A year ago today our country went through yet another transition. It was celebrated as a Civilian to Civilian transition, without precedent. Even though the transition was marked by disputed elections and crisis of legitimacy, we embarked on a journey of hope. The question today is how well we have walked the path of hope this last one year.

Even if a review of press reports and street commentary suggest despondency, informed critique and responsible opposition ethos require that our reflection be sober, fair minded, and focused on nation building, especially on our desperate need to ensure the ascendancy of progress-sustaining values and the building of institutions which set boundaries for acceptable conduct. Our view on the state of the nation this May 29th includes reviews of progress or lack thereof in the Power Sector, Petroleum Resources, Infrastructure, Rule of Law Security, Education, Health Care, Niger Delta, Urban Development, Electoral Reforms and the Economy.

We shall begin with the state of opposition politics and Civil Society. The continuing state of weakness of opposition politics confirms the point about the crisis of performance not being limited to the government in Abuja. On the part of the Yar’adua government his public profession of respect for the idea of opposition is one of the more comforting developments of the last year. The practice remains to be seen. Certainly there is an easing of the tense state of the nation from in the years before May 29th, 2007 when the government was in a state of war even with the idea of organized opposition and used methods within and outside the books to decapitate opposition and pressure Nigerians into a state of surrender and feeling powerless. Approach to elections by PDP during the last year persists in reflecting little regard for the electorate and the idea of a loyal opposition meaning loyalty to the cause of the Nigerian people, and so not a sabotage of those serving their interest, in position’s of Authority, yet distinctively different from current corporatist tradition of settling opposition chieftains.

Opposition efforts, where they have not succumbed to material lure of being in bed with the party in power, have generally not shown much depth of understanding of issues and evidence based suggestions of options to drive the common good. Where we have made effort it has been at very teething stages. Fortunately we are able to announce today a series of developments that should elevate the quality of opposition just as we commend the Common Wealth Secretariat for scheduling a workshop on opposition politics for West Africa to hold in Abuja in June.

Several months ago we announced the institution of shadow team to serve the Nigerian people to provide competing views of policy at the federal level. Drawn from a coalition of willing political parties outside of the PDP. Today the web portal of the shadow team www.shadownigeria.org will be up life. Citizens can be part of a participatory e-government from the opposition side. The build up of the portal will continue until its final formal unveiling on October 1st when it will allow many kinds of governance initiatives not thought of till now.

Even though the pending cases at tribunals have delayed the announcement of the full complement of the shadow team we must pay tribute participants of the inaugural meeting with Adams Oshiomole, Jimi Agbaje and Dr. Kayode Fayemi and the work of the shadow team’s economic working group that has been a mix of hot young economists from academia and older troopers like Dr. Kalu I. Kalu. We must also acknowledge the health team that will have Dr. Leke Pitan as Spokesperson; the Transport and Aviation spokesperson Engineer Ibrahim Usman, and the many others who have worked hard at this project without public praise. Other Ministerial teams with spokespersons in the main federal shadow team include Education; Health, Infrastructure; Employment, Entrepreneurship and Poverty Alleviation, and Cabinet Ombudsman and Citizen Participation. Further ministerial departments include International Trade and Industry (MITI) which will be assigned the enterprise of developing six factor endowments based industrial parks and new cities to emerge around them; Labour and Management and Budget Monitoring; Finance; Energy; Niger Delta and Special Projects; Defence, Water Resources; Foreign Affairs, Police Affairs and Law and Order; Women Empowerment and Gateway Cities designed to make Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano dual responsibilities urban centres with federal involvement. Youth Empowerment, Niger Delta and Special Projects also constitute areas of special attention. We are also recruiting from Nigerians around the World into a start up team of a Think Tank, we hope will grow to the stature of the Brookings Institution.

ENERGY
The Power Sector remains a national embarrassment, to use the words of Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan. We have enough evidence that low political will slow decision-making processes and the failure of project management has allowed it to degenerate into
National emergency before the government could study it enough to declare its proposed state of emergency, one year after. This emergency, even as diesel prices have gone past N140 per a litre is reducing the recently re-emerging middle class to penury, preventing artisans from practicing their trade, and deepening poverty in a country earning unprecedented revenues from unprecedented highs in crude Oil prices.

We urge the setting up an emergency task force, the deployment of top project management team from anywhere in the world with mandate to lease power stations on barges to bring short term alleviation while putting in place medium term and long term strategies drawn from the pool of studies that have been commissioned and executed by government on these issues.

