Whose Ministry Is It, Anyway?

After what may have appeared like a consistent and persistent campaign, stakeholders can beat their chests and clink glasses – with one voice, hopefully, that finally, they have got a ministry for their sector. It can be called a ministry that arose out of the clamour for it – by those who wished that it should exist.

In what might appear to some not so closed to the President Goodluck Jonathan’s Kitchen Cabinet, as a reversal of a strong policy thrust of President Olusegun Obasanjo, the former broke into two, what the latter had joined into one. This was the severing of communications from the until-recently Ministry of Information and Communications.

In one spell, one can say what President Obasanjo put together, President Jonathan has put ‘asunder’; only that this sundering is meant to be for the good of the citizenry. Yes; President Obasanjo put together the former ministries of information, and communications, to form the Ministry of Information and Communications. Now, however, President Jonathan has broken that back into two – with a difference, though. And it is in this difference that our interest lies – going forward.

For, whereas the former ministry of communications looked purely at the communications component as it affected the country, the new ministry – the Ministry of Communication Technology – has a much more expanded mandate; or so we are told. In this ministry, stakeholders who had – rightly – advocated for a ministry to look into ICT affairs, can now heave a sigh of relief. Those prayers are answered. Whether it is software, hardware, pure communications issues, in short, the whole gamut of Information and Communications Technology; all interests are now gathered under one roof or umbrella.

It was indeed a source of relief when it became clarified that the Nigerian Communications Commission, which has traditionally always been under the ministry of communications, as well as the Nigerian Postal Service, and sister agencies of government, the Nigerian Communications Satellite, National Information Technology Development Agency and Galaxy Backbone, the last three which have been under the ministry of Science and Technology, now fall under the Ministry of Communication Technology.

For those who had craved for this, the day finally came. The word convergence seems to make meaning. Although some are still of the opinion that the National Broadcasting Commission, being a regulator of the broadcast industry, should also have been pulled into the new ministry, perhaps that is discussion for another day. For, the critical nature of the Ministry of Information in the dissemination of government policy is such that the NBC may yet stay the way it is.

However, government must streamline the issues of frequency allocation so as to remove the challenges that radio stations and service providers whose services may overlap will have to face – getting licences from the NBC and frequency from the NCC; and vice-versa.

So, well, now that the Ministry of Communication Technology has been created, and all worries by stakeholders particularly in the ICT community, have been taken away, the question naturally pops up: so, whose ministry is it, anyway?

The truth is that now the challenge is or should be more on the stakeholders who clamoured for the ministry. Are they going to be like those who clamour for the creation of a state for them, only for them to abandon the state to looters and saboteurs simply because they will not partake in the activities – social, political, economic, etc – of such a state, to see to its growth? Or are they going to get knee dip into the affairs of the ministry, thereby help to contribute towards giving it a direction?

Whose ministry is it anyway, should be the question that should ring in everyone stakeholder’s ear and it should be heard from each of their mouths; this way, the ringing will be a constant reminder – that they owe it to themselves and to generations to come, that in their time, they asked for a an all purpose vehicle ministry for ICT; and, their prayers were granted. But that is not all. That after their prayers were granted, this and that were the contributions they made towards strengthening the ministry and this is the direction they provided – hence the huge results that would tomorrow be the outcome.

Interestingly, government has picked – like it did with the sister Minister of Information – an industry expert, not necessarily an IT company CEO; but an expert, an engineer with skill and over two decades cognate national and international hands-on experience, as minister. This should ring yet another bell: that this government means business – with this and other ministries.

Whereas some of the previous minister of the then ministry of communications or ministry of Information and Communications might have been politicians, there were some who performed their duties beyond the normal call of duty. One remembers with nostalgic feeling, the gentleman politician, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, as Communications Minister. You could easily have asked that he should be made to run that ministry for as long as it existed. It was the understanding, support and commitment he showed while working with the NCC, that helped to strength, give direction and support for the telecom revolution as we know it today. After him, the rest just passed through; the ministry never had a feeling of a minister being there. Or, if it did, it was for the wrong reasons.

So, while we were still basking in the eurphoria that a core industry person, Hon. Labaran Maku, was appointed Minister of Information and Communications, a position he assumed again shortly in the new administry holding it during President Jonathan’s first part-tenure, it is quite a good feeling that besides appointing Mr. Maku again, as Information Minister, the government has appointed Mrs. Omobola Johnson, an engineer, as Communication Technology Minister.

Again, the question: so, whose ministry is it, anyway? Certainly it is not Madam Minister’s ministry alone. For one who has shown openness to engage the industry, to listen, to learn, to tap from the human resource that Nigeria is so well endowed with, to reach out and work with the industry, I think that each stakeholder should see the challenge and answer this question in silent soliloquy: it is my ministry, after all.

That is, we should not be short with suggestions; for, as a new ministry, suggestions will be needed in their millions. We should not fold our hands and expect the minister alone, to have all the answers to the problems of the ministry.

A visit to the ministry, just two weeks after her appointment and, I found myself sitting in front of the minister – without an appointment.  That made an impression. But that was not the important part. The discussion did not take more than 10 minutes; and, it was clear to me that this one is a technocrat – with hands on knowledge; but more than that, one who was ready to be practical. It is not for this minister the politics of the office; but the delivery of the office. I saw it just in those 10 minutes; and, I was thankful that President Jonathan made this choice.

I was still thinking how I would convince myself that my conclusion was not hasty. Then, a formal invitation that the minister wanted to meet the media – in Lagos – came. And, on the appointed day, whoever listened to Madam Minister Johnson will bear testimony: that if only the industry will take the Ministry of Communication Technology as their ministry, and this minister is more than ready to work and deliver those benefits that we have all clamoured for – the clamour that brought about this ministry.