By any standards, Government College, Ughelli Old Boys Association (GCUOBA) must be one of the most active old students associations in the country. It is one of those schools whose old boys (most of them respected elder statesmen and accomplished individuals) retain an active interest in all matters concerning their alma mater.

lGCUOBA President-General, Mr Godwin T.S. Adokpaye

Founded in 1945, 65 years ago by a British-born, Australian, late Mr Vaughn Barcham Villiers Powell (OBE), the old boys are gathering tomorrow at the National theatre, Iganmu, in Lagos, for a seminar to commemorate the 65th anniversary of GCU. the semionar has as its theme, Nigeria’s Educational System in the Internet Age, and the guest speaker expected is Mr gerald Ilukwe, managing Director/CEO, Galaxy Backbone.

The event, to be presided over by Rear Admiral Godwin Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd), will also feature a pre-seminar exhibition. Last Monday, a GCUOBA delegation visited Vanguard, led by its President-General Worldwide, Mr Godwin T.S. Adokpaye.

In a chat with Vanguard editors, Mr. Adokpaye said that GCUOBA decided to go the way of ICT in marking the anniversary because of the role that ICT can play in national development.

“We want to commemorate the founding of this school because most kids in this country do not as yet have access to computers. We have spent a lot of money improving our school,   hundreds of millions of naira in building the schools and we were not using government money.

But in this day and age, we realize the potential that IT has for developing the nation. That is why we are holding this seminar with the theme “Nigeria Educational System in the Internet Age”.

“You are asking me why IT? It  is because we have what it takes. My colleagues told me that the best institution for IT in this country used to be the University of Ife.  Now, it’s between University of Ife and Covenant University and University of Ilorin.

Before, on  a global ranking, the IT department in University of Ife was rated 7,752 in the world, and 98 in Africa. This figures are what alarmed us to know that today, the world is being led by IT.

Nigeria is the greatest  black nation in the world. One out of every five black men is a Nigerian and we are having a population of 150 million. How can we maintain the pride for ourselves with low IT skills, when it is that same IT that drives everything in the world today? Like I said earlier, we are ringing the bell so that people can hear that something has to be done about IT, something revolutionary that can change our educational system.

That is what is happening around the world. Nigeria must change; that is why we are having this seminar. the guest speaker is going to be the CEO of  Galaxy Backbone,  Mr.Gerald  Ilukwe, who was also CEO of Microsoft Nigeria.

Ndubusi Kanu. Also expected at the programme is Senate Committee Chairman on Education will also expected to co-Chair the occasion. I have a letter from David Mark last week commending us on this.

The One Laptop Per Child policy is one of the instruments through which this initiative can be achieved, but there has been a problem of capacity by the Original Equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

They assemble computers. There is also this problem of funding. There is also the problem of quality for the laptops to be affordable, that is why people are talking about 100 dollar laptop which in our economy cannot be more than N14,000. I do not know if you are looking at that side.

My view is that a laptop should be in the hands of every child. The child should have a laptop and use it and grow with it. He will look for a bigger one as he matures.

I want to tell you that Africa will never grow if we do not have a national ICT policy. Our schools should be equipped with ICT.

Right now, our children leave this country to go school in South Africa, in Accra under our very eyes. This not good.America that doing all that it is doing , going to the moon and all that did those things due to the type of attention they pay to ICT. There is enough resources in this country, both human and material resources to develop ICT in Nigeria.

The problem is lack of political will by the political class. we need the government to put our money where the heart of the people are. How do you think politicians can be made to be interested in ICT?

I do not know why people think that ICT is very expensive. In my time, there was no IT in schools. Calculators, when they came were taken up then. ICT has not grown in this country over all these period. I think what happen is that the good of ICT is the content. When we excel in other areas of human knowledge, we have allowed such knowledge to drop with the advent of rigidity and an exodus of qualified people from this country.

There should be a national policy to develop ICT education in Nigeria. Let the youth come around IT to learn. The schools should have access to IT services in the right places and should be sustained. It should not be something that will be dropped after sometime. This is the call we are making because IT is too important to be neglected in national policy.