Lost in Space: Chaos in Nigeria's Telecoms and ICT Policies

The latest attempts by President Yar Adua’s
administration to right the many wrongs of his
predecessor’s chaotic Telecommunications (Telecoms)
and Information Technology (IT) policies failures and
blunders is a welcome development. However, some of
the present government’s supposedly corrective
measures still leave the Telecoms and IT policy arenas
murkier than clearing the fog beclouding them. For
example, the recent directive by the Presidency to all
ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and
institutions to stop buying bandwidths individually
from the competitive markets and the permission given
to the Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd
(NIGCOMSAT Ltd) to provide last mile Telecoms and
Broadband internet retail services are cases in point.


Without prejudice to any of the present government’s
new policy intentions etc, this analysis starts first,
with an examination of the implications of the new
federal government policy directive issued by the
Office of the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (OSGF) which bans all the ministries,
departments, agencies and institutions of the Federal
Government from individually buying internet
bandwidths, the range of radio frequencies used in
telecommunications transmission and reception etc. The
import of this analysis is to avoid the policy debacle
witnessed recently regarding the unveiling of the
“Strategic Agenda for the Naira” by the Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN).

According to the directive as contained in a federal
government Circular quoted by The Guardian Newspaper
(Online edition:
http://www.guardian newsngr.com/ news/article08),[1] one
of the newest federal government’s owned Information
and Communications Technology (ICT) company –the
controversial Galaxy Backbone Plc[2] has been
designated as the sole firm that will henceforth
provide such services like internet connectivity, Wide
Area Networking (WAN) and Database Storage and
Management and equipment, amongst others to the
federal government ministries, departments and
agencies (MDAs) and all other extra-governmental
institutions.

Galaxy Backbone Plc is an ICT firm set up by the
previous federal government under former president
Obasanjo to provide a platform for internet
connectivity and other services for all ministries,
departments and agencies (MDAs) through bulk
bandwidth/space segment purchase agreements. The
company is also responsible for all Wide Area Networks
(WANs) and Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs)
connecting government entities amongst other federal
government’s ICT applications and operations. However,
there are still unanswered questions as to the motives
behind establishing this government-owned company at
the time when government’s own economic and political
policy thrusts were and are still anchored on
privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation of the
national space economy!

Nevertheless, as much as there are some advantages in
this new policy directive on the one hand, the policy
directive on the other hand, is replete with more
serious policy inconsistencies, contradictions
violations of existing statuses and thus creating
chaos to say the least. For example, this directive is
in conflict with a number of statutory Acts and
numerous government White Papers that have since been
gazetted under the existing economic policy and
management regime. Some of these statutory Acts
include such Acts that established the Bureau for
Public Enterprises (BPE), the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), National Information Technology
Development Agency (NITDA), and National Policy for
Information Technology (IT), the National e-Government
Strategies Limited (NeGSt)[3] and the National Policy
on Telecommunications, amongst other extant
liberalisation and deregulation laws, institutions and
agencies that governs Nigeria’s Telecoms and IT
sectors respectively.

Without going into the specific of the relevant
Statutory provisions of these mentioned legislative
Acts and public policy documents, it can seen that
unless the present administration of President Umaru
Musa Yar Adua is considering reversing some of these
mentioned existing legislative Acts, Telecoms and IT
policies, the existence of the following public
entities: Galaxy Backbone Plc, Nigeria Communication
Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT Ltd and the National
e-Government Strategies Limited (NeGSt) as
government-owned enterprises is in direct conflict
with the existing deregulation and liberalisation
policy frameworks of the Nigerian economy in general,
the Telecoms and IT sectors respectively. Moreover,
before we forget, it was the government’s existing
economic policy framework, Telecoms and IT policy
frameworks, which were used to get the government out
of the business of providing direct bulk and retail
Telecommunications and IT services – hence the
government got rid of NITEL and M-Tel by privatising
them. So therefore, why is it that the government is
busy again recreating new government-owned Telecoms
and ICT services companies?

Furthermore, the new directive from the Office of the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, which
also indicated that the Nigeria Communication
Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT Ltd) would be the
preferred provider of satellite bandwidths to all
government agencies, is similarly in direct conflict
with the existing deregulation and liberalisation
policies that place emphasis on opening these sectors
to competitive private sector investments and
ownerships. Therefore, the directive to transfer all
the existing connectivity assets including such
equipment as Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs),
radio equipment and fibre optic links, among others,
within government entities to Galaxy Backbone Plc
should be seen in this light.

Another area of confusing arising from the new federal
government directive is that of designating the
controversial NIGCOMSAT Ltd as the government’s
preferred provider of satellite bandwidths to all MDAs
and institutions. This directive is also in direct
contradiction, and at the same time, in direct
conflict with another present administration’ s
directive which directed the National Space Research
and Development Agency (NASRDA: www.nasrda.org ),[4]
to sit with the management of the BPE with a view to
privatising NIGCOMSAT Ltd. This came about recently as
a dispute settlement policy action against the feuding
between NASRDA/NIGCOMSAT Ltd and the Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC). Therefore, if and
when NIGCOMSAT Ltd is privatised by the BPE, this
directive will confer to it an unfair advantage
against all other private players operating in the
same market.

