The federal government has been urged to make information and communications technology (ICT) part and parcel of her visionary transformation agenda to achieve even and sustainable development.

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who on April 16, 2011 won a pan-Nigerian mandate that swept through the North and South of the nation; ran on a promise to radically transform the nation and overhaul every aspect of the national life.

Leo Stan Ekeh, chairman, Zinox Group, said that the present administration has earned a lot of regards and respect with the transformation agenda but urged the government to make bold hearted interventions in technology just as it is doing in aviation and energy.

Ekeh said that the development of the capacity of the ICT industry will empower the vast majority of Nigerians towards productivity and growth.

“The government needs to exploit the pivotal role of technology in national development by providing the environment for technology to nurture to fruition the various initiatives that the President has taken in other sectors” Ekeh added.

According to Ekeh, the federal government should have seized the opportunity of President Jonathan’s landmark state visit to China to use ICT to consolidate on the gains recorded in aviation, infrastructure and energy.

The President, who made exhaustive use of the social media in his election campaign, has reaffirmed his belief in technology as a harnessing platform for his development initiatives by his establishment of the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications.

Expectations from ICT stakeholders are that the mastery of ICT tools and the social media displayed by the President during elections would translate to a retooling of the citizenry sooner than later. 

Ekeh said that “I must admit that the importance of ICT appeared restored recently with the inauguration of a 19-man Broadband Council to ensure the execution of an ambitious plan by the Federal Government to promote the diffusion of high-speed internet access expected to foster economic growth in the country.

The plan earlier released by the Minister of Information and Communications, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, is a five year programme which seeks to achieve a fivefold increase of broadband penetration by the end of 2017, up from the present 6% level. The plan, among other things, would provide security for broadband infrastructure, encourage a reduction in the costs of deploying infrastructure, use the regulatory bodies to ensure better performance levels of broadband services and use existing national assets to create access for communities for digital literacy” he added.

According to the Zinox boss, the definite steps being taken by the federal government to deepen the penetration of ICT and broadband are welcome and timely.

“They indicate awareness that ICT and broadband penetration are central to the success of the President’s transformation agenda, the attainment of the MDGs in 2015 and the vision 20 2020. The Onus is on the Council to respectfully pressurize the government to move beyond the setting up of the Council to practical interventions that would improve the living standards of our people”  he said.

For example, the entire nation would come aflame if the federal government were to deploy wireless infrastructure for subsidized or free internet in Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna.

Ekeh said that millions of new jobs would be created, decent wealth would abort corruption, and new digital lifestyles would be adopted as the levels of creativity and productivity reach unimaginable proportions.

He stated that “If Nigerians in these geo-political centers had heavily subsidized access to internet, it would trigger off a new era of fairly even development that would heal ethnic jealousies. The wireless infrastructure provided would then be complemented by the provision of subsidized laptops or tablets to all serving members of the National Youth Service Corps”

“In actual fact, I have said at some other forums that the Nigerian State needs to deploy a minimum of 25,000,000 PCs, in the next 3 years, 3,750,000 for each of the 6 geo-political zones and 2,500,000 in Abuja, or forget the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.  These PCs would be targeted at youths who leave secondary school with 6 ‘Alphas’, all graduating students from the Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, and Universities. This generation closely interconnected by satellite television, social media and the internet would give rise to a new ICT based work culture, increasing productivity and self sufficiency; reducing corruption and the kinship that leads to ethnicity; and enabling a self interpretation of faith that would undermine religious extremism” the Zinox boss also added

The intervention would immediately arrest the high mortality rate among indigenous ISPs, and PC manufacturers, and give rise to a new tier of technologists.

The number of start-ups in Nigeria would run into tens of millions, the quality of education would become globally competitive, and business processes and procedures would improve drastically because of the increased opportunity to compare notes with things happening outside our borders.

The essence of promoting ICT is for employment creation as the largest platform for creating employment all over the world. ICT also helps a nation to build a new set of affluent citizens whose wealth can be defended as corruption free.

Above all, the Government and the President would get credit for kick starting modern Nigeria. The funding of these patriotic ideas need not give us sleepless nights – the Federal Government should liaise with the national assembly, create a special ICT and Broadband penetration fund, and persuade corporate persons to pay a 1% tax over the next 5 years or alternatively fund this from the Sovereign Wealth Fund for the next 3 years.

What other countries are doing: The advantage among nations is now measured by the level of ICT and broadband penetration.

As recently as 2010, in spite of the fact that nearly 200 million Americans had broadband access in their homes, the USA developed a National Broadband Plan, with the objective to ensure that at least 100 million US homes have affordable access to high speed internet as would make the United States the world leader in mobile innovations, with the fastest and most extensive wireless networks on earth. In pursuit of this goal the USA set up the Connect America Fund, CAF, to finance the provision of affordable high speed internet and the government approved the spending of $15.5 billion over the next ten years from the existing Universal Service Fund, USF.

 In addition, the US Government approved incentives to encourage investors to achieve broadband penetration to the unreached and underserved.   
It is instructive that smaller countries are already implementing various ambitious ICT Broadband interventions.

The President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, announced at his swearing in – a laptop for every Kenyan school leaver. Thailand, the small Asian country that supplies Nigeria with rice is currently the cynosure of all OEMs with the intended supply of 1.5 million laptops to boost the economy.

Access to the tools of knowledge is the only way to ensure sustainable development through the creation of millions of intellectual merchants and entrepreneurs who can defend their wealth in the 21st century.

If smaller countries including Ghana can do it then Africa’s giant cannot afford to allow this opportunity to slip by. Recently, a Ghanaian company partnered with the Osun State government to produce tablets for their schools.

That Ghanaian company was recently empowered by a loan of $20 million from China, underwritten by the Government of Ghana. That is the kind of incentive that Nigerian OEMs need to go global.

Conclusion:
No nation is an Island unto itself and today’s peer review mechanism has made it easier for nations to learn from one another.

Nigeria must learn from what other developing nations are doing. The race for development is like a 100 metre dash and the front runner, by size and resources, cannot afford to be lethargic or minnows will overtake him.

All is not lost yet and Nigeria still has ample time to wake up to her manifest destiny as the giant of Africa. Mr. President should be consoled by the cliché that the thank you for hard work is more work.  I rest my case.
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