The minister for Communications Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu born 23 March 1953 is a minister from Oyo State, Nigeria. He is a lawyer and a former member of the Oyo State House of Assembly. Recently he shocked Nigerians right before the National Assembly when he said he is unaware of a planned tariff hike by the National Communications Commission(NCC) a regulatory body under his purview! The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Umar Garba Danbatta, who was at the same briefing with the National Assembly began a winding explanation of what the NCC intends to do. Danbatta 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. The NCC which he heads is proposing a price floor on data which is focused on protecting smaller companies that sell data, but users will pay more!
The uproar among data subscribers is all about paying more. Already fuel hikes and electricity outage has eaten into their livelihoods and with the latest developments, thousands of businesses would be affected if the tariff goes up. Danbatta and Shittu have failed to address the issue of higher tariffs, hiding behind saving the businesses of small data providers to convince Nigerians that what the NCC intends to do is for their own good. But Nigerians know better. Another look at the situations makes observers believe its simply an avenue to tax data dealers more. Unfortunately the tax is being passed to the final consumer.
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