The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) is set to conduct independent assessment of the level of technology skills of political aspirants aimed at ascertaining their readiness to adopt and apply technology in governance.
Nigeria Computer Society, the umbrella body of all Information Technology (IT) professionals in Nigeria disclosed the plan as the political space gets heated up with the declaration of several political aspirants to the office of the President during 2023 presidential election in the country.
Prof. Adesina Sodiya, President of NCS, who said this in Lagos during an interview with IT editors, said the Society is seriously concerned with the level of some political office holders’ indifference to technological development in the country with over 211 million population.
Prof Adesina Sodiya, President, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS)
He said that all is now set for NCS to carry out an independent assessment of all political aspirants with certain parameters such as operational use of technology for governance; Critical Information Gathering; Social Skills, Creative Skills; Programming/Coding; Computational Thinking; Technology Adoption, among others.
He said the findings would be made public through different channels of publication, to enable Nigerians make their choice of digital leaders before casting their votes for only technology savvy aspirants.
Prof. Sodiya speaks: “Nigeria Computer Society is interested in the leadership of Nigeria. We are not political group but an advocacy group that is driving technology innovation in the country. We are advocating for leaders who are technology savvy to rule our country in today’s digital era.
“NCS wants to promote leaders that are technology savvy and have the interest of developing Nigeria in line with emerging technologies. We need leaders that will continue to support the growth of IT development in the country, leaders that will support IT adoption and usage in Nigeria, and leaders that will support NCS’s IT programmes,”
According to him, “The issue with leaders that are not technology savvy is that they do not understand the speed of technology growth and as such they will always be left behind in a technology world. So we want leaders that will be able to move with technology growth and the speed of technology growth”.
He said that going forward, NCS will be assessing the level of technology skills of political leaders and public office holders in Nigeria.
“We are going to assess the technology level of political aspirants and make it public so that Nigerians will know the right candidate to vote for.”