Ray Umukoro
26 October 2009
opinion
IF you were at the Palexpo Hall in the beautiful city of Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday, October 8, 2009, you would feel three times a Nigerian. You would feel in a sense that you tower over the rest of humanity. In fact, you would feel proudly Nigerian.
Not just because you were part of the participants at the ITU Telecoms World 2009, a global telecoms conference hosted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), but primarily because Nigeria suddenly became the nectar of the world. It was Nigeria's day at the week-long conference and participants from across the world trooped to the Nigerian pavilion to hear, first hand, the story of the nation's telecoms revolution.
Before the conference, the global ICT business community had been wowed by the breathtaking Nigerian telecoms story which many have fittingly described as a miracle.
It was a soothing interjection for the acclaimed 'Giant of Africa' which had been taunted and derided as a sleeping giant. Nigeria had been known to typify everything that is wrong with the Black race. It was recently portrayed by Sony in its Play Station 3 as a nation of crooks and cannibals. Add to that the recent jab at the country in the highly offensive movie District 9 as a country of scammers.
But here in Geneva, there is an unveiling of another aspect of the country. It is a compelling story of hope. The story of the nation's telecoms industry in the past 10 years gave visitors to the Nigerian pavilion an insight into the basket of opportunities which telecoms has created in Africa's most populous nation. It was a break from the humdrum of crises that headline the often twisted reports about the nation.
I felt a surge of pride course through my whole being to see the faces of the crème de la crème in world telecoms crease with excitement as they walk through the Nigerian stands at the pavilion.
And it was not just for the simple reason that Nigerian branded computers were on display at the pavilion, it was more for the fact that a nation once ranked among the very worst in the world has in a space of less than 10 years shot itself to the top 10 bracket. For Nigerians in the Diaspora, many of whom streamed to the pavilion, it was a moment of national pride to see the global community shower encomiums on the same country that they have taken turns to vilify as the scam capital of the world.
The retinue of visitors to the pavilion was a rich crowd which included the Secretary-General of ITU, Dr. Hamadoun Toure, Director, Telecom Standards Bureau of the union, Mr. Malcom Johnson, Director of ITU's Telecom Development Bureau, Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, Minister of Communications and Information Technology of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Engr. Mohamed Jamil Mulla, policy makers, investors and regulators from across the African continent and the rest of the world.
One of Africa's elder statesmen, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe who also visited in company of the Deputy Secretary General of the ITU, Mr. Houlin Zhao was full of commendation for the manner Nigeria stamped its feet in the global telecom matrix. "I'm impressed by the success recorded in Nigerian telecommunications", a palpably elated Mugabe gushed as he was conducted round the pavilion by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Engr. Ernest Ndukwe.
Yet, it was not only Mugabe that was proud of the Nigerian story. Every African at the event was. The ITU scribe, Toure, is a big fan of Nigerian telecoms and he didn't hide it. He has good reasons to be upbeat each time the Nigerian telecoms story is told. Toure is the first African to hold the exalted position at the ITU and his tenure coincides with what could best be described as the years of Jubilee in African telecoms.
The last decade had been particularly exciting for the continent in telecoms. It was the decade that Africa ceased to wear the inglorious tag as a never-do-well in the global telecoms marketplace. Within the decade, Africa became the global reference point in the deployment of wireless telephony.
By the latest statistics from the ITU, Africa now enjoys the number one position as the continent with the highest deployment of mobile telephony services. In fact, the continent has led in the global mobile roll out chart in the past five years.
The good news is that Nigeria is leading in the continent's mobile telephony ascendancy with over 68 million lines, about a quarter of the total number of mobile phones in Africa.
The country has achieved this because of the vision, boldness and industry knowledge of the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Ernest Ndukwe.
His dream to thrust Nigeria into the top telecom performing nations of the world was helped by the willingness of the Nigerian government to allow the flowering of sound public-private partnership in the industry.
The Nigerian story provided a requisite template for visitors to the Nigerian pavilion. It underscored the fact that having the right government policy and having the right people to drive the policy is the sine qua non for a buoyant telecom future. It is the same model employed by Sweden, Finland and other telecoms advanced nations. Nigeria is on the right track.
With the Fibre Without Borders (FWB) concept proposed by Ndukwe both in Nigeria and in Geneva, it is only a matter of sooner than later and Nigeria would be asserting itself in the global broadband hall of fame.
Among the 151 nations that make up the membership list of the ITU, the Nigerian telecoms story provides the most motivating resonance, particularly among the developing nations, because it is the story of zero to zillions, from meagre to much and from not enough to so much more. In the last eight years, for instance, investments in telecoms in Nigeria have shot to $18 billion, made up of $12 billion foreign direct investment and $6 billion internal investments.
This was the story told of Nigeria in Geneva. It drew applause and elicited approval from the international audience. Much more, it is a story that totally re-branded Nigeria in glowing garments. It is a story of hope and self-belief. We must begin to believe in our abilities as a nation because the Nigerian telecoms revolution was not wrought by the white man, it was wrought by Nigerians.
Today, other nations of the world come to Nigeria to understudy the nation's telecom regulator's model.
All said, the Nigerian Geneva show has helped to project the nation in positive light. For Nigerians in the Diaspora, telecoms has become their sunshine in a season of dark clouds.
Mr. Umukoro, an online journalist, writes from Geneva.
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