In the Grandiose Parlor…

The first ever Nigerian ICT barcamp held last weekend in Lagos, and from what I’ve been reading, it was a success.

One the innate problems I think most Nigerians have — based on my experience and observations since 2005 — is the lack of cohesion and reluctance to pursue common purpose goals. These limitations, plus the over-aching lack of focus of the top national policy makers — as Oro blog points out, have resulted in a Nigerian ICT sector that has repeatedly failed to live up to expectation, particularly in comparison to other African countries like Rwanda, Kenya, and South Africa.

It is uplifting to read about the BarCamp Nigeria; my hope is that the event will translate into a series of ripples that invigorate the entire nation, both private and public sectors.

As the most populous African nation with a burgeoning base of Internet users, (Nigeria is currently second to Egypt at 10 million internet users), nature and geography have bestowed on Nigeria the ability to take huge strides; it is an absurdity that Nigeria lacks a national agenda on ICT.

One area I think Nigeria stands to gain the most is the use of web and related technologies in effecting/augmenting/facilitating changes at the social, economic and political levels of endeavor. The emphasis should not be ‘clone-hatching’ of existing works, but a creation of value-adding applications, deplorable at the enterprise level.

A great example of a value-adding venture is the Taiwo Ayedun/Fola Adeola-led Credit Registry, Nigeria’s pioneer private credit bureau. Credit Registry is unique in its use of biometrics to address identity fraud and the country’s lack of national ID numbering system. See Grandiose Parlor profile of CreditRegistry.

In closing, it will nice if the organizers of the event would release and post a communique of the event and future ideas and plans.

Youssou N’Dour ft. Neneh Cherry – 7 Seconds

This song was a big hit in the mid-90s (released 1994). A multilingual rendition done by the Senegalese N’Dour and the Swedish Cherry.

The song remained on the charts for nearly half a year and reaching the top three in many countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Russia and Poland.

Enjoy!

One of the fantastic qualities of blogs and other social media is the wealth of information — or should I say the chain of information –it create via hyperlinks. OK, check out this example of turning waste to wealth: plastic bags sorted from garbage are being used to make road pavestones (paving stones or paver stones) in Mali.

The process is simple: plastic bags and other plastic pieces sorted from garbage are burnt and mixed with sand. The resulting paste is poured while hot into a special mold and compressed. After a few minutes a pavestone is ready.

Aside from the unhealthy fumes from the plastic combustion, the idea is a fantastic way of using and turning what normally constitutes environmental nuisance into something useful. Pavestones are great way to control erosion, and are quite appealing when laid properly.

Hat-tips to Sociolingo’s Africa for starting the chain of information, and Timbuktu Chronicles and AfricanLoft Lounge (video of the process) for propagating it further. Original story from France24.

I would love to lead or see an experiment that implements this idea on a larger scale in Nigeria, particularly Ondo State. With the perpetually rising cost of cement, the tar resulting from the combusted plastics makes a great and cheaper alternative to making paving stones.

In case you have not seen it, rush to 234next.com to read about the bribery scandal involving Halliburton and Nigeria — The Bribe Takers.

What are constituency projects? And how did they come about?

These are the questions I struggled to answerl as I read the latest media reports on the 60 billion naira constituency fund incorporated into the 2009 national budget.

The answers to my questions are best answered by Senator Femi Okurounmu in his Patriotic Punches column on Nigeria Tribune. He reveals the idea of constituency projects of legislators first surfaced during the 1999 – 2003 National Assembly while he was in the national assembly. He goes on to explain further:

[Constituency projects were created] to ensure a minimum presence of government in every constituency by having some grass-roots projects sited in each one, during the budgeting process… Legislators were merely required to identify projects which they wished to be sited in their constituencies for inclusion in the budget, with a financial ceiling for the budgetary provisions for such projects in each constituency.

