Mkpoikana Udoma
03 November 2017, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt — The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, says it will boost digital learning by linking the entire Niger Delta region with fiber optics that will enhance and facilitate internet penetration and widespread internet usage.
The Chairman of the NDDC Governing Board, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, said this when members of the Governing Council and Management of the Cross River State College of Education, Akamkpa, paid a courtesy visit at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt.
Ndoma-Egba explained that the Commission was making efforts to create a new environment that would bring the Niger Delta in line with the digital age.
He also added that the NDDC governing council recently visited São Tomé and Principe to discuss with the country’s Prime Minister on the possibility of benefiting from their own excess internet capacity.
According to him, “the world has gone digital and learning is now electronic-based; we will challenge the creativity of our young men and women and we will also help our tertiary institutions to key into the modern ways of learning.
“If we don’t train for the new world, we will be left behind, so everything is technology-based now and we want to leave a landmark contribution at the end of our tenure. We want to link the entire Niger Delta region with fiber optics that will enhance widespread internet usage.”
Senator Ndoma-Egba maintained that education, being one of the core mandates of NDDC, would always be given utmost attention.
He assured the team from the College of Education, that they and other tertiary institutions in the region would benefit from the proposed high-speed internet network.
“I want to urge you to look in a new direction of education, which is technology-based and driven by e-learning, that is where the future is anchored. I don’t want you to train people for the world that has passed, let us train people for today’s world.
“I want to assure you that we will make sure that all your needs are looked into, we will attend to your requests sympathetically and urgently.
“We have been intervening in tertiary institutions but I don’t think we have intervened in the College of Education, Akamkpa,” Ndoma-Egba said.
Earlier in his remarks, the Acting Provost of the College, Dr. Obere Abiam, appealed to NDDC to intervene in providing key infrastructural projects for the school.
Abiam said that the college needed urgent assistance to ensure it fulfilled its vision and mission of producing professional and competent teachers in arts, science and technology.
He lamented that the need for help was more urgent now that the college was transiting to a degree awarding institution in 2017/2018 academic session.
