All thanks to Ivory Coast yesterday for winning Mali in a comprehensive way. I was just so disappointed that Naija will have to wait for CIV to beat Mali in order to secure Q-Final qualification leaving us at the mercy of the squirrels of Benin who are our neighbors but avowed enemies. I do not just understand the problem those guys have; their economy depends on us and closing our borders to them will crash it fast. I have noticed they take special joy in playing and giving us problems, nonsense!
I saw a celebration of shame yesterday when our big boys jubilated about qualifying for the Q-Final – na wa o. Anyway, I am happy that the humiliation everyone was waiting for did not happen. Now we have to face Ghana in the Q-Final which is a tall order considering the history the two countries share together. Ghana playing in front of a strong home crowd should prove too much problem for us and it will not be fair for us to be playing this way and go far in the tournament. It is only if the coaching staff are ready to use their brain and understand that a 4-2-4 formation do not make sense in Nigeria. Playing a Mikel-Olofinjana only midfield was always going to be disastrous. Most times our strikers were not getting the balls as the midfield was not performing.
The ray of hope we have is the defence that have not done so badly especially the man called Danny Shittu – God bless him. We will see what happens with Ghana, but I know that is a match everyone in the world would love to see. As far as I am concerned, I am tipping Egypt and Ivory Coast for honours when the competition ends but as a Nigerian, I still believe the rhythm could be found and miracles happen.
Enjoy the rest of the tournament!

My friends have found a trend in my thoughts this new year – I believe this is a year that will separate the focused from the passive. I have decided to maximize my time and resources for good causes as well as those that will bring out the best in and out of me. As you have doubtless noticed; I am very passionate about Nigeria as well as technology and Internet Governance. My passion for the future of Nigeria led me to start the Nigerian Anti-Scam Network (NAN) together with some friends in 2005 (‘Deolu Akinyemi, ‘Gbenga Sesan, Tope Soremi, Michelle Ughanze, Bayodele Olotu, Emmanuel Olutosin).
NAN made some great impacts through seminars, our web portals and individual actions, It is worthy of note that we got a mention in a United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s publication as an effective youth-led effort in Africa. I salute these young people who sacrificed their time, money and intellect for the good of this nation. NAN has since being quiet for some time due to the fact that all of us got very busy but we continued doing our best to fight the scourge of Cyber crime in Nigeria.
It is with great happiness that I proudly announce through this medium a resurrection that will gladden the heart of many and help our country to a path that is sensible and profitable. This resurrection is also significant because the new organization is coming out just not to fight Cybercrime and proffer solutions as well as alternative sources of income but we are moving into the larger picture of Internet Governance. Africa has long been sidelined in the IG debates and there are not so many IG experts. The Nigerian Internet Governance Hybrid Task Force (NIGHT FORCE) is strategically positioned to correct this and serve as a bridge to provide training, research and facilitate collaborations with stakeholders on all IG debates.
Myself and ‘Gbenga Sesan have been working hard for the past few weeks to ensure a successful and long-lasting effort. The responses have been mind blowing and we will continue working hard to make this work. The tasks are enormous and very important because the future of our nation is tied to the kind of citizens we produce. From time to time, we will solicit your support and as usual – we know you will oblige us.
We will work together to make Nigeria a better place.

Nigerian Super Eagles start their African Cup of Nations challenge next Monday. As far as I am concerned, we have a great team though we are not sure of their cohesiveness. Despite that fact, I still remain very optimistic of singing victory song at the end of the competition in Ghana. Below are some statistics that I hold on to. Call me over enthusiastic —- I do not care

A certain man ruled us for 8 years and we won no cup (1985-1993) – Gen Ibrahim Babangida
A few months after, another man took over and we won the U-17 World Cup (Japan ’93)
One year later – we won the African Nations cup in Tunisia ‘94
In 2007, Obasanjo left the seat of power after 8 years without a Cup.
A few months after – Yar Adua became President and we won the U-17 World Cup.
One year later – We are playing in the African Nations cup (U get?)
Nigeria won the CAN for the first time in 1980 (A leap year)
14 years later in Tunis – we made it two (Another leap year)
14 years later in Ghana ????? (Another leap year)

God bless the Super Eagles of Nigeria ……… Up Eagles!!!

