Uduma, others urge politicians to embrace .ng

Internet experts in the country have maintained that the political class needs to look inwards in their search to have their ‘political contents’ hosted online in the name of websites, insisting that any politician that knows his or her onion must patronize the nation’s country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) .ng, instead of the foreign domains.

Some of those who commented on the imperativeness of patronizing .ng include the President of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Mrs. Mary Uduma, Director of NIRA, Mr. Sola Bickersteth and Registrar of the Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), Mr. Sekiri Shehu Mohamed.

Speaking at the weekend to ITRealms Online, Mr. Shehu said that is not in the best interest of the country for Nigerian politicians to use foreign domain against the .ng.

He wondered where the patriotism of the political class has gone, saying that they need to exhibit their Nigerianness by localizing their domain names, which is their interface with the world.

“Using foreign domain against .ng is unfair to the ccTLD,” he bemoaned.

In her comment on the subject, NIRA president, Mrs. Uduma said that Nigerian need to make .ng adaptation a passion; hence .ng should be the preferred domain name for all well meaning Nigerians including politicians.

This, she explained is more pertinent because of security, saying that the use of foreign domain against .ng should be holistically discouraged and called for strong campaign against this practice.

She therefore urged Nigerians to ensure they support only those politicians who root for local brands like .ng, while enjoining politicians to believe in the Nigerian brand.

“For the citizens to support a politician, the politician should show example of their believe in Nigerian brand and promote it by proudly have their domain names on .ng for all their websites,” she said, stressing that having .ng should be seen as part of the rebranding project of the federal government, which is good for the country and political growth.

Equally speaking, a director of NiRA, Mr. Sola Bickersteth, said that politicians need to understand that anytime they give out an internet address that does not end with .ng, it is equivalent to carrying telephone lines with +44 or +167 instead of 234.

The implications, he enumerated to include that in an era where nations are actually attacking themselves over the internet and the American constitutions empowers the American president to order the disconnection of Internet communications if the nation is under threat, it is vital for a nation like Nigeria to take is country code Top Level Domain seriously.

“That implies that Internet communications taking place in Nigeria is directly under the control of foreign governments as exemplified by the recent leaks on Nigeria by Wikileaks,” he noted.

Bickersteth pointed out that politicians campaigning with websites that do not end with .ng are only confirming that they are not prepared for modern leadership and should change immediately to .ng domains for their campaigns.

“If and when they get elected, they most recognise that countries are beginning to amend their constitution to declare internet as a fundamental human right and in modern economies or information societies if you like, providing internet access is as important as building roads, he said, buttressing his point with the fact that even the Word of God confirms that knowledge is power.

Politicians, he said, need to recognise .ng against foreign domains like .com, .co.uk, emphasising that this should form part of requirement to confirm their readiness for leadership in 2011 as the world economy has gone digital.

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