By CHIMA AKWAJA
Abuja (Precise Post) – The executive vice chairman, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta has said that Nigeria must leverage and appropriately deploy telecoms and ICT resources in the fight against insurgency and to contain other emergencies.
He affirmed that empirical knowledge of what ICTs can do in tackling numerous challenges explained Commission’s insistence on compliance by all stakeholders to the guidelines governing SIM registration, and why NCC had been upbeat in getting the Emergency Communication Centres (ECC) ready all over the country as directed by the federal government.
Prof. Danbatta stated this at the weekend in Abuja at the NCC Headquarters during the induction of the Commission to the membership of Forum of Spokespersons of Security and Response Agencies (FOSSRA).
Danbatta recalled the collaboration between NCC and the security and other emergency response agencies especially at the ECCs and suggest that many of the multi-faceted challenges can be addressed with scaling up the degree of deployment of electronic strategies.
To underscore the imperative of electronic and digital communication systems in managing the nation’s security challenges, Danbatta stated that “As we are addressing the situation in one part of the country, you find escalation in another part of the country.”
Danbatta gave example of the 112 Emergency Communication Numbers, which are routed to the ECCs, as “a practical implementation of a security system that is bringing succour to citizens in distress.”
The telecom regulator added that he was gratified that there is an increasing “interface between citizens who are in distressed security situation and virtually all security and other emergency response agencies connected to it.”
He informed the audience that the centres are well-equipped to address the purpose for which they were established. He said 18 of the Centres, which are located in state capitals, have been completed and he assured that with support of the Federal Government “we are not going to stop.
