By 
By Chinedu James
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Independent National Electronic Commission (INEC) have reviewed the outcome of the joint committee set up to look into issues that borders on electronic transmission and collation of election results in preparation for the 2019 elections.
INEC had earlier in the year collaborated with the NCC to transmit elections results in real time via the satellite backbone of NigComSat 1R owned and managed by Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat).
The reviewed report is intended to strengthen efforts towards a free, fair and credible election process in 2019.
The Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta while commending the committee for adhering to global practices in the work, describe the meeting as a huge step towards ensuring the smooth conduct of the 2019 elections. Danbatta stressed that compliance to the global best practices of electioneering process, requires leveraging on ICT thus the crucial role the NCC is expected to play in the process.
“Remember this joint committee was set up seven months ago. They have worked hard, and the whole idea was to produce a document on the basis of which elections can be conducted in a manner that’s conducive, credible, and of course, transparent.
“This can only be done by leveraging the power of Information Communications Technology. So this is to bring to bear global best practices in the way and manner elections are being conducted all over the world,” said Danbatta.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu thanked the NCC for its level of commitment while assuring that the election ombudsman will implement the recommendations of the committee.
“When we started we were clear in our minds that we must challenge every national institution to contribute towards free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria. We are happy that the NCC has risen to this challenge. And we look forward to implementing these recommendations. If there are other areas we need your collaborations we hope you will remain open to us to do so. But we are very happy that one major national institution has been challenged and has risen to the challenge,” he stated.
In attendance at the meeting were the Executive Commissioner Technical Services (EC-TS) of the NCC, Engr Ubale Maska, national commissioners of the electoral body and senior staff of the two agencies.
