Youths commences e-Consultation on Internet Governance

A global youth eConsultation on Internet Governance started on 26^th November 2006. The eConsultation which has as its theme “What is Internet Governance? And why should Youth care?” is a process set to get youths’ view on the IGF process and to set the tone for their full participation in the process. The objectives of the eConsultation are:

1. To build on the past activities of the World Summit on the Information Society youth caucus while empowering a new generation of young leaders interested in follow-up activities around the Internet Governance Forum

2. To provide an opportunity to learn more about Internet governance in an informal, online environment.

3. To identify areas of interest and importance to young people within the context of Internet governance

4. To help plan for youth leadership at the Internet Governance Forum 2007

The eConsultation which will run through 16^th December, 2006 will have a special focus each week as below

Week 1: Demystifying Internet Governance

Week 2: Decoding the Internet Governance Forum

Week 3: Progressive Involvement: Youth @ Rio - IGF 2007

Young people passionate about the potential of Internet technologies who want to get involved in a global debate about its governance, Youth working in the area of the Information Society/ICT4D, Youth-oriented organizations, Networks/Community of Practice on IG, Youth issue supporters and interested individuals are encouraged to participate in the consultation.

To participate in the eConsultation, send a blank email to YouthandIG-subscribe@groups.takingitglobal.org. For enquiries, please email titi@mindset.co.za.

AfriHUB and Digital Bridge Institute delivers the Digital Awareness Programme

Digital Awareness Programme (DAP), a project of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), Abuja in conjunction with Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) designed to introduce secondary school students (especially those in the rural areas) in Nigeria on the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools kicked off last week in Anambra and Enugu States (Eastern part of Nigeria). The training is being delivered by AfriHUB, a leading ICT training and solution provider in Nigeria. Earlier, the Nigeria Communication Commission, major sponsor of the DAP Project, had kitted 53 secondary schools in Nigeria with 20 new computer systems and accessories complete with a KU-Band VSAT Internet link. This is a largesse that has been commended by many people across the country. However, the interesting thing about the largesse for me is the type of schools that got the equipments.

It is assumed, and many do lay claim to it for many reasons, that African children are disadvantaged. But, I have always argued that this is not totally true. As an African, living in Nigeria, I know so many of my mates whose living condition is better than some of those we hear about in other countries. It would not have interested me if the beneficiaries of the largesse from NCC had been those secondary schools attended by children of the rich in Nigeria. The NCC beneficiaries are schools with students whose eyes glowed when they had the opportunity of seeing, touching or working on a digital equipment. That, in itself for me, is the motivation and joy of being among the facilitators of the project.

It looked like any other day when two of my colleagues at work and myself were told to go on a site survey to see the state of the equipment supplied to the school and ensure that they are in good working condition for the project to commence. Getting to the two of the schools, Queens Comprehensive High School and Union Secondary School, both in Enugu, my first thought was how the schools got the attention of NCC. Now, I know anyway (J). The teachers and students of the school were all ready and have been informed of our coming. They gave us all the necessary cooperation we needed to make our work successful.

Then, last Monday, 20^th November 2006, the one week training kicked off for 70 students and 10 teachers of the school. The idea is that the selected students and teachers will be able to impact the training in other students and teachers of the school.

The training for the school, Queens Comprehensive High School, ended on Friday, 24 November 2006 with a short ceremony and distribution of certificate to the participants. This was performed by Dr Ochaa of Digital Bridge Institute and Mr. Vitalis Ndu, Head of Operations of AfriHUB Nigeria in the South East.

And so, yesterday, 27 November 2006, my team moved to the next school, Union Boys Secondary School, Enugu. The training has commenced and the reception by the student and teachers has been very encouraging.

It is worthy to note that another set of AfriHUB’s facilitators have been deployed to Anambra State and are executing the project in the selected schools in the state.

From what I gathered, the NCC has promised to extend the largesse to other schools in the country.

Looking at the faces of the children as they eagerly asked and answered questions during the interactive training, my mind ran back to my secondary school days and I just wondered how it would have been if I had seen or touched a computer in my first year in secondary school. I just hope the students in the school I attended are having a better experience now. Talking about a better experience, the present training is one the students that are selected by their schools to participate in the training will not forget in a lifetime and I’m happy to be part of the effort in shaping their future. It also goes to emphasise that any opportunity to impart something positive in the lives of the younger ones should be used properly. Do not think it’s a waste of time. You’ll discover a lot of potentials in them. Nurture them and spur them on to greatness. J

Kudos to NCC! Kudos to DBI! Kudos to AfriHUB!

