 I was set to dial straight into our first major conversation right here on the Breakfast and Plus TV Africa. The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Professor Umar Dan Bata. He has said that telecoms infrastructure is very critical to the successful conduct of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria. Now he therefore is urging every Nigerian in every community to join hands in protecting telecoms infrastructure for the benefit of the country. Dan Bata, who was a special guest at the Sith edition of the Anno Conference of Guild of Corporate Online Publishers in Lagos, which with the focus on forthcoming elections has said with the planned transmission of election data and results riding on telecom infrastructure there was a need to ensure the fidelity of the transmission systems to enhance the credibility of such data. And of course we're glad to have joined us to look at the importance of the telecommunications infrastructure in the overall success of the election. Dr. Fikaio Tomori, he is our guest this morning. He happens to be the president of the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria. Sorry I said Dr. Sir, apologies, Mr. Fikaio Tomori and please correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks for joining us and glad to have you on the breakfast this morning. Yeah, thank you. Good morning. Good morning to you. I mean I'd like you to speak on what the gentleman we just talked about has said as regards the importance of telecoms infrastructure. How important is this for people to be aware? How important is this to democracy in Nigeria? Is that something you think about every day? We think about security, we think about corruption, we think about the judiciary, we think about government, both at the federal, state and local level and their influence on the elections but people do not always think about telecoms. So how important is this and how should people approach the issue of telecoms infrastructure as far as elections in Nigeria are concerned? Thank you very much. Yes, regarding what Professor Dambata mentioned, I think he thought on, yes that's very correct that the telecoms sector in Nigeria is actually going to be a very vital role in the success of the common elections in 2023. If you look at the election, whenever you conduct elections, you know that the time is always of the essence and during elections, communication is key and most of the time is the real time if you want it to be very effective. It actually supports in, you know, record keeping transfer results, one that secondly you have decision making by the highlight themselves and then the last one which you also mentioned in your summary that is about the security. When during elections, you tend to have a breakdown of law and order in some cases and whenever this happens, you want to be able to reach out to the security authorities at once to make sure that the situation is well-arrested on time to prevent it from spreading. So for all these reasons and more, you find that the telecommunication infrastructure in Nigeria is very, very important. It is something that we have to all protect as you have rightly said and I think we tend to agree with that very well. The discussions and the conversations around the electoral act or the electoral bill as it were, the nation's telecommunications infrastructure and the strength, the durability and the ability of the infrastructure to deliver on the electronic transmission of votes, you know, they were brought into question or that was brought into question with some of the stakeholders saying that we do not have the capacity to provide network coverage everywhere for proper transmission of the votes. But of course civil society kicked against this, most of them and the rest is history. We have the electoral act, electronic transmission of votes are allowed. From your point, your vantage point as an industry stakeholder, you're the president of the private telecoms and communications senior staff association of Nigeria. Are you confident that Nigeria has the infrastructure capacity in terms of the telecommunications sector to deliver as far as electronic transmission of votes are concerned in 2023? Okay, yes, we know that the telecoms coverage in Nigeria is not on the same. Maybe the best we can talk about is still about 60 to 70 cents. Yes, this is also the most cases you will find that the best you could have will be like 3G that the WCME is for. And when you want to talk about the transfer of this data and all this information we talk about, yes, you might need a very good network at least the minimum to be 3G. But not never the coverage of 2G, which is the ESM which we all know could also actually enhance some of the critical factors of the success of the election like communication, making calls and so on. So, but we cannot really don't completely understand that we don't have a network that can support the elections. No, this is not correct. What we can only say is that yes, we are not there. But we definitely have sent out of combining and I mean gathering all the results together in some of the centers around the country. And definitely we have them in capital. And something that we show and we are sure that the very good coverage of the minimum of 3G on all state capitals of Nigeria. So, yes, definitely in some remote areas, remote locations, you might find some problems. But you know, this is I think it was actually with manual transmission. So, yes, there are areas where you find some challenges. But what we have in Nigeria is something that could also be used for the common election. All right. So, what do we need? What do we need to do to? I mean, if you're saying we have only 60% telecommunications coverage of the country. Wouldn't this negatively affect the smooth conduct of the election? Yeah. I mean, if we have you say we have about 60% coverage of telecoms, telecoms coverage of Nigeria. I mean, wouldn't this definitely certainly affect the smooth conduct of these elections negatively? And if so, what needs to be done to overcome it? Absolutely. If I get your question, well, you mean about the remaining areas without coverage? Absolutely. What do we do in those cases? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. You know, as I mentioned, yes, these areas are there and definitely I have their own processes. And that, you know, these processes starts from the minimum of, I mean, the world's mobile of the polling units. And this polling unit, definitely, in most cases, outside of the areas there, you can actually have minimum coverage of 3G maybe edge on the data. And for this reason, a lot of people in the remote areas have to move the masses of areas where they can actually get to access these polling units. These are what these are two of the things that the high-necked and also into looking into, for example, the rural connectivity, which entity and the operation that we are working on for some time. I mean, a lot of work needs to be done on that aspect. For who has telephony to come in as fast as we can and look to the coverage should be enhanced. Also, maybe just to mention that yes, the infrastructure is very important to us, but these are the areas we need to reach. I mean, to reach means if it meant to work on their own. Something that we as a unit want to follow the government, the entity and other establishments also to look into the work-ups of the sector. You know, this is the limitation of how, I mean, how and when they can work on their own. So we want to use this opportunity also to follow them to look at the work-ups of the sector. And I think that they are also equally important. And this is something that we need to look at. For example, in some of the cases, you find that some of the work-ups in the sector have actually been denied the right of acquisition. You know, really, they could not allow us to really have to share it. This actually is depending for some time. And equally, how the tendency and possibility to blow up in the face of all, if it is not well managed. And the elections are coming. We need to also look at that. If we are looking at the infrastructure, you look at the people that are making the infrastructure also work very well. So I think this aspect should be managed together with the infrastructure. All right. The Mr. Dambatt or Dr. Dambatt talked about certain, you know, effects of courses, you know, of the issues we have with telecoms infrastructure and the reasons why they do not work or may not work. And some of the things he mentioned are situations to do with host communities and their attitudes towards protecting the telecoms infrastructure. He talked about hostile, host communities. He talked about diesel theft. It's quite interesting to hear that people will go steal the diesel that is mental power. These are telecoms infrastructure. Maybe he's talking about base stations. The other things he mentioned, but all this have to do with the protection of this infrastructure by the host community. He says that it will be difficult to communicate with family and friends over long distances and conduct banking and insurance activities, access to government and other social services. So what strategy can be employed, you know, apart from seeing this, you know, at a forum like this, which a lot of those who are involved in some of these activities may not even be following, what strategies can be employed by the telecommunications sector, stakeholders there, both the government and the private sector to ensure we don't have this vandalization that he's talking about. Okay, yes. You are absolutely ready to join and bring to the network that the communities and infrastructure lie into the overall architecture of managing this infrastructure. In most cases, what you find out is the breakdown of communication. This leads to a lot of agitation by host communities and also lack of information, the right information about the impact and how these infrastructure actually affect the local community. These are some of the reasons why you find a lot of these agitations around there. In some cases, you find someone who has a position close to himself thinking that, yes, he's going to kill me and there is no right education for such a person to know that this is not actually correct, that all of these are actually having, yes, you might say they have an effect to work at what distances. All this kind of education needs to be given to all these host communities properly, not that we go there and fight base stations and then people are passing on information and they have to say, you know, against those infrastructure. So these have to be well managed. And then in terms of the intent, yes, this is something that is so common, you know, and happens all the time. It brings also the importance of the host communities. For example, when you put something, you put the base station somewhere and they're put in the city, if the local community are also charged with keeping the security of those infrastructures. And the key is that this is also beneficial for them. I think we can also do the impact of the steps we need to do. And secondly, the kind of solution that the office also, I mean, employee on those sites also could actually go in long ways to protect what has been put there. So all in all, these are real risks and real interests that are there for telecom infrastructure in Nigeria, not only telecom infrastructure, but the current economic conditions are leading a lot of people to believe that they can be passed money from the telecom