KAZEY JOURNAL

Good day blog readers, I am a bit excited today about the news I am about to share. Oh besides I am not back to blogging either, just a peep to post my excitement. Let me spill the beans, there is a new Nigerian intellectual forum that is just what you might have being searching for.

This news coming from me? I do perfectly understand if you are struck with a sudden hesitance or rather shock on the idea of a “Perfect New Nigerian Forum”, but the fact is this is for real. ThinkNigeria is the perfect place to share your views and opinion.

What is Think Nigeria?

Think Nigeria is a Nigerian intellectual forum, for Nigerians and friends of Nigeria, to contribute and voice their opinion on topics that interest them, in an environment that accommodates both the freedom of speech and expression.

So what are you waiting for, rush and register now, for Think Nigeria is the place to share some of your precious online moments.

According to me, the Ajebuta’s are those that tend to grow up in houses that have maids, never washed their clothes with their hands before, have the latest wears and toys, preferably from overseas, prefer to read “Oliver twist”(British or American written books) to reading “Things fall apart”(African written books) and also talk the talk, and think they know it all, all the time.

They have air-conditioned leather seated cars, and tastefully furnished houses, and attend well equipped schools [such as BIS and LASORE). After high school, they move overseas to further their studies.

I think, even if you read all the Peter and Jane series, when you were a little kid residing in Nigeria, or any of those lady bird series in nursery, you are an Ajebuta. Even M&Bs whilst you are struggling with your teenage hormones.

If as guy growing up in Nigeria, you couldn’t play football, because your parent’s don’t want you to come home dirty, or even hurt, you are an Ajebuta.

If as a kid the only fun you had was shopping, going to birthday parties, visiting family friends, doing your school assignment in the afternoon and then having a compulsory nap thereaafter, and sticking in front of the TV all evening playing video games, you are an Ajebuta.

If as a kid you don’t have friends in your neighborhood, except family friends that you meet either by them visiting you or you visiting them, you are an Ajebuta.

Some people might say that the Ajebuta’s are not well brought up? Well I got news for them, the Ajebuta’s are the best brought up kids in Nigeria, because they grow up in a world governed by rules and regulations, they are well cultured, mannered, educated and to wrap it up, tend to have a good sense of judgment and a very good understanding of political and social economical aspects of life in general. They understand the world around them, and they have a higher likelihood of not being corrupt in nature.

This is because corruption from my understanding originates from greed, and greed evolves from poverty, but not necessarily a source. Nevertheless greed is more widespread amongst those that tend not to have something, they deserve, or their peers have in possession. I know greed is when you tend to have the urge to want more, than what you currently have, but then again we shouldn’t forget the fact that when you are used to fulfilling that want, there is a likelihood that you wouldn’t want more than what you already have or would desire to have, because the need for satisfying that need is already fulfilled in time, of that specific need.

Nigeria needs a president that does not have the corrupted mindset of the average Nigerian, and tend to take corruption and misuse of power as an offence against the law.

The Ajebuta are stern, mannered, cultured and well educated, hence the Ajebuta brought up Nigerian is the perfect candidate for the presidency of Nigeria, as that is the only way to assure the attainment of a promising future.

According to a news report at Technology times, the federal government of Nigeria has approved a directive that only ‘Made in Nigeria’ software should run on the IT systems of the nation’s public offices and institutions.

Technology Times checks reveal exclusively that the directive comes into force following a Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval by President Olusegun Obasanjo that all government agencies and institutions must run only ‘Made in Nigeria’ software.

Read more of the news report here…..

Opinion:

Did I get the news report right? Or is it the FEC, that are too stupid to understand that saying something like “Made in Nigeria software only” is not only vague but a sign of IT illiteracy? Or maybe it is just me been too excited about the whole news report. Still can’t figure that out.

Things Nigeria doesn’t have.
1. A made in Nigerian Operating system.
2. A made in Nigerian Enterprise Applications besides small-light scale applications to serve different niches.
3. A made in Nigerian hardware that has a Made in Nigerian software-driver to support it

I can go on and on to list, what we don’t have, not to even mention going to the extent of measuring our competency level, when it comes to developing a cutting edge software that can serve the needs of the local market without borrowing a software from overseas, be it from the open source community or the commercial market.

I think this directive is plain stupid and does not help the Nigerian software industry, besides come to think of it, who are we copying from? India? India is heavily powered by Microsoft besides having a very competent IT industry, if I am not mistaken. I know for sure that you are not helping an incompetent industry by patronising it.

I am very certain that this directive would only just promote more outsourcing and off-shoring by Nigerian labeled IT companies.

What Nigeria needs is a solid infrastructure and an effort in skills development through proper education especially in the IT industry.

