The absence of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami among other factors, the public hearing on the Bill to abolish the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) was stopped.
The Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Abdullah, was also absent from the hearing.
The Director General of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Umar Danbatta, and other stakeholders also failed to appear at the public hearing.
The hearing was convened by the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on ICT and Cyber Security and took place on Friday in Abuja.
Chairman of the joint committee, Yakubu Oseni, said the bill was intended to provide for the administration, implementation and regulation of information technology systems and practices, as well as the digital economy in Nigeria and related matters.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that only Oseni and Mr. Ibrahim Hadejia (APC-Jigawa) were present, while four members of the House of Representatives: Isiaka Ibrahim, Samsudeen Bello, Zaiyad Ibrahim and Idem Unyime were present.
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Invited stakeholders included ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of federal and state governments, civil society organizations and the entire business community, among others.
The joint committee invited stakeholders and the general public to the event, apart from the heads of critical MDAs in the communication sector.
Stakeholders described the bill as important to the Nigerian economy but also controversial as it arrogated the powers of existing government agencies such as the NITDA agency.
They argued that the bill sought to make NITDA a mega regulator of regulators in the country, following the provisions of the bill.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who was represented by a member of the Senate, Sabi Abdullahi, officiated the inauguration of the event.
(IN)
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