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  • Ambode launches free public WiFi

    Ambode launches free public WiFi

    Lagos State government yesterday launched free public Wi-Fi at parks and gardens in its resolve to achieve its smart mega city status.

    The initiative was kick-started at popular Ndubuisi Kkanu Park,Alausa, Ikeja, while others are expected to follow suit, according to the state government.

    The launch of the initiative is part of activities to mark the 50 year anniversary of the creation of the state.

    Speaking on the occasion, the state Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode said the provision of the free Wi-Fi was part of his administration’s effort to make the state work for all and sundry.

    Represented by the state Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. OlufemiOdubiyi, the governor stressed that the increased in patronage of parks and gardens spread across the state has prompted the government to equip the centres with free Wi-Fi to serve the needs of visitors to the parks.

    “Parks and Gardens are established to provide conducive environment for recreation and relaxation activities. As you relax and enjoy the recreational facilities in these parks, we are making it possible for you to access your mail, browse and search the internet on your tablets, smart phones and laptops via a reliable public Wi-Fi,”Ambode said, adding that the number of gardens and parks in the state has increased with the opening of the Badagry Recreation Park, recently.

    A statement endorsed by the Chief Public Affairs Officer, Ministry of Science and Technology, Bolarinwa Yusuf, explained that the governor urged the people of the state to make judicious use of the newly launched portal known as “Citizens Gate”, a platform designed by the government to bridge the communication gap between the citizens and the government.

  • Kogi raises the alarm over plans by Melaye -sponsored group to cause public disorder

    The Kogi State government has called on the security operatives to hold Senator Dino Melaye who represents Kogi West at the National Assembly, responsible for any breakdown of law and order in the state.

    The government raised the alarm over alleged plans by pro- Melaye elements to destabilize the state. The government said it was crying out “in view of the fact that the arranged pro-Melaye protest sponsored by the senator and scheduled for today (Saturday) in the state will be hijacked, and result to political hostilities and security chaos”.

    Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Commander Jerry Omodara (retd.) who said this in Lokoja urged the senator to call his supporters to order, over their planned protest over last week’s reported assassination attempt on the senator.

    He stated that: “It has become imperative to address the nagging political hostilities from certain quarters which is fast snowballing into a serious challenge in the our state. You are all aware of the allegation raised by Senator Dino Melaye representing Kogi West Senatorial district that there was an attempt on his life and how the whole incident was almost politicised.

    “The state government welcomes the process of investigation by the Nigeria Police, which is ongoing, to unravel the mystery behind the allegation and ensure the security of all the citizens of the state.

    “However, intelligence report at my disposal indicates plans by some supporters of Senator Dino Melaye to stage a protest at Aiyetoro-Gbedde, in support of the senator on Saturday.

    I am equally aware that some hoodlums and thugs are being recruited within and outside the state to join in the protest. “As much as we do not want the rights of the protesters inhibited, the implications of such a protest in the middle of investigations into the senator’s allegations may be grave, as some hoodlums may hijack the process to foment trouble and disturb public peace”.

    The security adviser said he was equally not unaware that some anti-Melaye group were also drumming up a counter protest of theirs on same day, stressing that these will likely lead to chaos, He said that he had already briefed the commissioner of police and other security agencies on the need to stop any form of protest for or against in Aiyetoro- Gbedde, where Senator Malaya hails from.

    “To this end, we put security agencies and Nigerians on the alert that if there is a protest on Saturday (today) and the peace of the public is disturbed, Senator Dino Melaye should be held responsible and accountable”, he said. Omodara who questioned failure by the senator’s security details to respond during the alleged attack on their principal, took a swipe on the latter for contemplating sponsorship of a protest, when the matter is still being investigated by the police.

    He said, “He reported the case to law enforcement agencies who are currently investigating the incident. Does the senator no longer have faith in the security agencies by urging or supporting some youth to take to the streets in gestapo manner and create an image of insecurity? This is not what the state need now.

    “The people of the state are yearning for development, which the current government of Alhaji Yahaya Bello is providing, and has severally solicited from all stakeholders to join hands and give our people the dividend of democracy.

