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The federal
government on Thursday inaugurated an 18-member technical advisory
committee that will articulate and present Nigeria’s position at all
international Information and Communications Technology fora.
Inaugurating the committee, Stephen Willoughby, permanent secretary of
the ministry of information and communications, stated that Nigeria has
not always made adequate preparations before attending international
events and has been unable to reap maximally the gains of such
meetings.

“At the moment our
preparations have not been at par or been not the best,” he said.” We
go into conferences blank…sometimes we defend common interests of
others or even interests that are partisan to others which
inadvertently we do not know. When we try to defend our interests, we
do not articulate and defend them robustly. We must have strong in
positions which we must present and defend at all regional and national
fora.”

Mr Willoughby said
the ministry places great importance in the committee with the hope
that it will assist in advancing the cause and mandate of the ministry
at international fora on telecommunication and ICT.

Coordinating strategy

The committee, he
said, is a result of the recommendations made by the Nigerian
delegation to the just-concluded International Telecommunication
Union’s Plenipotentiary Conference that took place in Guadalajara,
Mexico last year.

“It was discovered
at the conference that Nigeria had no major position of its own for
presentation to the conference. Instead, the country went to the
conference with only the African Common Position at hand to defend
while some African countries that are not of Nigeria standard, despite
the African Common position, went to the conference with their own
in-house prepared positions, which they presented to the conference and
defended those positions with passion,” he said. “A time has now come
that we as a country need to develop our in-house positions, which we
must present and defend at all regional and international fora. We must
ensure that we prepare adequately within the country before going out
to participate in any of the fora. We have to be seen to be taking our
leadership role now in all affairs of the African continent.”

The committee’s
term of reference included coordinating Nigeria’s strategy and input to
meetings on telecommunications and ICT with a view to optimizing the
benefits of such for a to Nigeria.

They will also consider issues that will arise at such meetings and
advise on Nigeria’s preparations, positions, plans and effective
participation in a manner that influences the outcomes of such fora.