Recently, the Executive Vice Chairman, EVC, of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, was conferred with the “Excellent Service Delivery and Accountability Award” by the Association of Public Procurement Practitioners of Nigeria (APPON).

This did not create much buzz in the telecom agora. Not because the award was insignificant. Never! It was simply because winning awards and being garlanded with honours has become the norm for the man regarded as the unicorn of Africa telecom.

Danbatta, a professor of telecommunications engineering, has since his appointment in 2015 shown both vision and verve. Vision for Nigeria telecom, navigating it through several treacherous contours including the Covid-19 pandemic, double recession in Nigeria among other headwinds that consumed some other sectors; and stymied productivity in others. Under the heavy storms of the global pandemic and crippling recession that Nigeria passed through, Danbatta guided telecom sector out of the backwaters.

He has since remained one of the best appointments of former President Muhammadu Buhari. And it’s no surprise that on assumption of office as the top man at NCC, the superintending commission for telecom in Nigeria, he was unfazed by the humungous success recorded by his predecessors. Rather, Danbatta, a former university teacher who does not hide his passion to seek knowledge and share same, has added verifiable and credible value to an industry reputed to be the most robust in terms of freedom for investors to explore more investment opportunities.

The towering professor has added real value to the telecom industry. The stats tell the story most eloquently. Under his watch, telecom sector became a major contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). On two occasions when the economy relapsed into recession, telecom stayed afloat, cresting the recession curve with a rather chesty ‘catch me if you can’ glint.  He grew telecom investment inflows from $36 billion in 2015 to over $70 billion. Created more opportunities for innovators; increased Nigeria’s presence on the global telecom circuit; bolstered investor confidence in the sector and boosted quality of service with his unobtrusive regulatory skills that encouraged operators to ramp up booster stations across the country. He deployed his PR knowhow to win more states in their consideration for Right of Way (RoW) and multiple taxation which encumbered the performance and operational efficiency of some operators.

Year-on-year, telecom has ranked among the top contributors to GDP in the non-oil sector. In just the first quarter of this year, telecom and ICT services contributed N2.508 trillion to GDP. This is at a time some other sectors were manacled to several stomps that impaired their growth.

The positive outlook in telecom owes much to the innovative and predictable telecoms regulatory environment implemented by Danbatta’s NCC. The EVC’s leadership and regulatory style has been widely hailed across the global ITU community as fit-for-purpose, scalable and investor-friendly; a model now being copied by several African countries.

Danbatta never shied away from venturing into the innovation orbit. He dares. He envisions, projects and takes calculated risks which good leadership in the 21^st century demands. One of such innovative adventures was profoundly expressed in his audacious step that initiated Nigeria into the club of nations that embraced the 5G technology. His audacity paid off with the generation of $820.8 million for the Federal Government from 5G spectrum licence fees alone paid by three operators, MTN, MAFAB and Airtel. Whereas MTN and MAFAB had already rolled out 5G services, Airtel is due to launch any moment from now.  The launch of 5G services has put Nigeria in the exclusive club of nations with proven and functional 5G services.

Despite the fiscal failings of the Buhari government occasioned by myriad factors, some bordering on global inflationary headwinds, some by the monstrous incompetence of some of his ministers and appointees, and yet some triggered by Buhari’s ill-health and lack of supervision of the activities of his lieutenants, Danbatta has kept the flag of active and positive performance flying.

Perhaps, Danbatta’s greatest leadership asset may not be his long-standing industry-related experience, may not be his unassailable scholarship that took him to top universities in Europe. It is his gentle, non-combative temperament; his ability to keep his head in the face of brutish provocation and incessant bullying; the type visited on him by the immediate past Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.

Pantami as minister was a monumental disaster. His conduct was distasteful and despicable. He was brutish, uncultured and primitively ambitious, a crude character trait he mistakes for productivity. He was the archetypal public servant, high on eye service, hyper in motion but hypo in movement. He was full of sound and fury, a clanging cymbal in the Buhari cabinet notorious more for his brashy and empty zealotry than for any tincture of decency and managerial benignity. What a minister, indeed!

Yet, in spite of his pesky and petulant predilections, Danbatta displayed a higher leadership virtue, fixed his gaze on the ball and never, for one moment, let the ball drop. He weathered the storm, set his goals and rallied his staff to accomplish them, even exceeding projections in the typical fashion of 21^st century leadership.

It’s therefore of little wonder that he keeps packing both indigenous and international awards. One of such awards is the soon-to-be-conferred National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) Award, alongside other prominent Nigerians with verifiable productivity emblems dogging their service to country and humanity. It’s a club of Nigerians with the likes of Aliko Dangote, Leo Stan Ekeh, Oba Otudeko, Tony Elumelu, among others. Strictly for a reward in productivity, not politics.

Danbatta deserves this medal. He has more than acquitted himself. The productivity medal is a fitting reward for a man who dared heights and conquered them. He arrived at a sector that was globally acknowledged as thriving. Management gurus would tell you that it’s easier to add value to a small entity and the value will be visible than it is to add value to an already successful entity. In most cases, such value is not noticeable but the entity is already emblazoned in the mind of the public as successful. This is not the case with Danbatta and the NCC. He added real value too profound to be ignored and too prominent to be denied. Under Danbatta, telecom contribution to GDP rocketed to an all-time highest of 14.42 percent in 2021.

As more multinationals begin to admire and think Nigeria telecom, it is only fitting to salute the courage of the likes of Danbatta who came, saw and conquered.

Author: Ken Ugbechie, Publisher, Editor, Author, Columnist