  • Leadership development for public servants

    In a piece of advice directed at the management of organisations, Fionnuala Courtney stated that, “the success of leadership training always depends on how it is done. Think back to the best manager you have ever had. I’m sure you can remember the person because good leaders are memorable… and excellent leaders are unforgettable. What was it about their leadership that motivated and encouraged you? For that same reason, I bet you can also remember your worst leader. Great leaders move us and inspire us to do our best work. That said, itis important that you have effective leaders in your workplace to empower and influence your people to achieve business and team goals.”

    Courtney further stated the good news that “leaders can be created through effective leadership training” while articulating six of the big benefits that leadership training can offer any organisation. According to her submissions, any organisation, including the Lagos State Public Service, can benefit from leadership trainings as follows. First, the right, consistent leadership can increase the productivity of the people in an organisation. At its primal level, leadership is about understanding people emotionally. She stated that, in a book titled, The New Leaders, Daniel Goleman states that emotional intelligence is critical to the success of a leader. Emotional intelligence involves being smart about emotions and using empathy effectively to empower and engage employees. Leadership training that encompasses emotional intelligence can hone these emotional skills in people managers and leaders.

    Secondly, leadership training can help retain people.( Ms. Courtney stated that 75% of people voluntarily leaving jobs don’t quit their jobs but in fact ‘quit their bosses’! This means that employees leave because of ineffective managers and managers with poor leadership skills. By investing in leadership trainings, an organisation can retain its people and reduce costly recruitment expenses.

    Third, leadership trainings help nurture future leaders.( Organisations need to be strategic about developing and nurturing future leaders. Without strategy, leadership roles are often given to the most forward candidates with dominant personalities. Quality leadership is a combination of the right qualities and the right training. Identify those who have what it takes and provide them with targeted leadership training. Nurturing future leaders supports succession planning and offers career pathways to employees, further increasing retention.

    Fourth, it increases employee engagement.( We all like to know how we are progressing in our roles, receiving praise when it is well-earned and constructive feedback as necessary. In fact, 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week compared to only 18% of those with low engagement. Giving feedback is a skill of successful leaders. Through leadership trainings, organisations can teach effective ways to give feedback to motivate and increase the skill level of their people.

    Leadership trainings can assist in implementing the most appropriate leadership style for organisations and the work they do. There are several leadership styles, all with their own advantages and disadvantages. Leadership trainings can also help individual leaders develop their own personal leadership style that their team members will best respond to. Leadership

    Last, but absolutely not the least, leadership trainings can result in better decision-making. How? Because leaders functioning at a high level of emotional intelligence have the perspective to make informed, intelligent business decisions. For that reason alone, organisations can consider their leadership training investments returned.

    Indeed, the need for ensuring and assuring the efficiency and effectiveness of public institutions has never been greater than now. In a dynamic age of constant changes, it is widely agreed that institutions must have clearly-defined missions that are relevant to the needs and aspirations of its stakeholders. Following this, the human capital at the helm of leadership in these institutions must have the courage to envision a future that realizes the attainment of the defined mission of the institutions. In order to actualize the vision, however, leaders must be trained to possess both the hard and soft skills that are fundamental for success.

    It is indisputable that organisations will make rapid progress and experience exponential growth when its units and teams and departments are headed by persons who understand what leadership means and who have developed their leadership potentials and have enhanced their performance skills. To such an organisation, no problem will be too complicated, no task too herculean, no challenge too huge, and no task too complicated for it to confront head-on.

    I therefore challenge you all to join in envisioning our dear Lagos State Civil Service as an organisation where no problem will be too complicated, no task too herculean, no challenge too huge, and no task too complicated for it to confront head-on. You should therefore regard this training as yet another effort at kick-starting the monumental task of helping every officer of the public service become impactful, influential and productive to such degrees that the output of the Lagos State Civil Service will inspire our dear citizens.

    One of the leadership competencies that have proved especially indispensable is that of problem-solving skills. One of the modern writers on skills development in the workplace, Alison Doyle noted that, “In nearly every sector, problem solving is one of the key skills that employers seek…Itis hard to find a blue collar, administrative, managerial, or professional position that doesn’t require problem solving skills of some kind.” Indeed, as part of engagement and promotional interviews, it is now common place for officers to be required to describe situations they encountered in previous roles, the processes they followed to address the problems, the skills they applied, and the results of their actions. Now, behavioural scientists have been able to study and codify the ‘best-practice’ stages to solving problems. While this workshop is not directly focused on the development of this skill, I am sure that the general leadership essentials to be taught in this workshop will provide insights into how the competencies can be applied to solve problems.

     

    • Excerpts of paper presented by Akintola FCArb, Honourable Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions at the Opening Session of the 2-Day Workshop tagged: ‘Leadership Development & Performance Enhancement for Public Servants in Lagos State’.

  • Imperative of free public education, recession or no recession (2)

    The teaching profession is now much more complex than it was before the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War.

    In the first part of this article last week, we concluded that John Tosho’s verdict that provision of free and compulsory public education is one of the constitutional duties of governments could not have come at a better time. For far too long, many states had paid inadequate attention to provision of free education, just as many parents, particularly in the northern part of the country had hidden under the excuse that nobody could sanction them for not sending their children and wards to school. These attitudes had made it easy for children of school age to work as street traders in urban areas, instead of being in the classroom as should have been the case in a country that seeks to join the world of development. The outcomes have been existence in the 21st century of millions of totally illiterate children and, perhaps, of more millions without functional literacy in states where free education was provided half-heartedly by governments that could not politically afford not to provide free education but could get away with not enforcing compulsory education. The overall effect of decades of half-hearted free education has been under-preparation of young people for the challenges of living in the 21st century. Today’s column is about what needs to be done by governments and parents to ensure that investment in free and compulsory public primary education bring required benefits to the country.

    As important to citizens as ability to read and write is as one of the outcomes of public education, focus today will not be just on literacy per se but on functional literacy. When the Emir of Kano at a lecture at Oxford University recently raised the importance of literacy of millions of Nigerians in Arabic language, he was concerned with literacy per se, as ability to read and write in any language. But there is no doubt that literacy in Arabic in a country that conducts its life in Arabic is more functional than literacy in Arabic by someone who lives in a country where Arabic is not the lingua franca and only serves the purpose of religious education. While millions of Nigerians who can read and write Arabic  are theoretically literate, in functional terms, they may not be literate in Nigeria where the language of governance and business is English. Such people will, however, increase the number of literate men and women in northern Nigeria if the country adds Arabic to its official language or if any state in Nigeria declares Arabic as one of its official languages, the way English and Hausa are today in most states in the north and English and Yoruba are in the Southwest. But this is a digression that is handy to illustrate the difference between literacy qua literacy and functional literacy, i.e. form of basic education that, according to UNESCO, “stresses the acquisition of appropriate verbal, cognitive, and computational skills to accomplish practical ends in culturally specific settings.”

    Now that more parents will send their children to school to avoid being sanctioned for violating the constitution of the land, governments’ funding of education has to respond to UNESCO’s recommendation of percentage of budget required for developing countries. threshold for developing countries. School enrollment should be expected to rise by at least 25%, thus requiring more teachers, more classrooms, furniture, mouths to feed at lunchtime, and modern teaching/learning tools. Governments need to ensure that the learning environment is modern and pleasing to behold by teachers and learners. All public schools need to be conducive to learning. Using recession as excuse for not increasing allocations to primary education may no longer be good enough to explain why children of school age are vendors of local and imported or pirated commodities along highways.

    With respect to appropriate pedagogy, rote learning may no longer be useful for the new global civilisation of creative and critical use of information. Interactive, dialogical learning requires more capital-intensive teaching tools than blackboard and chalk. It requires, as has been demonstrated in more advanced countries, supply of technology-assisted teaching/learning tools, something that cannot be optimised without guaranteed access to electricity. It is risky to wait for the megawatts that had been on the list of government’s to-do programmes from Obasanjo to Buhari. There is thus a need for solar-powered schools and solar-powered laptops for students and teachers.