Continued From Last Post

The Socio-Cultural Component:
This is a very interesting component of Internet Governance. There are a lot of discrepancies in the way different stakeholders see issues relating to the socio-cultural aspect of the Internet. The two major contenders in this area are the Government and Civil Society. The recurring subject is content control. Government is very passionate about controlling the kind of contents on websites in their countries. An example is a country like France where Nazi materials are banned, the only setback is that the civil society is not wholly comfortable with that and usually emphasizes freedom of expression.
However, there are some contents that are mutually agreed upon by all stakeholders as being illegal such as child pornography, e.t.c. Almost every developed nation has a form of content control or the other, but it is still a dream for most African countries. If the fight against scam and cyber crime will be effective in Africa, then our Governments should realize that there is a need for appropriate legal framework for content control.
Content control will be effectively done if a multi-stakeholder approach is employed at enforcing it. This will require –
• Government filtering of contents using appropriate legislations.
• Private filtering of contents e.g. through embedded scripts in Internet browsers.
• The use of Geo-location software to track users of the Internet and catch offenders.
• Internet service providers can filter contents for their customers.
• Search engines like Google should only bring out accepted output when a search is done. Example is Google in France where if you type Nazi, you will not get any result.
Multilingualism and Cultural Diversity: This is a very important socio-cultural topic in Africa and the rest of the world. There must be a conscious effort to bridge language and cultural barriers in such a way that the issue of Anglophone and Francophone will be forgotten. The division is always very obvious during international meetings and all sorts of misunderstanding ensue in such meetings. If Africa wants to present a common agenda in Tunis 2005, a very proactive solution must be put in place to erase any sentiment and only give Africa its rightful place in world politics.
Local Content: Most Africans are Illiterates and 85% of contents on the Internet are in English, almost the remaining are in French, Portuguese, Arabic and Chinese. That spells a doom for majority of Africans who can at best read and write their native language. We must start developing local contents to help this people and to also show that we are original. If Prof. Phillip Emeagwali is right at the end of the day, then in a few centuries – “Human beings start having IP address and constitute the Internet and not computers anymore; hence emails will cease to exist, but telepathic mails” . This looks a bit crazy, but coming from a man of his reputation, we need to take him seriously. The goal of African governments should be to find ways to get the poorest farmer in a village to appreciate the Internet using his local language.
Education/E-learning: The information superhighway has brought the whole world closer together. It is now very easy to be in touch with a friend in China when you are in Abidjan in a matter of seconds. This has also helped in education dissemination. We now have access to quality teaching materials from leading institutions all over the world and the concept of virtual universities is now a reality. This is an area in which African leaders could leverage on to ensure the development of its citizenry. The concept of e-learning is very important to the development of Africa.

Conclusion:
While the debate for the governance of the Internet is still going on and Africa is clearly not contributing in a very effective manner due to the low level of understanding of the whole concept by its representatives at meetings. It is also very clear that such meetings where Internet Governance is discussed are very costly and cannot be afforded by many Africans. There is no doubt that the Internet is a tool that Africa can use to leap frog (I prefer to use the term Cheetah Pole-Vaulting) its development and relevance in the world economy and politics.
We do not have any excuse to be left out of Internet Governance because it is a clear way to achieve that equality we have always wanted. African Governments must start developing experts in Internet Governance who can successfully ask for positions that will favor our continent on the pathway to continental rebirth.

References
1. Internet Governance: Issues, Actors and Divides by Eduardo Gelbstein and Jovan Kurbalija
2. A summary of NEPAD action plans: NEPAD Secretariat 2004.
3. My search for the holy grail of immortality by Prof. Phillip Emegwali
4. A paper by Meyer & Baber, 1995, p. 248

(Continuation)

The Legal Component:
There are two main approaches to the legal aspects of the Internet. There is the real law approach where the Internet is treated no differently from previous telecommunication technologies; hence existing legal rules can be applied to the Internet. The other is the cyber law approach based on the notion that the Internet introduces new types of social relationships in cyber space, creating a need for new laws.
The real law approach is gaining predominance because of a general thinking that a considerable part of existing legislations can be applied to the Internet while creating new ones as the need arises.
A very contentious issue in the legal aspect of Internet Governance is jurisdiction and this is due to the perceived borderless nature of the Internet. African Governments need to take this very seriously, especially those who are labeled as online scam perpetrators because in the nearest future every scammer will claim to be a Nigerian (Apologies to the good people of Nigeria).
The following questions arise when considering the issue of jurisdiction in the cyber space:
• Which court or state authority has the proper authority to try offenders?
• Which rules should be applied?
• How should court decisions be implemented?
African countries should advocate:
• The modernization of international private laws to keep up with the reality of the present cyber society.
• Harmonization of national laws to reflect common goals by countries in eradicating crime and unwholesome behaviors.
• The use of arbitration in cases where normal law is ineffective.
• Employing technical solutions such as geo-location software for identifying the location of Internet users.

