BY UBONG NSEKPONG
I turned sluggishly on my mattress and felt a slight ache on my ribs. The long nights I witness recently seems to add more pains to the existing ones. With the level of patronage IT practitioners garner in the state one is forced to shut down his system completely as against hibernation which is common in the practice. I reached out for my psalter to say the morning prayers but the constant text and social media alert on my phone was a great cause of distraction. I therefore decided to turn off the alerts before approaching the throne of my creator for thanksgiving which was more of a daily ritual.
Most Android phones have a special way of displaying current text messages. In some cases the text is displayed directly on the screen with two options ‘close’ or ‘view’. I reached out to click the close button but then a message caught my attention. “Ubong do you think trying to remove the SA to the governor on New Media will do you any good? Please stop these publications before you face God’s retribution”. The message reads with a hidden identity. I quickly click on the text box area to send a reply but then, why attend to such trivial issue before your morning prayers? I reasoned. Then I decided to turn off the alerts and close the cover of my phone before flipping the pages of my psalter to week 4 of the prayer manual.
After my last article (Your Excellency, You Need A Special Assistant on Information Technology (IT) Matters Now) which was published on Community Pulse Newspaper Website (with the link http://pulsepapers.com/?p=1371) and some local tabloids in the state including The Ink Newspaper. I had received tens if not hundreds of calls from various persons believed to be misunderstanding the text published thereof. To some extent I had decided not to attend to any calls with strange numbers since some, apart from few, seems to think my articles were designed to cause disaffection between the powers that be in the government house.
Though I was initially angered by such calls I later discovered most Akwa Ibomites nay Africans hardly read the content of any article let alone reasoning to understand. Infact there is a saying “if you want to hide something from an African man, put it into writing”. So when instead of sending instant messages as instructed, most people had gone berserk on phone calling me several names I dare not publish I found an excuse to forgive them instantly.
One particular caller had warned me to look for a creative adventure than try to put the office of the SA on New Media to The Governor into disrepute. Text messages later dropped like the morning dew on my phone while I became tied to power source to sustain my battery life.
As I conclude my prayers, new ideas on how to approach the problem was established. The sender of the said message was one out of a hundred others who might also be misunderstanding my message in the previous article. I therefore decided to throw more light on the said article once I was behind my desk in the office.
Early morning rains has become a regular occurrence in my area. In recent times, the residents believe whenever the angels start rolling drums (heavy sound of thunder) in the sky then there was no going back, IT WAS GOING TO RAIN! Therefore it was not out of place when these angels resumed their duty that morning and I knew my punctuality for the day will be questioned. I stood at the balcony overlooking the flooded paths to my abode while the content of my last article flowed on my mind like the pontifical homily.
In the said article I had called on His Excellency to create the office of the SA to the Governor on Information Technology (IT) Matters urgently. I had narrated my quandaries which prompted my frantic but fruitless effort to meet the governor during his campaigns. I had pointed out that the office of the New Media was practically handling the work of the media which is the same thing as what is obtained within news organisations and competent media houses in the state.
To assuage my detractors therefore, I had decided to put aside the nagging problem of Creating a Multimedia Application Using Java Technology for the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Information for the time being so as to inform my readers better on the previous subject. Afterall, a friend of mind had informed me recently on how he presented an idea to a commissioner in the past administration only for it to be turned down. Later in the administration the project was executed with no reference to his efforts. When he confronted the said commissioner, he was informed that the same proposal had been submitted months before he brought his proposal and so when the time came for the execution of the said project he (The Commissioner) had decided to use the initial proposal. How true this story was, is what I could never vouch for, but here I needed to inform my detractors before attempting to write any more codes.
Juxtaposing the contexts in question. I had seen The New Media as the placing of contents on social media and using different media tools on the internet to reach out to the citizenry. This of course requires no expertise as anyone can create and run a facebook page or any other social media platform. On the other hand Information and communications Technology (ICT) is often used as an extended synonym for Information Technology (IT), but is a more specific term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information.
In building a strong Information Technology sector therefore as an emerging economy in the state, it would not be out of place to appoint someone who will partner with developers in the state in building a lasting solution. Recently, the former Governor of Lagos State was quoted as awarding contract for the development of a website to the whopping tune of 78million Naira. This to any Nigerian may sound crazy, but in other words if the said money was effectively utilised by the contractors then the acquisition of certifications and professionalism in different areas in the sector will be made easy for those practitioners and Akwa Ibom will be their next target of investment while our people will only realise then, the need to learn.
Information Technology goes far beyond social media management which is only a section of internet usage. Today it is sad to note that contracts for Web Development within government owned outfits are all manned by non-indigenes except there has been changes in recent times. The gruesome thoughts of who and who handles IT Matters in the state had once taken me into a conversation with a friend who told me 80% of IT staff in Mobil were not from Akwa Ibom State. I had dismissed such assertion with a wave of hand since Mobil headquarters was in Lagos and no one should think of anything less of such organisation. This is what happens when IT practitioners in the state gains no patronage from government while other states builds up their youths ‘effectively’ in this sector.
It must be on record that Akwa Ibom People will continue to buy these technologies at a very expensive rate if the hope of the present administration coming to the aid of practitioners is again dashed. Though we all know that young entrepreneurs should be able to canvass their patronage outside the government, in a clime where industrialisation is only coming as a rebirth then the government should do well to encourage her citizens for effective productivity in the future in this sector.
The door opened, “Ubong Ete”. “Yes Chair” I answered as I looked up. It was the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Akwa Ibom State. This is one voice that had given me confidence sometimes when I felt like quitting. When all organisations had no passion for us in the industry in the state, he had sacrificed the meager the Union had to build an ICT centre in collaboration with the then commissioner for Special Duties Hon. Barr. Emmanuel Enoidem. I had wanted to write a full book on the dynasty this man has left due to his support to practitioners in the IT industry in the state but it is forbidden to write about them according to laws I cannot quote its origin.
It was after this cheerful greetings from the Chairman, that I realised the article I had intended to write briefly had spanned about four pages and I had not said all that I intended. I closed my laptop and prayed maybe one day I will see one of the callers and only then will I enlighten him that the SA on New Media to the Governor is doing her job perfectly but there is more to IT than the social media contents.
* Ubong Nsekpong is not a journalist but a developer currently working on a personal project on Creation of Multimedia Application Using Java Technology. The application is expected to serve as an offline studios for prospective users. To support this project, Contact 08034417104, SMS only. Tweet @ubnsekpong for your suggestions.
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