    Furthermore, curriculum planning requires new thinking. Apart from teaching of English and mathematics, other subjects offered should emphasise local issues: geography, history, natural science, and civics. The language of instruction in the first six years of schooling should be in children’s mother tongues while the language that holds the country together, English, is taught as a subject at every term in the six years of primary education. Mathematics must also be taught at every stage. Any state that desires to add Arabic to its curriculum may do this as optional language for students while states that share borders with Francophone countries and believe that French will be an enhancer of multicultural literacy may add French to their curriculum in the last year of primary school.

    Like everything else in life, excuses for not doing the right thing do not lead to positive transformation of any aspect of life. In general, our country and many northern states had given avalanche of excuses for not giving adequate attention to public education. This is despite governments’ preference to ignore evidence of outlandish consumption of public resources by political officers and top bureaucrats. We cannot ignore the fact that the rest of the world is leaving Nigeria behind, faster than it did at Independence and in spite of Nigeria’s great wealth from petroleum for decades. It is in recognition of the yawning gap between Nigeria and other countries that parents and politicians with deep pockets in our country send their children overseas for education.

    One level of education that has been ignored, even in states with over half-a-century of free education, is pre-school education. At present, this is being provided by entrepreneurs, who understandably make pre-school learning prohibitive for the average citizen. Given research findings that pre-school education is a major cognitive and social enhancer for children between 3 and 5 years of age, it is necessary for states to commit to providing access to pre-school learning to citizens. All advanced countries are already doing this, to remain competitive in a global market.

    Finally, regulation of private schools must be an important part of the functions of governments, especially local government. Most successful countries have moved away from the philosophy of education, curriculum, and pedagogy bequeathed by colonial governments. The teaching profession is now much more complex than it was before the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War. It is about time that National Certificate in Education was replaced by four-year degree programme in education. Our policymakers in the ministry of education may need to visit Scotland, Finland, South Korea, and Singapore, to find out why these places are global leaders in primary and secondary education.

  • Education, imperative of free public education, recession or no recession (1)

     If educating a future generation is the only investment that the governments can make at this critical time, it is worth the pain. 

    Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children—International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
    By the combined effect of section 18(3)(a) of the 1999 Constitution and section 2 (1) of the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act, 2004, the right to free and compulsory primary education and free junior secondary education for all qualified Nigerian citizens are enforceable rights in Nigeria.—Justice John Tsoho

    Despite the pains of recession, educational value seems at the instance of progressive thinkers to be on the rebound in the country.

    A recent conference of northern governors, emirs, and elders in Kaduna accepted the inevitability of education as catalyst for development in the 21st century. At the meeting, the importance of education for all – male and female – was emphasised. Before that, Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, had acted as agent of revolution in education when he made Basic Education free and compulsory in a state that was for decades synonymous with a laissez-faire approach to education for all. More recently, the Emir of Kano added his voice to calls for full commitment of northern governments to education, especially of the girl-child. He even pleaded that mosques should be made to perform its original function of mind building by adding the function of teaching secular subjects to the spiritual functions of the mosque.

    It is, therefore, salutary that John Tosho in the second epigraph above has, in a progressive jurisprudential stance, declared that it is the duty of governments in the country to provide public education up to the end of junior secondary, come rain or shine. Tosho’s judgment provides the most revolutionary view of public education in the country since the introduction of free primary education in Western Region of Nigeria in 1955. The three-day-old judgment not only confirms the justiciability of the education component of Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution; it also reaffirms the country’s obligation to fulfill expectations of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In addition, it also asserts that there is no excuse for the country to fail to carry out this constitutional function, thus sending a clear message to the Buhari government, which had also pledged through the manifesto of his party to improve education, to resist any pundits that preach caution on funding education at a time of recession.

    Tosho’s judgment will have reverberations all over Nigeria. It is not just a judgment to warn the federal government to provide funds for free education for nine years of primary and junior secondary education. It is also a judgment to wake states and local governments up to their responsibilities to citizens. In addition, the judgment also implies that education for citizens for the first nine years of schooling should be free and that parents have to see first nine years of education as compulsory. This is taking the first revolutionary act in Western Region in 1955 under the Action Group and the second such act in 1979 under the Unity Party of Nigeria further into the social and economic demands of the 21st century.