Invitation to The IET Nigeria Younger Members 2006 Conference, Lagos Nigeria: November 9&10

The IET (formerly IEE) Nigeria Younger Members Networks hereby invites you to The IET Nigeria Younger Members 2006 Conference holding November 9th and 10th 2006 starting at 1:00pm and 8:30am respectively.

Venue is the Events Centre, Hakeem Balogun Street , Off Cadbury-Agidingbi Road, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos , Nigeria

The conference is aimed at creating avenues for students and young professionals to network and share ideas on best practices, provide information on potentials of the IET to the Nigerian students and young professionals and acquaint them with the Nigerian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry.

The event which is open to all, particularly welcomes friends, colleagues and allies in the field of engineering, information and communication technology, power, engineering management, science and physics.

Features of the conference include:

2006 IET YM Conference Live Webcast (with Online Q/A facility)
o Lifeskills Session : Conflict Management by Isobel Brown
o Present Around The World Final by Colin Foote
o The IET - An Overview - by John Loughhead and Dr Agnes Segal

Lecture and Technical Presentation
o "Telecommunication in Nigeria " by Mr. Olubola Sanu, MD/CEO, Broadband Technologies Limited, Ikoyi, Lagos , Nigeria
o "The role of software in developing economy and the road ahead for the African community" by Deji Eniojukan, Chief Solutions Architect, SiNet Technologies Inc. USA
§ Young Professional Network

Benefits of attending the conference are:

§ Broadband Live webcast of 2006 IET Younger Members Conference in UK
§ Certificate of Participation
§ Free Wireless Internet Access
§ Free IET branded promotional materials
§ Free IET Magazine
§ Membership/Subscription Counseling

Refreshments will be shared on both days.

For proper event planning, kindly confirm your participation to femibadejo@theiet.org on or before Monday, November 6th 2006. Enquiries could also be sent to the email address above or gadeyemo@theiet.org.

I look forward to seeing you at the event.

Youth Agenda 2006 - Nigerian Youths set to take ICT to their Rural Communities

During the time I was off blogging, I took part in many meetings and events that are worth blogging. I had been toying with the idea of blogging about some of them so I can have them in my archive. While thinking, two of such events came to my mind. ‘Why these ones,’ I asked myself. The answer I came up with is that the two events represent a move that will eventually require the participation of other youths to carry the initiative further. The participants at each of the meetings could be considered as privileged to be part of the process from the very beginning.

The two meetings were the Mentorship Roundtable organized by The Lagos Digital Village to mark the World Information Society Day on May 17 and the Youth Agenda 2006 held on May 27.

Here is my report of the Youth Agenda 2006. You can read about the event and get my report and that of other participants at http://www.lagosdigitalvillage.org.ng/youthagenda.php.


Youth Agenda 2006: Nigerian Youths Mapping Out Strategies to get ICT to Rural Communities

My thought since I got the invitation to the Youth Agenda 2006 had been intermittently punctured with my purpose and inputs at the event. I had schooled and stayed in every divisions of Ogun State – Abeokuta (Egba), Ilaro (Yewa), Ago-Iwoye (Ijebu), Sagamu (Remo), some of which by every standard can be defined as rural areas, and so my mental calculations were how ICT can be used to develop these areas. I had also in the course of my activities in The IET, visited some universities and polytechnics in some rural parts of the country where I easily identified with schooling in such areas. These experiences raised my expectation for the meeting.

On the day of the event, I had woken up very early in the city of Ijebu-Igbo after talking into the night with a good friend on a project we are both working on. It was really a short but fulfilling sleep because of the news I got the previous day.

I got to the park, board a Lagos bound car and sat at a very comfortable seat beside the driver. All these made the journey to be very smooth and short.

The program started late due to some reasons, which are quite understandable, and we kicked off with the video on Internet Governance. Being a lover of research, I would have been happy to win a copy of the DVD up for grabs at the end of the day. But, it went to one of the ladies from Fantsuam Foundation.

David Mutua, Project Manager of Fantsuam Foundation then came up to share the story of his work in using ICT in rural parts of the country. David is a Kenyan who came into Nigeria in 2002 through the VSO as a volunteer and was sent to the Oke-Ogun Community Development Center in Ago-Are area of Oyo State. David was there for two years till he joined Fantsuam Foundation in Kafanchan. These two places are very remote and rural. Not many Nigerian would desire working in those places but David left Kenya to work there. I salute his courage.

