVID-19 era. He was dead right, hence the particular emphasis on online media.
I took particular attention to the communication from the DPA at the NCC that the Commission needed publicity on its activated 112 Emergency Telephone Number, the DND 2442 and wider dissemination of key initiatives of the NCC.’ Why?
Follow me to the Commission’s website: www.ncc.gov.ng: “The ECC Project is intended to bridge the communication gap between the distressed and emergency response agencies in the country. The Nigerian Communications Commission has undertaken the task of facilitating the building and equipping Emergency Communications Centres in all 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“All telecom operators will be mandated to route emergency calls through the dedicated three-digit toll free number, 112, from each state to the emergency centre within that state. The operators, who are resident in the ECC will then process the distress call and contact the relevant Emergency Response Agency (namely Fire Service, Police, FRSC, Ambulance, et cetera.) whose primary duty is to handle the case.”
Numerous centres have been built and provided with equipment across the nation in all six geopolitical zones.
Other
consumer-centric interventions from the Commission are the 622
Toll-Free Number for escalating unresolved complaints or complaints
that were not satisfactorily resolved by service providers and the
Do-Not-Disturb (DND) 2442 Short Code to manage the challenges with
unsolicited text messages.
I suppose the emphasis on these code
numbers and communicating their importance to people from all walks
of life efficiently and effectively, gels with the pride of place to
which the regulator holds the consumer, that is presumed to be the
king of the telecoms value chain. Prof Danbatta had earlier
reaffirmed that the Commission’s primary purpose for being was to
defend the telecoms consumer.
And, bang! Adinde dropped what, in my view, was the greatest thing he wished to happen immediately and in the future and expected the media to champion namely for the media to bring their reportage to the rural areas. Adinde was right that reportage in the telecoms space… was skewed in favour of the urban areas. However, I can defend my constituency on this obvious reportorial imbalance between the urban and rural areas. We in the Fourth Estate of the Realm, do not loathe reporting the rural areas, but there are mainly social, political and economic reasons why Adinde’s wish has not started happening at the rate and scale that would spell adequate inclusion in reportage and, by way of agenda setting, are better discussed in future fora of this nature, whether carried out online, offline or both.
The availability of NCC Public Affairs Liaison Offices and Zones are primed to facilitate knowledge-sharing and information dissemination between the NCC and the Media. I can confidently say that with the kind of miscibility and chemistry between and among the staff of the DPA and their colleagues in other departments, on the one hand and the affinity between the Commission and the media, on the other hand, the NCC would continue to command a pride of place among its sub-regional, regional and global peers. Send reactions to: cliffordagugoesi@gmail.com, editor-in-chief@cyberera.com.ng
