NIRA takes MDAs on .gov.ng management

Mrs. Johnson

President, Executive Board of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Mrs. Mary Uduma, has confirmed that her organisation would hold a one-day workshop for the Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Abuja.

The workshop, slated for Wednesday, April 4, this year at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Convention Centre, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, she was quoted in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online by the Head, Corporate Services, NiRA, Ms Ugo Akiri, as saying that this would be the first in the series of workshops towards actualising the Federal Government's decision to migrate all Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies’ domain names to .ng.

Also, she said it would bring to fruition the recent directive of the Honourable Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, to transfer the registration and management of Federal MDAs domains to Galaxy Backbone Plc.

She noted that NIRA, the managers of Nigeria’s unique identity on the internet, .ng is collaborating the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), on this workshop expected to commence at 8.00 am with the registration of workshop participants.

Mrs. Uduma, further noted that the workshop, which has the endorsement of the offices of both the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Head of Service, tends to build capacity for the MDAs to manage their respective domain names.

She stated that the adoption of the .ng is for the benefit of all Nigerians, adding that the move of the Federal government is a milestone for the .ng, Nigeria’s unique identity on the internet.

Mrs. Uduma emphasized that beyond the issues of national identity and patriotism, the government of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, is aware of the consequence of this important national resource, by leveraging the cyber security the country code provides against the use of generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) for government’s affairs.

NiRA president pointed out that a wide adoption of .ng by Nigerians would constitute a good tool in the effort to project the good people of Nigeria and the nation.

“Our collective adoption of the .ng will be a strong tool in reversing the adverse publicity projected by foreign media. The war will be won on the local and international frontiers when institutions of government in Nigeria, credible, real and legal persons and entities in Nigeria adopt the use of the .ng, not just from a consumerism perspective, but by generating a Nigerian content to the internet,” she asserted.

Mrs. Uduma explained that .ng is the two-character country code reserved for, and used by Nigeria in consonance with the unique identities upon which a global internet is predicated.

“This is, otherwise, referred to as Nigeria’s country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).  A country code Top Level Domain is used or reserved for specific countries, sovereign states or dependent territories in the Domain Name System,” she clarified. 

She expected that at the end of the workshop, all Federal MDAs would migrate to the .ng platform, emphasizing that those whose current websites are not on .ng should simply register a .ng domain name, and redirect their other sites to the .gov.ng.

“When this first step is achieved, the MDAs would proceed to opening electronic-mail (e-mail) accounts on their .ng web addresses, and thereafter save the nation of the continuous embarrassment of having its government officials write a foreign e-mail addresses on their official cards,” she explained.

She also noted that the Association has a set goal of achieving 500,000 domains by the end of the year, and that the Workshop and others that shall follow is targeted at surpassing this goal, and the long term objectives of giving the country a positive image, and gleaning the gains of the internet for Nigerians.

Some of the participants at the workshop, she said, would include the Federal Government MDAs, the Armed Forces, professionals, stakeholders, the media and the interested public, persons and departments responsible for IT functions in all MDAs, even as Galaxy Backbone Plc, an accredited registrar of NIRA would be handy to assist applicants with the process of registering .ng domains.

Remmy Nweke
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