There was then the Speed Geek Session, which I was one of those called up impromptu to handle. We were five taken by surprise and the house was divided into five. The five of us called out were simply to tell OUR STORIES to each of the groups in four minutes succession. We were expected to share the experience of our work and organization and any new project we are on with the participants. Simply put, I delivered my shortest and purposeful speech. I got back home and wrote down what I presented during the session. This is very important to me as I used to do what I did during the session in a longer time. To do it in less than four minutes will aid my work.

Ayo Oladejo’s presentation was on how youths, NGOs and communities can take the advantage of new technologies and FOSS (Free and Open Source Software), to improve their works. Doing this, he noted, will greatly reduce the cost of operation by removing the cost of acquiring licenses for proprietary softwares. I know about FOSS and I know Microsoft softwares, the most common and frequently cited example of proprietary softwares. I know how to use both to a large extent. However, I have carefully avoided the debate on which one is better at every occasion. My position has been to acquire the necessary competence in both so that I can rise to any occasion. For the purpose of our strategy to take ICT to rural areas, I feel everyone involved must be trained on how to deploy and maintain their operations on any of the platforms they choose. A very good way of achieving this is using the technical committee set up during the event.

‘Gbenga Sesan handled two sessions during the event. One before the much needed break and the other after. His presentation centered on using the experience of India in establishing telecenters across the country. He noted in particular that India has made all the mistakes we should avoid in Nigeria. His report from a journey to India on the “MSSRF/GKP South-South Traveling Workshop” was also considered noting the specific examples to be copied and mistakes that could be avoided.

The house then broke into three groups according to the regions we came from. Basically, we were divided into the North, East and West on the basis of the proximity of the participants to each other. Each group was to map out the strategy of how to penetrate our regions with ICT in the next one year. My group tackled this by focusing on the work of each member of the group in this regard and how we can help to strengthen the works. Our decisions include

• Establishing a Digital Village in Ajegunle


• Strengthening the Nigerian Youth ICT for Development Network (NYIN) as a platform to seek sponsorship for our works


• Producing a Digital Village Guide to aid any organization that may want to start one


• Forming committees to produce the Guide, Implement the technical aspects of setting up the Digital Village as volunteers and map out Strategies for Sustainability


• Taking the enlightenment to secondary schools and market places


• Developing online training to build local capacities

Based on our advice, three committees were formed to handle each of the tasks during the general discussions to harmonise the strategies of each group.

Then, the event officially closed but trust us that was the beginning of the human networking sessions that continued till everyone dispersed.

The NYIN meeting started afterwards but I could not wait for it as the next day was my birthday and a party was planned. Apology if you were not aware. You can mark the date, May 28, in your calendar so that you will not miss the opportunity of sowing a gift into my life every year. Merci!!!

Nigerians Speak on Internet Governance

The June 23rd meeting of the Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria on Internet Governance threw up the big picture of Nigeria’s position in the information society and the opportunity the country now have to correct some of her mistakes of the past by participating in the soon to be completed global discourse on Internet Governance.

Why discourse Internet Governance? This question revealed the porosity of our existing law in prosecuting cybercrime offenders who usually explore the loopholes to beat any penalty for such crime. The overall effect of this is that the country can not fully tap into the opportunities of eCommerce as investors must feel secured wherever they put their money. Let’s look at it this way, no country is 100% safe but at least you feel some level of security when you know that anyone that commits any offence against you will be prosecuted and you could eventually get justice. Now imagine a situation where an offence is committed against you but the culprit can not be prosecuted because the offence was not committed within the physical boundary recognized by the law but on the outer electronic space called the Internet. The good news is that steps are now at an advanced stage to correct the problem with the bills that speaks on the subject before the senate. However, the pros and cons of the bills are also a subject of a heated debate among Nigerian IT experts.

A strong concern expressed by the CSO present at the meeting was that of IT capacity building in Nigerians. They strongly believed that it is only an educated and informed society is that will appreciate the many issues, technical or legal, surrounding Internet Governance and the fact that those formulating our policies and laws and the judiciary also need this capacity building.

What should Nigeria say? Every country is speaking, so what should Nigeria say on Internet Governance? There are two key areas Nigeria’s input into the discourse should address. They are cybercrime and e-commerce. Nigeria is, in my opinion, unfairly assumed the leader in cybercrime. It is very common to see many websites dedicated to stories on cybercrimes purportedly committed by Nigerians. Nigeria thus needs to make a very strong statement to correct this. If not, we may see some countries making recommendations that internet traffic from Nigeria should be blocked or really scrutinized, just as Nigerians are treated at some foreign airports.

