Heads of Information and Communications Technology, ICT, Directorates in Nigeria’s Higher Institutions have formed a Committee for professional growth and institutionalize the use of technology in tertiary schools. In this interview, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. DANIEL INUSA YAKMUT spoke with Daily Commerce in detail about the Committee. Excerpt:
DC: Could you tell us about the COMDICT-NTI?
Yakmut: The Committee of Directors of ICT of Nigerian Tertiary Institutions, COMDICT-NTI is not a very new Committee. Way back in 2007, the directors of ICT of Nigerian universities were usually called for a meeting by the National University Commission, NUC. It was at one of the forums the idea of forming the committee was conceived. If you observe the universities, for example, have a committee of vice chancellors, committee of registrars etc. The ICT directorate is a very important department in the university or any higher institution especially now that ICT has become critical in running the institutions. It is for that reason we started the committee of ICT directors of Nigerian universities.
I was the acting director ICT of the University of Jos for a short period before the present Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Tanko Ishaya, was appointed the substantive director. The Committee nominated me as the Interim Secretary and we conducted an election where Prof. Ishaya emerged the first substantive Chairman of the Committee of ICT Directors of Nigerian Universities with membership spanning private, state, and federal universities in 2007. The association became dysfunctional because of the instability of the appointments of directors by the institutions. Some people were appointed directors for just a year or two. If you are not a director of ICT, you cannot continue to be a member of the Committee. So that affected the leadership. Prof. Ishaya had to leave the Committee immediately he ceased to be the Director of ICT and became a Deputy Vice Chancellor. So, the Committee was not functioning.
The Committee was revived recently when the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, created a platform where heads of ICT directorates of public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education meet. This gives us a formidable avenue to have a committee with broader and stronger membership. This time, because the membership of the revived association extends beyond universities, we needed a constitution that will guide and accommodate all of us. For now, only members from public tertiary institutions can be admitted to the Committee. This is because the platform, TETFUND, which brought us together does not have a place for private owned tertiary institutions. We are hoping to bring private institutions into membership in the near future.
DC: What are the specific objectives of COMDICT-NTI?
Yakmut: We want professional growth. We want to institutionalize the use of technology in our schools, embedding technology in all the aspects of operations of the universities, polytechnics and the colleges of education. Two, we want to standardize the position of directors of ICT in our tertiary institutions because if a director is not serving for two to four years in the office, instability will make it impossible for the ICT development of the institutions.
Another important objective of COMDICT-NTI is that we want to standardize the leadership of ICT Directorates, making it a career properly. We are working with the Nigeria Computer Society on a career path. When the document is ready, we will send it to the appropriate government institutions for approval. It is not good that some institutions don’t have a clear career path for ICT directors despite that some of us are professors or Ph.D holders.
We are bringing all the stakeholders together. The universities and institutions have suffered from the supply of fake equipment because there was no control. We are not going to control how contracts are awarded but we are going to ensure that standards are met. So we’ll make sure that people who are quacks don’t get in to do things as usual. We will make sure that people who do business with the institutions are professionals because we are also members of the Computer Society of Nigeria and Computer Professionals of Nigeria, we are also carrying the burden to ensure that standards are observed in the institutions. We’ll advocate this constantly.
We also want to cement the relationship between funding partners such as the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, NITDA, NCC, Galaxy Backbone, TETFUND and the tertiary institutions towards prioritizing funding of ICT projects. In the year 2015, TETFUND formally enlisted ICT as one of its areas of annual intervention in the institutions. Even though the fund was small, we are very happy. The TETFUND’s ICT director has been consistent in trying to see this improving over time. And it has been improving to the point that we got N100 million from N10 million received at the start.
We want to work closely with these funding partners by telling them what exactly our ICT needs are. Sometimes they intervene, but not really what we would have preferred. The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, for example, is creating a fiber network in my university (University of Jos). Not that I don’t have a fiber network, but I have new locations, which I was actually thinking of putting fiber in. And then here they come. That became very timely.
So our Committee is going to work with all of these partners. We are hoping after the inauguration, we will visit the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy and other critical stakeholders to discuss important areas where our institutions need ICT intervention for global competitiveness.
DC: How do you admit members to COMDICT-NTI?
