Following the death of its pioneer President, late Ndukwe Kalu, the board of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) has shifted indefinitely its proposed Annual General Meeting (AGM) in respect of Kalu, who passed away on Tuesday, September 8, 2009 in Lagos.
According to the Vice President, NIRA, Mrs. Mary N. Uduma, in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online, while confirming that late Kalu would be buried on Saturday, October 31, 2009 in Abriba, his hometown in Abia State, said the postponement has become imperative so as to give his family and entire internet community to commiserate over his death.
She explained that NIRA Executive Board rose from a meeting last week in Lagos, to adopt a unanimous decision to postpone indefinitely the AGM earlier planned to hold at the Airport Hotel, Lagos today, Wednesday, September 2009.
“Following the sudden death of the pioneer President of the association, Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, we hereby notify our board members, trustees, stakeholders and the general public that the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) previously scheduled to hold in Lagos on September 24, 2009 has been postponed till further notice,” she said.
Also she said that the postponement would enable NIRA mobilize its members to attend the burial of late Kalu scheduled to hold in Abriba in Abia State, as announced by Kalu’s family.
NIRA she said, would make further announcements to Nigerians and the Internet community regarding programmes leading to the burial of its late president.
Nigerians from all walks of life have continued to express their condolence over the sudden death of the pioneer President of NIRA.
She noted that under late Kalu’s leadership, Nigeria recently recorded the successful full re-delegation and local management of Nigeria’s country code top level domain name, (ccTLD) the .ng.
Before his death, late Kalu specialised in design and installation of various networks for over a decade as well as pioneered IT publications in Nigeria through the publishing of Nigeria’s first IT magazine called IT Watch Africa in 1994.
From there, late Kalu revolutionized newspaper IT reporting by conceptualizing and commencing the first robust IT section in the Nigerian newspaper history, tagged InfoTech ThisDay in 1998.
He was a member of several professional bodies some of which are Nigeria Society of Engineers, Nigeria Computer Society, Nigeria Institute of Management, Chartered Institute of Administration, Institute of Data Processing and Management (IDPM) London, among others.
He also served on various boards some of which are Amsco Telecoms Limited, Amsco Nigeria Limited, Admiral Insurance Company Limited, Pricehouse Communication Limited, Alphastream Solutions Nigeria Limited, among others.
He also recently served as member of a Joint Committee of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN) on developing a suitable regulation for the use of ISM frequency band in the country.
In 2004, he was elected the National Vice President of Internet Service Providers of Nigeria (ISPAN) and also served on the NCC Industry Committee set up to advice on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) regulation.
Late Engr. Kalu also served on the National Cyber Crime Working Group, a body set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to fashion out effective legislation and system to fight cyber crime in Nigeria.
He has recently spearheaded several initiatives to improve teledensity and Internet penetration in Nigeria, one of which is Naijawifi, an alliance of Nigerian ISPs set to offer a Wi-Fi Internet Access blanket all over Nigeria. He was also the Chairman of NCC/Presidential Committee set up to actualize a sustainable Internet Exchange for Nigeria.
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