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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Uwaje tasks Nigerians on IKT

First vice president, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Chief Chris Uwaje, has called on Nigerian stakeholders to be proactive by focusing on Information Knowledge Technology (IKT).

“The world is rapidly moving from digital divide to the more complex and fearsome knowledge divide,” he warned.

Giving this advice in Lagos, Uwaje who is the chief executive, Connect Technologies Limited, said that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is only a temporary technology bus-stop, within the corridor and developmental process of human knowledge resources, technology history and learning curves.

By focusing on IKT, he said, Nigeria could commence with the policy makers becoming proactive and eschewing policies that could be irrelevant in few years time.

He pointed out that knowledge technology is here to stay and is beyond ICT bus stop, hence any nation, especially those in the so-called developing countries should start now to conceptualise what is next after the bus stop.

“Knowledge Technology (KT) is here! Beyond Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)? How did we get there? From Babbage, to before Bill Gates, to Data Processing (DP), to Information System (IS), to Data Processing Management System (DPMS), to Management Information System (MIS), to Information Technology (IT) and is there anything beyond ICT? In order words, what next, after ICT? “ he said.

According to him, available research and ICT white papers suggest that the world is already moving-on to adopt the concept and operational dynamics of the Information Knowledge Technology (IKT) or e-Knowledge Technology (eKT) as a new platform, model and strategic imperatives for globalised knowledge-everywhere for human development.

“We might as well now begin to rethink on how beneficial, durable and sustainable is the need for formulating an ICT policy framework for Nigeria at the tail-end or end-of-life momentum of existing ‘global communication’ fundamentals,” he asserted.

He stressed that the emergence of Quantum Computing, Megatronics and Nanotechnology are critical signpost to future revelations for the knowledge society.

“All these have now led to the emergence of “National Knowledge Commission” as strategic response framework,” he said.

Today, he noted that many stakeholders perceive IT and ICT as the “constant” and adopted as the ultimate end of the digital revolution, which may sooner than later reveal itself as a professional fallacy.

“Suddenly, every body has become an IT guru and ICT messiah. At home, the core of all these activities leads to ‘user-perception’ rather than ‘creator cum innovator’ vision,” Uwaje lamented.

He emphasised that the only thing constant is change, just as the world transits into the information knowledge age, new conditions are being created for future economic (industrial) and national development success.

He wondered if the current infrastructure and policies would stand the text of time.

“This is perhaps the ultimate question, whose strategic response will determine how nations will be positioned in the meandering ‘knowledge divide’ equation,” he asked.

Particularly, he wondered how Nigeria could position herself at the end of the tunnel of this digital knowledge evolution, and observed that it required a high level of conscious strategy for knowledge re-structuring and re-engineering the processes and machinery of government.

“This will require abundant political will and private sector commitment towards education and youth empowerment,” he said.

As said by him, for President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua’s government to function effectively, there is a need to completely re-define, overhaul the national knowledge-base and information system as well as constructively applying e-government tools to reactivate the operational defects of major ministerial deliverables, functions and human resource base.

“Thus it remained a fundamental assignment and herculean task,” he noted, adding that because e-commerce and e-government are inter-linked to e-citizens deliverables.

“It would amount to a great economic misnomer that while the organized private sector is busy restructuring and re-engineering its operations - through the infusion of information and communications technologies (ICTs), the operating structures of government remains unchanged,” he observed.

He posited that Nigeria must now rapidly move from the laboratory and ICT workshop excitements to constructive and practical knowledge-base “prove of concept implementation” process.

“We must fashion out a proactive actionable plan and quality approach, capable of cleaning-up our self-made accumulated socio-economic and political mess at both micro and macro levels of our (under-) development,” he submitted.

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