The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani has said the Kano Digital Park burgled in Kano under the guise of the ‘Endbadgovernance’ protest on Thursday contained about 150 desktop personal computers (PCs) and laptops.
The Minister disclosed this while speaking on a Channels TV programme, where he dissected issues around the ‘protest and the attack on the Kano facility.
According to him, the loss to the attack runs into millions if not billions of Naira. He, however, noted that a private company in Kano had indicated interest in renovating the vandalized facility.
Tijani also admitted that the Park was built under the immediate past administration of Muhammadu Buhari, but not completed.
“This property is one of the properties that the last administration actually worked on, but they didn’t deliver it. A number of things were incomplete. It was only just two months ago that the last set of equipment was put in there. And we just agreed two weeks ago to launch the facility next week,” he said.
Counting the loss
Asked to estimate the value of the vandalized facility and the looted equipment, the Minister stated:
“It will be millions if not billions, because it’s a lovely building. Apart from the building, I think, on top of my head, we have between 120 to 150 computers both PCs and laptops in there.
“In fact, what was missing was that the generator needed a little more work, and the power backup needed to be done in the space before we could start using the computers.
“That was the last thing we asked the contractor to supply and we were meant to go in and put it to good use but this is part of what you get with protests.”
Why Kano?
Reacting to social media critics who were asking why such a facility was sited in Kano, the Minister dismissed the insinuations that the State does not need digital skills, noting that there are lots of young people in Kano yearning for digital skills.
According to him, Kano has the highest number of applicants for the ongoing 3 Million Technical Training (3MTT) programme of the government.
“I’ve seen people make very ridiculous comments like why would you put a centre like that in Kano as if the young people in Kano don’t have the rights to dream, as if they don’t have the rights to be part of the digital economy.
“Kano is one of the places where we had we’ve had the highest number of applications for the 3MTT and there are a lot of young people there who want to be part of the programme, they want to acquire skills that will make them part of the global economy,” he said.
The Minister, however, noted that the vandalization of the facility would not impede the future plans for the Kano ICT Park as the Ministry is already getting support to make sure the park is renovated for your use.
Backstory
Many Nigerians on Thursday took to the streets in what marked the beginning of the ‘Endbadgovernance’ protest slated to be held from August 1 to August 10 across the country.
The protesters are demanding that the government address the current high cost of goods and reverse some of its policies that have inflicted hardships on Nigerians.
However, some youths hiding under the protest broke into the Digital Park built by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and carted away equipment including computers and furniture.