By Adekunle Adekoya
ASABA — The nation’s political class is yet to buy into information and communications technology as a tool for national development, says Acting Chairman of the Board of National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Mallam Mohammed Bullama.

Bullama made the remark in his goodwill message at the opening ceremony of the 23rd National Conference of the Nigeria Computer Society in Asaba, the Delta State capital, yesterday. Bullama, who commended the executive of the Nigeria Computer Society for their choice of theme of this year’s conference, noted that the theme, Ralising a Stable Democratic Political System in Nigeria: IT Tools and Strategies, was apt,  as the nation prepares for another round of general elections.

His words, “there is no way you can re-engineer this country by whatever means in whichever manner without information and communications technology. So, the theme of this year’s conference is very apt. We at NITDA have noted that the political class is yet to buy into IT as a tool for national development and are working on that. As you can see, there are no members of the National Assembly here, just the professionals.”

In his welcome address, chairman of occasion, the Asagba of Asaba, HRM Professor Chike Edozien, represented by the Olikeze of Asaba, Chief John Iloba, said  “Computer science is now ruling the world and it behoves on us to key into it.

In past elections, we voted and ballots were counted and kept somewhere. If computer science is keyed into the electoral process, we will have credible elections since the entire voting system will have been preserved in computers.”

I commend the NCS for the theme of their conference, and hope that at the end, the conference will bring us good tidings,” he added.

NCS President, Professor Charles Uwadia, told the gathering that the society chose the theme because the nation is attaining 50 years of independence, and as such is a time “for sober reflection over our experiences, achievements and challenges so far in our journey towards becoming a truly great nation. As Nigerians and stakeholders, we owe it a duty to our motherland to join the discourse of making the country a better place for all of us through the instrumentality of information technology”.

Uwadia then told the gathering that NCS had been engaging the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on how to implement an IT-driven electoral system.