infrastructure, you know, but at least if we involve more of the local community, the local vigilante and so on to make sure that these infrastructures are well-secured, then we can do the impact of that as well. So are you saying the NCC has not, or even the Ministry of Communications if they're involved in this? And the stakeholders have not done the needful to get the communities to buy in into protecting these, now we can call them critical infrastructure, critical telecoms infrastructure. Are you saying they've not done the work? I mean, do they need to embark on more sensitization campaigns? Do they need to probably appoint people in the communities to, because talk about vigilantes, you know, at least we will do not work without something in the stomach or something in the pocket. So do they need to appoint, maybe have community telecoms, you know, ambassadors or committees to protect these infrastructure because some of these infrastructure, from what I'm seeing, we have five optic cables. I have seen in states across the country how these cables are laid, you know, in some states, the government to lay the cables all through, some states private telecoms, telcos will lay the cables and you have to really take them to dig deep to get these cables out. So it's not something you can do overnight. So it seems that some sort of people are turning the other way, looking the other way and not really concerned about it. What do they need to do specifically to get the communities to take ownership of these infrastructure? Do the communities even know when the cables are being laid? Now we're talking about 5G. Do they go to meet them? So this is what we are doing here. We want you to come and see. Okay, so we need you to know that this is for you. This is what this cable we are laying here is meant to achieve. Sometimes people don't even just see, you know, technical people digging up the ground and laying these cables. They don't know what they are for. So what specifically does the NCC, the Minister of Communications, the private sector, even your association need to do to get the community to buy in? Is it more sensitization in all the local languages, et cetera? Thank you very much. Actually, let me start from the last part, between our union. Okay, what we are always talking about is that the people that are responsible for the first line of maintenance and also taking care of these infrastructure. Something to be fired about that are being needed. I tell you, there is a lot of marginalization and constant victimization of these resources. Sometime back in the early this year, our union went, we embarked on a warning strike, which was to call the attention of all stakeholders that is the operators themselves, the NCC, the Ministry of Communication, to the fact that the first line of defense that we have against all marginalization, intentional or non-intentional, these people are being marginalized. They are being treated and they just count as nothing. We have almost like 1,000 resources working day in, day out, night and day to make sure that all these things keep on, I mean, keep on being live and not disrupted in any way. But unfortunately, everyone seems to have forgotten that we have these soldiers on the field doing these things. So that is actually the first thing. So we've actually called on the operators and also the vendors equally to call them to come and do what is necessary. You know, look into their well-being, look into their welfare, when in some cases, people, the resources we are talking about, the staff we are talking about, they use their money, their added money to transport themselves from one place to the other to decide, you know. In this case, you don't expect effectiveness and efficiency. So this is the first part, which is the most important actually. And secondly, when you look for the most community, yes, we need to do more in terms of awareness. For example, you are laying a table with someone thinking that it's carrying water. He's thinking, okay, this is maybe a water pipe or something, or I can use it for so-so-so and so on. So now, time also erodes the information that they have. For example, when you have this cable laid through a community, and there is no proper documentation even within the local community that the cable are laid through so-so portion of the road for the community itself. Then after some time, after some years, someone will go in there maybe during the construction and then begin that, you know, before you know what it is going. So when you pay attention to the welfare and the proper tools of trade of the engineers that are on this side on those routes, then they can easily drive through. Maybe if it's going to be the length of 100 kilometers at least one or three times a week, then if you make it easier to control this kind of, you know, vandalization. So when this is not there and the guy there is supposed to do this does not even have the necessary tools of trade. Most importantly, the vehicle with which they can apply the use then you'll find that this is in half way. So this goes hand in hand and we've already been calling on all the stakeholders including the ministry to look into this and make sure that we can quickly and quickly attend to this, you know. All right, all right. Very interesting views you shared with us. I want to thank you so much for your time or pay me, Tom Orree, who is president of the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria. Looking forward to having you here sometime in the future. All right, all right. Appreciate your time. And that's the size of that conversation. We'll be back with more discussions. The Liga State House of Assembly has passed a motion on girl child protection. We'll discuss that in a jiffy. Stay with us.