RULE OF LAW
The mantra of Rule of Law that has been the great anchor o the Yar’adua government is a great idea. Ordinarily it should help with institution-building and property rights necessary for economic advance and a just society.

Unfortunately the mode of implementation has left a public impression that the phenomenon was a ruse to allow those who have violated the commonwealth, raped the sensibilities of Nigerians from their positions in Public Office to now act as victims rather than victimizers, in some cases carrying on in a manner suggesting they were robbing it in as clearly stated by respected discussants on the NTA Network News programme Tuesday Night Live just a few hours ago. This perception must be changed quickly or it can spell the doom of our democracy.

ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE
It will be uncharitable to suggest that the economy is comatose as common parlance tends to indicate. The truth is that significant economic growth is taking pace. It probably could be much bigger than nearly 9 percent (9%) of GDP that is expected but more important is that the benefits are far from reaching the people. What is the point of growth if the quality of life like recent infant and maternal mortality ratio’s of UN agencies suggested, is one of the worst in the World. What is the point of this growth driven, not by outcome of policy ideas but by Oil prices, when some women in the Niger Delta will need to travel half a day by canoe, bicycles and motorcycles to reach a maternity ward.

The worsening Gini index, measure of the gap in income distribution, is a time bomb that requires concerted citizen-government collaboration and action so we may rescue tomorrow.

Revitalization of agriculture and industrialization is so central to the process that activities should be seen on the front burner. This is not the case today. The global food crisis should be a wake up call not only for our food security strategy but also for coming alternatives to fossil Fuels and future Crude Oil pricing. We seem to carry on oblivious of the need for saving from today’s crude Oil rents for the future, as the Saudis and others are doing.

More troubling for the economy is the sense that there is no clear direction. We must eliminate that now. How can there be security if majorities feel alienated and cheated by the system in addition to being poor and hungry.

OIL AND GAS
We welcome filtering news about the restructuring of the Petroleum sector especially in the hope that is will truly make NNPC an autonomous, profitable global Oil concern like PETRONAS. We however urge that we pressure and provide incentives for Nigerian content to be deepen to prevent the Oil sector from continuing as an enclave sector, unable to bring the gains of that sector to stimulate growth of the rest of the economy.

INFRASTRUCTURE
When Transport Minister Deziani Alison-Madueke cried as she was shown some roads in Nigeria, people’s hopes were raised for some dramatic turn around in that sector. Today it seems that the most unfortunate symbol of Nigeria’s misplaced priorities is that while the country’s single most important commercial artery, the Lagos –Benin – Port Harcourt Highway is in near total collapse fancy new ring roads are emerging everyday in Abuja. While it is desirable for Abuja to have those road networks the priorities seem bizarre in logic.

ELECTORAL REFORMS
Inspite of all of these we must hold out hope. That hope must be that Nigerians can reject non-performing governments, providing politicians a lesson that the key to public life is service to the people. So far the electoral process makes that not plausible. The setting up of the Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reforms committee is supposed to address that. We continue to give it the benefit of the doubt and hope for Nigeria’s sake that it produces outcomes that will advance the need for good governance.

CONCLUSION
When a health care sector that is so absent that surveys suggest the neighbourhood Chemist is the anchor of Nigerian’s healthcare system and as much as four hundred million can be unspent in the Federal Ministry of Health in one budget year, with consciences so limited in sensitivity that people can agree to pocket such public funds in the ministry, the crisis we face are very obviously monumental. We cannot blame the Yaradua’s regime for it all. But the buck must stop at the desk in Aso Rock. The need to act before the cup boils over is the imperative of the moment.

PS. I’m excited that ShadowNigeria.org is now live, though it’s what you may call Version 1.0 for now — towards the October 1, 2008 launch!

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Light is better appreciated when darkness holds sway, just as a word of hope can bring joy when distress looms. The darkness that appears to be spreading across the continent needs urgent light, and you (yes, you) are the last hope of the continent. It is not time to give up on the world’s next economic miracle, it’s only time to fan the flames so that the glow of individual lights can come together to form a bright light across the continent. Africa needs you, now, more than ever. Will you rather stay on the finger-pointing side or become part of the solution, one that will become a major chapter when the history of Africa is being written.

Africa began the year on a sad note with our brothers in East Africa wondering what went wrong with a population that lived side by side until selfish interests ignited flames of inhuman acts. Then, we started wishing for a peaceful resolution to the problems facing the nation we knew as the food basket of the continent. We were still nursing the wounds of our fears when news came in that the mediator now has need of medication for her own wounds. How could those pictures be true? What is wrong with us? Could they be right that say that the continent is under curse? Many questions, tons of them, but answers are what we need. Answers in human form, answers from people groups, answers from those we elected (or even those who were selected in the bedroom of the powerful), and answers from those who feel the pain.

