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A month after the
exit of both the chairman and chief executive of the Nigerian
Communication Chairman (NCC), there has been no board meeting as only
the chairman is authorised to call board meetings. This has prevented
the commission in discharging its functions.

An official of the
NCC who spoke under anonymity as he is not authorised to comment on the
matter said, “Based on the Nigerian Communications Act of 2003, a
chairman can summon a meeting on his own or if notice is given to him
by at least four members demanding for a meeting.” The official added
that there was no provision for any other person to call for board
meeting.

The tenure of the
last executive chairman, Ernest Ndukwe, ended on April 2 while the
chairman, Ahmed Joda, also retired at the same time; just as another
board member, Patrick Kentebe, left. The federal government has not
appointed anybody to fill the vacant positions. But Stephen Bello, the
executive commissioner for licensing and consumer affairs, has been
acting as the chief executive.

Kenneth Ugbechie,
secretary, Africa Telecoms Development Initiative, a pan-African
non-governmental organisation committed to the development of telecoms
in the continent, said in a telephone interview: “The internal
operation in the NCC as a body has been slowed down because it is
difficult for the acting executive vice chairman to be definitive when
taking decisions. Mr. Bello is acting executive vice chairman without
the full complement of a board, so there are certain decisions he
cannot take now because those direction might be upturned by the
incoming executive vice chairman. So, instead of making a decision that
would be upturned, he may have to shelve that decision and I think that
is not good enough for the telecom sector.

“What the
presidency has done by changing the headship without a substantive vice
chairman is to create a state of anomie. In the state of anomie
anything is possible, there is confusion, and laxity. For the sake of
the sector, I think it is time for President Goodluck Jonathan to do
something,” he said.