THIS week, I’m afraid I’ll have to get back to the issue of ICT and security. In previous takes of this column, I had taken the position that management of security nationwide is still in the early 20th century format, analog, and mechanistic. More than eleven full years into the 21st century, there exists an urgent need for a complete change into a mode that fits the times, and that is the ICT mode.

IN the last two editions of this column, the subject has been the call for a complete paradigm shift in policing Nigeria through wholesale adoption of ICT by the acting Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji MD Abubakar.

Last week, a major change was made to occur in the leadership of the nation’s primary law-enforcement agency, the Nigeria Police Force. Alhaji Hafiz Ringim, erstwhile top cop, gave way for AIG Mohammed Dikko Abubakar, who became the new Inspector-General of Police.

First, Happy New Year to my readers and an apology; this column took an unannounced break from last year, which lasted till the previous week. It was occasioned by a long-overdue vacation. I am happy to be back, trying in my own little way to help move this country forward! No apologies, that cliche stuck with us since the June 12 days and the Abacha years.

THIS year, Nigerian youths have participated in quite a number of competitions aimed at bringing out the best in them, especially in the area of information and communications technology. One of such competitions, and perhaps the biggest and the most glamorous is the Imagine Cup competition, sponsored by software giant, Microsoft Corporation.

THE telecommunications revolution that took place in Nigeria in the last 10 years helped in no small measure to make Nigeria and Nigerians at home part of the emergent world information society…

THE latest effort at engaging our teeming youths and generating jobs for them is the recently-launched Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria, better known now as YouWiN.

LAST week, on these pages, we brought you excerpts from a feature story culled from the Christian Science Monitor on how a Kenyan developer came up with an app that cattle herdsmen can use to manage their herds. The app, called iCow, was developed by a Ms Su Kahumbu, and as the author of the story wrote, “it’s an example of how high technology can help out even in the low-tech business of agriculture, in which 80 percent of Kenyans make a living.”

THE telecommunications revolution that took place in Nigeria in the last 10 years helped in no small measure to make Nigeria and Nigerians at home part of the emergent world information society…

LAST Wednesday, India unveiled the world’s cheapest tablet computer, a feat actualized under a programme of the Human Resources Development Ministry called National Mission on Education Through Information and Communication Technology (nme-ict).

LAST week, Steven Paul Jobs, one of the men who helped digitalize the world, in a sense, passed on at the age of 56. He was a man, who, from nowhere and hanging on to his wits worked and clawed his way to the very top, and by the time he breathed his last, he was, according to Forbes, worth US$7 billion, making him the 42nd wealthiest American.