Former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has adduced reasons why the federal government, which he heads between 2011 – 2015 decided to create a separate Ministry that supervise the Information and Communication Technology industry.
Jonathan, who granted an exclusive interview with an online newspaper, noted that the fact that the world is ruled by technology, necessitated the pulling out of ICT from the traditional ministry of information and communications and made it a full ministry on its own.
“We took cognisant of the fact that the world is ruled by technology and that Nigeria cannot afford to keep lagging behind. We also noticed the relevance of Information and Communication Technology to the nation’s future development and so we did the needful by giving the sector a ministry,” he said.
He added that identified the country’s Information and Communication Technology sector is one of the areas where he left Nigeria far better off they way he met it, attributing the success to a committed Minister in the person of Dr. Omobola Johnson.
He argued that ICT revolution Omobola anchored empowered Nigeria’s young people to develop themselves, establish their own firms and create jobs.
“We said we will not miss out on the array of opportunities that the ICT revolution offers. We were not there during the industrial revolution, but with the ICT revolution starring us in the face, we had to make the commitment that Nigeria must not lag behind. That was why we created that ministry specially to tap into the ICT revolution,” Jonathan, who lost an election to present government of Muhammaddu Buahri and conceded immediately explained.
Recall the Jonathan government came up the Nigeria National Broadband Plan 2013 – 2015 idea, which took the country’s broadband penetration from about 10 percent to 31 percent earlier this year, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission.