By Chris Uwaje

Can Nigeria survive future challenges of nation building, wealth creation, national security and global competitiveness without strategically applying Information Technology and Communication Satellites in particular? The answer is very clear!

As our population index grows, the geo-physical carrying capacity of the population of Nigeria will sporadically outgrow the intellectual capacity and ability to manage it with our current traditional model of governance. World satellite industry revenues had average annual growth of 14.2% for the period from 2003 to 2008, with a gross revenue of USD$144.4 billion.

The growth in satellite carriage of High Definition Television (HDTV) continues to drive both transponder and DTH service revenues worldwide. The number of HDTV channels worldwide grew by almost 170% between the end of 2006 and May 2009. More than 60% of HDTV channels currently serve North American market.

The remaining HDTV channels primarily serve European and Asia-Pacific markets (Satellite Industry Association). Consequently, the African Continent is left out to decide her own fate. Meanwhile, the Africa Digital Divide & Disaster continues to build up by the nanosecond, while her population continues to balloon!

oday we are still grappling with the real and correct figure of our national population currently computed at about 153 million people. The fact and concern is that future challenges of nation building and the survivability of Nigeria are colossal and may not be surmountable without the strategic deployment and effective implementation of robust satellite communication infrastructure (SCI) and related expert knowledge institutions.

For the above and other constructive reasons, it has become imperative to re-examine the recent proposal of the Steve Oronsaye’s Committee on down-sizing the capacities of Federal Government Administrative machinery.

First, it is instructive to emphasize that Nigeria is the single largest entity and cluster of people of African extraction under the universe – and by extension, indirectly responsible for the protection of life, property and survivability of the African continent and her people.

It is within this context that the analysis on the relevance, needs and requirement of satellite communication infrastructure and programme – and in particular, the fundamental necessity, critical function and the role of the Nigeria Communications Satellite Ltd. (NigComSat) is examined.

lso critical, is the factor of meeting the targets of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and global competitiveness in the emerging information society  – a task Nigeria may not achieve without strategically deploying communication satellites and building commensurate skills to support it.

Secondly, the economics of the digital age has made the Information Technology Domain (ITD) the battle field of all human activities (current and future) – configured and connected to the internet. This paradigm shift and change management scenario dictates that we must first of all undertake, understand and master the ecosystem of small structures as imperatives for a spin-off to medium scale and large institutions.

In other words, it is not the small disconnected structures of government (agencies and parastatals) that are at the centre of the core challenge of the inefficiency in government.

Rather, it is the abysmal missing-link (constructive data and information) between existing small entities of government structures and robust technology, mechanisms and skill-sets required to interface, integrate, measure and control their mandate, functions and operations to efficiently achieve set goals.

This, amongst other strategic reasons is why the role of NigComSat as a satellite service provider is fundamental for national survivability and therefore an absolute necessity. For the records, before the White papers Committee and indeed the President adopts their final position on NigComSat, let it be stated that the subject matter is beyond Nigeria and political personalities – it is about humanity and the survival of the African continent and her people.

The World is going to Pluto! New Horizon flies faster than a speeding bullet. Indeed it is much faster. In 2006, NASA launched the New Horizon, a Plutonium-powered probe speeding up to 47,000 miles per hour on its 10-year journey to capture the first close-up images of Pluto and a region of the outer solar system called the Kuiper Belt.

The probe will go so fast, it will reach the moon in just nine hours, a journey that took Apollo 11 three days to make in 1969! Lesson learned is that speed has become the common currency and centre of gravity for the survivability of 21st century nations. And, this centre of gravity is dictated and measured by the capacity and capability of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) domiciled and applied to nation building.

To many professionals and concerned citizens, the problem and critical conflicting issues of the moment that may have informed the recommendation of the Oronsaye Committee on the role and place of information technology and NigComSat role in national development revolves around technophobia – the ignorance, fear and contradiction of what technology is, and what it is not.

It is indeed a fallacy therefore to assume that the spaceship, turbines for generating electricity, air-planes, and indeed satellites are technologies. No, they are not! Rather it is the knowledge resources: concept, principle and process which produce those products (we physically see and use in every-day life) that are the real technology.

This knowledge resources and process is essential for the survivability of the future of Nigeria. Now, when we are assigned a significant national assignment such as that domiciled at the door steps of Steve Oronsaye’s Committee, adopting an all-inclusive stakeholders strategic input becomes an absolute necessity.

Communication Satellites acquisition and ownership are fundamental prerequisites for sustainable nation-building and national survivability. Africa/Nigeria can therefore, not be left out of this current and knowledge adventure. Furthermore, the task before the nation with respect to satellite acquisition, ownership, future manufacture and launching knowhow cannot be left only to NASDRA and NIGCOMSAT. TO BE CONTINUED.

Chris Uwaje is CEO of Connect Technologies and President of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON).