By Prince Osuagwu

Known widely as the oracle of the Nigerian Information and Communication Technology, ICT sector, immediate past President of the Indigenous Software Practitioners of Nigeria, ISPON, Mr. Chris Uwaje has never been afraid of setting high targets for himself. His ideas of technology implementation in a society, particularly in Nigeria, at first, sound utopian.  They hardly simmer down well to the ordinary mind. But at the end his blue prints become the pillar of sustainable national strategy.

Chris Uwaje

When he set out to draw the IT policy roadmap for Nigeria, not quite a few dismissed him with a wave of the hand. The stakes were too high for a budding technology economy like Nigeria. But today, the country’s ICT policies are greatly dependent, if not wholly adapted from the document he single handedly wrote some 15 years ago.

Similarly, Uwaje seemed a lone voice in the wilderness in the call for a local content policy to protect Nigerian content developers, especially in the software sector. His wish for a software Nigeria, seemed a mirage. He pushed with as much pressure that an individual strength can afford.

He got himself involved in the leadership of ISPON. Again, he was lucky to get the idea inculcated into Nigeria’s policies by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo. Today, indigenous Nigerian content developers are heard all over the world.

Lately he is setting another high target for himself. He is seeing a technology driven Nigeria, made possible by a group of professionals known as the Nigerian Computer Society, NCS. Although the group has been part of champions of the Nigerian e-governance campaign, Uwaje believes that the group should rather take the task of turning things around in a  new Nigeria, led by technology rather than being a passive player.

His strategy as always has been to stick out his neck, sacrifice his reputation and risk failure, to introduce and see through, the implementation of ideologies never before attempted in the quest to making Nigeria a technology driven state. This takes him to the hot contest of the presidency of the NCS in the next election of the society. However, the challenge Uwaje faces, is that though the dream is nationalistic, it is going to take a somewhat personal ambition to actualize.

What is the conviction that the desire is not more individualistic than that which would impact positively on the Nigeria economy? However, he seems to have the answer in the manifesto he presented to Hi-Tech as blueprint to a new Nigeria, should he clinch the presidency of Nigerian computer people.

The Task

My foremost task is to positively disrupt the current settings in the national Information Technology, IT, ecosystem and take the society to where no man has been! In clear and unambiguous terms, I want to serve the Nigeria IT Community and stakeholders at large. I will do this together with the team of elected members of NEC – powered by a formidable and productive secretariat structure, infrastructure and manpower.

The Mission  “Work the Mile – Recover Lost Grounds & Take NCS to where no man has been. This mission will be accomplished with measurable agility, transparency, accountability and professionalism. The epicenter of this mission will  focus on enhancing the desire  of the IT Professionals, Industry, the  Nigeria Youth, the women and girl-child, who represent the critical mass of national and indeed, global IT needs and ownership.

The agenda

My agenda will be Team-driven, tactically executed and determined by professionalism and high ethical standard.  The hallmark of the Team strategy under my leadership will focus on the dynamic retooling and empowerment of NCS secretariat structure and above all, quality benefits to all NCS members.

Together, we will build and empower a strong and dynamic Secretariat manned by seasoned Professionals. The new NCS Secretariat will be equipped with adequate infrastructure and world-class facilities to ensure efficient delivery of outstanding services and quality performance at all times.

Uwaje said it was time enough to close shop on NCS playing at the fringes of governance in the country. “Moving forward, NCS is challenged to turn around the current playbook and replace it with an omnipresence function of bold steps at the corridors of power. Under my watch, we will occupy our professionally deserved seat at the decision table of Nigeria’s Intellectual and technology governance – at all levels of engagement.

“To achieve our goals, I will work towards the improvement of NCS membership base from the current 10,000 to 100,000 IT Professionals, Associates and friends. The central objective is to strategically wrestle our birthright from policy intruders and empower as well as reward our profession and her innovative professionals.

Top on the strategic list is the advocacy for the establishment of Government N100 Billion Naira ($500million USD) IT Stimulus Package for the IT Profession and Industry. Therefore, there is an urgent need to retool and restructure the Nigeria IT Ecosystem for Innovation and competitiveness.

Returning IT to Education

Nigeria needs to build large and skilful capacities for the IT Profession and Industry. Over the last decades, knowledge has evolved at a supersonic-speed and our academic institutions and centres of learning were not fully prepared for the IT Tsunami. Today, they are visibly caught-up in a surprised web of knowledge catch-up re-engineering.

Computer Science as a faculty of science is critical to the development and growth of the IT Profession and Industry. However, the Computer Science ‘Lecturer domain’ and IT Curriculum remain an albatross for many complex reasons. This makes Government special intervention in the IT domain, a time-critical and strategic imperative. We need to produce a minimum of 150,000 Computer Science and Electronic Engineering graduates annually, to compete with the rest of the world.

Conscious of the fact that university diplomas no longer give a guarantee for the future, communications and media experts are taking over the role of producers of knowledge, knowledge sharing and the globalization of Intellectual Property for commercial purposes. The custodians of education should therefore deploy and apply Information Technology to fight back.

NCS will advocate “Knowledge Conversion System” – that is, converting existing Engineers/Architects, Medical Doctors and other strategic workforce to IT Analytics, Software Analysts, Mobile Content Developers and Multimedia Graphics and Technology specialists.” In my opinion, the three significant forces that will shape the emerging knowledge economy of this 21st Century are:

(a) Education and RD&D intensity, leading to Technology innovation & creativity – harnessing critical and valuable energy of the youth. (b) Globalization of Knowledge products, Solutions & Services for the new economy/Social Media and (c) Digital Infrastructure for Connectivity and Mobile presence of multi-disciplinary Resources.

If we agree that the new knowledge society and economy (Information Society) cannot be separated from the education process, then, Nigeria must completely retool the mechanisms and facilities in the Computer Science Domain. Informed by the above perspectives, NSC is duty bound to return the life-engine of Information Technology, IT, which currently and erroneously resides in the Nigeria IT industry, back to the education domain.

Establishing council of IT past-presidents

My Team will establish the Council of IT Past-Presidents (CITPP) of NCS, CPN and Past Provosts of NCS College of Fellows as the Engine of National IT Lobby Group. The CITPP will be responsible for special assignments for the profession. The Council will promote and secure Government N100 Billion Naira ($500million USD) IT Stimulus Package (IT Dev. 2015-2017).

There is a Fundamental need for ‘Financial Stimulus Package’ for Nigeria Information Technology (IT) Sector. Nigeria’s e-Readiness status in global performance in respect of IT comprehension, understanding and innovation remains abysmally low over the decade. The principal factors for this revolve around matters of Policy, Funding, Regulation, Exclusion of Professionals and Transparency.

Building IT Parks

There is a fundamental need for government to invest heavily in the establishment of at least 12 Information Technology & Knowledge Parks as well as Business Process Outsourcing Centres in strategic areas of the country. There is also an ambitious need to establish at least 20 more Open Universities and Technical Institutions designed to develop IT-centric Software Engineering and services model.

NCS will also refocus its strategy by putting the Youths in the driver’s seat of the National IT Ecosystem and by extension, making them the accelerator in the IT engine room. This translates to mounting a National IT Innovation Olympiad via the vehicle of National IT Hackathon and indeed celebrating their creativity through a public IT Bazaar quarterly”.

Among other critical problems like creation of jobs, proper recognition of professionals who have made the country proud, which an Uwaje led NCS will muscle the government to provide for the people, he also sees a greater need in ensuring that the Nigerian Local Content ACT 2010 is implemented vigorously not only in Oil and Gas, but at all levels of ICT and by extension, the Software Nigeria.