[ad_1]
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Executive Council, presided over by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has approved over N10 billion for projects in the aviation sector which include the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Hadejia airstrip in Jigawa State at the sum of N7,482,071,196.56 for a period of 18 months.
Recall the federal government had in 2021 announced that it was intensifying efforts to revive airstrips across the country in a bid to combat insecurity and boost commercial activities.
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika who said the approval contains three items, said the contract was awarded to MESSRS CCECC.
He said Council also approved the construction of control tower and technical building in Enugu, awardee to MESSERS Mascot Associates Limited at the sun or N1,973,606,141.75. And the the third contract approved for the aviation is the procurement of utility vehicles, to Messers Kaura Motors at N625,500,000.
“These are the memoranda and they’ve all been approved by Council today”, he said.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami said, Council approved three memos, National Duct One Policy, National Child Online Protection Policy and Strategy and Nigeria Data Protection Bill.
He explained that the National Duct One Policy aims to institutionalize providing ducts during construction in Nigeria, at federal, state and even local government.
He said the policy came about after many stakeholder engagements with over 37 institutions of government.
He said with the approval, by implication, during road construction, bridges, rail lines, seaports, stadium and all other important buildings, provision must be made for ducts, where at least any wire or any gadget for electricity or telecommunications or any service that is required will make use of that facility and lay their cables.”
According to him, “This is the global best practice today. Before construction, even during the conceptualization, design and construction, there should be provision of ducts for road construction, bridges, rail lines, seaports, and any important building.
“Today, we have been confronted with a challenge that whenever we want to provide telecommunications infrastructure, in some cities and towns in Nigeria, a lot of damage is being done, either to our roads or to our facilities.
“Why? Because during the design and construction, no provision of any duct or pipeline where the fiber optics and other telecommunication gadgets will pass. It is because of this we organized stakeholder engagement, where we brought all the stakeholders including the Ministry of Works and Housing, where we all agreed that there is a need to institutionalize the provision of ducts in design and construction.
“And there are so many benefits to be attained from that. Number one, it allows shared infrastructure. Number two, it makes maintenance and repair much easier. If that is part of the design and construction, during maintenance, you don’t need to damage any road or any important building. That provision is sufficient and you will have a chamber where you will get access to all the facilities. It is because of this, we came up with this policy and in addition to that, it will also continue to make the price of broadband cheaper.
“However, it is very cheap. In Nigeria as at August 2019, based on the official report of the Nigerian Communications Commission, one gigabyte of data, the price approximately was N1,200 but today the average price is N350. If you look at it, the reduction is even more than 60%. Because by laying fiber optics, a lot is being spent in doing that. When we try to reduce the price and the amount being spent in doing that, that is part of the cost of production. So it will automatically bring the cost of production lower and by implication, all of us will get even broadband access at more affordable prices than what is being obtained today.”
On the National Child Online Protection Policy and Strategy, Pantami said it’s meant to protect children from online content that could corrupt their innocence.
He said: “As we all know, there are many benefits of going online. The world population reached 10 billion on the 15th November 2022. Today, we have around 6.3 billion people online and by implication, among this number, you will discover many children. They will not be able to differentiate between what is beneficial and what is harmful.
“According to the report of the International Telecommunication Union, even during COVID-19, more than one billion children were online, most of them for their studies, because schools were shut down. So, they switch to virtual learning only.
“Children will not be able to differentiate what is beneficial or what is harmful. And today, if you go online, you will discover that many things are coming into your device unsolicitedly. If you are at least matured, you will be able to avoid it but children would not be able to and that will definitely affect their innocence and will even affect them morally and otherwise.
“It is because of this that the International Telecommunication Union, which is an arm of the United Nations, came up with a policy document for all its 193 member countries. Nigeria is part and parcel of the International Telecommunication Union. The document has been titled: “keeping children safe in the digital environment, the importance of our protection under empowerment.”
“In this document, all member countries have been urged to ensure they come up with a policy where children are going to be protected.
“In the UK today they have a bill that is for online safety. Many countries are working on a similar document. It is because of this, we organized stakeholder engagement, where we invited around 37 institutions of government, because if you look at the challenge is not only one sector, but rather it is multi sectoral issue, Minister of Information and culture, National Broadcasting commission for example, national orientation agency, all of them have a role to play. Security institutions have a role to play. Ministry of Justice has a role to play when it comes to differentiating what is legal and what is illegal, what is fake and what is real information.
“When it comes to crime, Office of the National Security Adviser and other security agencies have a role to play. So the implementation requires multi sectoral approach. It is because of this, that the memo and the policy has been approved.
