The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, declared Monday that the federal government is already putting in place emergency communications centres across the 36 states of the federation.
This, he said, is geared towards addressing the incessant rate of accidents and spate of insecurity across the country.
This is even as President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, said the National Toll-Free Emergency Bill presently before the National Assembly would establish a channel and put in place a structure to guarantee swift security response to Nigerians in times of emergencies.
They spoke at the public hearing on two bills: “Nigerian Postal Service (Repeal and Establishment) Bill, 2021” and “Nationwide Toll-free Emergency Number (Establishment) Bill, 2021” organised by the Senate Committee on Communications, chaired by Senator Oluremi Tinubu (APC Lagos Central).
Pantami, however, advised that the bill accommodate provisions for the establishment of the National Toll-Free Emergency Board, as against the creation of a separate agency, to be chaired by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.
The minister also commended the National Assembly over moves to unbundle the Nigerian Postal Service.
“What is more commendable in this bill is the fact that the bill plans to unbundle NIPOST by making a regulation to be independent of the operation. This is the global best practice.
“A regulator is not supposed to be the operator because the regulator could compromise.
“If a regulator is a player in the same market that he is regulating, there is a high probability that personal interest will not allow the regulator to regulate the sector effectively.
“So, what is most important in this bill as far as I’m concerned, is the fact that the regulator is going to be an independent body, and that regulator is not an operator.
“That will make the regulator to be very objective in regulation, and I think this is highly commendable to the National Assembly,” Pantami said.
