DSA boss urges Jonathan to heed calls for Nigeria broadband stimulus

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has been urged to heed the calls by stakeholders by introducing a presidential broadband stimulus for the Nigerian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector with the hope of boosting broadband and internet access deployment precisely in the country.

Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa (DSA), Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke made this call in her address to the two-day Nigeria DigitalSENSE forum on Internet Governance and Broadband Evolution in Nigeria, which ended last weekend in Lagos.

She also said at the forum presided by the former president of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) and chief executive officer, Teledom Group International, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, that by emulating the President of the United States, Mr. Barrack Obama who introduced a Broadband Stimulus recently, President Jonathan would give unparallel boost to the Nigerian ICT sector.

“We, therefore, reiterate calls for President Goodluck Jonathan among other presidential aspirants in 2011 election, to borrow a leaf from President Obama by introducing a Broadband Stimulus for the Nigerian ICT sector and give boost to infrastructure deployment,” she urged.

Mrs. Nweke also said that access to high speed Internet network is good but the need for a good legal frame work to enable end users optimize it cannot be overlooked.

She charged the Federal Government-led by president Jonathan to as a matter of urgency address the issues of security, high cost access, devices and ensure that all Primary, Secondary Schools and Universities have well-equipped computer laboratories fully connected to the Internet.

This, she told participants at the forum graced by Commissioners and senior staff of NCC led by Dr. Mike Onyia, who represented the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, that it would make the Nigerian youths, especially the students to be globally competitive.

For her team at DigitalSENSE Africa, access to the Internet should be a right and not a privilege; hence she reiterated the call made at the forum last year that access to internet should be declared the right of every Nigerian.

While commending participants and partners on this year’s forum, she singled out the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), MTN Nigeria, Teledom Group, Starcomms, Omatek Computer Plc, Computer Warehouse Group among others for collaborating with DSA on the event.

Equally speaking, the chairman of the occasion, Dr. Ekuwem commended the organizers for sustaining the initiative, urging Nigerians to take interest on how the Internet is govern, stressing that is the only way to perfectly make good use of the internet for the benefit of all.

Ekuwem insisted that good people of Nigeria who are in greater number should not allow a few bad eliminates, which is less than 0.01 per cent to continue mess Nigeria’s name on the Internet with their fraudulent activities.

The forum witnessed presentations from notable experts including the second vice president of the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and partner, Ashfield and Bowman Attorneys, Mr. Adewale Jones; chief executive officer, Nigeria Internet Exchange Point, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, Director, News Media and Information Security, NCC, Dr. Sylvanus Ehikioya, Senior Teaching fellow in International Trade Law with the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Dr. Nnaemeka Ewelukwa as well as president, Nigeria Internet Registration Association, Mrs. Mary Uduma, chief executive officer of IcoCool Contract, Mr. Destiny Amana and Legal Officer, National IT Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Emmanuel Edet among others.

While the issues of access, security and privacy, openness and infrastructure were brought to the floor of the forum.

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