If there is any country that can claim to be very blessed, Nigeria qualifies. No one can dispute the fact that we have a lot to thank God for – natural resources in abundance, great agricultural lands, intelligent citizens, nice climate, etc. But it seems most of these things are more of a curse to us than blessings considering the suffering and total hopelessness exhibited by most of the populace.

Some people tend to think that our problems are ethnic in nature but we all know that each ethnic tribe has fifth columnists who seem to have made up their mind to plunder the Nigerian state to non-existent. It is a very emotional side of me writing this post early on a Monday morning. Events have proven that if we are not careful – the house which has already fallen will totally be annihilated!

When former President Olusegun Obasanjo forced a relatively unknown governor (Outside his Katsina State and environs) on 140 Million people in 2007 to become our President; some of us knew we were heading for the same dance of shame. A lot of people were happy that an incorruptible governor was coming into power but I bet we now know that Nigerians need more than that. A president who comes into office through a flawed electoral process can never rule us with the conscience required of such a leader. It is also a fact that his election came with a price – he dined with the Iboris of this world so how can we prove his innocence?

Let’s look at his performance in more than 26 months in power. Electricity which is the major problem we thought his government was going to solve is worse now. The panels he constituted to probe past power projects are all dead and the noise is no more resounding. Now, his 7 points agenda are more like a puppet show than a reality. We all have doubts that they will ever come true and can you blame a pessimistic Nigerian or a Naija woman/man? Nopes.

Form everything I have seen of this man; he is more stubborn than OBJ and he has proved it because he is tending towards being worse than military heads of state when it comes to human feelings. It is on record that President Umar Musa Yar Adua has not offered the government and people of Lagos State a condolence message after the Atlas Cove Jetty disaster. Something makes me think he shares the thoughts of Jomo Gbomo when he said that the attack was on a Federal Government property and not aimed at Lagos State.

Now to think that the same President wrote a letter to the Lagos State government ordering them to revert back to the 20 local government format says much of the kind of leader or let’s say Boss he is. That was very untimely and it is times like these when he makes such decisions that I question if Mr. Segun Adeniyi is truly his aide or just one of his play things in Aso Rock. When Yar Adua appointed Adeniyi, we were so happy that to some extent; the level of decisions taken at the top would have some sanity but we have been proved wrong on all sides. I remember the cerebral column on the back page of This Day every Thursday that ensured some of us scrambling for a copy of the newspaper. I remember a man we missed when he decided to join government but I also remember we were happy that we are missing him to perform better at a more advanced stage but I guess that was a wish. Don’t get me wrong, we all know Yar Adua might not even listen to people like Adeniyi but then his continuous stay negates the personality we know if his advise is being ignored. I choose to believe that Adeniyi is not happy with most of the decisions or am I wrong?

Just a few days ago, the governors of the Niger Delta region openly dared Yar Adua about the amnesty deal and the quack decision of the FG on PTI Effurun Warri / Kaduna school. One begins to wonder how the mind of our President works? How can he pretend to be committed to the Niger Delta peace process and in the same breath make such blatant decisions? It beats me. Remember also that he calls our bluff at all times. He doesn’t see anything wrong in having his Ministers of finance, Finance Advisers and the CBN all coming from one part of the country.

This is not a Yar Adua bashing exercise. It is actually a bashing exercise for all political post holders who are destroying our nation. The shameless brats who I can liken to the proverbial bastard – the one who uses the left hand to describe his father’s house. I also liken them to murderers, yeah because the blood of those who die on our coffin roads, bad hospitals and even in some cases – poverty will cry on their head.
I think we should be tired of their acts by now when we see a few silver linings like Fashola and the other few fiscally responsible state governors.

Right now, the global economic meltdown is biting deep into our country. Jobs are being lost. None are created. Each successive NYSC set is like an addition of more jobless youths into the polity. The banks that used to be the biggest employers have cut down on their recruitment processes. Telecommunication was seen as an untouchable sector but that has been proved wrong. Oil companies were never big employers of labour and it will get worse now that the Niger Delta agitation is on a higher pedestal with operation Moses (God save us from the plagues). Oil production is down to about a quarter of our capacity and it is all looking very bad.

I am one very optimistic Nigerian but I guess today is a day for telling the truth and preparing our minds for what is to come. I cannot see an end to our travails with the bunch of comic acts who call themselves leaders. Leadership is not a small word that can be used by the jokers we have in power from the ministries to LG to States and federal governments. Though the cloud looks thick but I know that all hope is not lost. It will just need some commitments and hard work from us all.

We have a vibrant generation that can turn things around. The era of sidon look has finished. The countries we used to run to a la United Kingdom, USA, etc are managing their resources now and are giving the good jobs to home boys regardless of the foreigners capabilities and qualifications. Ask our young people who just finished MBAs in top business schools around the world. It used to be a gate for automatic entrance into the wonderful 6-figure dollar salary but now the story has majorly changed as the stimulus package granted to the organizations that used to recruit such talents mandated they recruit Omo-Oniles. So, home will be the best to come back to. Now, can we all afford to leave things the way they are? Where our roads are death traps, health care non-existent? Unemployment rife, strikes everywhere, generator wars? I guess no. We deserve a better Nigeria.

