By Hashim Suleiman
You will all agree with me that the major identity that could qualify any society to be part of the new world is digitization and once it is adopted and consolidated upon, such society becomes connected to the world by way of intellectual and economic development.
It is also not a news that Jigawa had long identified ICT and digitization through the initiation of the Galaxy Backbone fibre internet company as well as the famous Kazaure Informatics, the subject matter of this write up, Mr Kashifu Inuwa is well informed about this and can be said to in a way be a product of such initiative. Jigawa is today blessed with numerous human resources in the ICT sector as a result of these laudable initiatives piloted by Alhaji Saminu Turaki, the then executive governor of the state.
While all of the above policies may have resulted in the production of numbers of individuals that are digital savvy, there was also a need for the consolidation of such by broadening the scope of the whole policy to end up at empowerment and increased awareness of how to utilise digital knowledge for economic gains and this gap was what I saw Kashifu Inuwa, the Director General of the Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency identified and collaborated with the Jigawa Government to attempt to bridge.
The attempt was laudable enough to be brought to the fore for the sake of those who may not have had opportunity to get the information or decipher the intent. Young people who have obtained digital knowledge through Informatics Institute, Kazaure or the various interventions that Mr Kashifu has developed throughout the state must understand the need to key into these initiatives with a view to taking away ways and methods that such knowledge could be utilised for economic gains.
The Jigawa Innovation Summit was piloted by Mr Kashifu and the Governor, Alhaji Badaru Abubakar on Monday, 18th January, 2021 with clear roadmaps on how to utilise ICT to develop the Agric sector which is Jigawa’s backbone for economic prosperity. There was appropriate awareness through the various media handles to let the youths become aware of the digital drift that was imminent for any meaningful development in today’s world.
From the trend of the policies of Mr Kashifu which had started with Dr Isa Pantami and continued till date, it was clear that these attempts are going to be continues with so much prospects. I had earlier written about Mr Kashifu’s exhibition of youthful qualities of energy and zeal enough to see to the fruition of any agenda or policy that has been started on https://www.premiumtimesng.com/promoted/409867-one-year-at-nitda-kashifu-as-a-vindication-of-youth-excellence-in-governance-by-hashim-suleiman.html . This is enough to get one to be optimistic about the prospects of these attempts.
I also wish to refer to my Open Letter to Muhammad Badaru Abubakar after his 2015 victory on the need for the utilisation of youths in the delivery of his mandates https://magarya.wordpress.com/2015/04/18/an-open-letter-to-his-excellency-mohammed-badaru-abubakar-governor-elect-jigawa-state/. It is now also clear how such an opinion was becoming clearer and vindicated by the synergy that Mr Kashifu and the governor are forging towards the development of a sector that will see to the upliftment of millions of youths remotely, in fact such is the real future.
Charity they say begins at home and the quick identification of the way forward for Jigawa State as far as digitization is concerned by Mr Kashifu is enough to make one become even more optimistic regarding what is to come from the sector under the superintendence of the progressive gentleman.
For some of us, we are committed to echoing display of progressive tendencies for the utilization of an economically insecure upcoming generations.
Hashim Suleiman can be reached via oneheartnaija@yahoo.com