    There are other implications for subnational governments. Even in regions that served as  pacesetters for free public education as citizen empowerment from the 1950s, primary education has not been made compulsory. The recent ruling should make it obvious to states with free but not compulsory basic education that time is ripe for states to proclaim and enforce compulsory and free education. In the last four decades, public education has taken a back seat as private primary and secondary schools grew in enrollment and ‘prestige’. Even citizens who became members of the nation’s middle class from benefiting from public education chose to look away when public education was neglected.  They  enrolled (and still do) their children in private schools that are hardly regulated by the state. The result has been poor public education and seemingly better private schools with trappings of good looks and underpaid and under-prepared teachers but with little regulation from governments.

    Parents’ seeming abandonment of the rights to public education by their children and wards as they gravitate towards private schools has diminished citizens’ consciousness of what the governments’ responsibilities are towards them. Years of profligacy made possible by revenue from petroleum have also encouraged subnational governments to be lukewarm about functions that government leaders at the regional and local levels in the past performed as an act of faith and with gusto.

    Taking advantage of the non-justiciability of provision of free education in the 1999 Constitution for years, many states that were on the list of educationally-disadvantaged states in the country in the 1980s remain so, even about two decades into the new century. For example, states characterised as educationally backward in the South-south, particularly what later became Rivers, Bayelsa, and the only one in the Southwest, Lagos, grew out of the list of educationally backward states, largely through efforts of progressive governments in those states. The Tosho Judgement leaves no hiding place for states that relish in denying their citizens of their social and cultural rights.

    This column heartily congratulates the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), for its court action against the Federal Ministry of Education and the Attorney General of the Federation, in which it asked the court to determine whether by the combined effect of Section 18(3)(a) of the 1999 Constitution and Section 2 (1) of the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act, (UBE) 2004, the right to free and compulsory primary education and free junior secondary education for all qualified Nigerian citizens are enforceable rights in Nigeria. Without doubt, LEDAP’s foresight and insight that spawned the suit and the pro-human rights disposition of the judge are bound to change the direction of basic and functional education in Africa’s most populous country.

    Current or future recession cannot be a credible excuse for tampering with social rights of citizens. Even if all the revenue that accrues to the country is just whatever comes from petroleum, there still will be no reason not to provide free basic education in all states of the country. If educating a future generation is the only investment that the governments can make at this critical time, it is worth the pain. There is no sense to having 36 bureaucracies that cannot provide free basic education programme, not after the experience of free education before discovery of petroleum.  Making free education compulsory will also encourage cultural leaders, hitherto indifferent about education for all citizens, to pluck the political and cultural will needed for laying the foundation for a better future for citizens.

    For now, the Tosho Verdict signals the need for a new thinking about public education, especially at a time that the country is blessed with a government that says in its contract with citizens that education is crucial to the survival of the country in a global ethos that is universally acclaimed as the Knowledge Society. This judgment promises to be seminal to extending the nation’s education discourse to the importance of providing citizens with an education that can make them competitive in the modern world.

    • To be continued

     

     

  • Falana: stop public officials from seeking treatment abroad

    Falana: stop public officials from seeking treatment abroad

    Activist-lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) yesterday said public officials should be banned from seeking medical treatment abroad.

    This, he said, will force the government to fix the health system.

    He called for psychiatric tests for those seeking public offices as a way of checking “unprecedented” looting of public treasury.

    “Having regard to the unprecedented scale of looting of the public treasury by the ruling class, the mental state of contestants ought to be examined by psychiatrists,” Falana said.

    He also advocated the amendment of the 1999 Constitution to make it mandatory for medical reports of contestants to be submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    He said the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act should be amended to allow the public to obtain medical records of public officers.

    Falana spoke in Lagos while delivering the 11th Beko Ransome-kuti memorial lecture.

    The lawyer said instead of wasting precious time over the state of health of President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerians should join issue with the government over the parlous state of medical facilities.

    “In other words, the Nigerian people should take advantage of the President’s health to demand the provision of adequate funds to fix our hospitals which General Buhari and his colleagues described as consulting clinics in 1984.

    “The President should be made to know that the consulting clinics have since become mortuaries for the masses.

