"I am not impressed with Nigeria's participation when it comes to our stand in WSIS. I think it leaves much to be desired. Perhaps we will do better with more co-ordination for the future and make sure that when next we come for an event like this, our stand would be something compared with what we had in Egypt during the ITU Africa Conference".

With these scathing remarks, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commission dismissed Nigeria's participation at the last World Summit on the Information Society, which held in Tunis, the Tunisia capital.

Most Nigerians who were at the WSIS last week agree with Engr. Ndukwe's submission on Nigerians exhibition at the world's foremost Information and Communications Technology event ever.

The Nigerian stand at WSIS was a small cubicle that could hardly take five people at a go. It was at this stand that the Nigerian government intended to display its potentials in ICT to the outside world and at such an important gathering as WSIS.

But the expected exhibition on the Nigerian stand was not to happen, as officials did not bring any solution or product to showcase to the world.

Yet in sharp contrast to the Nigerian stand, the South African stand was a huge hall which occupied most of the government agencies and companies that represented the country at the Summit. There was the Department of Communications in South Africa, there was Telkom and even the South Africa broadcasting corporation (SABC) and some other companies which were all busy throughout the Summit attending to enquiries.

Smaller countries like Rwanda were also well represented as they showcased their ICT potentials to the admiration of visitors, most of who never could imagine that ICT had developed to such stage in the war torn country.

Other countries like Mali, host Tunisia, Burkina Faso, and many more were delight to behold at the Summit.

On day one, the Nigerian stand was virtually empty with only one official of the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in attendance. The official was even at a loss about what to do because there were no products or services to be exhibited; only a lonely table and a green white green banner to indicate that the stand was Nigeria's.

With an empty stand, of course no visitors were attracted except some Nigerian members of some NGOs and some journalists who came to say hello to their lonely compatriot.

This was the situation until Omatek Computers; a local Nigerian Computer brand came to the rescue on the second day. With no products to offer NITDA virtually bequeathed the stand to Omatek as the company displayed its sleek Laptops and Plasma Television sets to the admiration of visitors.

Perhaps, aware that the Nigerian stand left much to be desired, President Obasanjo was not taken to the stand when he stormed the Summit on day two. So, despite the huge impression, which Nigeria made at the plenary sessions of the Summit and the huge resources that the country pledged to invest in the development of ICT in Africa, the country was not ready to solicit global interest in its ICT resources through the Summit.

NITDA had the responsibility to organize Nigeria's participation at the WSIS. As the agency responsible for the development of IT in the country, it was expected to coordinate the participation of other government agencies to showcase Nigeria's ICT development to the global community in Tunis.

When asked about Nigeria's performance, Prof Cleopas Angaye, Director general of NITDA simply told Vanguard: "We made efforts; but we are very grateful to Omatek; Omatek has made us proud.

Prof. Angaye further said that the agency wrote letters to operatives in both the public and private sectors to bring what they could exhibit but did not get good response.