KAZEY JOURNAL

I was reading Gradiose Parlour’s blog today and I came upon a very interesting post titled “Computer For All Nigerians Initiative“, whilst reading, I had a flash back on a recent discussion, I had with Tim Akinbo over it, and how we actually exchange our views, on the various issues, that has been, the main obstacle to its lack in penetration in general.

The issue of computer wide spread usage that is penetration, in general, is questionable, and thus I cannot help but ask the following questions.

A. Can an average Nigerian citizen, afford a desktop computer?
B. Does an average Nigerian understand, what he could use a computer for, apart from the internet usage and Word processing, besides programming and graphical designs?
C. Would the “Computer for All Nigerians Initiative”, be beneficial to the average Nigerian?
D. Does an average Nigerian really need a computer at home?

A lot of Nigerians tend to think the main obstacle to the penetration of computers in Nigeria, (which is at an
embarrassing ratio of 7 computers to 1000 people) is actually related to the inability of the average Nigerian to afford it, which would be believed to be automatically due to our current GDP, but in reality it is not so. Nigerians internal economy and
cash flow circulation, within the average Nigerian does not have any direct relation with our current GDP. The GDP might have a say, but no impact on the earnings or the livelihood. If I am wrong, please correct me.

Now after saying that, am I saying the average Nigerian can afford a computer? Well I cant really conclude to that, but I would use a basis of comparison rather. A good object of reference would be the penetration of “GSM TECHNOLOGY” in Nigeria. I recently read a
PowerPoint slide presentation titled “THREE YEARS OF GSM REVOLUTION IN NIGERIA” by By Ernest C. Ndukwe, Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The Statistics in that presentation was.

STATISTICAL INDICATORS IN THE YEAR 2005

	Dec-00	Dec-02	Jun-03	Dec-03	Mar-04
Number of Connected Fixed Lines	450,000	702,000	724,790	850,000	888,854
Number of Connected Digital Mobile Lines	None	1.6m	2.05m	3.1m	3.8m
Number of National Carriers as at the year 2005	1	2	2	2	2
Number of Operating ISPs	18	30	30	35	35
Number of Active Licensed Fixed Line Operators	9	16	19	30	30
Number of Licensed Mobile Operators	1	4	4	4	4

And besides this statistics of mobile users, is even an underestimation. This is because currently only MTN (one of the mobile service providers) boasts of a whooping 2,587,000 subscribers in Nigeria, where each subscriber, spends an average of 54 USD a month, that is an average of 7000 Naira a month. Please forgive my deviation, and allow me to prove a point here. This average revenue per user for the same Telco in other of its market is really low, it ARPU (Average revenue per user) is $22 in Cameroon, $33 in Uganda, $27 in Rwanda, and $22 in Swaziland !!

Now how much does an average phone cost in Nigeria? An average phone cost 55USD, besides Nigerians are fond of using expensive phones. I have friends with phones worth as much as 200USD, yet they do not have a computer. Well I guess we all have our priorities.

How much does a computer, with a specification of Pentium III, 128MB ram, 700MHZ, 20GB hardisk, onboard sound card and onboard graphic card cost? A friend said, it would cost
an approximated 179 USD and a monitor would cost approximately 62-82 USD. Now that is in Nigeria !!, so are we saying the average Nigerian cannot afford to buy a desktop computer? Think again, the issue now goes to my second question labeled B. .

Does an average Nigerian understand, what he could use a computer for, apart from internet use and Word processing, besides programming and graphical designs?

I really do not think so. The problem at hand, really is Education. People are not aware of what a computer can be simply used for. Have we tried to educate the masses? Maybe some NGOs might claim they have tried, and are still trying . But are they really doing what they should do?, besides do they target the right audience? If I go on asking questions, I wouldn’t really achieve at anything, because honestly if we tend to look at the issue, at stake, we would realise that the issue with the penetration of computers, in Nigeria, really goes back to the question? Is the average Nigerian, a Computer literate? if affirmative, How educated? What type of education?

Besides that, I really find it interesting when a Nigerian based computer literate start raising issues on the electricity regularity dilemma (for goodness sake, dont they buy televisions at home?), besides also saying outrageous things like, what would I use the pc for, If not for business or internet use? Does it go not go beyound that? Is that what a computer can only be used for? This is really shocking, wrong knowledge, total myopic enclavement (forgive me for my wordings).

What happened to its primary usage? It is an Educational tool, for goodness sake, I can even include entertainment !!. How do we make use of it to learn without an internet? Good question.

