Public Hearing held Friday by Senate and House of Representatives joint Committee on Information , Communication and Technology ( ICT) , on bill seeking amendments to the extant Act of National Information Technology Development Agency ( NITDA) , was marred by absence of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami and Director General of NITDA , Kashifu Abdullahi.
The Bill, which had earlier been considered by the House of Representatives consecutively passed the first and second readings on the floor of the Senate on December 12 and 13 respectively, following which the public hearing was convened on Friday to take memoranda and inputs from stakeholders including Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), civil society organisations (CSOs) business community and members of the public.
However at the public hearing in Abuja Friday , members of the Joint Committee from House of representatives raised objections to the continuation of the public hearing citing the absence of the Minister and the NITDA DG, non-availability of materials on the Bill and the fact that the event is coming at a time the National Assembly members are already on ‘holiday mood’ as factors why the public hearing should not hold.
The Reps members raised observations that no apology was received either from the Minister or the DG where none of their representatives were also at the public hearing coupled with the observation that the Room seemed not to have enough representations in terms of forming quorum from the Senate and House members of the Joint Committee.
Also , a member of the committee from the Senate , Senator Hassan Ibrahim Hadeija , concurred to the complaints made by members from the House of Representatives .
Consequently , the Chairman of the joint committee, Senator Yakubu Oseni ( APC Kogi Central ) , adjourned the sitting sinedie
Before the adjournment , the Nigerian Communication Commission ( NCC) as one of the invited stakeholders , , had planned to kick against the bill going by its prepared memorandum .
In the memorandum sighted by our reporter , NCC described the bill as important to the Nigerian economy but also controversial on the basis that it arrogates the powers of existing government agencies to NITDA as a agency.
” The Bill seeks to make NITDA a mega regulator of regulators in the country, going by the provisions in the Bill and this has been a subject of controversies among stakeholders”, it posited .
