On September 26, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari named DR. ISA ALI IBRAHIM PANTAMI as substantive Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), thereby taking over from Dr. Vincent Olatunji, who had been acting from January 21 when erstwhile D-G, Mr. Peter Jack was suspended and later sacked. In this interview, DR. PANTAMI spoke with Editor-in-Chief of IT & Telecom Digest, MKPE ABANG on his priorities and focus for NITDA and the IT industry in Nigeria. Excerpts:
Question: As Director-General of NITDA, what are your priorities for the Nigerian ICT industry?
My priorities for ICT, or the IT industry in Nigeria are, number one Regulation; to make sure that the private and public sectors are well regulated when it comes to IT deployment, maintenance and many more. Two, I want to use my time to promote local content, in terms of quality; if you develop the quality then you can look at how to develop the quantity and how to enforce the relevant laws we have in support of local content. I want a situation whereby I believe that the quality is standard so that we can compel and enforce the relevant laws that we have at our disposal to make sure that local content is well patronised. Number three, knowing our economic challenges; I think it is very important to create digital job opportunities, to complement other sectors. Number four, we need capacity building; capacity building not only sponsoring PhD or MSc candidates and so on; sometimes through certification, so that people can be self-reliant; well-placed certificates that they can go anywhere and work; and through that they can get good technical skills on how to manage, create IT facilities and many more. These are some of the things I am working on.
In addition, cybersecurity; it’s very important on my priority list, knowing our vulnerability in Nigeria and lack of awareness; and knowing that the NITDA Act encourages or compels us to support national security through IT. So, I think it is very important in our mandate, that we should try and enhance national security through IT. And I think as we are talking cybersecurity, we are talking about computer security and IT security which is our primary mandate as well. In addition to that as part of the things I am promoting as top of my priority is e-government development. Up till now we have many challenges when it comes to e-government in Nigeria. However there are things that are related to us; there are some that are not within our scope. Whenever you are talking about e-government you should do what I call ‘Glocal’: think globally and act locally. If you think globally you can see how nations are developing and advancing in terms of ICT and are adopting e-government. But here, there are other challenges outside the scope of our mandate, like electricity supply; if there is no power supply you can hardly deploy IT for e-government and ask people to patronise you. So we can do our best to make sure we come out with standards, guidelines, frameworks and even regulation on adopting e-government or e-governance as the case may be for all our MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) and other relevant bodies. And this is very important. However, we are not operators; but we are to guide, intervene and to provide standards and regulate; and we are to give advisory services to all of them. So these are some critical areas that I feel are very important and I focus more on them.
Policy is usually not a problem in Nigeria, but implementation. How do you see yourself implementing all these policies, and what are the challenges you already foresee as you go along in implementing them?
For me, I know the problem is not about the law, but about the implementation. But if the headmaster is serious and is willing to go to any extent to make sure that laws are enforced, for sure there will be no exit; people must comply, people must comply as this is very necessary. When I came on board I realised that people had not been complying with our mandate of seeking clearance before they deploy IT gadgets. I sent letters to all the MDAs notifying them, that even bridging our Act is a punishable offence; one can be jailed for one year on the first instance, the second one can be jailed for even three years. So when they (MDAs) saw the letter, most of them are now complying; because if you don’t want to go to jail, then you must comply, otherwise this will be the next action to be taken against you. So we are here for our job and we want to make sure that we do it diligently and justly; because of this, whatever we know is a law, it must be obeyed and followed and there is no compromise. And now they are complying. There are many letters I have here at my disposal, from the relevant agencies, seeking for clearance; because NITDA is the clearing house for IT projects in Nigeria. Before any MDA deploys IT, they must seek clearance from NITDA; that is what the law says. And now we sent all the relevant documents to them and they are complying. And, we are monitoring those who fail to comply; and, if we trace them, then for sure you know what will happen. As a journalist that you are, I don’t need to tell you what I will do now; whenever I trace them, you will get the information.
The IT industry in India is one of the biggest in the world; Nigeria also has a very large population. Do you think the IT industry in Nigeria can actually replace oil as main revenue earner for the country?
