Nigeria’s information and communications technologies (ICTs) best brains gathered at the weekend to take stock of the country’s achievements, 50 years after independence and their verdict was damning indictment on the leadership, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now report.
They said that Nigeria has nothing to celebrate in the midst of excruciating poverty and failure of leadership to use ICTs as spring board for the development of the country.
Experts including: Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, immediate past executive vice chairman, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Raymond Akwule, president, Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), Ezekiel Fatoye, former executive director, Multi-Links Limited, Titi Omo-Ettu, president, Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (Atcon), Emmanuel Ekuwem, past president of Atcon, Dr. Chris Uwaje, president, Institute of Software Practioners of Nigeria (Ispon) and Lanre Ajayi, president, Nigeria Internet Group (Nig) sat for four hours to dissect the country from independence.
Unlike the past when problems are identified without solutions proffered to address them, the distinguished ICT players laid the ground works upon which any sensitive government will build upon
Ndukwe, Akwule and Ekuwem sounded optimistic given the improvement in the telecommunications industry from the days of Dark Age when telephone was only for the rich and connected to the present day when phones are common place.
But Omo-Ettu did not share the optimism and said the industry should not be boastful of its achievements.
For Uwaje, Fatoye and Ajayi, there are rooms for improvement, calling on the government to pay greater attention on efforts that can fast-track the development of the country.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that Ndukwe’s picture of buoyancy for the industry was understandable. After all, he superintended the NCC for 10 years and created a model government institution and etched his name in the history book for doing ordinary things in exceptionally transparent manner.
The former NCC boss shook off political meddlesomeness to attract some $18 billion investment to the country and over $2.5 billion in revenue from spectrum licensing in nine years. He however called on the government to safeguard the autonomy of the telecoms industry regulator to ensure growth of telecoms market.
Nodding in agreement, Akwule, called on government to pay more attention to capacity building.
“We can address most of the problems of this nation like job creation with greater emphasis on software capacity building” Akwule added.
He got more support from Ekuwem, who added that the country has potentials to do much more if the security challenges are addressed. Ekuwem said that “you cannot attract local or foreign investment without security and ICT can address insecurity”
Harping on education, Ajayi, said that the difference between developed and developing countries is education and knowledge. Ajayi urged government t leave business to business people and concentrate on creating the enabling environment for business to thrive.
Fatoye agreed with him and urged ICT companies take the issue of corporate governance and customer satisfaction serious.
In his remarks, Uwaje called for the retooling of the country’s workforce and priority attention to indigenous software to propel development.
Omo-Ettu expects the government to commence the active construction of national backbone infrastructure and indeed the launch of a stimulant funding to support the campaign for ubiquitous internet access.
Nigeria @ 50, Experts Say Country Has Under Achieved
