Computer Society: We’ll assess ‘digital savviness’ of presidential candidates

The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) says it will assess the digital savviness of presidential candidates before the end of the year.

Adesina Sodiya, president, NCS, disclosed this in a featured interview with TechnologyTimes on Tuesday.

Sodiya said although the NCS is not a political party, it is interested in the governance of the country.

He added that the proficiency of the political candidate in the area of information technology (IT) was very important in the governance of the nation.

“NCS does not play politics but we show interest in governance and this goes together.  We also assess the digital savviness of the candidate. With the rate we are moving now even if it is not where we expect, we do not want anyone to get there and start pulling us down. We started showing interest and said we are going to assess and evaluate them to know those candidates that are digitally native. They don’t have to wait till they get into the office. We are interested in knowing now.

“To us, it is not about the manifesto, a consultant can do so.  Most of them go to do them abroad with consultants to develop something very good and attractive. We really want to also know what have you been doing? What knowledge of IT do you have?

“About some of these emerging technologies that need to be funded because as a leader you do come up with proposals and in approving it you will need to take some risks. But I mean, can you take some risks on behalf of IT? Do you even believe in reading some of the content of the proposals? We really want to know, not just at the level of the presidency but at the level of the state.  We need to make informed decisions but we would not tell anyone who to vote for but we will showcase what you have done.”

Sodiya further said he hopes to assess the candidates before the end of the year and ensure that the elected candidate is very much interested in information technology before getting into office.

“Our target is that we complete the assessment before December. The election is still in February but work will be done immediately after our conference,” he said.

“We do not want to start talking to them when they get to the office. We want people who will accord the IT  professional industry recognition, it’s also a necessity. To develop it, we have to incorporate it into what we do. The data economy policy, the e-government policy, and the broadband infrastructure policy of this nation. Although the current minister has a policy for economy, and communication growth, is it achievable?

“We want to make sure that whoever is coming in does not start pulling us down. It also is why we must show interest. You ensure that our leaders also show interest in IT and they surely provide the support we need to get to where we need to get to.”

Sodiya added that the idea of e-voting was possible if taken seriously.

“We can also send a text message. We can use USSD. Our e-voting doesn’t have to be with a computer. You can configure it to a USSD and use it to vote or simply receive messages from your phone on a recognised number, among others. We can combine different options to form an e-voting platform,” he added.