Why goverment should invest in ICT, by Alaafin

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111, has stressed the need for a detailed action plan that consists of various programmes and activities with corresponding timeline to re-position tertiary institutions for new standard of education and learning in the current global digital world.
Oba Adeyemi made the observation in Oyo town at the commissioning of a multi-million naira Information and Communication Technology (ICT) building donated by wife of the Oyo State Governor, Florence Ajimobi, to the Ajayi Crowther University.
Alaafin said the importance of ICT in world affairs, especially in areas of products and services efficiency arising from developments in information technologies and decision-making systems is phenomena.
“IT industry has come a long way to its current shape where it is playing a very dominant role in our every sphere of life. It has made revolutionary changes in information gathering and dissemination as well as in global communication. It is creating a virtually paperless work environment. Also, we can now send a message very easily to anywhere in the world in seconds.
“From education point of view, we can have a virtual class where the instructor could sit in any part of the world and his students scattered in various parts of the world through video conference with presentation of study materials as well as question and answer sessions. A doctor now sitting in any part of the world could perform a surgery where the patient is lying in another part of the world’’.
He submitted that efficiencies in service delivery and application of high tech in governance have led to improvements in socio-economic development of nations, adding that requisite yardsticks are utilised to measure developments, which, when applied across board serves as a
platform for determining which nation has a faster growth rate.
“Depending on what futuristic technologies are paramount in her source of wealth, nations can be considered to have sustainable and dependable economies’’.
Citing the powers of ICT, through the invention of Cable News Network (CNN) which defeated the cold war between the socialists and capitalists, the paramount ruler asserted that “it is obvious that our tertiary institutions have key roles to play in overcoming the digital divide, preparing globally competitive human capital, providing intellectual IT services, technology transfer and adaptation, as well as identifying opportunities and inequities in the process.
“To a reasonable extent, universities in the developed countries have been up to these tasks, especially when one considers the contribution of the academia to the development of the internet and web Technologies. Despite, the fact that Nigeria tertiary educational sector is confronted by a myriad of challenges, such as widening gap between the number of students and available infrastructures, high costs of access to IT tools and services, as well as the rapid changes in technology amongst others, we cannot afford to be left behind’’.
Alaafin pointed out that IT adds value to the knowledge economy and will make Nigeria competitive, adding that with the pivotal role IT is playing in world economy, it is a good judgement and planning to invest in the tertiary institutions, which statutorily serve as the bedrock of knowledge economy ecosystem, since tertiary institutions have been the centres for innovation and technological development.
The paramount ruler commended wife of the governor for her sense of reasoning, resilience for the downtrodden, and for deeming it necessary and essential to provide an ICT centre for the university.
In his comment, Governor Abiola Ajimobi described the Alaafin as an epitome of knowledge and visionary ruler whose commitments toward well-beings of his people, human advancement and national development are second to none.