As I moved from one place to the other, the questions were the same: “Will Africa ever get it right?” Yes, Africa will. In fact, if you see what I see, you will agree with me that Africa has started on the path towards getting it right? Why do I say that? Because there is a point at which every pain becomes the signal for redress. I believe that your anger towards the unfortunate events that have stained the fabric of our dear continent over the last few weeks only point to the fact that the pain is stronger this time. We can’t pretend any more that things are right in some places while wrong in others. The “giants” we believed in have failed us, and its time to turn to the “not-so-mighty”, the people. We are brothers and sisters, we are because the next person is… ubuntu! “K’otun we osi, k’osi we otun, oun lowo fi nmo.” Same meaning, but another language.

This could either be the time to sit back and enjoy the dirge, or the moment of awakening when each individual will ask the critical question: “what can I do to take Africa out of this heap of shame to her rightful place?” And not just that, it’s the moment to do something about it. We can not continue to wonder why things have gone so wrong, we must do something in our own little ways about getting things — not only back on track but — on the path to greater glory. I think this is the right time for the younger generation to spread the message of joint progress to our spheres of influence. Maybe we have spent enough time assuming that “those leaders” will always get it wrong because they are dumb, how about “us leaders” fixing the bit we can now and getting ready for the larger tasks that lie right ahead.

These are dark days, but you are the light. It’s high time you threw your weight around and show darkness who’s boss!

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It’s almost 4am in Kuala Lumpur but my body is still operating within the GMT+3 time zone, so there’s no way I’m going to sleep anytime soon. The good news, though, is that Kayode and I just got back from seeing the new Chronicles of Narnia (Prince Caspian) on the big screen.

Friday was one of those roller coaster days but I appear to be getting better at managing the miles I left Cairo, where I joined other ITU Youth Forum alumni for the 2008 edition of the life-changing experience, on Friday and headed for Malaysia after a few hours. The story of how I got the Malaysian visa in Cairo should be a blog on its own but when next someone tells you that something is impossible, raise the bar for them and leap right over it.

My first day in Malaysia was made of gold, with Kayode filling in every gap (from the airport at 3pm until sometime before midnight) with an unforgetable welcome to Malaysia (truly Asia!) Our discussion, with a Deolu Akinyemi signature all over it, smells of something that will revolutionalize the ICT business space in Nigeria. Are you ready for the huge E? Well, it was a great way to spend the World Information Society Day.

Today has been quite a long one but the jewel was the informal meeting with the eLeaders (Jen, Manar and Armen). By the way, its Manar’s birthday today, so, many hearty cheers to the Kuwaiti princess! The vision of change becomes clearer by the day and I’m glad I made that decision, in 2000, to pursue the dream of helping to connect others with opportunities. It can only get better…

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I thought we (well, who can ignore the ongoing US election warm-ups) needed a strong voice to end the prolonged and over-flogged issue. Thanks Bishop T. D. Jakes! Please read the text below, available originally on CNN Politics.

Negative press distracts churches from mission
By Bishop T.D. Jakes
(Editor’s note: Bishop T.D. Jakes is founder and senior pastor of The Potter’s House of Dallas, Texas, a multiracial, nondenominational church with more than 50 outreach ministries.)

(CNN) — The blood-washed church for which Jesus died is not relegated to one group or another, nor is it held hostage by politics or ethnicity. It is a breathing, living testament to God’s love and grace. It serves its community where it is located and is aware of the needs and nuances of that community. However, its relevance and vision must go beyond its community and reach the world for which Christ died.

Today as the church moves from its introspective posture to a broader role in politics, business, media and impacting societal ills, it has the dubious and daunting task of doing so without losing its core function. Like all such organizations that cease to be intrinsically focused, it runs the risk of being totally misunderstood and misaligned.

I have listened and watched the events of the last few days with great disappointment as the church and the so-called African-American church, in particular, has been painted rather negatively with a broad, wide-ranging brush. I personally wish the distinctions of the church by ethnicity would one day become an antiquated idea. But this will require more people moving from a segregated worship experience. Until then, the church is becoming increasingly bruised by those who seek to move it from its core principles and make it an instrument of division rather than a catalyst for unity!

