The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications Technology, Dr. Tunji Olaopa, on Wednesday advocated the adoption of information communication and technology (ICT) by Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as a vehicle to drive the present administration strategic change agenda.
Speaking at the ministry’s August 2015 In-House seminar with the theme: ‘Change Management,’ which was organised in collaboration with the Nihilent Group, in Abuja, Olaopa admitted that it was gladdening to note that President Muhammadu Buhari, has shown considerable interest to drive his administration’s change agenda, using ICT platform.
“For me, all that we need is for the government across board to give sufficient recognition to ICT like the president, especially through e-governance and every other thing will follow,” he said.
According to him, it makes a whole lot of sense to get those who are core in the implementation of policy in the ministry to understand the import of the statement that the president has said, that ICT is strategic for his change agenda, and to begin to anticipate what that change would mean in the course of his pronouncement around the cost of governance, deploying of technology to fight corruption, crime, job creation and infrastructural growth.
Olaopa said: “I had the priviledge a few days ago to be with President Muhammadu Buhari, and I had reason to invite his attention to the ITU report on the progress Nigeria is making in ICT sector. He showed clarity in saying with firm words, that ICT is strategic for his change agenda. That he is going to give the ICT sector a critical priority.
“I don’t think any leader in the public sector needs more statement from his principal, so I returned back to the office and I called the management of the ministry, and we resolved that following on that queue from the President, we need to begin to prepare the ministry so that we can be as strategic as the president wants us to be. And there is no better time to consider than to now allow our August 2015 In House Seminar to focus on Change Management.” On the slow pace of broadband deployment, he said: “Well, broadband development is making progress here and even in the most advanced countries of the world they still keep investing in broadband.
“The implementation of the broadband then becomes a priority for a government that wants ICT to be strategic because it is the backbone for the entire ICT, telecommunications and for a smart nation in the direction of a better society. Our saying is that we will now profile the key priority for the pressure points that the government should be looking at with broadband as number one and then getting the government to move decisively in the direction of really seeing how the resources that is made available can be better utilise the purpose of infrastructure development in the sector.”
He said government across the three tiers should find ways of resolving the right of way (RoWs) in the course of deployment of information technology infrastructure, as this has been a hindrance to infrastructural deployment across the country, adding: “That the president should intervene on behalf of the ministry means that he will have to take up with all the governors, local government chairmen to recognise and understand that our attitude to RoW is only going to be a hindrance to making progress in all dimension of development.”
In a remark, the General Manger of Nihilent, West Africa, Mr. Shohel Noor, said the qickest way to curb corruption in governance is to have a paradigm shift from manual to using ICT application.
He said: “Talking about change, Nihilent in the last two and half years has been involved in using ICT across the world as change strategy in evolving good governance. On transforming the government using ICT, and what we have been using is a programme called e-governance support on change initiatives using ICT.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Dele Ogbodo
Quelle/Source: THISDAY Live, 06.08.2015
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