The Economic Component:
The Internet has no doubt changed the economic system of the world. Many businesses are going online and the reality of the present day economy is that soon, countries with low e-commerce penetration will be disadvantaged in the world economy. There must be a conscious effort by Africans to harness the power of e-commerce in developing its economy.
E-commerce can not be properly implemented without a functional e-payment system which requires a stable, secure and functional legal ambience. The disturbing trend is that most developing countries do not have such infrastructure for now and might not reach the desired level if there are no conscious efforts made. The use of e-banking and e-money will no doubt bring a revolution to the worldwide banking system. It will reduce the cost of running banks and push the world towards a cashless society; it also has its potential loopholes in being a tool for money launderers and the menace of hackers.
To increase exports in Africa, there is a need to push more African businesses into the Internet. This will no doubt help in improving economies and provide more jobs. Essentially, the advantages of embracing e-commerce far outweighs the disadvantages and part of the NEPAD goals should be finding ways of harnessing its potentials for Africa’s development. Bearing the infrastructural disadvantages of Africa in implementing e-commerce, Africa should make a strong report to the WGIG on areas she needs help to properly get into the e-commerce loop.
Issues like consumer protection, misleading advertising, delivery of defective goods, taxation and customs which are all present in normal market situation also needs to be applied to online business. This is a challenge and we have to start thinking of ways to develop or adapt existing legislation on these matters.

The Development Component:
The Internet has brought a lot of development to the world, from education to health to agriculture, e.t.c. But it is clear that the developed countries have been able to make use of the information super-highway to change the lives of their citizens for the better. Sadly, this is not the same case for the developing nations and there are even a lot of speculations that the Internet might even cause more harms to them than good. An example is the school of thought that when the world finally moves to e-commerce; The American giants will be favored such that local firms in emerging economies would effectively frozen out since they have better access to cutting-edge technologies. I do not subscribe to this because those technologies are the same all over the world; it just depends on how we can develop our human resources to use those tools efficiently. This is a call to African leaders to encourage curriculum revision and infrastructures in their Universities to meet up with the global challenge.
The development of Telecoms and Internet facilities to provide better access to both urban and rural youths will help in evolving more informed individuals. Financial supports from International agencies as well as debt forgiveness for deserving countries should be advocated. The truth is that in bridging the digital divide, poverty must first be eradicated. Africa should push for debt forgiveness, bearing in mind that most of these debts were incurred by military regimes that were not voted in by the citizens of these countries. The Digital Solidarity Fund is also a very good initiative that could help in providing access; the only caution is for the developed countries that are fond of taking back 80% of their donations through contracts given to companies in their countries when there are qualified local personnel in the project community.
The scourge of brain drain should be addressed and a good way is by encouraging outsourcing of jobs from developed countries. ICT skills literacy and language protection should also be taken as matters of high importance.
Telecommunication policies and regulations should be developed in African countries as both private sectors and public donors are not ready to invest in countries without proper and legal environment for Internet penetration.
(To be continued)

Africa has always been marginalized in all aspects of world economy and politics. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) was conceived by African heads of state as a development framework aimed at arresting and correcting the downward trend and put Africa firmly on a relevant position in World development agenda .
One important area that Africa needs to get involved to realize the NEPAD goals is Internet Governance. The Internet also known as the “information highway” began around 1969 as a government sponsored network called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). It was used for the sole purpose of linking government research centers with university researchers, eventually, establishing the Internet protocols TCP/IP, which we still use today. The Internet however only exploded in terms of growth in the 1980’s, when a number of public and private networks joined in like colleges, businesses and agencies . The relevance of the Internet is no more in question. The growing awareness of the social, economic and political impact of the internet on society has brought the question of Internet Governance into sharper focus. As of early 2005, the Internet has the following statistics:
• An estimated 750 million users worldwide.
• At least $1 billion electronics commerce turnover which is projected to rise rapidly.
• The Internet has a major social impact in many fields of human endeavor including education, health, governance and others.
• Cyber crime such as fraud, gambling, pornography and ID theft.
• Misuse and abuse in the form of malicious codes and spam.
Though the Internet was a monopoly of the United States of America because it has it origins from there, but it has become a global phenomenon and Africa is still left behind in its governance. This is a very disturbing trend and African leaders need to step up their games to give Africa a relevant position in the information super highway.
Internet governance has been a very complex phenomenon, in actual fact- it has been very difficult to give it a proper definition because of its multi-stakeholder nature. The World Society on the Information Society (WSIS) proposed a number of actions including the establishment of a Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). The WGIG is to ensure a mechanism for the full participation of governments, private sector, civil society and relevant inter-governmental organizations to investigate and make proposals for action on the governance of the Internet. The WGIG is also given the mandate to perform the following roles:
• Come up with a working definition for Internet Governance.
• Develop a common understanding of the respective roles of the respective stakeholders.
• Prepare a report of their activities in the 2005 WSIS meeting in Tunisia 2005.
If Africa wants to have a very relevant role in the governance of the most important media that has changed the face of the world, there must be a proactive effort by critically looking at all the intricacies of Internet Governance and how to push a very good position to pave way for proper participation.

