Emma Okonji
As criticisms continue to trail the non-inclusion of nominees of the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) in the list of the newly inaugurated board members of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the agency has explained that the omission of CPN nominees was as a result of the mixup in submission of names.
The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, had penultimate week, inaugurated a team of 16 board members that will drive the affairs of NITDA. The four representatives from CPN, who were supposed to be part of NITDA Board in line with the NITDA Act, were not included in the board list, even though they were physically present during the inauguration, which took place recently in Abuja.
The development has attracted criticisms from stakeholders in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, who stated that the NITDA did not handle the entire process with the utmost national interest.
The stakeholders argued that the NITDA Act stipulates that in the selection of Board members, CPN should forward four representatives for consideration, but expressed surprise that the minister in collaboration with NITDA decided to sideline CPN in the inauguration.
Explaining the reason for the omission of CPN nominees, the Director, E-Government Development and Regulation at NITDA, Dr. Vincent Olatunji told THISDAY that the omission of CPN nominees was as a result of a mixup in the submission of names. He stated that the CPN has been directed to rectify the list of its nominees, and resend same to the minister. According to Olatunji, as soon as the list is rectified and sent, the CPN members would be inaugurated into the NITDA Board.
Unsatisfied with NIDTA explanation, the stakeholders said NITDA erred in the selection process for the inauguration of board members, having disregarded the CPN list.
According to the stakeholders, the Ministry of Communications, which supervises NITDA, NIPOST, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Galaxy Backbone, and Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), had called for the submission of CPN list, which CPN submitted promptly. They further said the ministry later asked individual groups like the CPN, Information Technology Industry Association (ITAN), who are representatives of CPN, to send their names for the inauguration, a situation, they said, made the ministry to have two different set of list from CPN nominees.
THISDAY however gathered that NITDA was not comfortable with the initial list sent by CPN, and had queried its composition, a situation that made the ministry to demand another list from the individual groups that made up CPN. They have therefore called on Shittu to reconsider the initial list of CPN and inaugurate its members as soon as possible.
The newly inaugurated 16 members of the Board of NITDA, include Prof. Adeolu Akande as Chairman of the Board, and Director General of NITDA, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami as its Secretary, with 14 other members, which supposed to include the four nominees from CPN.
