NCC boss, Danbatta gets Buhari’s approval for second term

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commissions, Prof. Umar Danbatta has been reappointed by President Muhammadu Buhari for another term of four years.

Prof. Danbatta who was first appointed on August 4 2015, was formerly a member of the Implementation Committee of the Northwest University Kano, and also served as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the Kano University of Science & Technology, Wudil.

Born in Danbatta Local Government Council of Kano State, Prof. Danbatta obtained his BEng, MSc degrees from the Technical University of Wroclaw in Poland and his PhD from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) UK respectively.

He has served as a lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Technology of Bayero University Kano for 28 years, where he taught courses in telecommunications engineering and electronics and held academic positions of Dean of the Faculty and Head of Department at different times. His main administrative responsibilities, in the university, included Deputy and Acting Dean of Students’ Affairs, Administrator of the Works Department and later, Director of the Centre for Information Technology (CIT).

He is a recipient of 18 distinguished awards and certificates of honour. Prof. Danbatta has served two terms of five years as a Member of Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), and is also a COREN registered engineer and member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, who confirmed the development in a statement issued by the ministry on Friday, said Danbatta’s reappointment was in line with the NCC Act 2003.

Dr. Isa Pantami charged the NCC chief to improve on the commission’s performance and ensure that adequate mechanisms were put in place to facilitate the implementation of all Federal Government’s policies through the agency.

He also enjoined Danbatta to ensure that the interest of the telecommunication consumers, Nigerians, and investors were adequately protected.

Prof. Danbatta has supervised more than 60 PhD, MEng and BEng projects in diverse areas of telecommunications and has also served as external  examiner  to  seven universities  and  polytechnics  and  is  an  assessor,  technical  reviewer and editorial member to eight research journals. He has to his credit more than 50 articles in journals, conference proceedings and technical reports. He is also the author of a six-chapter, 167-page book titled Elements of Static Engineering Electromagnetics.