A member of the House of Representatives, Prince Cornelius Nnaji, has lamented the deplorable state of facilities at the Digital Institute, Enugu Campus which appears abandoned by the Federal Government.
Digital Institute campuses in Lagos, Abuja and Kano are all functioning.
At the time Nigeria is looking to leverage skilled human capital to drive its digital economy agenda, the Enugu Campus has been left to rotten away with reptiles having a free time.
So, in furtherance of his commitment to create opportunities for human capacity building through Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the Member representing Enugu East/Isi-Uzo Federal Constituency and Chairman House Committee on Freedom of Information (FOI) – Reform of Government Institutions, Prince Nnaji carried out on-spot assessment of NCC Digital Bridge Institute, Enugu situated in his constituency on Friday 15th January, 2021.
While discussing with the site supervisor of the institute, Rep. Nnaji was not happy when he saw the huge government multi-billion-naira investment that was abandoned to waste.
He expressed dissatisfaction that out of the Six (6) NCC Digital Bridge Institutes in Nigeria, it is only the one in South East that was abandoned to waste despite the huge financial and human resources that have been invested on the project.
Rep. Nnaji further stated that; “ICT is one of the keys to national and human development in this 21st century. Therefore, there is urgent need to prioritize the revamping of the project.
“I came to assess this ultra-modern ICT learning facility and to ascertain why the institute is not yet functional like other NCC Digital Bridge Institutes located in other geo political zones in the country.
“Having seen the dilapidated state of this learning edifice, I call on relevant government authorities to resuscitate the institute immediately so that the huge resources expended on the project will not be in vain.”
In his remarks, the site supervisor, Chief Charles Ugwu, commended Prince Nnaji for being passionate about the development of his constituency. He noted that Prince Nnaji is the first lawmaker to visit the institute for the purpose of revamping it.
He further highlighted that the institute has many facilities such as 2 classroom blocks, 2 laboratories, 156-room student’s hostel, auditorium, admin-block, power house, maintenance unit, cafeteria, football field, 500kva transformer and 4 big generators.
He lamented that many properties of the institute were looted by criminals prior to his assumption as the supervisor.
He added that grasses have taken over the entire institute and poses threat to fire outbreak and other damages. He urged Prince Nnaji to continue with his efforts towards the revamping of the institute as soon as possible.
Moreover, the site supervisor later led Prince Nnaji and his team for proper assessment of the facilities and extent of damages. During the assessment, Rep. Nnaji observed that some roofs, walls, doors, electrical materials were damaged while the power house and transformer were vandalized. – TechEconomy.