I have strong belief in that. I have a very strong belief that ICT can replace oil (as main revenue earner) 100 per cent in Nigeria. However, it is not something that one person can do; there is need for synergy; there are relevant MDAs that need to be supported, that need to collaborate to deliver that. If you look at India now, they are generating around $143 billion annually from ICT; $143 billion! It’s huge amount of money. If we can get this in our budget in Nigeria, for sure the country will immediately change. So, there is need for synergy. Two, government needs to support us, because the amount we are generating through our 1% (Technology Development) levy is not sufficient. And our Act states that government can support and provide revenue for us. Now we are not getting anything from government directly; we’re only receiving from the tax of 1% levy of profit of some selected companies. That is how we fund all our activities. With the economic challenges the fund is insufficient. And for the first time, we have very serious deficit. However, that will not be an excuse for us to sit down and wait; we are working to see how we can use the minimum and meagre amount to achieve a lot; and we will continue doing this. And I believe that government is willing to support us; and we are waiting for their support in cash as it has been in kind in order to progress.
One of the key areas you are obviously focusing is discovering local talent, especially start-ups. What is driving this approach?
Actually it is very important; because you know any idea begins with one person. The wisdom behind identifying our young talents – we believe that they are very important to the nation and if we identify them and support them accordingly they could be the source of pride for our nation, and their ideas could generate revenue for our country. This is why we are sponsoring them to events like GITEX; those that have been sponsored previously, some IT companies in India, at least took the responsibility of producing their own innovations, which by implication there must be an agreement where the young innovators will benefit from it, and we do hope that by implication government through NITDA will also benefit from it. That is what we have been doing. And we identified that other countries have even been coming to Nigeria silently to identify young talents and take them away and just make local agreements and give them meagre amount of money to make it public or rather incubate it. In fact three months to my appointment, I heard that some people came from Silicon Valley and they met some of our young innovators trying to buy some of their ideas with meagre amounts. But when I came on board, I said government must be involved, so that our young innovators will not in any way be victimised or be wronged through their actions. So that is why I said that government must intervene to make sure that things are done rightly and justly.
Outside of funding what are the other challenges you see that could prevent you from delivering on your mandate as you wish?
Most of the issues are distractions. One, if I am to elaborate, I can say before I came on board people looked at NITDA more of a contract-awarding agency instead of being an IT-driven agency; they felt like it is a place where contracts are being awarded for the sake of awarding. I have no objection in awarding contracts; but one, it must be within the scope of our mandate; two, the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians will not be compromised because of the interest of one person; that interest will not be compromised. You have no problem to come and benefit from NITDA; but make sure it is within our core mandate, allow me to be on track, so that you can meet me there. But if you allow people to come with only their proposals as contractors – every day you will see 50 to 100 such proposals – they will not allow you to be on track; some do not even understand your mandate, they have never read it, but they will send their proposal. So, I said no; take it back, I don’t have a problem, let me come out with my strategic plan, go through it, see where you will come in; and if you want to come in, make sure your priority is not your pocket, but Nigeria and Nigerians; your pocket should be secondary or tertiary. Whenever I discover your primary aim is your pocket, and you don’t have Nigeria in your dictionary then for sure you will not find it easy with me. But if your country is first, anything you have as personal is secondary; I have no problem with that.
You belong to the academia before this appointment; so, when you were appointed, what was your initial reaction?
Actually you know in the academia, we have this pride of feeling that whatever you become is from us, (because) we taught you. You can be what you are, no one can be whatever they are, even you a journalist, without going through the academia. So we believe that any position you occupy as a civil servant here for sure, you have come through the academia; and you met us on campus and we produced you. This is the mentality. I know that I have no monopoly of knowledge and wisdom; but I know that knowing my position as an academic, two, my passion for knowledge and IT, I will humble myself and learn from the people that are working under me.
When one day you leave this agency what will you like to leave behind as your legacy to be remembered for?
My legacy is to make sure that NITDA is on its track, as an IT driven agency, knowledge-driven agency; not administrative agency and at the same time not contract-awarding agency where contracts are awarded for the sake of contracts but for the sake of promoting IT, to promote our country to be IT-driven nation; that is what I want to be recognised and remembered for. However, if you ask me about my staff, I want to bring sanity to the system, to make sure it is somebody who comes and supports professionalism, integrity and commitment to duty; as long as you have this professionalism, you have integrity to deliver and you are committed to it, I will make sure that I will give you the ability to do it. I will not marginalise anyone because of anything. But what can only promote you is your professionalism, your integrity and your commitment to your assignment. If you can do these, your D-G is with you 100 per cent. But if you fail me there, then you have failed the nation and for sure, you will be in my black book.