Minister of Communications, Barrister Abdul-Raheem Adebayo Shittu has declared that the proposed first Information and Communications Technology (ICT), University in Nigeria will have only 30% admission opportunities for undergraduate students.
He, however, informed that the remaining 70% will be the training and retraining of graduates in courses such as Post Graduate Diplomas, Masters degrees and Doctorate degree programs.
Shittu made these disclosures while speaking at a Media Chart organised by South West Group of Online Publishers (SWEGOP) held on Saturday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
He said that the university to which some people have kicked against its establishment considering the number of existing universities that are still struggling to compete with their peers in other parts of the world, would be free to operate on its own phase and free from government bureaucratic bottleneck.
Shittu who remarked that the university will provide opportunities for training and re-training of thousands of unemployed graduates, youths, government workers, agencies, departments, security agents and experts, policy makers and other ICT users would be tailored to compete favourably with its peers that are already existing and working in countries such as China and Norway.
He then informed that the university which will have campuses in all the six geo-political zones of the country will be run on Public Private Partnership arrangement.
He said that one of the reasons the need arose for the establishment of the ICT university separate and to be run independently of the existing ones is that the ministry and the entire ICT industry does not have control over any of the existing universities, its faculties or departments.
Shittu also declared that about 240 graduates recruited illegally by NITDA, one of the agencies under his ministry had to be sacked because they were employed through back doors without adequate knowledge in ICT.
He said that the ministry trained and re-equipped the illegally recruited workers to serve as relief for them to become employers of labour on their own, saying that the ICT university when established would take care of such training and re-training in the nearest future.
Shittu who said that he is aware that most graduates are ill-equipped to work in the ICT industry due to the lack of facilities and other needed materials also explained that the graduates would receive post-graduate courses in the proposed university.
“NITDA recruited 240 graduates illegally, we had to sack all of them because they don’t have the knowledge, but as a relief, we started to re-equipped them to become employers of labour.
“If that is the case, it means our graduates are ill-equipped as workers for the ICT industry. If we have such university, it will open doors for those who want to study ICT after their first degrees.
“Yes, if I am not appointed as Minister of Communications, I may be thinking in that manner, but the existing universities about 150 of them, how many students can they admit out of 1.7 million candidates that wrote UTME, maybe 200 thousand or 150 thousand. We don’t have control over the existing universities, we don’t have control over them.
“This university will be based on PPP arrangement, and google, Motorola, Ericsson and other ICT companies will adopt some of its campuses, they will bring their technologies, their faculties and expertise to which they don’t have in the existing universities. You have such in China and Norway. Why don’t we have it here?
“30 percent will be for undergraduate courses and 70 percent for Masters and Doctorate programs. The ICT university will not be tied with government bureaucracy”.
Contrary to insinuations that he contributed little as a minister to the development of Oyo State where he hails from, Shittu declared that he had contributed more than anyone as a minister from the state having facilitated projects worth over N350 million since assumption of office less than two years ago.
“I have facilitated over 350 million naira projects, there is an ICT centre worth 280 million naira in Oke-Ogun, ICT facility at Saki Parapo worth 80 million, there are some in Ogbomoso, Sepeteri, Kishi, and Ibadan. I know that opportunities comes but once.
“If you have anybody complaining about my ambition, you have to ask what is problem is, is he fighting proxy war or he want to be governor.
“They call me fanatic, some of them don’t know the meaning of fanatic. Because I would not drink, I will not steal they are calling me names. The poor people in Oyo State will know that I am not stingy. I am not a minister under PDP where they have money in their disposal, I am a minister under Buhari. It is unfortunate that the Aseyin said that, but it is a minority outburst. People, even prominent traditional rulers have called me that I should ignore it.
Shittu then insisted that for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state to get it right in 2019, it must conduct free and fair primaries so as not to repeat the recent defeat in the Osun West Senatorial bye election.
“I can assure you that Ajimobi will raise my hands. But I insisted on primary, it will give room for the most credible candidate to emerge, among all of us, you see I am the only one that is insisting on primary election. It is not that because I am a minister that is why I want to become governor, no if I leave office now I will say Alhamdulillahi, but that does not mean I will not purse the governorship ambition. The post has exposed me and gave me edge to be the most qualified.
“The APC is better educated with what happened in Osun West recently, gone are the days when somebody will sit down somewhere and say this is the person we want. The era of what they called it, impunity is gone.
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