To say the current picture in the media of the institution that I have loved all of my life is less than flattering would be an understatement. And because I know that many Americans unfortunately do not venture outside of the comfort of their own groups for worship, the only understanding some will have of who we are is based largely on sound bites and media portrayals. I want to set the record straight!

I am afraid that once again our churches will be victimized by stereotypical ideas and opinions that are based in whole or in part by the extreme and not the norm.

The church I have read about in the media — a church filled with divisiveness, a lack of tolerance for other ethnic groups, a church not focused on helping the downtrodden and less fortunate, a church filled with hostility — does not remotely resemble the churches that I grew up around and have loved for more than 50 years.

Most, if not all, predominantly African-American church doors are open to all, not just to blacks, but to anyone who is seeking a spiritual home, guidance, support, direction, faith and a feeding of the soul in the purest sense. Many of us have worked with other organizations, different cultures and denominations believing that there is more to unite us than there is to divide us.

The African-American church I know is filled with programs designed to address the many ills that inflict our society: HIV/AIDS, homelessness, reducing the rate of recidivism, assisting with employment and job training, economic development and financial management classes, home buying seminars, food banks to feed the hungry, schools to educate and an active plan to guide our youth. Those outreaches have been colorblind, passionate depictions of Christ’s love for all humanity!

The predominantly African-American church may be founded by an African American, it may be led on Sunday by an African American, but as you look through the crowd of these beacons of hope and faith, you will see an increasing audience that is much more reflective of our world than many would have you to believe. White, black, Hispanic, Asian — nationalities from all across the world come together — some to visit our churches, to enjoy our music and ministers and still others are gradually starting to join our churches. Gradually race fades into the fabric of faith and becomes less central to the overarching core of human needs in general. Is it a perfect union? Of course not. Is there work to do? Absolutely! But the core message is not one that enrages, but one that encourages people to change and grow, and any other depiction is distorted and inaccurate.

The Potter’s House, though largely African-American, is composed of 20 different nationalities and growing in diversity. It is designed much the same way Sen. Barack Obama has built his campaign: on a strong commitment to reconciliation, the admonition for unity and strong desire for the continuation of diversity instead of exclusion.

While I have not endorsed any candidate, who can ignore the hunger of Americans for change? No matter who your political choice may be, it is hard to remain ambivalent to the tone that Obama sounded, igniting a national response from people of all walks of life, crowding into stadiums openly weeping — like they were in church — at the very idea of a nation that reflects the best of our ideals; not the divisive ranting and bickering that may drive up ratings but threaten the cannibalization of our dreams and the demolition of our hopes.

As a child, I grew up in a neighborhood back in West Virginia where blacks and whites helped each other in times of need and despair. Now that I am in Dallas, Texas, I have seen our city struggle to its feet in times of dire desperation. I was there when the buses came in to the Reunion Arena in Dallas loaded with mostly people of color who were hungry, weak and tired, and needing human dignity. They were unloaded — covered with the stench of the atrocities of the superdome in New Orleans. I saw blacks, whites and Hispanics driving up with bags of clothes and food and crying together, trying to accommodate whomever they could, wherever they could. This is the America I want my grandson to grow up in.

I am wondering who will get the message that our nation’s citizens are by and large looking for a voice that will unite us, clothe our naked, feed the poor and help our diminishing middle class before we self-destruct like many great empires of the past. Who cares what color they are, what banner they fly, what gender they are, or how they pronounce their names? This is a defining moment in our history, and we are about to destroy greatness with petty self- aggrandizing egotism!

I implore you to not take the words of a few and depict the thoughts, hearts and motives of many. At the end of the day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proved with his nonviolent approach that hate-filled words will not liberate anyone. To be sure, there is still work to do to defeat racism and to attain justice in our country for all. We continue to need someone who will hold us accountable to our best practices and not our worst. But there is no liberation without love, no prosperity without philanthropy and no hope if the church becomes immersed in the quagmire of pettiness.

As an American I plead with you that we are running out of time. It is critical that we dislodge ourselves from political distractions. We must return to the task of looking for the right man or woman who can answer the bloodcurdling cry of a nation that is in search of a leader with a courageous effective plan for the war in Iraq, and the medical, moral, economic and security issues that are being ignored by these distractions. If we do not, we will have done a terrible disservice to our coming generations.

The Bible said that while good men slept, evil ones came and planted tare, a noxious weed, among the wheat! The tare of a hate-filled church image is a tactical distraction planted to divert our attention from choosing our next president. Let’s get back to listening for leadership strategies from our best and brightest before there is no country left to lead. My hope is that the church remains a vibrant part of our process, sounding the alarm that warns: America, please wake up out of our sleep!