Nigeria should also take the lead in Africa to sound the continent’s readiness for the full potentials of e-commerce. The banking reform in the country is one example that will show our positive steps in this direction. The volume of financial transactions made by Africans is also another strong selling point. The report of the Western Union last year showed that the amount of money sent by Africans in diaspora to Africa exceeds the totals grants that came into Africa from donor agencies during the same period. This really something to cheer.

Now, what do you have to say? There is an opportunity for you to contribute to Nigeria’s position on this. The deadline to submit inputs to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA http://www.ntia.doc.gov/) is July 7. Thus, it is advisable that you have your input into the process ready latest by June 30.

If you are a member of the IET Nigeria Younger Members’ Section and you want to make an input into the process, you could send such to gadyemo@theiet.org while other groups and individuals should send theirs to me@gbengasesan.com. Sending inputs as groups will greatly reduce the workload of compiling the final draft for those that will do so.

Who should administer the Internet? – Nigeria takes a stand on Internet Governance

The issue of who should administer the internet has remained a thorny one globally. The World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) concluded last year in Tunis was not able to take a definitive stand on this issue as expected. Thus, the many consultations and meetings on Internet Governance have continued.

Presently, much of the control of the Internet is in the hands ICANN, a U. S. based non-profit organization. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is responsible for managing and coordinating the Domain Name System (DNS) to ensure that every address is unique and that all users of the Internet can find all valid addresses. It does this by overseeing the distribution of unique IP addresses and domain names. It also ensures that each domain name maps to the correct IP address1. ICANN has not been doing a bad job but the fear expressed by some countries is that the U. S. could gain the control of ICANN and block traffic to any of her unfriendly nations or, in her estimation, any nation that harbors terrorists.

There is also the general sentiment that a single country should not control a mechanism used by almost every countries of the world. Various models have been suggested that no one country should host the entire DNS database but everybody should be in charge while no one will be in control.

Let’s now bring the matter to Nigeria. A lot of controversy surrounded the issue of who should administer the .ng, Nigeria’s top level domain. So many organizations, establishments and Institutions in Nigeria battled for the right to administer the domain. It took the intervention of the President to resolve the matter by setting up a neutral body with representatives from the different groups that were involved in the struggle for its control. If all that transpired locally then is of any interest to you, then you will understand why the same controversy exists on who should direct traffic on the Internet.

However, the process of resolving the issue is already in place. One of such is getting the views of the different countries and stakeholders on who should control the traffic on the Internet. And, every country that uses the internet, even if it is just to send emails, is a stakeholder.

It is against this backdrop that civil societies, interest groups and individuals in Nigeria will hold a meeting to discuss Nigeria’s stand on the issue. The meeting will hold as follows:

Date: Friday, June 23, 2006
Time: 09:00am prompt
Venue: Development Information Network (DevNet) Secretariat, 7 Adesoye Street, Mende, Maryland, Lagos [01 793 83 27]

The outcome of the meeting will be fed into the ongoing global discourse on the reform of Internet Governance. It is expected that a lot of things will take place on the subject of Internet Governance in the next few months and Nigeria should actively be involved in the process.


¹http://www.icann.org/faq/#WhatisICANN

The IET Nigeria Branch holds General Meeting

The IET Nigeria Branch, which formerly operated as The IEE Nigeria branch, will hold her General Meeting on Saturday 24 June 2006 at the National Engineering Center, 1, Engineering Close, Victoria Island, Lagos from 10 a.m.

The IET Nigeria Branch comprises both the senior and younger members of The IET in Nigeria. Thus, all categories of members are expected.

The meeting will be the first in Nigeria since the creation of the new Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) on March 31, 2006. The IET (www.theiet.org) was formed with the merger of the former Institution of Electrical Engineers, The IEE, and the Institution of Incorporated Engineers, The IIE. Thus, the meeting is an expanded meeting where the members of former Institutions are expected to be in attendance. Membership of The IET is open to everyone working or interested in the fields of science, engineering and technology. Intending members could also attend the meeting.

The Younger Members will also meet after the main branch meeting on the day. The IET Younger Members comprises student, recent graduates and young professional under the age of 30 studying or working in the fields relevant to The IET. The Younger Members’ meeting will consider universities and polytechnics that want to hold an IET event and those that want to establish a Student Section of The IET.

Enquiries or more information could be sourced from gbenga2k@yahoo.com or 234 805 747 0562.

Back to Blogging

Yeah! Im back to blogging. I was off for a long time to really concentrate on my final exams and rounding off my degree. Both went well. Now, I am back to continue to give expression to the passion I have.