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Tag: Ahmed Joda

  • For technology, the men who saw tomorrow and their dream – By Okoh Aihe

    For technology, the men who saw tomorrow and their dream – By Okoh Aihe

    By Okoh Aihe

    For nearly two years the global digital ecosystem has altered drastically. Social relationship has taken a tumble, leaving solitude and individualism as necessary evils to accommodate. Education services delivering are oscillating between online and in-person, a nuanced hybrid that puts so much pressure on digital tools and network build out. Businesses are searching for new approaches to regain verve and speed, away from the chaos they were thrown into. The airline and hospitality industries suffered a knockout punch and are still reeling to regain some little pride and little of the prestige they were once associated with.

    COVID-19 and it’s mutated variants has hit the world so hard, that even now, the fear of the pandemic is more real than the actual disease, forcing governments, policy makers and corporates, among others, to endure some incontinent arbitrariness in decision making and policy formulations.

    I have found myself in solitary moments trying to contemplate what the situation would have been if the nation didn’t have the good fortune to pry open the telecommunications industry in 2001, when the tipping point of the sector began? A friend has told me that the media is always looking back at that particular year to project the good things that have happened in our telecommunications industry ever since.

    My little response was inspired by some elders in my village in Edo State who would always say that when you continue to talk about the dead before the living, you are only reminding the living that they are not doing enough to rival the performance of the departed.

    I will restrict myself only to the telecommunications industry where some great things happened at the time, and the momentum is such that the present is a beneficiary. My question lately is whether the leadership of the telecommunications regulatory agency, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), of Engr Ernest Ndukwe, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) and late Ahmed Joda (Chairman) saw tomorrow by setting up some of the programmes that would live proudly into the future?

    In their time, they set up the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), structured to train manpower for the telecommunications industry, the Advanced Digital Appreciation Programme for Tertiary Institutions (ADAPTI), aimed at bridging the digital divide existing in the academia with the provision of computers and other ICT tools to equip lecturers and other ICT experts, and the Digital Awareness Programme (DAP), which is a special intervention programme to address the digital information knowledge gap in the country, especially among the youthful population. This was directed mainly at the high schools.

    Call them the basic tools we should have in our institutions but we didn’t have them. Nobody contemplated that a few years down the line that the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations would be computer based. Nobody projected that pedagogy would be online and that corporate executives and workers in various offices would have to work from home. My little friend never contemplated that she would be living in Atlanta and be going to work every day in California, a flight time of nearly five hours. Welcome to the new world where COVID-19 regulates the activities of humanity.

    But some gentlemen saw tomorrow in Nigeria and tried to prepare the nation for a life of the future which would come soon enough.

    This is a good story which may be suffering some momentary impairment. One can almost say that there will be so many computer boxes in schools across the nation that can hardly come alive when powered. It means the purpose of their deployment may have been damaged willy-nilly.

    What would have been if these projects were never put in place and what would also have been if the implementation has been faithfully followed?

    An industry source told me that those projects were developed with very good intentions but sustainability has been a problem. There are duplications of efforts by different agencies of government, so that on one site there could be so many boxes that wouldn’t work. The source also informed that bandwidth has become a big problem because when computer boxes are placed in locations without connection to the internet, they can be used only for training purposes. There is also a suggestion that the schooled-based computer projects should be taken over by individuals of goodwill in other to effectively manage the cost of maintenance.

    This writer will want to suggest an auditing process of the various initiatives to determine their functionality and usability. An impact analysis is necessary to ascertain whether anybody is benefiting apart from those who supply the tools.

    In a world where COVID-19 is a bizarre reminder of the bleak life awaiting countries without requisite investment in information technology, it may be necessary to ask whether Nigeria is doing well. One is aware that in October 2019, the Nigerian Government renamed the Ministry of Communications as the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, saying the action was taken in order to “properly position and empower the ministry to fulfil its digital economy objectives”.

    Apart from the usual bravura of blowing one’s trumpet, has any impact been made? Wiley Digital Skills Gap Index (DGSI) 2021 has an answer for us.

    Wiley leveraged on its global network and expertise in education and workforce development to compile the Digital Skills Gap (DSGI) 2021, which ranks 134 economies based on a battery of global indicators reflecting how advanced and prepared an economy is with the digital skills needed for sustained growth, recovery, and prosperity.

    The Digital Skills Gap Index 2021 was built on six pillars; Digital Skills Institutions,

    Digital Responsiveness, Government Support, Supply, Demand & Competitiveness,

    Data Ethics & Integrity, and Research Intensity.

