According to Branden Beban, Ireland will put a shillelagh into
orbit, Israel will put a matzo ball into orbit and Lichtenstein
will put a postage stamp into orbit before the Canadians will
ever put up a mouse. If am to extrapolate and paraphrase this
summation, Nigeria, through the unprecedented instrumen
tality of the helmsman of the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, will exponentially re-
engineer broadband into orbit ahead of any other African
nation. This declaration is not within the threshold of our af
fective continental leadership, but the service quintessence of
this taciturn engineer.
It is beyond contention that this man has broken with the past
in the revolution of the regulatory and supervisory paradigms
of the telecommunications expansive space in our country. He
has made the function seem as if it had never existed because
of the optimality that has redefined the entire informational
ecology vis-Ã -vis the telephonic wand of it. The appositeness
of his appointment to the headship of this critical agency of
government has confirmed that it is not only in the organized
private sector that you have men of distinction, commitment
and passion for national service and institutional regeneration
that may be unrivalled years after he had quit with aplomb
and in a blaze of glory, all testamentary to a life of robust
accomplishments and a profundity of inimitabilities.
The latest bestowal of award on January 17, 2015, by The
Sun Publishing Limited on this taciturn and diligent engineer
is testimonious of a life of distinction that is nationally and
globally acknowledged by individuals, professional
associations, sectoral groups and responsible corporate
citizens. The changes Juwah has wrought in Nigeria’s burgeon
ing telecommunications industry are such that this recognition
and others under way will no longer astound any fellow who
has a measure of familiarity with the mechanics and dynamics
of the information superhighway.
My deep appreciation of today’s subject is informed by my
stint at Globacom Limited as a Public Relations Manager who
by virtue of inter-departmental interactions with colleagues
got exposed to the intricacies of the business and how pivotal
the NCC is to the chemistry of communication on these
shores. I went away with the knowledge that a weak
regulatory leadership could have the potential of undermining
the tremendous investments in this sphere of life. With the
NCC under the astute leadership of Juwah breaking frontiers
and overshooting anticipated economic returns, I now, more
than ever before, understand the present significance and
long-term import of Juwah’s exemplary tenure.
Juwah’s innovativeness in this calling has made the arduous
task look almost ordinary! No more are Nigerians inundated
with consumers’ complaints about service failures and other
multifarious sharp practices by GSM companies as was a
rhyme long before now. With the gusto he brought into the
business, there was no way his scope of influence and control
over the GSM firms would not result in what we are
experiencing now which keeps birthing awards for the brain
behind it all.
The inerasable footprints of Juwah in the telecom firmament
will remain a reference point in our national life and economy
for us Nigerians and other Africans who are also beneficiaries
of Juwah’s magic wand here. His epochal attainments in this
public service are not just transformative but achievements
that will endure and outlive the icons that rooted them,
particularly the NCC captainship.
Another offshoot of the well-deserved honours that come his
way is that they tend to draw more resolution from him as
regards making his turf even better like a man who is not
satisfied with the best of the expectations from the society. He
keeps unfolding novelties that make both parties to be at
peace with each other unlike the adversary relationship that
pervaded the atmosphere some years back. Indeed, the level of
amity among all stakeholders is such that could lead to
suspicion of compromise. Prior to this time, it was like a cat
and mouse interlock with nobody able to track the trajectory
of quality of service, which is the ultimate in this social
contract.
I am celebrating this icon of telecommunications excellence
today not because The Sun just added another feather in his
cap, but because he has brought unparalleled vista to the NCC
office and mandate. I will not bore you with details of his
scholastic and employment antecedents, which could be
sourced from copious channels. His pedigree that is bursting
at the seams compelled me to dedicate this column today to
this visionary man whom I have not met before but has read
so much about him and seen so much, too, of his electrifying
interventions and pace-setting introductions that I could write
a book on him at the NCC without any interface. For me, it
speaks volumes of the trail-blazing substance, character and
prospects of this foremost public servant in Nigeria.
If his contemporaries in other sectors had applied the same
quintessence and candour to their national assignations,
Nigeria would have advanced holistically beyond where it is
today. Alas, the Juwahs in this scorched environment are very
few in a highly corrupt community where public service is
characterized by graft, sleaze and obscene accumulation of
wealth, where men are reckoned with by the amount of ill-
gotten money they amassed while in office than by the quality
of their overall contributions to national transformation, where
value has been so eroded that the Juwahs are hardly
appreciated for ignoring the ways of men and living a life of ac
countability, probity and piety amid immeasurable service to
our fatherland. Juwah may not know this: his passion for hard
work has become a part of our national entrepreneurial
history. The NCC under his astute leadership will remain
referential as long as humanity subsists.
In your ascendancy on the rungs of the NCC, more awards will
definitely come your way. Let me begin to round off this
tribute with an affirmation that your invaluable contributions
as a telecom regulatory czar and a supervisory emancipator
can never be forgotten now or in the future. The government
and its citizens are taking note of your input here and
elsewhere. I take off my hat to you on The Sun award as I
expect more of such recognition in the months ahead.
I end this impromptu toast with an extract from a racy and
highly interesting article in THISDAY ON SUNDAY of January
18, 2015, by one Kenneth Ugbechie: “The Nigerian public
service has had a nasty history of incompetence, corruption,
administrative tardiness and downright ineptitude. T
he likes of Juwah have come to redefine the public service
space, raising hope in an oasis of despair. The Sun award is,
therefore, a fitting trophy for a man who has rallied his team
to bequeath to Nigerians a robustly competitive and richly re
warding, both for the consumers and operators.”
