EU students share experiences on Galaxy Backbone Limited Abuja

By EU News

GBB's representatives in a welcome photograph with EU visitors.
Photo: GBB Media

In line with her ICT-driven scholarship, El-Amin University Minna recently took her students to the corporate headquarters of Galaxy Backbone (GBB) Limited, Abuja for an educational trip. The exercise involved students across the three pioneer faculties: Science and Engineering, Social and Management Sciences, and Faculty of Law.

Educational trips or study tours at El-Amin University are designed to enhance students’ experiential knowledge of theoretical concepts and also to enable them to connect and expand their career potentials through networking as they interact and familiarise themselves with professionals in their fields.

The choice of GBBL for this edition was also to shape students’ knowledge of internet literacy as digital citizens. Moreover, it was to boost students’ interests as emerging professionals in the various ICT dimensions of the respective career paths they have chosen.

Galaxy Backbone (GBB) Limited, as the name implies, is Nigeria’s backbone of “internet connectivity and ICT services” that is driving digital transformation among government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) as well as the private sector. GBB’s numerous services include hosting of data centres, cloud service, co-location of IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, broadband access, and brand protection, among several others. 

According to Muhammad Hamza and his peers in the Computer Science Department, the visit was a speck removal and a reinforcement of interest. It was a speck removal of the illusion of privacy on the internet. “There is no hiding place on the Internet no matter the privacy settings or the apps you are using to shield yourself, someone somewhere is watching you.” Mr Hamza had learned.

The visit was also a reinforcement of their interest in computer science as a field of study, a profession, and a job creation opportunity. “We cannot do without the internet now, whether we are private individuals or corporate bodies.” Therefore, for computer science students, this knowledge is going to shape their behaviour on the Internet. It has also boosted their interest in the journey to become computer scientists. Mr Hamza stated.

Interestingly, Muhammad Nuhu Sagir of Cybersecurity Department wants to go back to GBB as a staff. “It is a great place (smiles); and I am looking up to it, by God’s grace, maybe working in a place like that, a good facility, and they are doing a great job for this country.”

Mr Sagir, however, regrates he didn’t get the best he wanted: “I did not get to the main one I wanted, which is the security unit, how they control cyberattacks because they said they encounter cyberattacks every day, so I would love to see how they go about it.” Also, how to control network usage “such as disenabling some applications so that, for example, someone cannot use El-Amin internet services for any other purpose except academic stuff. That part is also very important to help companies save a lot of money and data.”

As for the students of Law, it was a new insight into the compulsory marriage between Law practice and ICT. “Everybody needs the

knowledge,” said Aisha Adamu. The knowledge is relevant to shape the journey to legal expertise. “Lawyers are needed everywhere” in any subsector of the economy and the internet has offered a new important niche for 21^st century lawyers to invest their knowledge and time.

For students of Mass Communication, it was a nostalgic experience of a practical demonstration of media literacy and digital citizenship, garnished with a show of love by a one-time popular Nigerian Broadcaster Hadiza Bawas, now the information officer of GBB Limited.

GBB’s Adenle Adeoti patiently directed the drive through the tough meanders to their office where the Director of Marketing Communication, Tasil Muhammad Pantami received the EU Guests flanked by several of his colleagues. GBB’s Information Officer, Hadiza Bawas facilitated the interaction process, introduced the EU guests to various sections of the complex, and provided media coverage while GBB’s Network Analyst, Philip Samuel (network monitoring unit), and Infrastructure Engineer, Philip Elueme gave the EU guests experts’ tutorials on the magic of Internet network and infrastructure.

One of the sessions

GBB's Mr Philip, addressed EU students before departure.