Women groups have honoured the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, with an award for his role in women empowerment in the country.
According to a statement by the Commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, the award was conferred on Professor Danbatta yesterday at the celebration of the 2022 International Women’s Day by the Kano Civil Society Forum (KCSF), an umbrella body of over 200 women’s rights groups, which organized the event in conjunction with the Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Studies of Bayero University Kano (BUK)
The statement said that the NCC boss was scheduled to present awards to various women who have distinguished themselves in different endeavours, but was surprised that the beneficiaries of various youth entrepreneur skills and other empowerment progarmmes of both the Commission and his personal charity foundation, Danbatta Charity Foundation (NCF), ambushed him with their own prizes to him.
Professor Danbatta was also presented with another award by the Centre for Democratic Studies, Mumbayya House, even as KCSF also presented their award of recognition to him.
The statement said that Professor Danbatta had earlier addressed the audience, saying that he is a strong believer of the potentiality of womenfolk and that he has never hesitated to entrust responsibilities to his female colleagues because he has always found them to be very reliable when assigned with official tasks.
“I am a very, very strong believer of the tremendous potentiality of members of the womenfolk. And they do it with such finesse, not with any aggression like men do. Women, by their very nature, are tender. They attend to whatever they are doing with finesse in a very careful manner. And they deliver on targets given to them before deadlines.”
NCC Boss said that he has never given an assignment to any of the women in the Commission which was not delivered before the deadline, “to the extent that, ladies and gentlemen, I am always comfortable to have a woman chair committee, whenever there is a need.”
H e stressed that his respect for women is natural to him, adding that it is one of the values his late mother inculcated in him.
“We now have women in every sector of the economy, in every area of human endeavour. We have them as engineers, medical doctors, seasoned administrators, name it. In the commission I am heading we have 4 female directors. The Director of Zonal Operations is a woman. The Director of Policy competition, and Economic Analysis is a woman, and also a lawyer. Equally, the Director of Legal and Regulatory Services is a woman, and lastly the Director of Projects. And I am not saying this out of any disrespect for the womenfolk. Far from that. Importantly, more than 50% of the workforce in NCC is made up of women.”
The NCC boss said that the Commission is committed to bridging the gender-oriented digital divide, which is why the NCC has put, in the front burner, the need to expose girls and young women to more opportunities in the digital ecosystem, in line with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) resolution 70, which advocates gender mainstreaming and promotion of gender equality, as well as the empowerment of women through information and communications technology (ICT).
The EVC boss later commissioned the e-library of the Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Studies, an arm of Bayero University, which was donated by the Commission in line with the Federal Government’s commitment to the promotion of digital economy programmes.
