 Stakeholders in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry have been quite worried about the state of the country over the past couple of months. Though, ICT has been inculcated into both secondary and tertiary curricula but the practical aspect is still way off. The major players in the economy are still hooked to oil rather than explore the possibilities of what ICT could do for the country. However, ICT has gone to under-aged children, who are willing to explore and exploit opportunities that it offers. Many of them are not necessarily born with silver spoons in their mouth but are determined to go through the extra mile to use ICT to change and rule their world.
Not too long ago, an eight year old pupil of Royal Family Academy, Abuja, Favour Nwaiwu became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) in the world. As if that was not enough, she also went as far as redesigning the 'Re-brand Nigeria' website, a feat not even the older ones may find too easy to accomplish in quite a short while. Being MCP qualifies her more than enough experience in handling Microsoft programming. It was what actually prompted her to design the Ministry of Information and Communications, a website, she tagged: 'Rebranded Nigerians'. She explained that it formed part of her little contribution towards selling globally the Re-brand Nigeria project.
Before Favour Nwaiwu, two Nigerian children, Davidson Osaremen and Olarenwaju Shittu between the ages of 11 and 12, who were pupils of Doregos Private Acacdemy,Lagos were able to dismantle a system and couple it in less than 15 minutes. They were the ones who initiated the use of ICT to rule their world by producing a system named DASH, a culmination of Osaremen's first name and Olarenwaju's last name. With these feats, over 30 Nigerian kids have joined the winning team by attempting the Microsoft examinations and being on top of their games. A stakeholder in the sector and CEO New Horizon, Mr. Tim Akano disclosed that 'catching them young' to exert the energy inherent in them for evolutional innovation should be the ultimate of any country that wished to gain respect from other countries. He reiterated that all the companies in the world without exemption were started by teenagers. According to him, Bill Gates wrote his first software programme when he was 13,Steve Jobs of Apple started his company at the age of 17,Larry Page and Serge of Google started when they were 17, Oracle started at age 17, while Michael Dell started when he was 19.
"I now realised that Nigerians have been taught ICT over 40 years but have not produced anything. My conclusion was that ICT comes to the youth naturally when they are quite young and secondly, the levels of our creativity as human beings start diminishing as soon as we reach 22-24 years. I did not see computer until I graduated from the university, Nigeria for a very long time, we used to get expose to ICT when we were about 25-30 and as at that time, there is virtually nothing we can produce again because the moment a lady or boy start to thinking of sexual relationship and their energy is channelled towards actualising that. The same energy that Bill Gates used to create something at 13 and others at 17 have been used for other things apart from creativity. At New Horizon, we just decided to catch them young but we also train other professionals. For us, the best time to catch them young is before they are 20 years. "We have not been part of the ICT revolution and financial breakthrough. I always tell youngsters that they do not need to focus on oil money rather the money in ICT triples what can be gotten from oil".
Europe and some parts of the world had started reaping the dividends of ICT. The initiator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg who just celebrated his 26th birthday in May, his company is valued for $26 billion. The Google boys, Larry Page and Sergey Brin are worth $30 billion. According to Akano, the sum total of money by these people: Larry page, Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg mean that they are richer than Nigeria. As a country of 150 million people in the country, what we get from oil when it sells at her best price for $80 and above per barrel, we get about $50 billion,and this is far below what these people have made.
Although, Favour Nwaiwu's feat had gingered the Minister of Information and Communications , Prof.Dora Akunyili to want to integrate the 'Re-brand Nigeria 'to secondary schools beginning from this month. Prof Akunyili disclosed recently that the rationale for taking the project to schools was basically to 'catch them young' owing to the positive things they could do to enhance the image and rating of the country. She reiterated that the campaign has taken off already Referring to the achievements of the youngest MCP in the world and other, the Minister said, "This giant stride in ICT is a further attestation that there is hope for this country." (sunnewsonline.com) |
