AS I wrote in the last take of this column, mobile number portability (MNP) service is now live in Nigeria, after a public launch of the service in Lagos last Monday at an event powered by telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission.

BY the time this column comes your way next week, Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service would be live in Nigeria. The service was supposed to be launched a month ago, but for some reasons, the industry regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission forwarded the planned launch from the initial March 22 date to April 22.

THE information technology revolution that is gradually achieving traction in the country is not only commendable, but has led to optimisation and greater efficiency in the delivery of services by several government agencies.

LAST year in this column, I wrote of Hackers, National Security and Development. Then, I merely explored how useful hackers can be to their national economies, averring that since the wheel can no longer be re-invented, all that nations desiring pre-eminence in the commanding heights of the global economy need do is empower their hackers to “steal”industrial secrets of nations that are already “there”, copy, and launch.

Earlier this month, penultimate Monday to be specific, the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology came out with what we now know as the Microwork for Job Creation Initiative. The first phase of the initiative is tagged NaijaCloud, and the ministry elaborated that it is “the starting point to a longer term involvement by private and public sectors in Nigeria around Microwork and Elancing technologies and capabilities.”

TO say that Nigeria has a security conundrum might be begging the issue; the point is that since the civil war was fought and won more than 40 years ago, Nigerians have never been under threat as much as now.

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.

IT is not very often that traders here complain about products from a foreign country; in fact, it is a rare occurrence. This is because in this economy, consumers prefer foreign-made goods to locally made ones, even when the foreign ones are visibly inferior to those made locally.

What I have always found interesting is whether life can be lived here the way it is lived normally in other countries, especially the ones we are fond of benchmarking our situation with. In the telecommunications arena, land lines are more like it in other climes, than mobile.

OURS is a very interesting country, a single fact of which I had convinced myself a very long time ago. Here, there is never a shortage of anything to tickle one’s attention, from, as they say, the sublime to the ridiculous. The interesting nature of events here is what for me defined the uniqueness of the average Nigerian, irrespective of any point of the compass he may originate from. This uniqueness also defines our economy, which has defied all doomsday predictions

Telecoms firms, especially mobile phone operators (both CDMA and GSM) had, in my opinion, a hard time last year. I particularly pity the CDMA operators who lost market share the way a dead fowl being dressed for consumption loses its feathers in hot water.

The years ahead, till 2015, promise to be interesting for us here in Nigeria. Don’t get me wrong, I am not talking about the inevitable political dramas we surely must witness since 2015 is an election year. I am talking about what we will be doing and what we might fail to do as the January 2015 deadline set locally for migration from analogue to digital broadcasting approaches. Globally, the deadline is June 2015.

What a year 2012 was! To begin with, I wish all readers of this column a very Happy New Year and God’s blessings as we begin another 365-day round of “struggle”, as we like to say in these climes.

PEOPLE in the ICT sector definitely must know Chris Uwaje, CEO of Connect Technologies and President of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, ISPON. Uwaje is the author of of a book, e-Knowledge: Time is Running Out, launched some two years ago. He is the man popularly called the “Oracle”of the Nigerian IT industry.

IN our recent history, especially since return to democratic civil rule, certain catch words, phrases, and slogans have assumed front burner usage especially when public officials spew forth rhetoric about what the problem is with Nigeria, and how to solve them.