Yakmut: If you are appointed a director of ICT in your institution, you write to us. For example, if you are taking over from a previous director, definitely he will introduce you to the association. Note that in the constitution we just reviewed, you cannot be an EXCO, if you have less than two years to spend in the office as a director of ICT in your institution. This is to address the challenge of the incessant leadership vacuum we used to have.
After our inauguration, we will officially register all the public higher institutions so that membership will now be institutional not individual based. We will announce the registration fee and other conditions and terms for membership. All institutions will receive a letter, and then they will pay a subscription fee to the association annually so that anybody who is appointed a director of ICT in his/her institution automatically becomes a member of COMDICT-NTI. But you must always show evidence that you have been appointed a director by sending a letter and notification, because that will also help us to update our register and know when members will be exiting.
For now, we have brought everybody on board, but when the EXCO gets inaugurated, we will do a clean-up of the membership. Everybody will resubmit his documents. Then we will now create a register so that we will clearly know when you started and when your tenure is going to end as the director of ICT in your institution. That will help us keep track of changes among our membership. Yes, the membership will be dynamic. We are hoping that every year we will be getting one or two new members. Some will be leaving, some will be coming in.
DC: Are your employers and other stakeholders pleased with the birth of COMDICT-NT?
Yakmut: There is no conflict of interest. We are not a trade union. So, that’s very clear. Our members are also members of individual associations and unions. First, we are a non-governmental organization, promoting ICT in the tertiary institutions. So, there will be no protest from us. We will continue to engage and dialogue. There will be no strike from us. We cannot do that. But our members belong to either ASUU, SANU, NASU and others.
I think our employers will be happy. By the time we engage, they will understand that we’re going to solve quite a lot of problems for them. For example, if a Vice-Chancellor goes before NUC or NCC to argue something about technology, we’ll put more weight to it. So, we see them as our bosses and partners to ensure that technology thrives in the institutions. And I’m happy that through TETFUND, we’ve been having engagements with our employers. So there are meetings where we are both invited. We all sit as equals and speak as partners for the progress of higher education in Nigeria. So they know that what we are doing is for the growth of the institutions.
We have taken the burden of advocacy. But most times before we advocate, we would have discussed with them to understand what they are also thinking. Or we also give them our own perspective of the matter, then we’ll put it together and then we’ll move on.
DC: The inauguration ceremony of your Executives Council is holding on November 23rd, what is the significance of that ceremony?
Yakmut: The significance of the ceremony is to tell the world that we have arrived and we are here to stay. We are here to change the narratives in our institutions as far as ICT is concerned. After our inauguration, we’ll hit the ground running. The first task is to visit all the critical parastatals, ministries and other stakeholders, including private sector partners. We’ve started discussing with private partners, some of them hopefully, will attend the inauguration. They will be there to give goodwill messages because they are partnering with us. The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy and heads of government agencies will be there. Equipment manufacturers and important vendors will be there too.
DC: What are the challenges?
First challenge is acceptability. But we’ll create awareness so that people understand us and know that we are not a threat to the government or to anybody. Also, bringing diverse people from different institutions together may not be easy but we will make sure everybody is being carried along. We are hoping that we will come up with several funding ways to address the challenge of financing. The EXCOs are dispersed in different parts of the country, how do we run such an organization where people are not in one place? So it’s a challenge that we will demonstrate to the world that it is possible and we are going to do that.
DC: What are your appeals to the government?
Yakmut: We want to assure the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that it has found a one-stop-shop body of ICT Directors to advise and give any other support his government needed in terms of technological development of our higher institutions. COMDICT-NTI can serve as a great body for the government to consult for their planning, budgeting and interventions.
Also, we call on the government to invest in technology for education. That will solve substantial problems in our schools. The initial capital outlay for technological investment will be huge but by the time you put the infrastructure on ground, the only thing that you need to do is renewal from time to time. And you will see costs dropping down in terms of running the institutions. I’m happy, we are beginning to see some of the few government policies such as what the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA is doing in terms of interventions in our institutions. I will call on all the agencies to engage with us. And they will see improvement because we will tell them how it is on the ground. Because we are the ones living under the roof, we know where it’s leaking.