The Very Complex Nature of Internet Governance
We need to recognize that Internet Governance means different things to different people. It is like a big jigsaw puzzle; not easy to put together. The first contending issue comes from the two words “Internet and Governance”.
The word Internet seems vague to some people who believe that the term Information and Communication Technology or Information Society would have been more appropriate due to their inclusive nature, but the argument for the word “Internet” is holding grounds since it is taking over some conventional issues like telephony. Voice over IP is gradually taking over from the conventional telephone system.
Some also believe that the word governance seems to give governments the idea that they have the most important role to play than other stakeholders in governing the Internet.
There is a narrow approach to Internet Governance which focuses on the technical part, mainly infrastructure that positions ICANN as the key actor. The broad approach is beyond infrastructure but addresses other legal, economic, development and socio-cultural issues.
Basically, we should address Internet Governance using the following broad dimensions: Infrastructure and Standardization, Legal, Economic, Developmental and Socio-Cultural.
The next few pages will be focused on clarifying these dimensions and how Africa should make impact and show its needs.

Infrastructure and Standardization:
This involves issues relating to the telecommunication infrastructure through which all Internet traffic flows, technical standards and services (TCP/IP, SSL) and Content/Application Standards (HTML, XML).
The US government has a near-monopolistic grab on this area of Internet governance. Out of the 13 root servers in the world, 10 are in the United States. The US Department of Commerce (DOC) approves changes to the root servers; hence if the US government wishes to cause chaos in the cyber space, they can easily do this. Africa should rise up to this challenge by improving its telecommunication and electricity generation; this will give us a chance to ask for an equal geographical distribution of the root servers.
As a way to encourage local contents, Africans must support the Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and Native Language Internet Address (NLIA) systems. This will give us the opportunity to have domain names in Zulu, Hausa and other languages. China and other Asian countries are already winning this war, so why can’t we?
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and International Assigned Names Authority (IANA) though look like global entities judging from their name but they are really US government agencies. As much as we appreciate the fact that the Internet started from the US; we should also remember that it has grown to a level where one country cannot be controlling it. I believe that Africa should rise up to the challenge and push for either a new body that will be all inclusive or a regional body to take over ICANN’s role.
A paradox that is playing itself out is the fact that small and poor countries subsidize Internet system for the developed countries. This is very selfish of those countries who are always talking of helping small countries to bridge the digital divide. African countries should start thinking of using Internet Exchange Points (IXP) to reduce the cost of bandwidth.
Another very important aspect is the use of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) in fighting Cyber squatting. African countries have started using their country code top level domain names and before long, disputes will start. There should be a conscious effort to adapt the UDRP to our specific needs.
(To Be Continued)

In my first post of the new year; I committed myself to making this blog very active and quite educative. I started making the promise happen with my last 2 legged post on ICT, A Veritable tool for bridging the digital divide. That article was written by me about 4 years ago.
I continue the promise today by giving you another post written by me a long time ago.
Enjoy!

