…As Danbatta receives more commendations
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has pledged to increase collaboration with higher institutions of learning across the country in order to transform Nigeria into a full knowledge-based economy.
The Chairman, Board of Commissioners of NCC, Prof. Adeolu Akande, stated
this during a courtesy visit by NCC Board members to Bayero University, Kano
(BUK) at the weekend as part of activities lined up for the 2020 NCC Board
retreat held in Kano State.
According to Akande, who praised the university for producing Prof. Umar
Garba Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, the NCC
superintends a sector that is knowledge-driven and therefore, would not be able
to achieve its mandate without strengthening collaboration with citadels of knowledge
like BUK and other higher institutions of learning to produce the
knowledge base needed to support the growth of the telecoms sector.
“The NCC is superintending a sector that is knowledge-driven. In
the absence of the citadels of learning, one could only imagine what would have
become of the communications industry. So, if we come to Kano, we need to come
to the prime centre of learning in Kano and other universities across the
state,” he said.
Thanking the university further for “contributing” Danbatta to the
industry, Akande said the sector, which NCC regulates, has also benefited
immensely from the knowledge being imparted by the university.
He said the BUK has produced a good ambassador, excellent professional and a man with administrative acumen and superb human relations in Prof. Danbatta.
“Hence, the Board of NCC decided to visit Bayero University with the
EVC, who is a ‘home boy’ and to show our appreciation for the services of the
EVC, an outstanding product of the university, has been rendering to the nation
at the NCC.
We are here also to show that we work together and our coming to Bayero
University would be an expression of appreciation of Danbatta’s good work at
the NCC,” he said.
In his remarks, Danbatta said all the achievements “we have recorded as
NCC can be attributed to the team spirit and cooperation between the Management
and Board of NCC even as we are poised to achieve more,” adding that “Our
profound prayer is that we leave the NCC better than we met it.”
Appreciating the university’s management for hosting the NCC’s despite a
short notice, Danbatta used the opportunity to also congratulate Prof.
Sagir Abbas for his appointment as the 11th Vice Chancellor (VC) of the
university.
While expressing delight to receive the NCC Board, Prof. Abbas noted that the school management cancelled all engagements to receive the board in order to show the university’s high regards for Danbatta, whose name, he said, cannot be omitted in the history of Bayero University.
“Prof. Danbatta has served the university diligently, as lecturer, as
head of department, as Dean, as director and he was also a former VC in Kano
University of Science and Technology, but wherever he goes, you find him
relating to his base.
“So, we hold him in very high esteem and we are always happy to see him
and his team discharging the national assignment his is saddled with and Bayero
University is proud to be associated with him. We have no doubt that the Board
and Management of NCC will enjoy him more as he begins his second term in
office,” he said.
According to the Vice Chancellor, the university has received many
donations of computers, iPads and other interventions such as professorial
endowments from NCC, all of which, he said, have had positive impacts on the
university’s academic programmes.
Sagir, however, appealed for more digital assistance by the Commission in supporting the university more in the area of its ongoing restructuring to fully accommodate virtual learning into its system in view of the current reality globally where ICT is mediating the lecturer-student interaction.
