Digitalists have long hoped that their science will bring a revolution to information and communication. Yet like all revolutions, digitalisation has had its victims. It has been built on the corpses of generations of analogue and that mono technologies seemed almost perished in the course of exhaustive research.

Today, information is digitized, that is, by using a binary system of counting whereby information is given in form of numbers represented by changing electrical signals.

We want to commend the establishment and commissioning of an ultra modern communication college in Abuja by President Olusegun Obasanjo, known as Digital Bridge Institute (DBI). The DBI project was initiated by National Communication Commission (NCC) to produce more efficient, skillful telecommunication personnel, and an international centre for communication studies.

The institute is expected to serve the manpower needs of the West African Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. It has lecture halls, executive training rooms, video conferencing facility, internet resource library, telecom and datacom laboratories.

DBI has admitted about 250 students drawn from several African countries for certificates and diploma courses. Each information technology equipment manufacturer and supplier has a laboratory to display its equipment on which the students are to specialize.

All of its students are said to have personal computers hooked to the internet. DBI runs a diverse range of courses in telecommunications management, telecommunications regulation, policy and laws, IT engineering, IT management, productivity tools, management and leadership management.

At the commissioning ceremony, President Obasanjo charged the NCC to regulate the activities of telephone operators so that drop calls and the present difficulty in connecting other networks would reduce. The distance learning system depends on effective, efficient telecoms system.

This charge is timely and important coming at a time the nation is experiencing incessant drop calls and inability of the operators to efficiently and successfully connect subscribers with other networks.

As pointed out by the Chief Executive Officer of NCC, Ernest Ndukwe, in spite of this significant progress, "Africa still has less than 2% of the world's main lines, although it accounts for more than 12% of the world's population". About 60% of global population has access to less than 6% of the network. Lack of high qualified staff can constitute a great obstacle to IT development and quality service.

Telecommunication firms with sophisticated equipment can now look up to DBI for training local manpower to install, operate and maintain the systems, design and implement networks to suit Africa's needs and environment situations.

Education and knowledge acquisition in this 21st century will be predicated not on the age-long traditional, anachronistic chalk and blackboard classroom learning, but accessing of lectures and teaching on the internet.

Let's caution that the advent of information technology may not really replace teachers, but will help in managing learning experiences beyond the conventional classroom situation.

The establishment of Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) should be seen as a pointer to that great future. The government must ensure facilities and infrastructure provided at the institute are properly maintained, so as not to slide into disrepair and rot, usually associated with public institutions.