I wouldnt go on listing down, as if I am giving a lecture, but I would try to answer it in a lovely way. I can use a computer to read e-books that is books in electronic format. Books that are readily available in CD-ROMS, or can be provided or sold at cheaper affordable rates, if they are not currently in the market. E-books are very cheap in comparison to normal physical books, even upto 60-80% cheaper in relation to the physical books.

What about interactive learning softwares that teach you how to do things like cookery, poultry , programming etc? What about softwares that help you prepare for exams.

As an entertainment tool, you can keep a huge record of musics on your hard-disk, play computer games, have lan parties in your neighbourhood or at a friends house , besides to name a few. I mean the usage of computers is way too many for me to list down, it just doesnt boil down to the internet? And yes if it is internet, you can build a server in your neighbourhood or hostels that connect to just one internet infrastructure and save a lot on bandwidth using caches etc. I mean thats not even needed if you cant avoid it, but in reality the larger the number of users, the cheaper internet would be in Nigeria.

Besides there are internet cafes for you to research download into a flashdisk and come home plug it in and you are done.

Now how many NGOs educate the masses for free with all this examples, or how many NGOs try to provide special affordable configurations to the masses so that the average Nigerian can have a pc at home at reduced price? Trust me seminars or even talks just end up in the same circle. The same participants keep on coming and coming. And do we call that awareness? To me they are already awared, and it is a total wastage of time. How about door to door evangelism in educated neighbourhoods? Distributing affordable flyer computer specifications besides also hosting regular public promotions on awareness etc? There is always an easy way, if honest, reliable work wants to be done. There are always many ideas that can always be incorporated.

Yes the average Nigerian, can afford an average specification pc, and no the government should not fund such schemes like “Computer for All Nigerians Initiative”, they should spend their funds and allocations on creating a better infrastructure and solving poverty rather. This is because never in history has an average Nigerian benefited directly from any scheme targetted to the masses, and thus it can be concluded, that such scheme, would meet the same fate of its predecessors.

Oo wait a minute, what happened to the University Students in Nigeria. How many have personal computers?

Disclaimer: This is just a mere opinion and does not justify any
legal fact. The average Nigerian as mentioned in this post is the educated
middle class level of Nigeria. Please note that.

E-commerce to a layman, is simply a webfront, where daily transactions are being made by 2 or more parties, generally assumed to be an online store where commodity is sold by the majority, but in reality, it does go far beyound that. A good explanation can be found at wikipedia.

Nigeria is well known for its phenomenal leap frogging, in anything you introduce into its market. E-commerce in Nigeria for one, hasnt really been well adopted, although we might see a lot of mini enterprises and a few corporations striving hard to see it come out in shape. Thus, the leap frogging factor hasnt infected the E-commerce industry. So what might be the possible problem?

Ignoring my own perception and understanding of the system, I did a quick research on google, on what Nigerians in Nigeria, in particular have to say to it.

The inputs I got by browsing through a topic titled “Doing E-Commerce from Nigeria (the 419 Stigma)” on Nairaland, a Nigerian forum, wasnt really impressive, Although I shouldnt ignore to commend a few of those who, tried to explain a few local terms, although it might be unnecessary and useless, because it still doesnt show they really do understand the problem at stake. Most generally, either they lack the experience, or I should be pardoned to say, they lack the basic understanding, on how an e-commerce system should generally work, and even whether the 419 stigma does have a direct impact on the local penetration of e-commerce in Nigeria. I really dont blame them, nobody is really working hard on educating them, besides we are all trying to learn more daily. Aren’t we?

So I decided to research more, and came up with a very interesting and well elaborated entry on Nigerian Village square by Dr. Gbenga Bamodu (Dept of International Trade and E-Commerce Law,University of Essex (UK), although located in the UK, in his post entry titled ” The Legal Landscape for E-Commerce in Nigeria“. I think that post actually went beyound what I would have achieved in trying to explain, besides touching every aspect of it objectively with a little bit of techinical flavour.

As much as I would have love, to quote that article, at the same time I would prefer readers to go and give it a through read at the main source. So I encourage that anybody interested in knowing the problem with e-commerce in Nigeria, the current obstacle to it, should head there by clicking the link.

The Legal Landscape for E-Commerce in Nigeria”

In part 2 of this post, which I would try to compose and post as soon as possible. I would give my own perception of the present status, the present and the possible future, besides that, I would try, to go through the pre-requisites of attaining that possible future etc. So stay tuned.