The new directive also specified that “Galaxy Backbone
would provide live nodes to each public building with
necessary security and firewall infrastructure as a
pre-requisite to the inclusion of such structures in
the National Information and Communication
Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB) network.” Here again,
the government has not informed the public what this
NICTIB is about; where is it located and what are its
functions etc. However, if the NICTIB is also part of
the mandate of Galaxy Backbone Plc, then, it is again,
in contradiction and conflict with the respective
mandates of the following agencies: NIGCOMSAT Ltd,
(NeGSt) and NITDA.[5]

In addition, the new policy directive states that
Galaxy Backbone would also maintain all national
database management systems and transversal
applications. Here again, the Presidency did not
elaborate on what this means. However, if this stated
policy directive means that the federal government is
going to use the Galaxy Backbone Plc to maintain all
national database management systems – whatever this
means, I hasten to warn for caution. There is clear
and present danger with this directive. The
international best practice is to build decentralised
and distributed, but very well, seamlessly
interconnected and well secured system of national
databases and management information systems. This is
to guide against many risks associated with
centralised model of database systems, amongst other
considerations.

Furthermore, assigning this onerous function and
responsibility to Galaxy Backbone Plc, apart from the
logistical, human resources and institutional
capacities nightmares which this will create, it is
also in conflict with the mandates of the following
selected national agencies: National Planning
Commission (NPC) and all sub-agencies under its
jurisdiction, National Population Commission (NPC),
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Abuja
Geographical Information System (AGIS), and many
government MDAs and institutions that are statutory
required to collect, store, process and retrieve data
and information.

In addition to the conflicts of mandates existing
among the various agencies of government identified
above, the government is yet to resolve the existing
conflicts in the mandates of the ministry of science
and technology and the ministry of information and
communications and the respective parastatals
operating under them regarding telecoms and IT
policies. For example, the recent conflict between
NASRDA/NIGCOMSAT Ltd and the NCC would have been
unnecessary assuming there was a clear-cut government
policy on whether the two respective ministries and
the agencies under them can each provide Telecoms and
IT services at various layers/levels of the Telecoms
and IT markets.

There is also another unresolved conflict between the
Act setting up the National Information Technology
Development Agency (NITDA) as a regulatory and
clearing house for ICT-related applications and
mandating it to implement related national IT policy
as well as making it the custodian of the nation's
internet Top Level Domain (.ng) and the Act setting up
the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) - the
nation’s Telecoms and as well as ICT regulator. The
existing Acts setting up these two vital ICT and
Telecoms development and regulatory agencies allow
each body to regulate Telecoms and ICT-related
activities in the country. For example, in addition to
the development of ICT products and services, the
NITDA Act also mandates it to be active in the
promotion of cyber specific laws to ensure security in
the use of email and other operations originating from
electronic or Internet-related facilities, Cyber
cafes, ISPs or personal mobile or fixed telephones,
etc. Similarly, the NCC also license and regulates
internet services; including internet Cyber cafes and
related businesses.

The wider implication of the new federal government
directive in addition to the resolution of the
NIGCOMSAT Ltd’ licensing debacle with the NCC is that
the government is reverting back to the pre-1999
national policies on Telecoms and reversing some the
policies put in place to nurture the development of
Global System of Mobile (GSM) Telecoms and ICT in the
last past eighty years or so. This may not auger well
for these sectors and the national economy.

To summarise the above analysis therefore, the
following government agencies located in two strategic
ministries are found clashing and or duplicating
efforts either in jurisdictional implementation of
Telecoms and IT policies on the one hand or working at
cross-purposes with one another on other hand. The
agencies are summarised as follows: 1. The
National Space Research and Development Agency
(NASRDA: www.nasrda.org/ ) - Owners of the Nigeria
Communication Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT Ltd), under
the federal ministry of Science and Technology;2.
The Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited
(NIGCOMSAT Ltd);3. The National Information
Technology Development Agency (NITDA:
www.nitda.gov. ng/) - Under the federal ministry of
Science and Technology;4. Galaxy Backbone Plc
(I don’t know its parent ministry);5. The
National e-Government Strategies Limited (NeGSt) – I
don’t know its parent ministry;6. The Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC: www.ncc.gov. ng/)-
Under the federal ministry of Information and
Communications and7. The National Information
and Communication Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB) – I
don’t know its parent ministry.

These government agencies, Telecoms and IT
infrastructural set up are the key players in the
public domain of Nigeria’s Telecoms and IT sectors. As
a result of the seeming almost seamless convergence of
the digital Telecoms, ICT, Television Transmission and
Radio Broadcasting, aided by advances in Science and
Digital Engineering Technologies, the prevailing
government policies and regulatory agencies tend to
clash, get duplicated and or work at cross purposes
terms of services provided, market structure etc.
Therefore, the statutory functions of existing
Ministries and structures set up by government that
are involved with policy making, regulation and
implementation of government policies in these vital
sectors need to be re-examined with a view to
streamline them for effective governance of the
sectors.

Given the recent happenings in these sectors, the most
important thing for the government is to find out what
to do in order to address these policy inconsistencies
and contradiction emanating from the recent attempt by
the government to right the wrongs/policy failures in
the Telecoms and IT policy arenas. There is therefore
the need for the government and the stakeholders to
come up with the necessary policy, institutional and
structural frameworks and arrangements, that will
result in a more streamlined, efficient and harmonised
performance of the ministries and organisations that
are involved in policy-making, regulation and
implementation of government policies in the
Telecommunications and ICT sectors of the Nigerian
economy.