By Emmanuel Elebeke & Laju Iren

When Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State blew the whistle that the state was challenged in the payment of the salaries of her civil servants, it came as a shocking to some.  The statement was a further confirmation of claims by President Muhammadu Buhari that 27 out of 36 states in the federation were having challenges paying salaries.

Speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting at the Government Office Annex, Warri, the governor had said: “The larger Nigerian government has been in financial crisis over dwindling oil prices. Increased production would have helped cushion the impact, but instead, we are faced with the destruction of oil assets.”

According to the governor, “Before now we received up to N20 billion monthly, but what we have now is so low. Last time we got N3.4 billion. Last month, what we received dropped to N3 billion. We now get 1/7th of what we used to have.”

The governor also disclosed that though he met a wage bill of N7.4 billion when he resumed office, with biometrics and rationalization, the wage bill has been trimmed to about N6.8billion.

IF the proposed plan by the Federal Government to revive the ailing Nigerian Postal Service is anything to go by, then Nigerians should expect  a holistic turn-around in the system when the new ICT Master plan is finally implemented.

The Minister of Communication,  Mr. Adebayo Shittu, who gave this cheering insight at a function in Abuja recently, said that NIPOST would cease to be a conservative  agency as it is presently and become  a service oriented conglomerate, capable of competing with its peers  across the globe.

Service delivery

“We have new initiatives we are bringing on board, so NIPOST will leave this conservative postal service outlook to become a very big conglomerate in service delivery. We will deploy services not only in the urban areas but also in villages,” the minister assured.

He further  reiterated the determination of the present administration to establish the first ICT University in sub Saharan Africa. The idea, he said, was driven by the desire to groom a new breed of manpower for Nigeria in view of the exponential growth being recorded in the sector.

Shittu, who was on a facility tour at the galaxy Backbone, spoke passionately about the  university, saying that the issue of establishing the institution was so dear to his heart and promised that government would do everything possible to ensure its establishment, as the first of its kind in Africa that would serve as breeding ground for high level research and training of ICT professionals across.

“The issue that is very dear to my heart is the establishment of an ICT university, which will be the first of its kind in Africa. ICT is beyond class room teaching of computers today.

“The aim of this university is to establish an institution dedicated to the training of high level experience man power for the industry, in view of the exponential growth of ICT in Nigeria.

“With the six campuses of Digital Bridge Institute currently being hosted by the NCC, we hope that we will take ICT training and research to very high level.

“We know that in very many advanced countries, there are dedicated universities for the training of man power on ICT.      We want to replicate this in Nigeria. Once we get the nod of the FEC, we would commence the establishment of an implementation committee to guide the process of transforming DBI into Nigeria or West Africa ICT University,” he explained.

Earlier in his address, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Galaxy Backbone, Mallam Yusuf Kazaure, told the minister that the agency    is currently working hard to ensure the national data centre is adequately protected. In doing that, he said that the agency is providing a pervasive infrastructure that would accommodate all government institutions and agencies.

In a related development, Shittu again restated the need for the establishment of an ICT University in Nigeria, while receiving the members of the Editorial Board of Kakaaki Magazine who presented him with the Democracy Man of the Year 2016 recently.

Establishment of an ICT University

“We are working on an ICT University which will be the first in Africa. It will train high calibre personnel that will service the ICT industry,” said the Minister who disclosed that the recently compiled ICT Roadmap 2016 will soon become operational.

Shittu who received the Editorial Board of Kakaaki Magazine, a flagship personality profiling publication in his office on Wednesday added that as part of the implementation of the ICT Roadmap, some activities, seminars and sensitization programmes will be rolled out in the next few weeks.

Telecoms industry

He said,” by the time the Roadmap must have been in operation before the end of next month, most of what we are doing here will be known to Nigerians. Every Nigerian is affected by what the telecoms industry is doing.”

Working relationship

The Minister who acknowledged that the ICT industry is a new terrain for him, said he was able to achieve certain feats since assumption of office because of the amiable working relationship he has with the Permanent Secretary, Arc. Sonny Echono, the directors and other management team in the ministry.

Presenting the award and magazine to the minister, the Group Chairman/ Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Chief Tai Olusoccer said the selection committee of the magazine found Shittu worthy of this year’s award because of his unprecedented achievements in the sector within a short period of time even though he is not an ICT expert.