IALS boss applauds NCC

The Director General of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), Abuja, Professor Eapiphany Azinge, SAN, has applauded the apex telecommunications body in the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Speaking during a courtesy visit to the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, Prof. Azinge said that the commendation has become necessary due to the giant strides made in telecom sector by NCC, which has propelled Nigeria to the frontline of global telecom sphere.

Azinge who was at NCC to seek collaboration with the Commission on the institute’s Centre for Media and Communications, said the leadership of NCC has made landmark achievements in the sector to the benefit of other sectors outside of the telecom industry.

NCC, he said, is the first none legal establishment visited by the Institute and the Commission’s collaboration with the institute would further equip it to realize the objectives and benefits of the centre.

Also, he requested the Commission to allow students of the institute to embark on annual internship programmes to enable them to advance practical knowledge in telecommunications law.

Just as Azinge requested the Commission to endow a professorial chair on telecommunications law at the institute.

In his remark, chief executive of NCC, Dr. Ndukwe expressed interest on the requests of the institute, saying that the Commission prides itself with some of the best telecom lawyers in the country as it has through the telecom regulatory processes, confronted various legal issues in telecom matters.

He said this situation has made lawyers in the Commission to have hands-on experience in an area which is very new in the country.

As said by him, most of the people in Nigeria are first time users of telephones since 2001 which hitherto was restricted to a very few before compared with today’s over 67 million connected lines, with associated marketing and legal issues that are provoked with the expansion of telecommunications services.

Ndukwe also said that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become important as an application in various professions, including the legal profession for the purpose of achieving efficiency.

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