In almost all facet of life, the integration of one form of ICT tool or the other is now common. Agriculture is probably the most common profession in the rural areas and today we use tools like Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and also statistical packages for agricultural researches that have been instrumental in bringing improved practice of Agriculture.
There is a lot of misinformation in the developing countries. Primitive beliefs like female genital mutilation could only be discouraged with the correct counseling and information; scores of websites have a lot of information on these (www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/femgen ).
Of the 36.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS, an overwhelming 95 percent live in developing countries. And within those countries, AIDS is becoming a greater threat in rural areas than in cities. In absolute numbers, more people living with HIV reside in rural areas. The epidemic is spreading with alarming speed into the remotest villages, cutting food production and threatening the very life of rural communities. Africa accounts for only one tenth of the world’s population but nine out of ten new cases of HIV infection. Eighty three percent of all AIDS deaths are in Africa, where the disease has killed ten times more people than war. (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN). I believe that it is a disease that can only be eradicated through the dissemination of preventive information which is available in many websites. The kinds of misinformation we have are such that are very barbaric and archaic in the 21st century. An example is a notion in South Africa that if an HIV/AIDS positive male sleeps with a virgin, he automatically gets healed. These beliefs must be erased and ICT has given us a chance to disseminate correct information. E-governance would be a very good way of ensuring that the people are close to the government, they can easily forward their complaints and suggestions. The bureaucracy of having to wait for a long time before reaching government officials will be removed if there are ICT facilities to practice e-governance.
I am of the opinion that the greatest ICT tool that will bring about the desired socio-economic and technological revolution in the rural areas is the Internet. The Internet is made up of thousands of smaller networks and users across the world with no central office to control it, making it impossible to attack apart from virtual attacks like viruses. (Laudon, Traver and Laudon 1995). There are many opportunities for the youth today on the Internet. Many people are being educated through the Internet; there is no media that is close to it in having so much information. There are even online schools where one can attain degrees, these removes boundaries and gives opportunities to obtain quality education in virtual classrooms from qualified instructors all over the world.
The World Wide Web which is the most popular component of the Internet is also the greatest advertising media in the world. Rural youth have a chance of exposing their ingenuity to the whole world through the Internet. Local crafts, fabrics and tradition could be easily sold to the world though the information super-highway resulting in foreign exchange earnings and employment generation for the rural youth.
Young people in African countries should also be encouraged to work towards the emergence of Silicon valleys in their respective countries. Governments should start ICT parks that are not only meant to teach basic ICT skills to young people but deep computing subjects, especially software development. African youths are very brilliant and creative, if they only have access to the relevant materials like books, computers and software; the sky will be the starting point for them. I am recommending an ICT park with the aim teaching software development skills to brilliant young people who will later undertake projects like designing software and websites. Then, we will be moving towards what India is doing now, raking in a lot of foreign exchange through software development. Another way ICT skills will help youths in Africa is in outsourcing. Many countries in the US and the UK are outsourcing ICT and other jobs to India because it is cheaper and the high level of ICT expertise in Indian youths. If African youths could be brought up to speed, employment generation will come from these outsourced jobs from developed countries thereby reducing youth restiveness.

ICT is the acronym for Information and Communications Technology. It is a big factor when determining the social-economic development of a nation; the developed countries of the world have reached enviable height in the development and deployment of Information and Communications Technology solutions. Computers and its allied product are very good tools for solving most of the major problems facing the world. Keeping records in very accurate ways to make forecasts for future purposes has been of help in developed countries; hence they have been able to harness the potentials of computers in eradicating ills such as poverty, infant mortality, high crime rate, e.t.c. using statistical data accumulated from their database over the years. The developing countries in contrast do not even have correct population figures and this would surely affect effective and accurate planning for the present and the future, it’s even a mystery how most of these countries come about their annual budget when most births and deaths are not registered. ICT ensures many channels of information dissemination, through mobile phones, emails, the World Wide Web, News groups, e.t.c.
Many developing countries have abundance of natural resources like petroleum, diamond and gold, yet they are very poor and their citizens languish in poverty. The reason is very simple; the wealth of a country can no longer be measured by the abundance of its natural resources but by the quality of its citizenry. We can only get quality citizens in a nation where there is a free flow of communication, where access to information is very easy. A very veritable and cheap way of getting access to Information is the Internet which is still a luxury in most under-developed countries. Information brings about knowledge and knowledge itself brings power! For the under-developed world to start thinking of reaching the height of their developed counterparts, they need to embrace the power and wonder of Information and Communications Technology.
It’s not news that there is a very big digital divide that separates the developed and the under-developed countries of the world and anyone who attempts bridging the gap carves the image of trying a white elephant project. But the fact is that through ICT, the gap could be gapped. ICT is so universal in nature, Cisco routers in the USA are the same in Togo, and Linux in the UK is not different from the one in South Africa. So, introducing ICT properly to the ailing world will ensure a very fast convergence process for them.
As expected, a good level of development is noticed in the developing countries, this confirms that socio-economic powers as well as ICT walk together. Many youths in the developed countries are now empowered by their knowledge of computers and the availability of telecommunication systems like the global system of mobile communication (GSM). This virtually links these youths with the global world. This is not the same for the youth in rural areas who have not even seen a computer mouse before. The simple truth is that most African countries have more rural areas than urban areas, which means that the few cities that are ICT enabled do not leave us with the true picture of the situation. There are more people living in the rural areas in Africa. Because of the disadvantaged position of the rural youth; his lack of access to basic amenities and also is his drought of information, a lot has to be done to raise his standard. The future of a country is in the hands of its Youth. If a nation is not developing its youth, then it is paving way for a bad future. Apart from giving them access to Information, ICT will also provide job opportunities for them. A country like India is a great example, the ICT industry in India rakes in Billions of dollars annually. This will surely bring about job creation and economic revolutions.
For the developing countries to put themselves in the map of the world and turn themselves into countries with quality citizens there is a need to employ the integration of ICT into their day to day life. The world is now a global digital village, through the use of technology, the remotest village in Rwanda could be linked to the rest of the world via satellite equipments. Any place where there is no Internet facility is not part of this big global village. Professor Phillip Emeagwali, the one referred to by Bill Clinton as the father of the Internet has a very interesting theory about the future of the world. He is of the opinion that the time would come when the personal computer would disappear and the super computer would take over. He also believes that the Internet and the supercomputer would be one. His theory is that human beings will one day be the components of the supercomputer or the Internet, hence there would no longer be emails but telepathic mails, and in 10,000 years, human beings would have achieved digital immortality. I am very optimistic of this kind of development, though Professor Emeagwali knows that it might not come to pass in our generation, but my fear is that if the theory becomes a reality in future, then some races are sure to be cut off. People in rural areas are in danger of being left behind. (P. Emeagwali- My search for the holy grail of Immortality, April 2003)

