Nelson Mandela: Passage of an 'African Spirit'

ITRealms: A Tribute!

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in Mveso, Transkei, South Africa. Becoming actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement in his 20s, Mandela joined the African National Congress in 1942. For 20 years, he directed a campaign of peaceful, non-violent defiance against the South African government and its racist policies. In 1993,

Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to dismantle the country's apartheid system. In 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. In 2009, Mandela's birthday (July 18) was declared Mandela Day to promote global peace and celebrate the South African leader's legacy. Mandela died at his home in Johannesburg on December 5, 2013, at age 95.

Nelson Mandela was born Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1918, in the tiny village of Mvezo, on the banks of the Mbashe River in Transkei, South Africa. "Rolihlahla" in the Xhosa language literally means "pulling the branch of a tree," but more commonly translates as "troublemaker."

Nelson Mandela's father, who was destined to be a chief, served as a counselor to tribal chiefs for several years, but lost both his title and fortune over a dispute with the local colonial magistrate. Mandela was only an infant at the time, and his father's loss of status forced his mother to move the family to Qunu, an even smaller village north of Mvezo. The village was nestled in a narrow grassy valley; there were no roads, only foot paths that linked the pastures where livestock grazed. The family lived in huts and ate a local harvest of maize, sorghum, pumpkin and beans, which was all they could afford. Water came from springs and streams and cooking was done outdoors. Mandela played the games of young boys, acting out male rights-of-passage scenarios with toys he made from the natural materials available, including tree branches and clay.

At the suggestion of one of his father's friends, Mandela was baptized in the Methodist Church. He went on to become the first in his family to attend school. As was custom at the time, and probably due to the bias of the British educational system in South Africa, Mandela's teacher told him that his new first name would be Nelson.

When Mandela was 9 years old, his father died of lung disease, causing his life to change dramatically. He was adopted by Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the acting regent of the Thembu people—a gesture done as a favor to Mandela's father, who, years earlier, had recommended Jongintaba be made chief. Mandela subsequently left the carefree life he knew in Qunu, fearing that he would never see his village again. He traveled by motorcar to Mqhekezweni, the provincial capital of Thembuland, to the chief's royal residence. Though he had not forgotten his beloved village of Qunu, he quickly adapted to the new, more sophisticated surroundings of Mqhekezweni.

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Pix: Late Mandela. Courtesy: biography.com

ITU targets 33 schools in Sri Lanka with Connect a School

ITRealms:

The international Telecommunication Union (ITU) has selected Sri Lanka as one of the five countries for the ‘Connect a School, Connect a Community’ project, reports ITRealms.

It was also gathered by ITRealms that this follows the completion of a ‘Connect a school, Connect a Community’ project in Akuressa, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) initiated this project with ITU to extend the scope to cover 33 schools on the entire island.

ITRealms further gathered that this project was inaugurated Thursday with the opening of the Computer Laboratory of the Watareka Kanishta Vidyalaya (Primary School), in Homagama, Padukka, Colombo District, by the Sri Lanka Minister of Education Mr Bandula Gunawardena.

Attended by Mr Lalith Weeratunga, the Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka and Chairman of the TRCSL, and Ms Eun-Ju Kim, Director of the ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, along with participating school principals and officials of the Provincial Education Offices, the project would benefit over 8500 students in 33 schools located in areas of low Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development, while also educating children with special needs.

The main objective of the project, ITRealms learnt is to narrow the digital divide between rural and urban areas and provide digital opportunities to their communities.

“Transforming these schools into community ICT centres is expected to help marginalized and vulnerable groups, such as women, indigenous people, persons with disabilities and those living in rural, remote and underserved areas, and to empower them to contribute to their socio-economic development,” officials of ITU told ITRealms.

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CommTech, Lagos, ALTON enter deal to reduce ROW by 85%

ITRealms:

A milestone agreement was recently reached between the Ministry of Communication Technology (CommTech), the Lagos State Government and the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) to reduce Right of Way (RoW) charges by 85 per cent and boost deployment of broadband in the country, ITRealms reports.

Confirming this development to ITRealms, Mrs. Efem Nkanga, the Special Assistant to CommTech Minister, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, said that this deal would remove constraints to the installation, rollout and deployment of base stations and fibre optic cable in Lagos State.

ITRealms gathered that the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson and the Governor of Lagos state, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola with some officials held a closed door meeting at the State House penultimate Thursday, to address the issues of taxes, levies, decommissioned sites and Right of Way (RoW) fees mitigating against quality of service in the state.

