The Chief Web Advocate at the World Wide Web Foundation, Nnenna Nwakanma, has counselled Nigerians to stop ethnic fighting and target the 8 billion market space in the digital economy, reports ITREALMS.
Nwakanma who dwelt on developments on digital cooperation and effects on
growing demography on African and Nigeria perspective said “Digital
Cooperation is a global initiative to get all stakeholders to collaborate on
key issues.”
She called on
Nigeria to assume the rightful role as leader in Africa and also in the digital
space in the continent, describing the nation as the number one country in
Africa.
“If we are saying
that Africa is the future of digital cooperation, it means that Nigeria is No.
1 in Africa, it means that Nigeria is number 1 of the future of digital
cooperation,” she declared.
Nwakanma told
participants at NDSF2021 via an live-broadcast, that as Nigerians, the citizens
in the digital ecosystem “we need to go beyond a wailing republic. You go
beyond a complaining republic. You go beyond a 'poor hustler' mentality. “
According to her,
“What the world expected of us is leadership. What the world expected from
Nigeria is digital leadership. Digital leadership is innovation, creation. You
need to step away from the N100,000 or N20,000 mentality and begin to think of
8 billion, because that is the global population. That is your market. That is
your field.”
The Chief Web
Advocate equally charged Nigerians to stop ethnic battle and focus on a larger
market of 8 billion.
“Please stop
fighting the Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Tiv, Edo battle. We are fighting against a
market of 8 billion. So please, stop fighting the little fight and take up the
bigger one. Quit the hustler mentality and take up the leadership mentality,”
she charged.
Nwakanma
specifically made a call to the government of Nigeria that there is a lot to be
done on the policy level. “There are lots to be done on digital rights respect.
There are lots to be done on protecting the dignity of Nigerians in the country
and online. A lot is being done already to clean up the image of Nigeria in the
digital space, but we still need more to be done.
She expected that
“More good stories and more billion-dollar stories; we need more innovation
stories coming from Nigeria in the respect of human rights and human dignity.”
To the industry
players especially technology companies, Nwakanma tasked them to ensure they
work in Nigeria with the intention to innovate, create, design, build and grow;
So as to grow Nigerians, the young people, to grow the market of tomorrow and
leaders of tomorrow.
She stressed that
they must show accountability “the same way EU citizens are being treated, I
think should be the way, Nigerians have a right to be treated. We are not less
human than anybody. American citizens are not more human than Nigerian
citizens. The same way their data and rights are protected, the same way
Nigerians should be respected and protected.”
Maintaining that
Nigerian women, men, and youths “need to be safe and secure online and
offline.”
Nnenna
Nwakanma, is a Nigerian Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) activist,
community organizer, development adviser. She worked for the United Nations for
15 years and was the Interim Policy Director for the World Wide Web Foundation
before her current post as the Chief Web Advocate.
Also,
she is the co-founder of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for
Africa FOSSFA, which she co-chairs. She is a former member of the board of the
Open Source Initiative and served as co-founder at The Africa Network of
Information Society Actors, and the African Civil Society for the Information
Society. Equally, Nnenna served as a Vice President of the Digital solidarity
fund and had previously worked as the Information Officer for Africa of the
Helen Keller Foundation.
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