By Paul Dada
Imagine the world acclaimed computer guru coming to the State Secretariat, Alausa, to train members of the House of Assembly and permanent secretaries on information and communication technology. Splendid, I can almost hear you exclaim.
But before you push your imagination too far, I am not referring to the American Bill Gates, buy simply Lagos State Commissioner for Science and Technology, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat. He is the in-house Bill Gates at Alausa Secretariat, except that he doesn’t have the billions of dollars that the American Microsoft wizard possesses.
Hamzat was the programme principal of computer training sessions at the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (ABAT) Centre which is the Alausa classroom of science and technology and it was quite unusual to see top public officers like the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Honourable Adeyemi Ikuforiji, his fellow legislators, heads of ministries and parastatals, seated like humble students.
Alausa Rhythms learnt that the training session was to boost computer knowledge of these public servants, which, it was learnt, was part of the efforts to consolidate achievements recorded in respect of the Global Computerisation programme.
It was also to step up the use of ICT in the day-to-day running of the business of the state government.
The charge that government gave to the state Ministry of Science and Technology was to ensure that public service as well as all arms of government, are ICT compliant.
At one of the training sessions, the Alausa Bill Gates explained that the administration of Governor Babatunde Fashola, who is often referred to as the SAN with a sound mind, has the intention of embarking on an aggressive ICT training programme for all arms of government.
Hamzat appealed to the public service top shots-turned students, to make the best use of the opportunity that the training affords.
The training, he said, is a a continuous exercise and based on basic computing, which will provide the legislators many practical tips on how to use and maintain the computer properly.
According to him, it will help them to further consolidate on the e-governance prowess of the state.
The Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Ikuforiji, was impressed at the development and was full of praise for the efforts of government in making him and his colleagues ICT compliant.
He expressed the belief that the programme would help them improve on the process of lawmaking and keep them abreast of modern trends in ICT.
Ikuforiji also revealed that the website of the Lagos legislature was being improved on to enable lawmakers on foreign trips contribute to bills being debated at the House.
The website, after it has been upgraded, would also give afford Lagosians all over the world the opportunity to make contributions, inquiries and interact with the members of the House of Assembly.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Mrs. Carlene Alaja-Browne, was satisfied with the level of attendance, commitment and enthusiasm of the legislators.
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