    “The practice of allowing poor citizens to die of preventable diseases while top public officers and rich private citizens are allowed to travel abroad for medical treatment can no longer be justified.

    “In line with the letter and spirit of the National Health Act, 2014 public officers should no longer be permitted to travel abroad for medical treatment at public expense,” Falana said.

    According to him, since Nigerian citizens have the right to health by the combined effect of section 17 of the Constitution and article 16 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights Act, it is high time medical facilities were fixed while drugs were made available and affordable.

    He said the usual excuse for not equipping hospitals is that funds are not available, which he said is a matter of priority and not poverty.

    Falana said: ”The life span of an average Cuban is 79 years while ours is 52. Cuba is a very poor country but education and health are free for all citizens.

    “The greatest killer disease in Africa is malaria. Not less than a million Africans are lost to malaria fever every year.

    “But the scourge of malaria can be substantially eliminated if the leaders are prepared to muster the political will to ‘offend’ the manufacturers of anti-malaria drugs by acquiring the technology to destroy malaria.

    “As far back as 1967, Cuba developed a vaccine, called larvicides that destroys malaria parasite instead of treating it.  Cuba has also developed an anti long cancer vaccine called cimavax which is expected to arrive in the United States any moment from now.”

  • NCC, Danbatta and public intellectualism

    Distinct commonalities often stand out in bold relief about most academics and intellectual heavyweights who find themselves in public service. They are usually transformational, out-of-box thinkers who swiftly roll out comprehensive blueprints, which encapsulate their vision and mission for new challenges.  Exuding supreme confidence is another trait they share, which perhaps explains why they could be daring in decision-making. Nonetheless, they won’t shy away from chipping in quality contribution to public discourse – which their intellectual cutting-edge enables them to do rather effortlessly.

    Prof Charles Chukuma Soludo probably shocked the nation’s banking industry with his audacious consolidation policy. Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s out-of-box strategy provided the shield we badly needed as a nation during the 2007 global financial meltdown. Akinwumi Adesina boldly attempted to revolutionise our agricultural sector with his business model. And, Malam Nasir el Rufai was fearless both as the Director-General of Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) and as the Minister the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    However, while Soludo as the number one banker in the country chose to consolidate, el  Rufai as the man spearheading the privatisation of the nation’s public utilities was busy unbundling the behemoth energy corporation that was supplying meagre amount of megawatts of electricity to the giant of Africa. He also midwifed the telecom sector reform we currently enjoy.

    Yet, we now have Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), who announced his entry into the telecom industry with yet another big-bang decision.  No sooner had President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him than he wielded the big regulatory stick in the nation’s telecom sector. He would follow that with his 8-Point Agenda, a roadmap of aligned strategic management policy of NCC.

    Interestingly – like Soludo or other intellectual giants mentioned above – that Danbatta has managed to mix his time-consuming assignment at the NCC with public intellectualism is something worth underlining. Indeed, it is not only the nation’s broadband that is witnessing a quantum leap in terms of expansion under Danbatta’s leadership of the NCC – growing from 10% to close to 21% as revealed by ITU-ENESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, but  his contribution to public discourse cannot go unnoticed.

    Danbatta received a standing ovation of respected colleagues last year when he presented a lecture titled, “The National Broadband Plan as a Catalyst for Social and Economic Transformation: The NCC Mandate”, at the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.

    It wasn’t the first time though that he would receive this kind of appreciation.  It is on record that the professor of telecommunications engineering was the first NCC boss to address the executive course of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS). Just last week, Danbatta wowed the academic community of University of Nigeria Nsukka after joining the league of eminent Nigerians like former President Olusegun Obasanjo to deliver the convocation symposium of the revered varsity. He spoke on the Role of ICT Infrastructure in Tertiary Education in Nigeria: NCC Intervention.

    However, it was much more than what the title suggests.  Danbatta referenced the works of renowned economists and social scientists to buttress points. He would intermittently quote from Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, Rodrick or Joseph Schumpeter.  Indeed, while the presentation was generously spiced intellectually, in terms of statistics and academic citations, Danbatta chose to draw the curtain on it with a clarion call for all and sundry to begin to see the role of digital transformation beyond the realm of statistical figures churned out by the industry.

    “We talk about the benefits of ICT and we normally do this by dishing out e-readiness indicators. We say broadband penetration is 21%, internet penetration 97%. All these are ICT-readiness indicators that do not tell the entire story,” he observed.

    He went on, “We can go beyond that and explain how ICTs have impacted to provide shared and sustainable prosperity; how ICTs have succeeded in reducing poverty; how they improve learning and make the society more open, more mobile and cohesive. And, above all, how they encourage the economy to be more competitive and innovative. These are the ends of digital transformation and not the input-output figures we normally reel out.”

    For Professor Danbatta, “It is in Nigeria’s national interest to harness potentials that exist in the information-driven age through the deployment and exploitation of ICT to facilitate socio-economic development and improvement of the human condition.”

    He said the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) are now grappling with a broadband divide in addition to infrastructure, knowledge and information divides. “Of the world’s over five billion broadband subscriptions, North America and European Union control over 50% while South America and Sub-Saharan Africa, where Nigeria belongs,  account for only 3% of this global share,” he lamented.

    Yet, as Danbatta continues to use the platforms of different public forums to spray us generously with his intellectual perfume, we must not lose sight of the fact that the industry he superintends over has also shown remarkable performance during his tenure.

    Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (BPE) shows that in spite of the challenging waters of economic downturn the nation is waddling through, the telecom sector was, last year, contributing between N 1.4 trillion to N1.5 trillion to the GDP, the highest it has recorded in its history.  The industry is hoping that the trend will be sustained for a very long time. And it has Danbatta who is not short both the passion and the blueprint to ensure that.

     

    • Musa, Special Adviser (Media) to the EVC-NCC wrote in from Abuja.

  • ‘Copy Lagos’ public defence service’

    The United States Ambassador to Nigeria Stuart Symington has recommended the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender (OPD) as a model for other states seeking to provide free legal services to the indigent.

    He spoke last weekend at the Trial Advocacy Training for state counsel organised by the OPD in collaboration with US-based National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) and Lawyers Without Borders.

    Symington, who was represented by the embassy’s Director of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Rosalyn Wiese, said he appreciated “the wonderful work being done at the OPD.”

    “It is exciting to witness this productive and mutually beneficial partnership between the U.S. and the Nigeria justice sectors,” he added.

    OPD Director Bukola Salami said the training had left “an indelible mark.”

    The programme featured three U.S. federal judges, Justices Ann Williams of the Court of Appeals, George Washington of the San Diego County Superior Court, California and Margo Brodie of New York District Court.

    The judges, with 18 lawyers from both countries, provided a four-day free training for 68 state counsel from the OPD and Ministry of Justice in, among others, the art of examination-in-chief and cross-examination.

  • House Committee seeks public hearing on airport concession

    The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation said yesterday that it will call for public hearing with stakeholders to discuss the proposed concession of some airport terminals by Federal Government.

    The committee also expressed dissatisfaction with the slow pace of work at the new international terminal being constructed by the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company.

    The committee said given the current pace of work, the contractors may not be able to deliver the project in December.

    Its Chairman, Hon Nkieruka Onyejiocha said the public hearing will enable the lawmakers get the input of industry players on the proposed concession.

    She said concession may not be the best way to go as it will mean giving out airports that are yielding revenue to government.

  • Buhari’ll restore public education glory, says APC chieftain

    All Progressive Congress (APC) Chairman in Benue State, Comrade Abba Yaro, has assured pupils that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari will restore the glory of primary education in the county.

    Addressing pupils of St Theresa’s Primary School, Makurdi, when they visited him, he said the APC manifesto placed priority on laying a solid foundation for educational development of the youth.

    He said during the 16 years of Peoples democratic Party (PDP) rule primary school education was neglected, thereby giving advantage to private school owners to exploit parents by increasing schools fees yearly.

    An APC chieftain, Chief John Akperashi, called on the government to free parents from the stranglehold of private school owners by upgrading public schools.

    The former House of Representative candidate for Kwande/Ushongo federal constituency praised the steps taken by APC administration to reposition education in the country and called for support from stakeholders.