By Ayo Jones
Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta has emphasised the crucial role of telecom infrastructure to the successful conduct of the 2023 elections.
Danbatta who was special guest at the 6th Edition of the Annual Conference of Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) in Lagos recently, stressed the need to ensure the fidelity of the transmission systems to enhance the credibility of election data.
“If telecom infrastructure is vandalised or damaged, it would create problem in the area of the data transmission during election; citizens will find it difficult to use their phones to seamlessly communicate and the journalists too might find it difficult in being able to access their web platforms to disseminate necessary information which members of the public require to make informed decisions at every point in time,” he said.
Danbatta noted with regret that the telecoms sector has continued to face destabilising situations arising from negative attitudes and actions of hostile communities particularly on incidents such as the theft of diesel, batteries, and power generators from telecom base stations; digging up and cutting of fibre optic cables by construction workers; indiscriminate sealing/locking-up of Base Transceiver Station (BTS) sites by state governments, other governmental and community stakeholders; as well as other disruptive activities.