Dateline November 2, 2016: I have not seen the working papers
for the 'University of ICT' endeavour. Quite honestly, I will not like to be
recruited into planning a University of ICT. I will be excited to be part of an
effort to develop an ICT Innovation and Development Centre which strengthens
the DBI (Digital Bridge Institute) structures may achieve.
I have not followed the trajectory of DBI for some time
though. It's objective at inception however aligns with the aspiration I
expressed above. Somehow, my reading is that the DBI endeavour didn't fly. I
have never known why.
What I conceive as ICT innovation and Development Centre is
(NOT University of ICT please, and kindly mind my emphasis all through) already
addressed in an opinion I floated a few years ago when I was still active in
the industry. I have yet to moderate myself on the subject.
The Centre I have in mind shall recruit brilliant, smart,
graduates of any discipline to train for a period of about 30 - 40 months of
rigorous curricular on innovative applications of the Science of ICT in
business, the professions, and governance.
The course structure may include Science of ICT, digital
communication, information security, Innovation, software engineering,
entrepreneurship and business, fabrication, robotics, knowledge management and
law. I leave experts to firm all those details up.
The Faculty shall comprise of experts invited from industry
and academia from anywhere in the globe to the extent of what the Centre can
afford.
It is the quality of equipment for training that makes this
Centre different from a typical University and a deliberate desire to take it
away from structures such as National University Commission (NUC) where its
mandate may be lost to politics of the land and the 'job for the boys' syndrome
that we are known for.
The Centre is not a Centre for all but a world-class Centre
for extremely clever individuals who may have to be normally sponsored by
industry players to whom they also return after their training.
Recruitment into the Centre will be strictly on merit and it
shall be taken away from the apron of government. It should be a
self-sustaining business and not receive government handout in any form.
When I said DBI could transform into it, I meant that the
Centre could purchase the infrastructure of DBI if the idea that DBI transforms
to it is accepted or if DBI is available for sale. If it is not, then the
Centre should be built from scratch while DBI keeps soldiering on.
In our clime, Government ownership, and therefore a
collateral subjugation of any vision to the pressures of politics, has made
enough mess of our ability to nurture the kind of minds that can rapidly put us
and our businesses on the world map.
I'm not designing a perfect structure but flying a kite
which a multi-disciplinary team of experts will work out. Not for Government to
fund but for government to promote and genuinely support.
*Courtesy: Titi
Omo-Ettu Observatory at November 2, 2016, as input into an endeavour to
establish a University of ICT for Nigeria.
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