(The concluding part will follow next)

I am very passionate about the very delicate project of rebuilding the very blessed nation of Nigeria. God so blessed us that sometimes I think it is to our detriment. We can easily see that due to our very wonderful environmental conditions, natural resources in abundance and a whole lot of other positive attributes; we oftentimes forget to stretch our present limits and ensure a whole new wavelength of creativity.
I also think God has blessed us with very thick skin that is receptive to extreme conditions as well as a lot of shame and nonsense. That will explain why looking back to a lot of milestones in Nigeria; it is crystal clear that our thick skins make us accept just anything. Our elections are always filled with horror stories of rigging, molestations and killings. Nigerians have even resigned to fate and the general belief is that nothing good can come out of any electioneering process in our dear country.
The endemic nature of corruption is very frightening and is the root cause of the un-workability of the state. Every sector of the state is affected and people have lost faith in the sanity of leadership in this country. The quality of leadership we roll out is a reflection of the quality of citizens we produce. The educational system in the country is obviously destroyed and a real miracle is needed to get it back on track. I was moved to tears when I had something doing in a secondary school where most of the students were unable to write their names correctly and to think that this used to be a top secondary school in the ancient city of Ibadan.
The Universities are living in their past glories. Curriculum is a major problem right from primary to tertiary levels. It is so sad that some lecturers even boast of using the same note from 1970′s for their students in 2007. I am very afraid for the kind of Nigerians we are raising and there seems to be very little hope. NEPA used to be called Never Expect Power Always – it was almost a sigh of relieve when the name was changed to PHCN but alas we soon got the real meaning of the name —- Problem Has Changed Names — how sad?
The only solution to this problem lies in our generation. The general consensus is that the older generation verily failed us and it is very unfair that this same set of people enjoyed all the good things the country had to offer — free and qualitative education, easy access to luxuries, hassle-free visas, good hospitals, e.t.c. We cannot afford to allow their failure to continue haunting us and allow our own children to suffer. I believe it is a good time to stand up for what is right and be change agents. I decided a long time ago that I won’t be a part of the complaint wagon but ensure some proactivity and ingenuity. I decided to work on my own mind and walk with like-minds in changing the face of the Nigerian state.
The first step is to look inwards and determine if each of us are doing enough to change ourselves and Nigeria for the better. The journey is first a personal one before culminating in a collective action. If I pledge to become a good citizen of Nigeria, keeping traffic laws, sanitation, fight corruption, e.t.c and also decide to develop myself by reading good books, being the best in my career and generally loving my fellow countryman; it will be exciting how much we can all improve as a country.
As we start a new year – I implore all of us to stop blaming Nigeria but endeavour to start a journey into personal improvement and nation building.