Dec 20: Bombing of pipeline killed 11 people.
Jan 11: Four Shell oil workers kidnapped-released Jan 30 without ransom payment.
Jan 11: Oil pipeline blown up
Jan 15: Speedboat attack on Shell platform.
Jan 24: Nine people killed in attack on offices of an Italian oil firm Agip.
Jan 29: Rebels attack HQ of South Korea’s Daewoo oil company.

It does not just end there, current barrel production of Nigeria per day is now 2.19 million which makes Nigeria rank 8th position in global production.

The question I have is:-

Is this attack justified for the so called cause?
Does this do any good to Nigerian’s reputation in the global community?
Does the government of Nigeria have plans in seeing an end to this malice?
Is Nigeria a safe place to live?

It disheartens me, to see Nigeria embrace democracy and still be facing problems that threaten peace and harmony to the people living within its territory. Where is the love?

How do you convince a foreigner that you are a Nigerian but not fraudulent, especially when it comes to online transactions?

It is really a pain. Defending yourself out of the mess, if you happen to find yourself in one. Being the victim’s to the “Mugu’s” greed Sympathisers. Helping someone perform an illegal activity such as money laundering and later shouting out to the world that he duped you, is not just the thing.

Is Nigeria, especially victimised in the sense of mis-treatment, considering the rates of fraud in the USA, which is at an alarming rate?

Do the frauded “Mugu’s” deserve the attention they are getting?

Is there a solution to the current menace?

I cant help but ask more and more questions, but nevertheless I leave it to you to answer, because I myself , I am confused now. The crime has just begun, and the EFCC or whatever they called them need to tackle it from another angle, because as far as I know, helping an accomplice of crime, is not justice. Desperation, breaking the law and greed should be treated with equal fairness.

I used to avoid post of relation to revealing the real average Nigerian (i.e. living in Nigeria), the environment, the life and the mentality, and not forgetting the reason for doing what they do. But of recent I have being reading lots of what is coming from them, and I couldn’t but help to come out with this post after nearly putting myself into an argument which I did not get involved in actually, after realizing their mentality and the blindness that enshrouds them.

I know Nigerians well, in-fact I am one myself, but the issue here is, do I understand the average Nigerian, why they do what they do? Be it honesty, dishonesty, or even the way they live their life. Not forgetting the religious condemnation and tension that flows above their clouds and also the tribalism that runs deep down, through their veins.

A Nigerian is born into the world of a two basic beliefs of superiority over his/her other countryman or woman, in the sense of religion and culture. Religion for one, in Nigeria of recent, has turned into a cult rather than what its primary supposed propose was; that is to establish a sense of law of keeping supposed good moralities besides respecting the existence of life, which came from a superior unquestionable authority of that law. And that Authority was of supernatural existence and the creator of man. Most religions of today or of the past but still practiced today, calls this supernatural authority God. Did I get it right? I am not an Atheist by the way, so you can be rest assured that I have nothing against religion itself.

Faiths in Nigeria, be it of the Muslim or Christian origin, is practiced in such an alarming way, and I do think that, it would be a threat to the future of Nigerian’s progress, peace and harmony. Why you might ask me?

Ok, Nigerians be it Christians or Muslims in Nigeria are evolving into religious slaves, whereby a wall of supremacy is being drawn, and anybody not of the same religion is classified as an abomination or in some cases a devil when related to religion. Even within the same religion this same problem exists, I won’t be surprised that in the future, individual churches for example, would forbid their believers from having anything to do with the neighbor church just 500meters away. Well I cant cite “ The Jehova witness” in this case because there are a special “breed” in this case, They are like that everywhere. How about some of the normal Church? What are their Pastors preaching? Well I suppose they are busy teaching their fellow worshipers, that they are all going to heaven, because they believed in him. Let me cite a post I read recently.

The poster a Nigerian Christian at a forum says and I quote “

Thank God, that in my faith, I am assured of heaven, not by my works but by the work of whom I put my faith in, and that is Christ Jesus. You’re! There is nothing we can do to be righteous, for man is evil by nature but my faith is on that which was sin-less and who bore my sins even before I was conceived and born. What else can I ask for?

”

“ You can read more on the mentality of the average Nigerian Christian in relation to religion itself in a thread titled “Christians: Can a Non-Christian Go to Heaven?” . What a thread to discuss on !!:(

Now with such a belief or should I say mentality, what would prevent that person from committing a crime anytime? Or even being corrupt? This is happening in Nigeria today, and it is not stopping and won’t just end there. The other cases, that have been there for some years now have to do with culture, where cases of even inter-marriages dont really work out.

Well tribalism, which is, as we all know, a troubling issue in African in general,has caused a lot of havoc of past and of recent. The main tribes of Nigeria, that are the Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba have difficulty marrying each other, employing each other at job places or even having direct association in the realms of friendship to the core, besides the separation carved by the map of Nigeria. Well we even have organizations such as Arewa, Oduduwa etc of which their primary propose of existence is to promote tribalism.

I am very worried at the current state and the future of Nigeria. What can be done? I really do not know?

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.