Shameful! Yahoo, official email for Confab

Shameful! Yahoo, official email for Confab '14
Exclusive! DigitalSENSE Business News:

THE ongoing National Conference may have taken the wrong path by having as its official electronic mail (email) address on ‘yahoo.com’ platform, authoritatively reports by DigitalSENSE Business News, just as Information Technology (IT) experts decried the action; saying it lacks patriotism.

This also negates the rules guiding official email addr
esses of government agencies and parastatals introduced at the inception of the Communication Technology Ministry a few years ago, to be on .Gov.NG.

This development came as the officials of the National Conference penultimate Tuesday showcased means of reaching or contributing memoranda on any subject matter for discourse, including that Nigerians could reach the confab via nationalconference2014@yahoo.com.

According to an official public statement made available to DigitalSENSE Business News by the Secretariat of the National Conference, extending invitation to the Nigerian public to submit memoranda on any subject matter for possible discourse at the ongoing National Conference, except the indivisibility and indissolubility of Nigeria as a nation.

Some experts who spoke to DigitalSENSE Business News on anonymously, lamented the lack of patriotism in national assignments which has shown both in the nomination of delegates without any representatives from the Information Technology (IT) professionals which abound in the country.

This, our source also said has just been reflected in contacts for such a national assignment having a foreign email from Yahoo, which in effect means that associated with the national conference will be exposed to a foreign databank.

DigitalSENSE Business News source, further said that either those handling the Information Technolgy (IT) section of the national conference must be ignorant of Nigeria country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) name uptake and availability or they are just not patriotic.

According to our source, lack of IT professionals in local environment in Nigeria has played out and was not taken aback because more of ignorant decisions are about to be taken before the National Confab rounds off.

However, the Secretary to the Conference, Dr. (Mrs.) Valerie-Janette Azinge was quoted in the press statement, as saying that all memoranda should be clearly typed and presented in a given format, including an introduction to the subject matter; statement of facts on the subject matter; issues from the statement of facts for determination; arguments in support of issues for determination and reliefs or prayers sought.

In addition, Azinge said that there must be a name, address and signature(s) of the writer(s) which should also be clearly indicated and submitted in 10 hard copies and two soft copies saved in Portable Document Format (PDF) and Microsoft Word formats respectively on or before Tuesday 15th April, 2014, to:

“The National Conference, National Judicial Institute, Mohammed Bello Center, Adjacent Jabi Junction Fly-over,Airport Road, P.M.B. 5020 Wuse, Abuja-FCT. Email: nationalconference2014@yahoo.com.”

Reacting, a .NG advocate and promoter of the Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum on Internet Governance for Development, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke described this action as height of ignorance which negates the development agenda of the current administration of President Goodluck Jonathan on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) led by Honourable Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson.

She also called on the authorities of the national conference to rescind that decision by ensuring that knowledgeable IT professionals are co-opted into the conference by extending invitation officially to the likes of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) as soon as possible.

In addition, she noted that if care is not taken that Yahoo emails are prone to hacking notwithstanding the avalanche of data that will be going to such an important email to reside off the shores of the country.

“It is shameful, that at this time and age, a national assignment such as National Confab will be reminded of the implications,” Mrs. Nweke lamented and called on the office of the Secretary to the Federation to remedy the situation by quickly allocated a .NG official email to the conference.

Responding to inquiries, the Director, Internet Governance at the Communication Technology Ministry, Mr. Tope Fashedemi commended DigitalSENSE Business News for pointing this out and assured he will make relevant contacts with officials of the National Conference secretariat for them to rectify the anomaly.

“Thanks for the information. I’ll try to get the contact of their secretariat and get them to rectify,” Fashedemi replied in a returned Short Messaging Service (SMS).

Also commenting, a concerned Nigerian IT professional, Mr. Akinnusi Sehinde, who decired that Nigerians need to be sensitized on the importance of the National Country Code Top Level Domain (.ng) ccTLD.

In other countries like “.fr for France, .gh for Ghana, .ch for China, .uk for United Kingdom etc, are very proud of theirs and why can’t we be proud of our own?” he wondered.

DigitalSENSE Business News notes that as soon as the membership of the National Conference was released precisely on Thursday 20, January 2014, by the Federal Government through the Secretary to the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, including the modus operandi for the three months exercise, which some industry watchers have tagged as a make or mar exercise for the existence of Nigeria.

The announcement saw to the total number of the 492 delegates expected to attend the national conference, which has continued to be in the front burner of national discourse at all corners where two or more Nigerians find themselves, especially in the media.

For the Nigeria Computer Society an umbrella body of Information Technology (IT) interest groups comprising the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN) and moribund Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN); to advance and promote education and training of Computer and Information Scientists, Computer Engineers, Information Architects and Information Technology and Systems Professionals.
According to NCS, it’s inability to secure a membership of the national conference, no doubt is politically motivated as they are not new and has been on the forefront of advocating IT inclusion in the Nigerian space.

However, NCS prides itself as the leading organization of all Information Technology professionals, interest groups and stakeholders in Nigeria, since 1978 as Computer Association of Nigeria (COAN) and transformed into NCS in 2002 as a result of harmonization with other stakeholder and interest groups, just as it acts as the national platform for the advancement of Information Technology Science and Practice in Nigeria.

So, it was not out of place now that industry watchers have began to see some of the demerits of the likes of NCS conspicuously missing at National Confab with the latest news coming out of the floor of the national confab on the official email address.

Until such a time leadership at all levels begin to take the project Nigeria seriously, it may be difficult to achieve the kind of progress we expect.

Remmy Nweke

... Making SENSE of digital revolution!