It was also gathered that the meeting attracted Governor Fashola, some key members of ALTON, Mrs. Johnson, Commissioner of Science and Tech, Mr Biyi Mabadeje, Commissioner of Works, Mr Obafemi Hamzat and officials from Etisalat, Main One, Airtel, MTN and Globacom, deliberated on the aforementioned issues.

ALTON members, ITRealms learnt had expressed concerns that these issues were making it difficult for operators to rollout much needed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure in the centre of excellence.


Gov. Fashola remarked that good infrastructure rollout and deployment was in the best interest of residents of Lagos State, making very much needed infrastructure and capacity available; insisting that it is not the wish of the State to prevent operators from rolling out.

“We need you to roll out probably more than you need it. But we do not need it at the expense of our roads, or lives of the people. Infrastructure must be built to very high standards, for example, masts must be built with galvanized steel and not hollow pipes to prevent them from collapsing. You may find that sites that may have been decommissioned by UFRU probably did not meet these standards or had not paid up their levies, when badly build sites collapse it is we who are left to pick up the pieces,” Fashola pointed out.

Although, ALTON members at the meeting while commending the deal, urged for a standardised approach for excavating roads where no ducts existed, even as they maintained, there were no telecoms masts in the state constructed with hollow piles.

“All telecoms masts in Lagos State are built with galvanized steel,” ALTON official reiterated.

Responding to ALTON’s position on prohibitive taxes, levies and right of way fees in Lagos, the Commissioner of Science and Technology for Lagos, Mr Mabadeje read out an agreement by Lagos State to reduce taxes and levies in Lagos by over 40 per cent and Right of Way fees were reduced from N3000 to N500 - a reduction of over 85 per cent.

However, this was on the condition that operators agreed to use approved and qualified contractors who would ensure the integrity of the road after the fibre had been installed in the event that there was no fibre duct on the road.

Operators further agreed with Lagos to a ‘dig once’ policy whereby the first operator to dig the road for fibre installation would install a duct with spare capacity for other operators to use when they wanted to install fibre instead of digging up the road again. Governor Fashola reiterated that all new roads in Lagos State already have ducts and that the operators should submit annual infrastructure plans to Lagos State to allow for proper planning on both sides.


The meeting ended on a high note with ALTON members consenting that this indeed was a significant step forward and in the right direction.

Mrs. Johnson applauded Lagos State for leading the charge in removing many of the barriers and obstacles to telecoms infrastructure deployment in Lagos and expressed her hope that many other states would follow suit in making telecoms and broadband infrastructure available to all.

Remmy Nweke 

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Pix: Gov. Fashola of Lagos State.

Apple acquires Topsy for N31.6bn

ITRealms:

The acclaimed mobile device giant, Apple Inc has acquired social media search and analytics startup known as Topsy, for over $200 million, about N31,670,023,689 billion reports ITRealms.

This, industry watchers say is ‘unusual purchase’ for a hardware-focused company that has made inroads into social networking, according Reuters.

The report also stated that Apple confirmed the acquisition but would not say why it bought the company, which specializes in analyzing Twitter data and providing insights into current sentiment on a variety of topics.

The Wall Street Journal, which reported the news earlier, cited people familiar with the deal as saying Apple paid over $200 million.

"Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said.

Topsy did not respond to requests for comment.

The iPad and iPhone maker often does what it calls "bolt-on" acquisitions, small deals to acquire technology that then gets integrated into existing or future products. Many of its acquisitions in recent years have been angled toward improving hardware.

This year, it paid a reported $350 million for Israeli 3D chip developer PrimeSense Ltd, perceived as an effort to incorporate gesture technology into its devices. And in 2008, it paid a reported $280 million for a semiconductor designer that eventually yielded the current line of processors that power the iPhone and iPad.

Apple's main effort in social media has revolved around Ping, a music-centered social sharing network that was at one point integrated into its iTunes app. The service, which lets users post music tracks they liked to a news feed, didn't catch on and was shut down.

But the California gadget maker has been increasingly making it easier for people to share photos, videos and news through its devices and directly to social networks such asFacebook and Twitter.

It also operates iTunes Radio, an online streaming music service that competes with Pandora and could benefit from Topsy's data on consumer sentiment.

Apple closed 0.9 percent lower on Monday and was holding steady in after-hours trading.

*Correspondents/GEE with additional report from Reuters.com

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Pix of Apple CEO Tim Cook

'Why Nigeria matters in Indian diplomacy'

DigitalSENSE Business News: Commentary

"Nigeria is India's largest trading partner in Africa, with $16.67 billion in direct bilateral trade in the year 2012-13"

A violent clash on October 30 in a Goa village resulted in the murder of Obodo Simeon Uzoma, and injury to six people, all of them Nigerians. The next day, around 200 Nigerians protested by blocking a national highway and clashing with Goa police and locals; 53 of them were arrested, most subsequently released. In the month since then, the Goa police have detained nine suspects. 