“Part of its implementation there is going to be a governance structure where relevant institutions of government will come together and ensure its implementation, including private sector, and relevancy civil society organizations. So this also has been approved.
“Prior to that we leverage on our existing laws to come up with the policy, like cyber crime act 2015. There is a provision of protecting all citizens and children are part and parcel of our citizens. Also we have child’s right Act 2003. And there is also a provision of protecting and ensuring the safety of our online content and other legislations.”
On the National Cybersecurity Policy 2021, Pantami, said there is a provision in which the Nigerian Communications Commission has been mandated to come up with a policy to protect our children while online. This policy has also been approved.
Explaining the just approved Nigeria Data Protection Bill, is to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of citizens data submitted to government and other private institutions.
He said: “As you all know, in January 2019, the National Information Technology Development Agency came up with a subsidiary law leveraging on its mandate and power, as in Section 6, Article 8 of NITDA 2007. The subsidiary law is entitled “Nigeria Data Protection Regulation.”
He said: “The wisdom behind coming up with this regulation is to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of our data that we are submitting to government and other private institutions.
“Confidentiality of our data, and security of our data is key to whatever we do. In some cases, you will discover that some institutions are abusing the data of citizens they collect. Some they will even advertise data online, some they will commercialize without the knowledge of our citizens.
“At that time, the National Information Technology Development Agency, leveraging on Section 6 of the Act 2007 came up with a subsidiary legislation or subsidiary law. That law has been enforced by the Commission. And we did so at the time that the European countries collectively came up with the general data protection regulation, that is the EU Data Protection Regulation. And it becomes even part and parcel of the global best practice in security, in economy, in whatever your country does with other countries.
“To the extent that today, potential investors usually ask questions when you invite them to invest in your country, they will ask, do you have any data protection law in place, so that they will ensure data to be collected is going to be protected, it is important also to our security. That subsidiary legislation is being enforced.
“In February 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari, approved the establishment of the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, and he also approved the appointment of Dr. Vincent Olatunji, then director of e-government in NITDA to be the national Commissioner.
“After enforcing the law, we also discovered there is need for the integration of the subsidiary legislation into a principal legislation, we must have a principle law in place.
“In Nigeria subsidiary legislation could be as powerful as the principal legislation, or it could be as powerful near to the principal legislation, because it is being considered up to the Supreme Court as a law as long as the rule-making process is respected.
“However, when dealing with international community, some of them do not recognize your subsidiary law as a law, you must have a principal law that will go to the National Assembly. It is because of this with the support of the Office of the Minister of Justice and other stakeholders, we integrated the subsidiary legislation by addressing some observations that have to do with lacuna and certain vacuums. And it has been presented today before the Federal Executive Council. And it has also been approved. And the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice has been directed to transmit the bill to the National Assembly.
“Most importantly, data protection and privacy is part of our Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended, particularly section 37, that our citizens, their data must be protected, that it will improve the trust between government and citizens on one hand, and it will also improve the trust between government and potential investors in that order.
“So these are some of the reasons why we came up with these three important documents. And all of them have been approved by the Federal Executive Council.”
The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, that briefed on behalf of Works and Housing minister, said council approved the revised estimated total cost of contract of rehabilitation for the construction of Mayan, Nashungo, lizelle Katayo, SEC, Abule Egba, Oju Ajila road in Benue state.
“The contract for this road was actually awarded first in 2012. due to whatever reason, it is still not completed. And of course, if the contract was awarded in 2012, the 10 years later, you expect the contractor to ask for,augmentation. And that’s what happened today, it was approved. The original contract was N1,035,000,000 is now being augmented with an additional N1,063,000,000. so the sum total is N2,099,708,1004.46.
“The other memo that was approved for the ministry actually has to do with the Mabuchi headquarters of the Ministry of Works and Housing. I’m sure it’s no longer news, that the ministry headquarters does not depend or rely on the national grid for its power, they rely on their solar grid and the memo today was to seek approval for the estimated total cost of the contract for the design and installation of solar power plus micro grid system and energy litrofitting of the ministry.
“Sometimes in March 2019, a contract was awarded for the provision of a solar power that would power the entire ministry, it was awarded at the cost then for about N2,721 billion. Now, they are seeking for an augmentation of N309 million to bring the total cost to N3 billion.
“The reason for the augmentation is that in the process of executing the project certain works which were not anticipated before were to be taken into consideration. And in addition, this augmentation also includes a maintenance contract of the installation.
“So this was a game was approved, but I think the important thing is that you can see we are diversifying our sources of energy and this is clean energy and minister interested in clean energy, and wants invitation to go solar that they will provide and they will advice.”
[ad_2]
Source link