I know you hate politics but love a good life. So, I am imploring that for the first time since you turned 18 – realize you are key to evolving the Nigeria of your dream. I cringe when I think that we might have the same set of politicians coming back in 2011. I am afraid when I think that this looting will continue for decades. And I will blame the young brainy Nigerian who sees no faults in the way things are just because of his/her comfortable salary which is rubbished by the environment he/she passes through everyday and even ‘cos that job is no longer safe.

I am young and I am proudly Nigerian. My parents understand that my age has nothing to do with my sensibility. I can sway them and their friends if I have the right words. I know that the 18-40 age bracket has a lot to do in the next elections starting from when the voters register opens. We need a class action to get things going. There is a group of young people already talking about registering a new political party with sound ideologies. I have committed myself to finish a research I started on how the Republican, Democratic, Labor and Conservative parties evolved which shows them as ideological bodies unlike our own baba-suwe likened parties in Nigeria and most of Africa. If you think you can join me in this research so we can help the party that is going to be registered to have a firm footing and not turn into a joke – mail me : me@ayooladejo.com.

I am going to beg you all. We have a part to play in the national rebirth. I want my kids to comfortably live and enjoy in their country. I want to see my people enjoy a good life. I am tired of the nonsense and I know you are. But can we turn this anger into a productive edge? That is the question raging in my head. If we call you to action, would you answer? Can you stop being pessimistic and see that WE CAN for a moment? If yes, we will know when you answer the clarion call.

How time flies is a very common saying in our World. But can the families of those affected by senseless and wicked sides of humanity ever forget the wounds imposed on them even after decades? I guess no!
I was a 300 level student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife when the unthinkable happened. Today marks the 10th anniversary of that unforgettable incidence that left the whole country gasping for breath.

Now someone might ask if it was so uncommon for cultists to kill Tertiary institution students in Nigeria. The answer is no, it is not uncommon as we have lost what it takes to understand the sanctity of human live. But it was nevertheless uncommon for such an ignominious act to happen in Great Ife. Why? Because Great Ife was a vanguard in the fight against cultism and we prided ourselves as one of the few cult-free campuses in the whole of Nigeria.

But that was our undoing on this historic day. The devil we thought we had caged reared its ugly head and terminated the dreams of a nation. Five wonderful young men were killed in a senseless raid that still baffles me till date. There are different accounts of the motive behind the killings but one thing is clear; it is all a case of man’s wickedness towards man. I always ask myself why a man with blood running in his veins will decide to shoot another but I guess it is futile ‘cos it happens everyday in our world. Sad!

The scenarios painted are still not clear till date. Let me share some of them.

1. A school of thought believes that the attackers were an amalgamation of cultists from other campuses who came to deal with OAU students union leaders for their involvement in chasing cultism out of Nigerian higher institutions. It is believed that the external cultists collaborated with some few OAU based cultists to plan this raid.

2. The second school of thought linked Professor Wale Omole to the mayhem. Omole was rounding up his tenure as the Vice Chancellor of OAU when this happened. It was said that he wanted to deal with the student Union leadership who were always embarrassing him and his style of leadership which was very unpopular with the students. Omole allegedly brought mercenaries from other Universities to carry out the raid.

3. A third school of thought which many might be reading for the first time today came up. Yeah. it was not a very common one back then. It was believed that the President of the Students Union at that time – Lanre Legacy was in trouble. Nigeria was going to host the Under-20 world cup and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) was hell bent on stopping it. Lanre and the NANS president at that time were in the fore-front of leading NANS to disrupt the competition. On the day of the planned rally; they were nowhere to be found and later they persuaded Nigerian students to stop the disruption. It was gathered that they got a heavy beating and Lanre who had a good reputation as a fiery activist was a let down. It was alleged they collected some money from the Local Organizing committee of Nigeria ’99. Great Ife students were waiting for him to return to Ife to be probed. he came back but almost immediately, the massacre happened. The conspiracy theory was that his political party (DSM) plotted the attacks to get the mind of Great Ife students on another pressing matter and forget the fraud. This account might be far-fetched as it is almost incomprehensible that Legacy could do that.

Now I do not know which of the theories was right and even if any of them could lead us to what happened on July 10 1999 but one thing is clear. Our judicial system as well as security intelligence is nothing to wrote home about. Up till now, the case has no closure and the cultists (Ife based) that were arrested did little to bring justice to the families and friends of the departed souls.

It was an heinous crime as most of the dead were killed in their sleep. Even the animal kingdom respects itself more than this. They mostly kill for food but we are worse. I know the spirit of those young men cut down in their prime will continue to haunt their killers and the system that has not been fair enough to give them justice.

To George Iwilade (Law) aka Afrika, Eviano Ekelemu (Medicine) and the rest who died on July 10, 1999 – I say rest on. Your struggles were not in vain and Great Ife has not suffered such an attack since your ultimate sacrifice. To the University – I wonder if any ceremony is holding at the moment to celebrate these martyrs?
To the students who were there when it happened – it could have been you o. So please do all you can to bring positive change to our nation, so we can become a people with respect for human lives.
To the families of the departed ones – God will continue to give you the fortitude to bear the loss.
To the wounded ones – yeah we cannot forget some were hit by bullets. God will heal you totally.
To the killers and their cohorts – One day you will give accounts, either in this world or in the aftermath.

NB: There are some events leading up to the July 10 attack that will be materials for an upcoming book from me. It will be an expose on how we might have avoided that attack ‘cos the events started from my 100 level in 1997.

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 legislation.
• 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

…. Continued from Part 1.

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 legislation 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 environment. 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)