With Adekunle Adekoya

AS far as solving problems on the African continent, and indeed, the entire Third World is concerned, various multilateral organizations have churned out billions of text on blueprints that will help transform life and living from the negative trend we experience now to something more positive.

The World Bank, IMF, United Nations, African Union, ECOWAS, NEPAD, are some of the organizations we belong to, including the countless UN agencies, like UNFPA, UNDP, FAO, ILO, and others.

All these bodies have generated, and are still generating all kinds of plans and blueprints which nations that need them can use for their development needs.

Of all these, one of the most easily remembered are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are eight international development goals that all UN member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015.

They include eradicating extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS, and developing a global partnership for development.

In July 2001, the 37th session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Lusaka, Zambia, adopted NEPAD (New Partnership for African Development) as an economic development programme of the African Union, with the aim of providing a broad vision and policy framework for accelerating economic co-operation and integration among African countries.

Two years later, on June 12, 2003, the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative was publicly launched in Durban at the Africa Summit of the World Economic Forum. From a continental perspective, the initiative was adopted as an undertaking aimed at ensuring that African youths graduate from African schools with the skills that will enable them to participate effectively in the global information society.

The aim of the initiative is to impart ICT skills to young Africans in primary and secondary schools as well as harness ICT technology to improve, enrich and expand education in African countries.

According to an excerpt from the NEPAD portal, “it was envisaged that project execution would be holistic, including at least the following components: infrastructure (including computers, communications, networking, power, etc.); ICT training for teachers; content and curriculum development; efforts towards community buy_in, involvement and ownership of the process; “health point” definition issues; organization and management of the project; partnership issues; financial and sustainability issues.”

That was the statement of intent, eight years ago. It is instructive that two of those who brought NEPAD to life were former presidents, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.

Eight years on, where are we? Are our schools comparable with those in South Africa? Please, dear reader, check out the public primary and secondary school in your area, and see if there are computers in any classroom there. Worse, see if the classrooms are even wired for IT use.

Everyday, we just read of billions accruing into the federal purse, from oil, from taxation, from the Customs, and other sources, but nobody knows where the money goes, since everything remains same — no electricity, no potable water, bad roads, no railways, nothing. Is this how we’ll achieve Vision 20-2020?