    Put on this scale, Nigeria came out at number 103, far behind some other African countries like Kenya, Rwanda, Egypt, Tunisia, and South Africa, just to name a few. What is clear is that in terms of digital tools and infrastructure, usage, acquisition, application and pedagogy, among others, Nigeria is not doing well at all.

    There is the need to shed this billowing spirit of arrogance and retool for a better future for the nation and her people.

  • Ahmed Joda: Buhari arrives Yola on condolence visit

    Ahmed Joda: Buhari arrives Yola on condolence visit

    President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived at the Yola International Airport, Adamawa to pay a condolence visit to the family of the late Ahmed Joda.

    The late Joda was the Chairman of the Buhari Transition Committee in 2015.

    Buhari is also expected to first visit the palace of the Lamido of Adamawa, Mohammadu Aliu Barkin.

    On the ground to receive the President was the Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintri; his Chief of Staff, Prof Maxwell Gidado; the minister of the FCT, Mohammed Bello; heads of security agencies in the state and members of the State Executive Council.

    Buhari had earlier in a condolence message, described the late Joda as a trustworthy and loyal companion “who steadfastly stood for the interest of the nation through highs and lows”.

    He said his demise is a great loss to Adamawa State and the country at large.

  • Ahmed Joda: They don’t come in such packs anymore, By Okoh Aihe

    Ahmed Joda: They don’t come in such packs anymore, By Okoh Aihe

    Okoh Aihe

    When Ahmed Joda was a super Permanent Secretary in the Gen. Yakubu Gown administration, I was still in the primary school in the years that Nigeria lost its innocence to the Civil War. Years later, when I had the rare opportunity to work at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), after graduating from the University and working in two media houses, Joda was the Chairman of the Board, still dashing around the place like an old man with the heart of a child but fully replenished with the wisdom of the sage.

    One day, at the ITU Telecom Africa which held in Cairo, Egypt, from May 4 – 8, 2004, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, then Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), was making a presentation in one of the halls at the conference centre. At one end of the centre, I met Joda who requested I escort him to the hall if I knew the place.

    I didn’t need to be asked twice. I had lots of respect for Joda who was compact as my grandfather who died at the age of 115. Until the very end my grandfather saw clearly except for the last few days when his earthly journey was on its final leg.

    On this very day I found myself running to catch up with Joda even when I was the one pointing the way. I was in the media world then working with Vanguard; I thought I had energy and some momentum within me, but here I was losing out on a short walk, to an old man who was already a Perm Sec at a time all my clothing, including rags, couldn’t fill a small box.

    I had heard of his failing health a couple of days to his final moments and I said a quiet prayer for him. God really should have a special place for those who have impacted our world meaningfully with their passionate commitment and a determined resilience to register impossible developmental feats in very challenging times.

    Joining the NCC in 2008 availed me with the opportunity to work closely with him and to observe the very special relationship between him and Engr. Ndukwe, which prized open the telecommunications industry and democratized telecom products that were once upon a time associated only with the rich.

    Contacted to comment on the death of the former Chairman of the NCC Board, Engr. Ndukwe sent this statement, which is here reproduced:

    A short Eulogy to Ahmed Joda, OFR, CON

    Friday afternoon around 2pm, a distinguished patriot, departed this mortal world to the great beyond at the age of 91years. Ahmed Joda or Baba, as we all fondly called him, was a great, fair minded, energetic, detribalised, disciplined, humane, urbane and intellectually astute Nigerian. It was a privilege and a pleasure to have worked with him as chairman of the board of the Nigerian Communications Commission when I served as EVC/CEO for 10 years. He was very professional in chairing meetings and never allowed emotions to becloud his judgment. He was a man of great intellect and integrity which earned him the respect of the board, management and staff of the Commission. I join all his family, friends and associates to celebrate this colossus and there’s no doubt that he will be sorely missed. May his noble and illustrious soul Rest in Peace.

    Ernest C Ndukwe,

    Engr. Ndukwe only tried to be restrained in words in order to constrain his emotions. There was a special relationship between the two, midwifed by talent hunter, former President Olusegun Obasanjo. When he became President in 1999, telecommunications was one industry that occupied a special place in his determination to open up the country to modern development. The economy had been left in tatters by previous governments and there was the need for structured rebuilding in order to convince the rest of the world, that we are still a nation with more potentials than can be debated.

