Some reasons have been adduced to why the Federal Executive
Council (FEC) rejected the memo seeking to establish the Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) University by the Minister of Communications,
Barr. Adebayo Shittu, reports ITRealms.
According to the Minister in a recent chat with newsmen,
although the President, Muhammadu Buhari was reportedly full of commendations on
the initiative, yet, the position of the government was hinged on the enormous fiscal
demands it will place on government at a time such as now, when existing higher
institutions where in scarcity
of fund.
As said by Shittu, the Federal Executive Council believes
that the proposed partnership funding by the private sector and other
international donors should be more evident before any government commitment
can be asserted.
“For me, maybe the Federal Government did not see what I saw
but since we are in a democracy, I cannot force my ideas on the majority
because it is a game of minority have their say but majority have their way,”
he declared.
Shittu said he is not relenting on the ICT University initiative,
as there are plans to continue to explore the good will within the ICT sector
in order to rally more private sector to buy into the vision.
He emphasized that since there is no need for fresh built
out of campuses from the scratch, “but run on existing currently used by the
Digital Bridge Institute, I believe we can revisit the initiative.”
ITRealms recalls that the proposed ICT University has been
massively opposed by some parts of the ICT sector who believe Nigeria has
enough universities that require ICT upgrading across board than diversion of
attention in the name of ICT University initiative.
Chuks Egbune with additional report from Digivision/GEE
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Pix; Shittu with Lai Mohammed and Prof. Adewale at FEC meeting recently
