Concord Times (Freetown)
Olusegun Ogundeji
22 August 2008
opinion
Freetown — Do you know what impact the provision of free broadband Internet services for nearly 40,000 state-run primary schools would have on the development of any nation? Let's wait and see what will become of Bangladesh in the next few years as they just launched the initiative in June.
Just like former Liberian president, Professor Amos Sawyer rightly said at the Concord Times annual lecture last week, a generation of young Sierra Leoneans and Liberians have been deprived of education courtesy of the civil unrest that rocked both nations for at least a decade on each side.
Not just formal education was disrupted in these countries, moral and even development-related cultures were touched. Many citizens of these two great nations are now very detached from acquiring information to form a basis for their growth. Governments of both states too, are yet to invest into the future of the younger generation by prioritizing their education in various forms.
Even though Bangladesh mentioned earlier did not experience prolonged war in the last few years which could have warranted the destruction of infrastructures, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said 'it made the move to expand the use of information technology (IT) to tens of thousands of villages where 70 percent of the country's 144 million people live.' An IT expert in Bangladesh said this move would double the number of internet users in less than a year. Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest countries, with nearly 40 percent of the population living on less than a dollar a day, just like what is obtainable in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
It's like we are yet to understand, and even inculcate the notion that information is the most essential commodity after food in the minds of the younger generation. We all need information just like plants need sunlight to grow. We are in the information age where virtually every facet of our lives can be more productive when an information technology device is applied or when the endeavour is based on available information.
In Sierra Leone and Liberia, the unrest that took place in both nations did so much to withhold their conformity with the pace of information technology development in the region.
While both countries were grappling with the reality of resolving their internal scuffles, other African nations -though a bit worried about the situation in the two countries - are busy bracing up for the challenges ahead in the information sector.
As this process of bridging the digital divide gap was ongoing elsewhere, the intellectuality of many young minds in Sierra Leone and Liberia were being wasted while some were hanged.
Tonya Musa, a media consultant and lecturer at the prestigious Fourah Bay College (FBC) said for Sierra Leone to sail through its digital divide ditch, the people have to take control and ignite the fire.
"We are consuming what is available from others but we need to localize all these technological development by producing our own. It is very possible," Musa said. "In Asia, they are not relying on English products. Rather, they relate new information technology into their social lives." According to Musa, the move to develop the country's IT sector may not necessarily be the government's initiative, the people have a major role to play by developing their interest in the sector.
"People need to stop seeing it as a complex show. They think computers are difficult but they use mobile phones everyday. Though we understand that some people are poor and there is this problem of lack of electricity, our confidence is that people are now waking up to the reality. Gradually, people are now localizing IT use into our system but the pace is slow," he said.
It wasn't easy for Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia to achieve so much in terms of information technology development even though they are still behind in the global context. But their concerted effort proved that they are climbing on the ladder of progress.
Suffice it to say that Sierra Leone and Liberia need a redoubled effort first to cover up for the lost years and then catch up at least with the trend at both regional and even continental levels.
There are certain advantages to be considered on the part of both nations to achieve uniform and mutual progress in respective information. (Collaboration between these neighbouring states to that effect is not ruled out though).
The smallness of both countries in size and population can be harnessed to ensure efficient coverage of their landscapes. Sierra Leone has a population of well over six million people while Liberia is about four million. Of these figures, slightly over a million live in Freetown which is a little below the about 1.5 million people in Monrovia, yet the percentage of users of information technology devices is very minute.
Age distribution in both countries is another factor. Over 50% of the two countries' combined population is below the age of 25. This category needs information more as their era ushered in digital globalization.
Considering their nearness and the similar unrest that befell these nations almost simultaneously, there is every tendency that workable information technology programmes, with customized designs, could be developed on both sides to fast track the advancement of information in both countries. Hopefully the saying that two heads are better than one could come to fore here.
Taking the internet as a case study, one or the other reason is still precluding young minds in these two countries from embracing its multi-functionality purposes. Enlightenment is for the informed. Internet, or the World Wide Web, is gaining more ground by the day in enhancing world's participation in civic engagement but it is unfortunate that in Sierra Leone, ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database recorded that only 10 out of a thousand Sierra Leoneans use the internet. Sad enough but this is better than Liberia which has no given figure.
In this information age, newspapers, magazines, radios and even televisions which used to serve as major sources of information in years past, have now been made less effective with the advent of the internet.
Hence, the gathering, processing and dissemination of information can now be channeled through the internet which is even more wider in its coverage, than any of the earlier means of mass communication. In fact, these media outlets find it difficult to operate now without the internet.
But here we are, basking in the traditional method of acquiring information from the world over. Little is being done to liberalise the information sector for the younger generation's sake. Too bad!
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IT Deployment in a country helps in the Educational Process as well as in Productivity and Economic Development of that country.
A Study by Siemens, Title: "Taxation and Growth of Mobile Communications in East Africa" This Study clearly demonstrated the relationship between the Use of Mobile Devices and Economic Development.
Go To: www.siemens.com and search for the above Title.
Gadema Korboi Quoquoi [a Liberian in the US, I am also Listed in Marquis'Who's Who in America for IT]
President COMPULINE.HEALTH.OFFICELIVE.COM Compuline.Com, Inc. Compuline International, Inc.