IN bits and pieces, I am sure, we will get there. There will be problems and solutions will come, which because of who we are will generate new problems and fresh solutions, but I am convinced we will get there. Where is “there”, anyway? “There” as you know, is a country where things work. It is a country where reasonable expectations of the ordinary citizen are actualized.

When the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson announced that a single national information portal will soon come alive, I was sure not a few Nigerians will be delighted.

What this means is that digitization of the simple processes of government information is proceeding apace, and endless frustration at not being able to get information needed on certain issues and subjects will soon be over. It is inconceivable that more than twelve years into the 21st century, in the ICT age, a researcher, or even a curious layman will search for some information about certain activities in his country and come up zip. What is even worse are government departments, ministries and agencies that advertise their websites everywhere, only for you to type the address in your browser and what do you get? Error 404! The page you are looking for could not be found!

There is even the website of a certain MDA charged with promotion of critical aspects of the nation’s economy. After typing the address in the browser, the return was: Site under Construction. That was the situation for years until recently. Now, if a single national portal is coming, that would address a lot of information needs of both Nigerians and foreigners seeking knowledge about our country.

The near 600 MDAs of the Federal Government must have spent huge sums of money designing and uploading their websites. But of what use is a website that, for instance, was updated last August? How reliable would be the information on that site? Personally, I welcome the single national information site. A one-stop shop will solve a lot of problems here.

And talking of one-stop shops, we certainly need more in the area of certain initiatives.

Minister of Trade and Investments, Dr Olusegun Aganga just paid a visit to one of the OEMs in Lagos, and announced that the Federal Government will go into partnership with the OEM for PCs made here that will be distributed to schools. Good initiative, both for government and the OEM. But I hope the minister remembers that his ComTech partner had launched a similar initiative with the OEMs just last year, including some foreign ICT forms and our banks. if the minister has funds for such an initiative, a synergy will be better, rather than opening a new window of efforts. Too many cooks can spoil the soup, abi?

Similar initiatives like the Laptops for All, the OLPC are there. if all of them could be integrated, perhaps greater and faster impact would be registered, rather the isolated one-man shows. It’s all in our interest, anyway.