It is not very often you see a civilian sounding like a General in his field, hence, REMMY NWEKE writes that every eye in the industry is on the new Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Isa Ibrahim-Pantami, who mounted the saddle recently.
Prologue:
Frankly, the first time one may have heard of the term ‘Buharist’
was when one of the telecommunication icons in the country and chief executive
officer of Cyberschuul, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, was advising the President, General
Muhammadu Buhari (retired), months after his election and nothing seems to be
happening across all sectors.
For him, there is no apology for being a Buharist, which from all
intents and purposes, could be simply defined as ‘die-hard’ believer in the
theorem and principles of President Buhari; moreso, as a no-nonsense person and
little did any one predict literarily, the coming of yet another civilian
general in this administration, as the chief executive of the National
Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Thus, it was at the least, surprising when the news broke that
President Buhari had named Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim–Pantami, the new
Director-General of NITDA, alongside 12 other Federal Departments and Agencies
(FDA) chief executive officers (CEOs).
Confirming this development, Monday, September 26, 2016, the
Director of Press at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, Mr. Bolaji Adebiyi, told DigitalSENSE Business News that out of the
13 new leadership changes comprised four Director-Generals, five Executive
Secretaries, a National Coordinator cum chief executive officer, a Managing
Director, a chairman and a Federal Commissioner.
A General
defined?
Dictionaries of all kinds define a General in the army as a senior
military leader, usually a General has five-star officer, and typically in
charge of a nation's army either in part or whole. This rank is normally considered
the equivalent of Marshal, Field Marshal, Fleet Admiral and other equivalent
five-star ranks. Whereas the army is a large body of people organized and
trained for warfare on behalf of a given country.
Also, DigitalSENSE Business News reports that Dr. Isa Ali
Ibrahim–Pantami took over from Dr. Vincent Olatunji at NITDA, who was acting DG
since last year when Mr. Peter Jack was suspended for alleged misconduct. Until
his appointment as the chief executive officer, NITDA, Dr. Pantami, was a
professor of Computer and Information Systems at the Islamic University of
Madinah, Saudi Arabia; and Chief Imam; Seeker of Justice; even as he is the
author of ‘Orator & Conflict Resolution Student’ to mention but a few.
Pantami pays
homage to Minister Shittu:
A few days after his appointment, the new DG of NITDA, Dr.
Pantami, assumed at the agency headquarters and barely 48 hours later, was seen
at the Minister of Communications office at the Federal Secretariat, to see his
supervising Minister, Barrister Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu, in what industry
observers termed ‘paying of homage’ thus begets some respect in his personality
to authorities.
Accompanied by Malam Nafiu Baba-Ahmed and Alhaji Shehu B. Umar,
during the visit to Shittu, just as DigitalSENSE Business News noted that Dr.
Pantami, an Associate Professor at the Islamic University of Madinah, Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia and first-ever Nigerian to teach in the university of more than
63 years of existence.
Born and bred in Gombe State, where Dr. Pantami obtained his basic
education, he completed his first degree in Computer Science in 2002 at
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi (ATBA), Master of Science (MSC),
Computer Science 2008, Master of Business Admin (MBA) Technology in 2010 from
the same university and he obtained his PhD in the United Kingdom. He was a
lecturer at ATBU, Bauchi, for over a decade before joining Islamic University
Madina. Pantami’s authorship cut across several books on ICT, STEM, Technology,
Politics & Community Reconciliation & Religion.
Some of his books include “The Negative impact of ICT on human
health.” Volume 2, no 2 Jomatech, 2010, An analysis of e-learning in Nigerian
and United Kingdom Universities. Volume 2, no 1, International Journal of
Computer and Information Technology, India, Information and Communication
Technology, A Tool for Fraud Prevention and Detection. Volume 1, no 2 Jomatech
2008, Data Recovery and Back up Disaster. Volume 2, no 1 Jomatech, 2008,
Analysis on the failure of Desktop and Laptop Hardware Components. Volume 2, no
1 Jomatech, 2008 among others.
Dr Pantami, has successfully participated in several international
seminars, local conferences and workshops as resource person, speaker,
presenter, and panelist. Notable among aforementioned were his participation in
the Nigeria Muslim Forum UK (NMFUK) conference which held in Newcastle 2011,
Leicester, 2013, IT Conference in Paris 2013, Oil and Gas Computing 2013,
National Seminar on Graphing Calculators, University of Mathematics Malaysia,
2008 on international workshop on Family Planning and Reproductive Health to
name a few.
How to
make a difference in NITDA:
As expected, some Nigerians chose to offer their words of advice
to the new DG. One among the lot that went viral was from a southern clergy and
industry player, who counseled Pantami to ensure he surround himself with
northern allies and players in the industry. He practically went ahead to give
names which have been nicknamed the 11 ‘alrrusul’ - apostles, by some industry
observers.
In what the clergy tagged as thinking of how to assist Dr.
Pantami, to succeed so that NITDA and Nigeria's Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) can flourish in his tenure. “He will do best, to have Northern
Moslems who are technologically savvy to assist him.” He said “Instead of
spreading ourselves thin under the guise of ethnic and religious balance, we
must align our thoughts with reality and concentrate efforts.
The clergy went on to recommend “some good candidates to be
Distinguished Advisers and or Technical Assistants to the DG” which invariably
did not went down well with most of the folks listed on clergy’s ‘DG’ shoplist,
which also did not take the counsel lightly but confronted the advice. For some
of them, this may not have been far-fetched when the DG, Dr. Pantami issued a
note of warning to sychophants during his inaugural address to the staff of
NITDA.
Like Baba
like Pantami … I belong to nobody:
The newly appointed NITDA Director-General, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim-Pantami
sounded a note of warning to presumed sycophants to stay off the agency and
precisely his office as he belongs to everybody as much as he belongs to
nobody, insisting that he came to serve his fatherland, Nigeria with success as
his priority.
Declaring his averse to sycophancy, Dr. Pantami asserted during
his inaugural meeting with members of staff of NITDA on penultimate Tuesday in
Abuja that “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody” in a similar fashion
like Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari, during his May 29, 2015 inaugural speech.
He also told those who cared to listen “Don’t approach me with
gossip. Don’t come to me with malicious, ill-natured reports about other
people. But I welcome any suggestion or information you have that will help
grow this agency we all love and work for. Remember, too, that you are welcome
to call my attention to where you think I am going astray. Although I have a
PhD in Computer Information Systems, I don’t know it all; nobody does. I came
here to serve Nigeria, and success is my priority.”
Pantami also outlined three qualities, he said would make people
successful, especially in working with him, namely “integrity, expertise and
professionalism; and commitment to your duty. “ Pointing out that his nature is
allergic to corruption; both in practices and favouritism, warning that he will
not tolerate these twin vices. “So let us join hands and say ‘No to corrupt
practices and favouritism’” he insisted.
Staff
welfare on front burner:
The new DG assured that in order to encourage productivity and
motivate honest, ethical, hardworking members of staff, he plans to put staff
welfare to the front burner, and introduce special awards for best performing
staff.
For him, contractors with NITDA should not lose sleep as long as
projects are good and within the confines of due process. “I am glad to
continue with all the good projects of the agency as long as they meet
irreducible minimums in due process, and conform to the law that established
the agency. Where projects violate due process or impose needless burdens on
the core mission of the agency, they will be reviewed in the interest of the
nation,” Dr. Pantami assured.
He emphasised that his doors were open to all staff members,
including messengers and cleaners and urged them to come forward with
suggestions, ideas and observations, although official communications, should
follow “official routine channels.”
Pantami further commended the erstwhile acting DG, Dr. Vincent
Olatunji for holding forte and for the handover note made available to him
penultimate, Friday.
He did not stop at the staff meeting as lately a few public outings
the DG attended were embellished with warnings upon warnings to what he tagged
‘contractors’, insisting that NITDA is not a contract agency which
unfortunately was what it had become.
For instance, the DG while speaking at the 2016 West Africa
Convergence Conference in Lagos, alleged that his predecessors turned NITDA,
the government IT clearing house, into more of a contract giving agency, just
as he promised to soon unveil his strategies, noting that since his
appointment, that the major challenge before him with stakeholders, has been
the flooding of the agency premises for contracts that are not tied to the
NITDA’s mandate.
He disclosed that NITDA, under his watch is working on a blueprint
that will reorganize the agency. Stressing, “I wouldn’t like to disclose our
plan at a forum like this, but we are working with some partners and
stakeholders to come up with a blueprint for the IT industry, especially as it
concerns local content and capacity building.”
Conclusion:
As much as DG Pantami is welcome, he may not be alien to the
Nigeria IT industry; therefore, it is believed that he knows his onion. Given
his declarations so far, there is no doubt this Director-General is a General
on duty, but going beyond the body language and assertions is work that is
expected to touch lives. This being the case, one can only but hope that his
dreams to reposition NITDA scales through the seeming disintegration in the
nation’s public service which is capable of scuttling the Pantami stratregies.
Although some industry watchers were already expressing
uncertainty over what they called rigidness may mar his proposed strategies for
NITDA even though he may meant well, coupled with civil service bottleneck.
As the IT industry awaits Pantami’s strategies, caution must be
applied in the generalization of claims at this early stage, especially the
negative ones.
It is a good omen that this General at NITDA fulfills his dream
being in that position by the time his tenure will be over either in the next
four or eight years as the case may be in accordance with NITDA Act of 2007.
Before then, history awaits Dr. Isa
Ibrahim-Pantami at NITDA as his background and past have prepared him for
today.
No comments:
Post a Comment