Sierra Leone Telegraph: 12 September 2019:
Sierra Leone’s chief innovation officer – Dr David Moinina Sengeh, yesterday Wednesday 11 September 2019 held discussions at State House, with president Julius Maada Bio and his entire cabinet about the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
The theme of their discussions was “Status Quo, Risks, Myths, Use Cases & Opportunities in Sierra Leone”.
While discussing ways of taking advantage of the revolution to improve on policy and governance, Dr Sengeh said that his presentation was informed by President Bio’s request for a digitalised governance system as part of government’s national agenda for human capital development.
He said it was an opportunity for everyone to engage and learn, as 4IR will determine the future of the country.
He noted that 4IR needed skills-based learning, entrepreneurship, critical thinking, grit and coding, among others. He also said is need to shape university curriculum and train students so they could be able to participate in the fourth industrial revolution, adding that his presentation was part of the motivation to assess how and why things were done in government.
“Some of the characteristics include big data like call data records, government procurement data across institutions, social media data and fishing transponder data. With cloud computing, which means that a lot of the work we do sit on the cloud – the internet, using artificial intelligence and drone imagery, we may be able to significantly address our maternal mortality challenges,” he said.
In an open conversation facilitated by the President, members of the cabinet discussed approaches and use cases that were relevant to their work, in underlining how the proper and effective use of 4IR could impact the lives of citizens.
What a waste of precious time, money and space? This must be a joke! 4th Industrial Revolution? Doesn’t this government realise there are far more basic problems killing our people right now, such as lack of access to clean drinking water, poor sanitation, lack of access to affordable healthcare, and housing to focus the minds of ministers?
If this chief innovation officer cannot help ministers find affordable solutions to these basic problems then he is unfit for purpose and must be sacked immediately. The man has proved to be totally useless in our struggle for survival in this country.
Cant the president find a job for him at one of the Universities, especially Njala, where he can lecture students and lead research programmes? He is one of the highest paid in the government. For doing what exactly? Coming up with big blue-sky research ideas that belongs to universities.
Please Mr president stop wasting our hard earned taxes on this fellow. Find something better for him to do. We are sick and tired of seeing round pegs in squared holes in this country. LONTA.
Taking the cabinet ministers on a journey to cloud nine!