Help! Fake Products Killing Nigeria

Nigeria is under siege of substandard products and beyond rhetoric, local companies and legitimate businesses die by installment. At every turns and bends, open markets of fake and substandard Information and Communications Technology products like handset and accessories; television or radio sets, computers and allied products liter the country. As government, regulatory authorities and security agencies sit idly by occasionally waxing worriedly, the influx of substandard information technology products is overrunning the country. And like a sing song, this present government like all previous governments talks of plans to set standard for all IT products imported or produced in Nigeria. Now, without casting aspersions, why has this plans not materialized since late the ‘80s when Nigeria emerged as dumping ground for any rejected technology or product? To add salt to injury, when government officials speak of efforts to check the unfortunate trend, they speak as if it is someone’s job to do. They hardly own a project, drive it and swim or sink with it. They are terrible bunch of buck passers. We must first commend Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for waking up by barking and biting hard on illegal occupiers of spectrum and clampdown on handset sellers without type approvals, more still need to be done. But what stops the National information Technology Development Agency (Nitda) which is the self proclaimed prime agency and catalyst for transforming Nigeria into a knowledge-based and IT-driven economy from spearheading the use of local software by local companies and government agencies? In Nitda, it is hard to see even one locally assembled computer not to talk of software. Charity begins at home as the saying goes. What stops the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) from seeing through even one conviction in cases of piracy and intellectual theft to serve as a deterrent to others? NCC peopled by many lawyers and has all the enabling laws to do its job. It can also work in concert with security agencies. But to think of it, where are the men of the Nigeria Customs when these goods come into the country? Are the products flown IN with unidentified flying objects? If we excuse the men of Customs that they are IT illiterates, what is the duty of Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON)? It is a classical case of too many cooks in the kitchen and lots of men busy doing nothing. What are the duties of so-called National Office for Technology Acquisition and the Local Content Office? It is so sad that the multiplicity of the agencies have succeeded in portraying efforts to rebuild Nigeria with knowledge and ICT as a mere joke. A joke because the agencies appear not feel the pain of companies shutting down everyday because fake and cheaper products have displaced them. Government on its part seems less concerned even in the face of the huge loss of legitimate revenue that would have accrued it if the products are manufactured locally or imported through the regular channel. Is it possible that some unscrupulous elements in the same government are involved in the importation of the fake products? And when arrests are even made, are there people in the same government who interfere in investigation and prosecution? The government also doesn’t seem to care that the lives of the people it is governing are at risk of fake and substandard products. It is however pertinent to warn that the collective decision not to check substandard products is killing innovation and drives of generations of Nigerians unborn. This is a wake up call; the fight against fake and substandard products needs a strong political will. The political will embedded in the ideals of providing better lives for Nigerians hungry for inspiring leadership.