    Obasanjo reached out to his old friend, Ahmed Joda and also got Engr Ndukwe from the private sector to interpret his dream. Backed by a new Telecoms Policy and a Communications Act that previous governments had never really allowed to operate, the duo breathed life into the NCC and that raised the pillars of a new industry.

    The journalists who covered the Digital Mobile License (DML) Auctions in January 2001 would readily confess that but for the shrewdness of Ahmed Joda and the technical competence of Engr. Ndukwe, fully backed by a President who wanted to make a difference, what became popularly known as the GSM auctions would have gone the Nigerian way where a few businessmen and those with varied connections would have been awarded the licenses.

    But not under Ahmed Joda. Those who came with an entitlement mentality waiting to be announced as winners within hours soon found out that the gentlemen in charge were as dispassionate and impersonal as the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) that would be introduced two decades later into the game of football, to help the Centre Referee and his Linesmen make the right or near accurate decisions. The Management of NCC whose Board was chaired by Joda, made the right decisions.

    That was a glorious moment for Nigeria and a huge publicity masterstroke for Obasanjo who clearly needed every good moment to validate the rebirthing of a new nation. At $285m per license to three winners and a reserved one for Nitel, it was one of the largest investments coming into the country, and this amount did not include the large sums that would be ploughed into service and network rollout.

    It wasn’t all about the industry. Under Joda, the NCC also paid detailed attention to building a human capital base which was insulated to poaching by the operators with their deep pockets. The story was often told that, faced with very dire situation of staff exodus from the regulatory agency, Joda and Ndukwe went to the President to complain of the clear and present danger threatening the nascent industry. Without prevarications, Obasanjo resolved that problem.

    For the sake of the industry, Joda could march to Obasanjo and look at him in the face to make his presentation or remonstration. He got results.

    Nobody can square up with death forever. August 13, 2021 was his appointment with eternity. Like John Dryden put it in the Poem, Mac Flecknoe, “When fate summons, monarchs must obey.”

    Joda has responded to that inevitable summon but he leaves a transcendental personality and performance that even the ephemerality of time cannot attenuate. You may not see that distant, disguised smile on the face of the old man any more but the industry should not forget the tiny voice from a smallish man that changed our world. His is a journey and a rest well deserved.

    Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

     

  • How late Ahmed Joda prevented Nigeria from breaking up in 1966 – Obasanjo

    How late Ahmed Joda prevented Nigeria from breaking up in 1966 – Obasanjo

    Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has described as “heartbreaking”, the death of elder statesman Ahmed Joda, who died on Friday at the age of 91.

    In a statement on Friday signed by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo said the late Joda was his friend for about 60 years.

    The ex-President explained that the late former Federal Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information saved the unity of Nigeria shortly after the 1966 coup d’état when others insisted that Nigeria should collapse.

    Obasanjo described Joda “as not just a Nigerian, but, a true and great Nigerian, committed to unity, development and progress of the country”.

    “Oh! What a heartbreaking news, that my friend for well over 60 years has passed to the great beyond. If every Nigerian have the attributes of Joda, Nigeria will have been better than what it is now.

    “Ahmed Joda by his feature did not need to tell you is a Fulani man, but, in everything I know he did, he lived not just as a Fulani man, he lived, he worked and he laboured as a true Nigerian. They are not many like him, and that was what strengthens our relationship since 1959,” Obasanjo was quoted to have said.

    He said that they met when he was a Second Lieutenant in the Nigeria Army and Joda was a Deputy Chief Information Officer in the Federal Civil service.

    Obasanjo recalled that the effort of Joda and his other Super Permanent Secretaries as they were fondly called in the then civil service saved Nigeria in 1966.

    According to the former President, “I know that if not for people like Joda and other Senior Permanent Secretaries as they were called Super Permanent Secretary as at that time, after the second upheaval of 1966, after the first upheaval we would have had Nigeria broken into pieces. Because Araba was bent on having Nigeria divided.

    “But, it was Ahmed Joda and other Super Permanent Secretaries (senior civil servants) like Philip Asiodu, Liman Ciroma, Alison Ayida who prevailed not to have Nigeria broken up.

    “Well, Dear Ahmed, you have served your family, your community. You have served your country and indeed humanity, you have done your best, including working for the transition between the Buhari administration and Jonathan administration.

    “You have done your best working with me on the progress and programme of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library. You have done your best on becoming the Chancellor of Bells University. We love you, but God loves you best. Rest permanently in the bosom of Allah,” Obasanjo added.