The award of contracts for, and the supervision and payments for such contracts were left completely in the hands of the appropriate executive agencies of government. For example as a senator, my constituency borehole projects were put under the projects of Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority, and the contracts for them were awarded and paid for by that agency.

The concept — as described above — looks good, but I doubt if the funds have achieved much in real life. To me — and given our national panache for back-dealings and little regard for accountability — the constituency project fund may be likened to an open vault begging to be misused or even looted.

I’m curious to know how the 60 billion naira for this year will be spent and projects monitored…

From what I understand, the constituency project fund even exists at the state assembly level.

THE Minister of Finance, Dr. Mansur Muhktar and the Director General of the Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okongu, yesterday presented the breakdown of the recently signed 2009 budget with the declaration that the country must borrow if it is to achieve some of its economic targets. It has become necessary, they said, to seek other revenue sources to finance the budget deficit due to the falling prices of oil. (Guardian)

Minister suggests the loan be sustainable and from domestic lenders. He even says Nigeria is under-borrowing; national loan stands at about $3.7 billion. One of the few legacies of former president Obasanjo was paying down national debt and negotiating loan write-offs that once stood at some $35billion.

I really didn’t know what to make of this one.

One thing for sure, it is dangerous to run a mono-product economy. Oil price takes a dip and the country goes into distress.

With the continuing disregard for accountability, Nigeria may be back to its pre-2000 debt status sooner than we know. This is what I fear. There are just too many leakages in the system.

Nuts!

In continuation of the conversation on the re-branding process in Nigeria, fellow blogger at Blogcity, Akin, has a review of the blog rants/commentaries/op-eds on the ongoing Nigerian re-branding project on NigeriansTalk. Check it out.

While doing my daily excursion through the online portals of Nigerian newspapers, an article on Vanguard (“Police to be in forefront of rebranding— Minister“) caught my eyes.

Ha! It appears everyone is catching the re-branding bug now. Nothing wrong with the Nigerian ‘poo-poo’ re-branding, right? So I read it. But I had to re-read the article again to be sure I didn’t miss out anything.

I didn’t miss anything. The article is empty — there is nothing to suggest how the police would re-brand. Just empty policy statements!

Is this what the re-branding endeavor is now? Just another policy statement?

Quoting the newspaper report of the minister’s statement:

Re-branding of the Police will be done through the improvement of their welfare packages, provision of adequate and decent barracks accommodation, manpower development and acquisition of and deployment of modern work tools for the officers and men of the force.

YEs, the Minister mentions all the “good stuff”. Didn’t we hear similar statements during the former Obasanjo’s tenure and even before Obasanjo came in? All past administration have promised great things for the police officers. None of those statements have materialized into real work, they have remained what they are – empty policy statements.

So how does the Police Minister hope to finance his promises?

The police budget for 2009 is a “woefully inadequate” US$1.3 billion, according to national police chief Mike Okiro. The police boss told legislators at a budget hearing in early January that “Nigeria’s entire annual budget would be insufficient if we plan to fully equip police to combat crime in the country”.

So what is the Minister promising?

If the goal of the minster is to have Nigeria Police Force at the the forefront of the re-branding process, he needs better funding no doubt, however, there are steps that can be taken toward his goal at no cost to the nation.

If the police force can shed its colonial mentality, its image will improve significantly.

Police units worked to enforce and maintain the desires and interests of the colonialists, and that mindset continues to manifest up till now — 49 years post national independence.

In Nigeria, the police works not to protect the common people, but to defend the interests of the political class and the elites. There is hardly any “big man” in Nigeria without one or two police escorts. Some even travel with squads of horsewhip-wielding gun-totting riot policemen, on public roads!

To fix the misuse of the police force, the federal legislators must do some work — fix the Police Act.

As revealed by Innocent Chukwuma, the head of the non-profit organization that promotes public safety and justice in Nigeria: “the Nigerian Police Act pre-dates formation of the United Nations and does not reflect numerous human rights and rule of law agreements the Nigerian government has signed”. That act was formulated in 1943!