Facts have emerged that the refusal to allow local management of the country's domain name (.ng ccTLD), is responsible for the failure of most applications by Nigerians to carry the .ng domain name on their web addresses. This development has rendered useless efforts at national content development and cultural presence on the Internet which the Nigerian government hold in high esteem.

Giving an insight into the operation of the country's domain name, Randy Bush, technical point of contact for the .ng cccTLD said that more than 90% of registration forms for the .ng domain name are incorrectly filled leading to their rejection by the programs which process them.

In an email which was forwarded to Vanguard, Bush complained that he was not enjoying the work of registration of the .ng ccTLD, stressing that it was not intellectually interesting to him in the least.

Said he: " I do not enjoy doing the work of registration of the .ng ccTLD. It is not intellectually interesting in the least. 95% of the registration forms are sufficiently incorrect that they do not make it through the programs which process them. Folk really need to get local technical help. I know it's hard, but I just can't be everyone's tech, as we say "does not scale.

Explaining the type of problems often encountered while processing the forms, Bush said: "Some people submit the same broken form 15 times, somehow thinking that the 15th time the program will actually accept it. And they are not polite in e-mail, which does not encourage me to devote more time to trying to educate them." "I just don't have time to hold anybody's hand, yet folk think I am here to explain the dos, registration, web services ...to them".

Reacting to the derogatory comments on Nigerian applicants for .ng registration, the President of the Nigerian Internet Group licensed by government to manage the .ng ccTLD, Emmanuel Ekuwem, said that such situation was the prize that the country had to pay for leaving the running of its domain name to foreigners.

He contended that were the registration of the .ng domain name locally managed, Nigerians would be able to educate themselves on how to make successful application for registration of their domain name.

He also frowned at the situation where an individual was made the admin point of contact for the domain name, stressing that it could lead to inefficiencies and abuses.

Ibukun Odusote is the current admin point of contact for the .ng domain name and is currently engaged in a battle of wits with the Ministry of Science and Technology over the re-delegation of same to the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), a not-for-profit organisation.

Odusote, a civil servant, has over the years found it difficult to function properly in that position as she has not been able to put in place a proper machinery that would ensure massive registration of the .ng domain by Nigerians as exemplified by Bush complaints.

To ensure a reversal of the trend, the NIG says it has put in place an elaborate plan for the creation of Internet awareness, and the encouragement of Internet penetration and use, including the education of Nigerians on the registration of the .ng domain name.

Ekuwem says the ultimate aim for the NIG is the development of web sites that would project the national image