Nigeria @ 50: NCS honours Ekeh, Seriki, Abubakar

Postpones date!

The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), has concluded plans to honour four of its own as part of activities marking the nation’s 50 years independence anniversary, but has to postponed it due to industrial actions by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday.

The event scheduled to hold today in Lagos, according to the National President, NCS, Prof. Charles Uwadia, has been scheduled to hold today, Wednesday in Lagos, and was expected to see the likes of Zinox Chairman, Dr. Leo-Stan Ekeh, Group Managing Director, Omatek Plc, Mrs. Florence Seriki, former minister and president of Computer Association of Nigeria (COAN) now NCS, Chief Donatus Etibet and Senator Iya Abubakar to receive special golden jubilee independence anniversary awards.

He noted that on Friday, October 1, 2010, Nigeria marked the 50th anniversary of attaining political independence from the colonial masters.

“The architects of Nigeria’s freedom had the vision of a great nation; a nation that would command attention and respect in the comity of nations, expectedly too, Nigeria is the most populous black nation on earth,” he said.

Uwadia also said that the expectations of all Nigerians were very high, thus, many people had thought that since that time, Nigeria would be able to build a strong ‘united nation’ with a highly viable economy whose people will be well empowered.

Nigeria, he said, has done very well on a number of fronts as Nigerians individually and collectively as a nation, stressing that while the nation may have not fully met the expectations of the generality of Nigerians, it does not appropriate to brand the country a failed state as some people would want to suggest.

“It will also amount to distorting the history of the nation if we say that no progress has been made since independence,” he said.

Additionally, he said, however that the issue that needed to be reflected upon comprised whether Nigeria has lived to the billings and fulfillment of her potentials as a sovereign state.

“The answer to this poser is most likely not in the affirmative,” he declared.
Uwadia pointed out that despite the abundant human and material resources the country is endowed with, Nigeria has remained a largely underdeveloped nation.

“Nigeria has all the potentials for greatness; indeed, Nigerians are intelligent, resourceful and industrious. All the powers of creativity and ingenuity in the Nigerian people are bursting forth in every facet of human endeavour. This promises a great future for the nation if only we are able to put our acts together,” he said.

According to him, the golden jubilee celebration, therefore, should be a period of stock-taking and sober reflection. “We must identify missed opportunities and what we need to do to make Nigeria truly the giant of Africa,” he said.

He maintained that if the country must effectively harness these abundant natural resources in order to achieve the goals of economic and socio-political development, the underlining activities must be completely anchored on Information Technology (IT) as the driving force.

NCS was founded in 1978 as the Computer Association of Nigeria and has been consistent in contributing towards its national platform for the advancement of computer science and information technology.

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