Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Following his meritorious service to the country, and humanity for several decades, High Chief Reuben Muoka, Director of Public Affairs (DPA) in the Public Affairs Department (PAD) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has bowed out of the foremost telecoms sector regulatory institution after 18 years of meritorious service.

Muoka, who joined the NCC 2007 as a Principal Manager, was deployed to the Public Affairs Department, where he rose from the ranks to become the Head, Media and Public Relations Unit.

From the rank of Principal Manager, he later became an Assistant Director in 2010, and by 2015, as a Deputy Director, appointed to head the re-engineered Public Relations Unit of the PAD.

In 2017, he was redeployed to the Policy, Competition and Economic Analysis Department to head the Economic Analysis Unit of Department.

He was promoted to position of the Director of Public Affairs, June 2022, ultimately becoming the voice, and bridge between the foremost telecoms sector regulator and the public.

ConsumerConnect reports the outgoing DPA’s tenure of office at the NCC was marked by professionalism, empathy, and excellence in public relations.

Muoka brought a unique warmth to corporate communications, blending policy with people, and strategy with sincerity.

Reputed for his humility, calmness, camaraderie, and understanding, Muoka simply exemplified professionalism in public communication.

His contributions to the image and credibility of the NCC are not only outstanding but deeply exemplary.

While in the employ of the Commission, he brought clarity to policy communications, tact to stakeholder engagement, and integrity to his assignments and responsibilities.

Reflecting on his journey, Muoka was quoted to have said: “When I started out as a young ICT reporter, I couldn’t have imagined the path my career would take.

“But I have been truly blessed—to tell Nigeria’s tech story from the newsroom, to promote innovation from the boardroom, and to engage the public from a national platform.

“It’s been a rewarding cycle, and I’m deeply grateful.”

As Muoka begins a fresh chapter, tributes from colleagues, journalists, regulators, and industry players have continued to pour in.

The industry stakeholders have commented not just on his professional achievements but also of Muoka’s strength of character—steady, thoughtful, collaborative, and always ready to listen.

The Commission’s outgoing image maker has built bridges, nurtured relationships, and set standards while in public service.

Muoka’s public service trajectory

The Management of the Nigerian Communications Commission had appointed Muoka, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) journalist and public relations practitioner, as its new Director of Public Affairs (DPA).

Muoka, who took over from Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, assumed duties as the Director of Special Duties Department of the Commission.

Earlier, he was in 2021, appointed to head the Special Duties Department, which superintends the International Relations Unit; Emergency Communication Centres Unit; the Public Private Partnership Unit; and the Security Services Unit of the Commission.

He moved to become the Director of the Department before his current redeployment to lead the Public Affairs Department, the arm of the Commission mandated to manage the image and visibility of Nigeria’s telecoms regulator and a leading light of the Nigerian public service.

Until his appointment into the commission, Reuben Muoka had been a long-standing ICT reporter and public relations practitioner.

The Public Affairs Unit of the Commission is not a new Department to Mouka, as he was formerly a Principal Officer under late Dr. Eugene Juwah and Dr. (Engr.) Ernest Ndukwe for some years.

From 2009 to 2015, he was the Head of Media and Public Relations until the appointment of Prof. Umar Danbatta, the immediate past Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (EVC/CEO) of NCC.

Upon his exiting the print media, Muoka became the Corporate Affairs Manager at MTS First Mobile, a pioneer company in mobile communication in Nigeria.

He was a one-time president of the League of Communications Correspondents in Nigeria, a body that supports ICT journalists to become professional ICT reporters.

Muoka, in the last 18 years at the NCC, has brought his rich and versatile experience in both specialised and traditional journalism, public relations, Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), corporate communications, and people management to bear on the Commission’s vision to expand the frontiers of its public goodwill and the impact of its reputational assets.

A former Deputy Communications Editor of the Vanguard Newspapers, former Deputy General Manager at MTS First Wireless (Nigeria’s first mobile telephone operator),

Muoka earned an M.Sc. Degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos (UNILAG), specialising in Public Relations and Advertising, where he had earlier successfully completed a Postgraduate Diploma (PGD) in the same field of Mass Communication.

Much earlier, he had obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Performing Arts at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN).

Muoka received a Fellowship of the Egyptian Embassy in Nigeria to undertake a Pan-African training and tour of Egypt in 1999, leading to an award of a Diploma Certificate in Journalism at the instance of the Egyptian Ministry of Information, and the African Journalists Union (AJU), in Cairo, Egypt.

As the Chairman of the League of Communications Correspondents (LECCO), Muoka led his colleagues to give voice and focus to the advocacy for the liberalisation and deregulation of the telecoms industry in Nigeria in the 1990s.

During his active days in journalism at Vanguard Newspapers, Muoka served concurrently as Africa’s Contributing Editor to the London-based Communications Week for four years, beginning from 1998, during which he undertook copious reportage of the African telecoms landscape.

The London-based magazine shared Muoka’s work to an enthusiastic global audience in a rare showcase of Africa’s promise as a flourishing point for the emergent converging telecommunications industry.

Between 1995 and 2001, Mr Muoka leveraged his expertise to provide part-time public relations consultancy to notable companies and institutions in the telecommunications industry, including the Nigerian Mobile Communications Limited, Abuja; Multi-links Telecommunications Limited, Lagos; Satellite Telecommunications Limited, Lagos; Pulse Marketing Communications Limited, Lagos; and the Nigerian Communications Commission, Abuja, years before he joined the Commission as a staff.

Muoka is a member of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ); a full member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (mnipr); and an Associate Member of the Registered Practitioners of Advertising (arpa), regulated by the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON).

Under his leadership, Muoka’s team in Public Affairs Department of NCC, as key internal stakeholders in the Commission’s re-engineering processes, met the Federal Government’s expectations for a robust telecommunications sector and remarkably emergent digital economy, report stated.

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