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On December 8, 2000, at the National Centre for Women Development in Abuja, I made a presentation (first on such a national platform, made possible by Chris Uwaje following the recommendation of Philip Emeagwali) titled eCommerce, Nigeria and the Next Generation (available for download at www.pin.org.ng/papers/nextcommerce.doc) where I argued for the need for the empowerment of young Nigerians so that they can in turn help the economy grow. In that paper, I argued that, “It is not only enough to highlight the high points of employing the powers of our youthful populace in the present eCommerce revolution in relation to Nigeria, we should also consider what should be done in order to arrive at our destination, A New Nigeria. I have a dream. I believe that one day, the nation we have all invested in building would be unveiled before our very eyes…”

The good news I share today, 2703 days later (better later than never — and you may understand my excitement), is that the NIG I4J project will help bring that dream to pass. On May 22, as shown below, Nigerians will once again gather to discuss progress — but not as usual. This time, it is to discuss action that is already in progress. The opportunity for any young person with brilliant ideas to get connected with resources has now been improved through the I4J effort which is already getting entries through http://i4j.nig.org.ng. It’s a multi-stakeholder effort and I trust that I can now provide assuring answers to the hundreds of young people who keep asking me, “‘Gbenga, you keep saying we should work hard to make Nigeria better, why are all our ideas either stolen or unsupported?”

I4J will match good eBusiness ideas with good resources and support towards sustainability and even if only a few of the supporte businesses break the DotBomb ceiling, a huge favour would have been done to the economy. Details follow, and I’ll be discussing Part II of my December 8, 2000 paper under a new title, “Between eCommerce and Yahoo! Yahoo!” Please spread the news, and we look forward to the days when we will begin to celebrate Nigeria’s own thriving eCommerce businesses; in those days, the average graduate will not leave school with a CV in hand to beg for a job, but with a business plan seeking investors to take his student-day eBusiness to the next level.

NIGERIA INTERNET GROUP (NIG)

in Collaboration with

NCC, NITDA and ZENITH BANK

hosts

A ONE-DAY SEMINAR ON INTERNET FOR JOBS (I4J) INITIATIVE

THEME: “Internet For Jobs: Creating Jobs by Promoting eCommerce”

Venue: Golden Gate Restaurant 25B, Glover Road, Ikoyi, Lagos

Date: Thursday May 22, 2008

Time: 09:00 am – 05:00 pm

Chairman Of The Occasion: Engr. Olawale Ige (MFR), Chairman, NIG Board of Trustees and
Former Honourable Minister of Communications

Welcome Address: Engr. Lanre Ajayi, President, Nigeria Internet Group/CEO PiNet Informatics

Good Will Messages: Engr Yomi Bolarinwa (Director General, National Broadcasting Commission), Dr Nike Osofisan (President of CPN), Prof Charles Uwadia (President, NCS), Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem (President, ATCON), Dr. Jimson Olufuye, (President, ITAN) and Mr. Gbenga Adebayo (President, ALTON)

Special Guests of Honour: Hon. Minister of Science and Technology; Hon. Minister of State, Information and Communications; Hon. Commissioner, Science and Technology, Lagos State

Keynote Addresses: Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, EVC / CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); Prof. C. O. Angaye, Director General, NITDA

TOPICS
- Setting up a successful eCommerce service:Types, Portal development, Marketing, Personnel, Financing
- Taking advantage of I4J as a Beneficiary or a Sponsor
- Ecommerce business: A more rewarding alternative to Internet scam (419) [Hint: You shouldn’t miss this, and it may sound more like, “Between eCommerce and Yahoo! Yahoo!” on May 22. See you there!]
- eCommerce and Jobs Creation- The linkage
- Banks roles in promoting eCommerce
- Mobile phone network infrastructure as a platform for eCommerce
- Promoting eCommerce as a way to create jobs
- e-Payment system a prerequisite for eCommerce
- Creating an appropriate legal framework for eCommerce in Nigeria

Participation: Interested individuals should register by sending emails or call numbers below. We have limited seats, so register now to secure a seat. Registration is FREE.

For further enquiries please contact:
NIG Secretariat 7, Olayinka Bamgbose Street, Off Toyin Street, Ikeja, Lagos
Tel: 234 1 8709731, +234 1 8504062, 08023190067
Email: nigeriainternetgroup@yahoo.com
URL: www.nig.org.ng
I4J Website: http://i4j.nig.org.ng

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