Hello Google Analytics User,

This is a quick update to address some issues you may be seeing
in your Google Analytics account and what we’re doing to respond.

First, due to extremely high demand, we’ve temporarily limited
the number of new signups as we increase capacity. This allows
us to focus on our primary objective—to provide a great user
experience for our existing users.

Next, here is current information on the most common questions
we’re receiving:

1. The ‘Check Status’ button is being reworked to check for
properly installed tracking code. This should be fixed by the
end of November.

2. The ‘+Add Profile’ link has been temporarily removed until
we increase capacity. We’ll alert all current users when the
feature is restored.

3. While we increase capacity, you may see longer than normal
delays in data showing up in your reports. All data continues
to be collected and no data has been lost.

For additional help with your Google Analytics account, we
encourage you to browse or search our online Help Center at
http://www.google.com/support/analytics?hl=en.

Thanks for your patience as we improve Google Analytics and add
resources to ensure a high-quality service.

Sincerely,

The Google Analytics Team

Hmm they finally admitted. When would google stop under-estimating its market grip? Wake up google this is 2005.

In reference to my new clients in the post Probability of them being scammers is high?

that had the same transaction ip, but different profile. Well they do happen to be what I taught they were, infact a sophisticated one.

They were pro-spammers, I mean they could actually successfully cloack their headers to avoid the logging of the source. Even using grep to catch the logs of the yahoo account they were using was useless.

So i had to review the acccount properly and found out they were using a mail bomber named “RAH MAIL BOMBER VS 2.0“. Hmm really couldnt find much info on search engines but I would check underground networks to study more about the script , when I get the time too. For now. May the soul of their four accounts rest in pieces.

The governor of an oil-rich Nigerian state has fled the UK, where he was charged with laundering £1.8m ($3.2m) found in cash and bank accounts.

Source : BBC

To some Nigerians back at home, especially from BAYELSA, he is their hero for being corrupt :(. How pathetic !!

Bayelsa’s Information Commissioner Oronto Douglas told the AFP news agency: “We woke up this morning and he was here… He said that God brought him here.”

Mr Douglas said large crowds had lined the streets of the state capital, Yenagoa, to welcome the governor back.

A government official after being charged of money laundering, skipping bail and getting a warm welcome back home is not what I would call good news.

What are the authourities of Nigeria doing about this?

Is this one of the ways of telling the world out there, that hey we are corrupt and we really do not give a dem? Infact we embrace it?

This is crazy

Anti-corruption drive.
Nigeria’s anti-corruption body has been investigating the governor for more than three years.

I just hope that they would just stop doing the “investigating” and get things done for once.

This is indeed a very serious issue. But lets see what Uncle Sege would do about it. We might be in for a suprise.

Is it lonely? I wondered. I mean here is a fish, not sure what breed (I am not an ecologist for goodness sake) alone in an aquarium, in one of the restaurants of my school. Yeah I am wierd, for wondering whether it was lonely. I just had to visualize a world of my own, consisting of only I, living without anybody to talk to. That is consisting of no single specie of my type, or of any other type (in the sense of reffering back to the fiction of the tarzan world). Well so it is. Now this fish has no friend, nobody to play with except for the food.

But then again who knows it might not be bored, its a fish world. Do they have emotions? I wondered too. Ran to google and came out with this result.

Do fish, like humans, experience pain and suffering? People hold very differing beliefs about this question. Some would believe that if fish react to stimuli that would cause a person to feel pain that the fish must also be feeling pain. Others assume that fish are too different from humans for the matter to be of concern. Many people don’t know quite what to think about the issue. Neuroscience research has clarified the neurological and psychological processes that cause the experience of pain, so we can address this question from a large base of factual information.

Source:By Dr. James D. Rose, University of Wyoming in an article titled “Do Fish Feel Pain? “

Hmm I really dont know :(. I mean why all this curiousity, maybe I care for the fish, hehehe funny. Ok well then I went on to google about fishes and loneliness, but I really did not get much of a result. The only one that actually helped a little in educating me, was titled “Alone but Not Lonely-The importance of giving puffers individually“. It said and I quote that

Many fish species throughout the world school or shoal for protection from predators. By staying together in large numbers, these fish are able to reduce the chances of becoming a meal. Sometimes, young Puffers are found in large groups. However, as they mature these Puffers usually go their separate ways. From this point on, Puffers begin to live a solitary life where interaction with conspecifics is usually limited to mating season and the occasional territorial dispute.