  • Buhari, Fintiri, Obasanjo, Atiku mourn late elder statesman Ahmed Joda

    Buhari, Fintiri, Obasanjo, Atiku mourn late elder statesman Ahmed Joda

    President Muhammadu Buhari has joined growing list of influential Nigerians to pay tributes to pioneer civil servant and elder statesman Alhaji Ahmed Joda, who died after a prolonged illness in his hometown, Yola, Adamawa State at the age of 91.

    The Governor Ahmadu Fintiri led Adamawa State Government, former president Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubaka also mourned the late elder statesman, describing him as an astute administrator and detribalised Nigerian.

    President Buhari highlighted Joda’s “monumental contributions to Nigeria’s unity and progress,” from birth of the nation until his death, saying, “his lofty ideals will continue to motivate millions across the nation.”

    “We will not forget his sacrifices,” he added. He also noted that the late ‘Super Permanent Secretary’, as Joda and some of his colleagues were referred to in the 70s, “distinguished himself as a remarkable scholar, journalist, intellectual, public servant and farmer.”

    President Buhari called Joda “a hero for all Nigerians” who, even in death, “will continue to inspire every generation to move forward with love, brotherhood and harmony.”

    Governor Fintiri in a condolence message released by his Press Secretary, Mr Humwhashi Wonosikou on Friday said Joda was an experienced career public servant, an epitome of discipline and integrity.
    “I received the news of the death of our father and grandfather with shock and sadness.
    “This came at a time his wealth of experience and wisdom, were most needed.
    “I am, however, consoled that he lived an exemplary life and left a legacy of selfless service to the community,” Fintiri said.
    He noted that the death of Joda was a great loss not only for Adamawa but Nigeria as a whole.

    The governor prayed for the repose of the soul of the deceased and for Almighty Allah to grant the family, friends and associates the fortitude to bear the loss.

    “Joda was a father and statesman, who displayed genuine love to all and sundry,” Fintiri said.

    In a condolence message by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, Buhari prayed to Allah to accept Joda’s good deeds and grant fortitude to those he left behind in his family, Adamawa Emirate Council and entire people of the state to bear the loss.

    Obasanjo, while reacting to Joda’s death through his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, described the deceased as not just a Nigerian, but also a true and great Nigerian, who was committed to the unity, development and progress of the country.

    He said: “Oh! What a heart breaking news, that my friend for well over 60 years have passed to the great beyond. If every Nigerian has the attributes of Joda, Nigeria will have been better than what it is now.

    “Ahmed Joda, by his feature, did not need to tell you he is a Fulani man. But in everything I know he did, he lived not just as a Fulani man; he lived, he worked and he laboured as a true Nigerian. There are not many like him, and that was what strengthened our relationship since 1959,” Obasanjo said.

    Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar in a statement he personally signed and released on Friday said: “Today, our beautiful Adamawa State has lost a colossus. Indeed, an iroko tree has fallen in Nigeria, particularly Northern Nigeria.

    The news of the death of Alhaji Ahmed Joda, CFR comes with some kind of a jolt even though he lived to a prime age.

    He belonged to the first generation of Adamawa indigenes who put our state and the North in the map of modern Nigeria.

    His stature as an accomplished administrator was towering and colourful. He was a shining star in the galaxy of Nigeria’s public servants.

    Ahmed Joda, with a few of his peers, wrote the rule book of Nigeria’s civil service and his footprints will remain indelible.

    As we mourn this great Nigerian with immense contribution to the growth of our country, we pray that the Almighty Allah accepts his soul and provides his family with fortitude to bear the loss of a forthright and iconic patriarch.”

  • BREAKING: Buhari’s 2015 transition chairman, Ahmed Joda is dead

    BREAKING: Buhari’s 2015 transition chairman, Ahmed Joda is dead

    Elder statesman who led the 2015 Transition Committee of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, Ahmed Joda, is dead.

    Report of Joda’s death was related to TheNewsGuru (TNG) by some friends and family members on Friday.

    Joda was a retired Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Industries, and rose to become one of the super Permanent Secretaries under the military government of Gen Yakubu Gowon (retd.) in the 1970s.

    He served as chairman and board member of various companies including; the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Nigerian Communications Commission, Pastoral Resolve, Chagoury Group, and the Flour Mills of Nigeria.

    He was also a member of the 1988 Constituent Assembly which planned the constitutional transition of the Third Nigerian Republic.

    In 1999, he was appointed in the committee to advise the Olusegun Obasanjo’s Presidency on Poverty Alleviation and in 2015, he headed the Muhammadu Buhari presidential transition.