THE Chairman, Senate Committee in ICT and Cybercrime, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, on Monday said the existing law on communication in Nigeria is not strong enough to generate adequate revenue for the economic development of the nation.
Senator Buhari, who said this while fielding question from journalists in Ogbomoso, lamented that the communication sector is generating about five per cent of the total income to the nation’s revenue, which according to him, was very poor.
“Our law is not forceful and impactful enough. Take for instance, MTN, Airtel, Etisalat, Glo and other service providers they are not using our satellite, on the excuses that we only have one but they make profit in Nigeria and use it to develop the economy of other countries. That is capital flight; we will stop it.”
Buhari disclosed that the National Assembly was looking at the issue with the hope of reviewing the existing law and make necessary recommendations and amendments to the effect, to ensure economic prosperity of the nation.
“The Senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki, told us recently to sit up within the telecommunication sector and called the stakeholders to contribute their own input for us to bring a bill into the National Assembly that would compel the service providers to patronise us instead of sending our country’s money to boost another nations’ economy,” Buhari said.
He concluded that the efforts are going on to make a law that would make ICT a compulsory subject in the secondary school, saying, “We have potentials in Nigeria, if we are able to implement at the secondary schools level, our youth would make a huge be a contribution they are going to make into the economy.”
Speaking on the state of the nation, Dr Buhari who represents Oyo North Senatorial districts at the upper chamber said, Nigerians should be patience with president Buhari led administration with an assurance that there will be light at the end of the tunnel.
