The Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, has confirmed that apart from the vandalisation of the about-to-be-commissioned Kano Digital Park on Thursday, the protesters in the #EndBadGovernance agitation in the city also carted away about 150 world-class personal computers (PCs) and lapops from the digital centre.
The minister made this disclosure when he featured on a Channels TV programme and updated the public on the level of damages on the multi-million Naira ICT capacity building project in Kano.
Estimating that the attack by the protesters will run into several millions of Naira, the minister hinted that to mitigate the huge losses on the project, a Kano-based company had expressed its interest to help renovate the Park.
He said: “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 there. And we just agreed two weeks ago to launch the facility next week.”
Speaking on the level of damages of the facility in terms of materials and monetary value, the minister said: “It will be millions if not billions because it’s a lovely building. Apart from the building, I think, on the top of my head, we have between 123 to 150 computers both PCs and laptops there.
“In fact, what was missing was that the generator needed a little more work, and the power back up needed to be done in the space before we could start using the computers.
“That was the last 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.”
Reacting to comments by critics that insinuated that such a facility should not have been located in Kano, Tijani dismissed the insinuation, pointing out that Kano has the highest number of applicants for the ongoing 3 Million Technical Training (3MTT) programme of the Federal Government.
He clarified: “I’ve seen people make very ridiculous comments like why you would 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 have 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”, the minister added.
He assured that despite the vandalization of the Kano ICT Park by the irate protesters, the Federal Government was committed to the completion of the project in view of the strategic importance to its current digital economy drive.
