The Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, has said the Federal Government has concluded plans to establish an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) university. The proposed ICT school, he said, is informed by the low-ranking of Nigeria in terms of development when compared to other African countries’growths.
At the yearly lecture of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering held at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), the minister urged the academy to partner with the ministry to set up the ICT school, which, he assured, would be “run as a public-private partnership”.
Shittu said since ICT had become an enabler of growth in modern time, it was time Nigeria filled the gap in the ICT industry by equipping its youths with requisite knowledge.
He said: “I want to invite your academy to partner with the Ministry of Communications in setting up of the ICT University. If your academy is favourably disposed towards that, we are prepared to cede one of the six campuses to you, so we can jointly run it to ensure that our youths get the best ICT training.”
He said he would play an intermediary role between the academy and the Federal Government for whatever contact the academy might need to make the partnership successful.
The guest lecturer, Prof Michael Adewumi, who spoke on: Training engineers for the global century, said he believed Nigeria needed to train globally-competitive and locally-relevant engineers.
To achieve this, he said engineering training must surmount the problems of one-dimensional training, ignorance of local context and the expectation of employment in multinationals upon graduation.
The lecturer at Pennsylvania State University in the United States (U.S.) maintained that local knowledge must be fully harnessed.
“To train a successful engineer, we must have a seamless integration between what they already experience and what they need to know. For example, while teaching gaming theory or probability, why not focus on the game of ayo instead of baseball,” he said.
Adewunmi also said three-dimensional education, which involves diversifying the curriculum, as well as creativ1e application of solutions from the local to global stage is essential if Nigeria is to have locally-relevant engineers.
The event featured induction of new fellows and presentation of life achievement awards to selected professionals.
Former Minister of Works and Housing Senator Barnabas Germade, who was inducted, lauded the selection process of the award, saying: “It is the application of engineering laws that qualifies anyone to become a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.”
(The Nation)