It went on and emphasised that

In the aquarium, territory is at a premium. Compared to the rivers, estuaries and open oceans that puffers inhabit in the wild, the aquarium is a very small environment. As a territorial family, Puffers require space to call their own. Introducing more than one Puffer into a tank, especially a tank that is too small, is asking for problems. If two Puffers cannot establish clear territories, they will often fight.

So it might not be lonely afterall? As I said I am not sure what type of fish breed it is just that i know it got this particular swollen head, I didnt bring my camera along to campus, so maybe some other time, I might post the picture.

Well back to my research on puffers,.A puffer fish according to wikipedia is

also called blowfish, swellfish, globefish, balloonfish are fish making up the family Tetraodontidae, within the order Tetraodontiformes. They are named for their ability to inflate themselves to several times their normal size by swallowing water or air when threatened; the same adaptation is found in the closely related porcupinefish, which also have spines (unlike pufferfish).

Interesting isnt it? Besides isnt it a beaty?

We got 4 orders on thursday and payment on friday for 4 web hosting accounts with different profiles but the same transaction ip.

What do you do as a hosting company? Do your cancel the order and classify it as fraudulent order or do you give them the benefit of the doubt, on the pretext that they might be ordering from the same cafe at the same time?

Well i choose the later, which means I am taking a risk, but they are under high surveillance . I would keep you posted.

Someone did ask me regarding why I had adsense on Nigerianbloggers since it was not for profit.

Well yes it still remains non profitable, but the bandwidth and space it takes is not free from Nairahost. Nairahost is a company which keeps records of its bandwidth and space, besides the per dollar value of it, and therefore, I have to pay back in one way or the other. So Adsense came to the rescue, afterall its not that hard to earn the cost overhead in one year.

But if there is an excessive income from it, I would divert it for the said Nigerian bloggers award of the week program. So be rest assured is still remains , what I said it is.

Well i just arrived from a trip, and my rushing online to get updated was welcome with good news. Google makes analytics free. I just cant believe it.

I am currently integrating it to all my sites. Besides Google Analytics is an enterprise level of web traffic analyzer. It tells you all the information you wish to know about your visitors such as:

Where the visitors come from?

How long is the length of visit?

What are the top exit points?

What are the browsers used by visitors?

and more…

What is your name?
Kayode Muyibi

How old are you?
I would be (2005-1983= 22) years old on the December 5th this year. So currently i am 21.

Where are you from?
I am from Osun State of Nigeria.

Where do you stay?
I stay in Cyberjaya during school days and Kuala Lumpur during holidays.

How long have you being in Malaysia?
I came first to malaysia in 1998.

When did you visit Nigeria last?
I was in Aminu Kano International Airport last 2003 or so?

Do you like visiting Nigeria?
Hmm not really? I go when I feel like going. Nigeria is a nice place but…............

What do you do for a living?
I dont do anything for a living, all I do is go to university, I am still Daddy and Mummies boy. All i do that brings in the extras are just mainly passion. But do I pay bills from my pocket? No I dont.

When are you graduating?
I am graduating hopefully next year or two, not sure? dont ask me why? I dont know. We dont go on strike either, just that I am passing through school, and not letting my schooling interfere with my education.

Are you smart or do you think you are smart?
Well no honestly I dont think I am, I just do what the ordinary person does, I wouldnt say I am not an average person nor would I say I am, I am just a simple guy that happens to be filled with so much of information gathered through passion, and hardwork. Infact 99% achieved through perspiration.

Do you have a girlfriend currently?
Hmm girlfriend, maybe a friend who happens to be a lady, but going out with somebody? nah I am not going out with any lady at the moment, nor do I plan to in the coming years. I think they are troublesome, from my last experience. Once burnt, twice shy? not really, just that I dont have time for relationships right now.

What do you plan to achieve in life?
I plan to be a millionaire at the age of 26, and be financially free at the age of 30, then retire and get married at the age of 31 or so.

Are you ambitious?
No personally I am not, maybe my ideas sometimes are crazy. Well I just happen to be leverage minded, thats more of it? not sure.

Do you like me?
Depends?
Are you the type that judges people, you dont know in person? No I dont like you.
Are you the type that gets offended, and keep it deep down? No I dont like you.
Do you deslike my attitude? Yes I like you.
Well besides who cares, everybody has the freedom to like whoever he likes.

Are you friendly?
Yes and No. Yes if you can tolerate me. No if you cant.

What is the time right now?
2:41am.

You got questions for me?
Ask me by commenting, and I would be glad to answer, if I feel there is an answer, otherwise I wont. Sorry.