Africa shines @ ITU Radio Regulations Board election

African continent seems to have out-shined others at the just concluded International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio Regulations Board (RRB) election held in Antalya, Turkey at the on-going 17th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.

This came with the winning of three seats at the RRB by African nation’s namely Nigeria, Morocco and Cameroon.

RRB is a part-time body comprising 12 individual experts representing the world's five regions, namely the Americas, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia, for a four-year term.

While Mr Shola Taylor of Nigeria was elected into the board alongside Moroccan Hassan Lebbadi with 154 votes respectively, Mr Aboubakar Zourmba of Cameroon scored 151 votes to emerge into the board.

Other nine members of the new board consists of Mr Mindaugas Zilinskas of Lithuania, 154 votes, Ms Martine Limodin of France, 151 votes, Ms Julie Zoller of United States with 122 votes, Mr Baiysh Nurmatov of Kyrgyzstan, 122 votes, Malaysian Ali Ebadi scored 117 votes, Pakistanian Shahzada Malik followed with 110 votes, Indian Mr P. K. Garg got 103 votes, Mr Robert Jones of Canada 94 votes and Mr Wladyslaw Moron of Poland 93 votes.

Speaking after his re-election into the board for another four years at the event attended by over 2,000 participants worldwide, Nigerian Shola Taylor, described it as a double victory.

He expressed appreciation to all those delegates that supported Nigeria during the preparation for the election and election proper as well as calling for their continuous support.

It would be recalled that the Federal Government had earlier nominated Mr. Taylor, who also is the chief executive, Kemilinks International and a leading international telecom expert to contest for re-election.

“It is a double victory for Nigeria given that Nigeria was also elected to the ITU Council with one of the highest votes polled,” he declared.

Emphasising that as for his re-election, “I really thank God and I am indeed very grateful to our President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Minister of Communications, Dr. Femi Anibaba, former Minister of Communications Chief Cornelius Adebayo, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications Alhaji Umar Aji, NCC Chief Executive Dr. Ernest Ndukwe and the Director of Technical Services Ministry of Communications Mrs Esther Gonda, for the confidence they have expressed in me by presenting my name, and for the excellent support given towards my campaign,” he said.

Mr. Taylor further said expressed gratefulness to the Nigerian Government, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for this wonderful gesture.

“I am also grateful to all the members of the Nigerian delegation to the conference and to my family for their extensive moral support. I can only continue to discharge my responsibility as the custodian of an international public trust and I look forward to working with my other colleagues on the Board to discharge my duties effectively,” he asserted.

It is the Board's job to approve the Rules of Procedure, which include technical criteria used by the Radiocommunication Bureau in the application of the Radio Regulations, to consider matters that could not be resolved by the application of the Radio Regulations or existing Rules of Procedure, to consider reports by the Bureau on investigation of cases of harmful interference, and to formulate recommendations for resolution of such interference, among others.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Short URLs: goo.gl, mcaf.ee, cli.gs