Reactions in Nigeria have been predictably sharp: ranging from extensive media coverage to a unanimous adoption of a motion in the country's House of Representatives condemning the incident as "racist", asking its Committees of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora for an "investigation", and directing the Nigerian government to seek compensation from India. Last Monday, Nigeria's acting foreign minister received the deceased's family and assured them of support.

Thus, the Goa incident has triggered an avalanche of reactions straddling multiple domains: law and order, diplomacy, people-to-people ties and media. Unless contained, this rare incident has the potential to disrupt a successful bilateral partnership which has benefited both countries and their peoples.

An objective look at current India-Nigerian ties brings out some surprises - and breaks some shibboleths. Today, Nigeria is our largest trading partner in Africa with $16.67 billion in direct bilateral trade in 2012-13. And India is in fact Nigeria's largest trading partner. During past five years, bilateral trade has doubled, and Indian exports tripled. Nigeria has emerged as India's second largest supplier of crude oil outside the Gulf. Nigeria has also become a large market for our cereals, vehicles, machinery and pharmaceuticals. Despite a surge in Indian exports, Nigeria enjoys an annual bilateral trade surplus of nearly $11 billion. Over 100 Indian companies have footprints in Nigeria, with cumulative investments of over $10 billion, creating capacity and jobs - priorities for Nigeria.

As the pyrotechnics after the Goa incident demonstrated, any narrative on Indo-Nigerian people-to-people contacts needs to be cautious. These two are among world's most populous countries and hard data is difficult to come by. Though Indians have lived in Nigeria for over a century, their number is nowhere near a million - a figure recently put out by a Nigerian diplomat. According to the best Indian estimates, they number only around 35,000. In fact, the corresponding official Nigerian figure is roughly half of even this number. The inflated number is intended to suit the argument. The number of Nigerians living in India is also uncertain, due to many Nigerians overstaying illegally on expired or faked visas. However, here the figure of 50,000 cited by the Nigerian High Commission appears believable. Nearly 37,000 Indian visas were issued to Nigerians in 2012. Although nearly half of these were for medical tourism, business and education have also spurred visits to India.

This rapid growth in Indo-Nigerian ties is despite infrequent high-level political and business contacts and the global economic headwinds. It shows that this synergy is based on intrinsic bilateral synergies, as the two countries increasingly leverage their similarities and complementarities. There is also considerable potential for further growth in such areas as hydrocarbons, agriculture, health-care, vocational training, education, and IT.

All this evidence as to the robustness of Indo-Nigerian ties and their potential puts the Goa incident in correct perspective. However, we still need to prioritise people-to-people contacts as continuous strain on them can engender prejudices and negativism. To this end, both sides should avoid playing to their respective galleries. While transgressions of local laws should be dealt with firmly, this should be done without profiling or stereotyping. Any intemperate talk of reciprocity and retaliation must be abjured, as it goes against the traditional bilateral cordiality. It would be counterproductive to convert a win-win relationship into a zero sum game.

While most Nigerians in India are here legally, there are still conspicuous exceptions. It is futile to pretend to have, as some Nigerian diplomats have done recently, the sole ownership of truth and virtue. Instead of a posture of injured innocence and living in denial, they should accept that some of the Nigerians may have violated Indian laws. 

They do have an image problem - and not only in India. A few months ago, the Nigerian Foreign Minister stated that over 9,500 Nigerians were in foreign prisons. The Sun, a Nigerian daily, commented: "Most of them were reportedly arrested and convicted for offences such as drug trafficking, credit card fraud and infractions of immigration laws." The director-general of NDLEA, the Nigerian anti-narcotics agency, recently put the number of Nigerians convicted abroad of drug related crimes at "over 6,000." Recent British data stated that Nigerians account for five per cent of all foreign prisoners. Closer home, last year the Indian capital witnessed a case of Nigerian killing Nigerian and their nationals being unruly in the Nigerian High Commission's premises.

These hard facts should put the Goa incident in the proper context. Instead of engaging in either a blame game or bland diplomatic statements, the two authorities should collaborate to curb such stray incidents. The investigation into the Goa crime should be taken to its logical conclusion soon. Also, the two governments should speed up the signing of enabling bilateral agreements on extradition, the transfer of convicted persons and on mutual legal assistance. The Nigerian initiative this week to send a negotiating team to India for this purpose is, therefore, welcome. Meanwhile, the Goa incident should also prompt India to put in place a regime for regular vetting of all foreigners in a non-discriminatory, dignified and transparent manner. Media and opinion-makers, too, must resist the temptation to publish incendiary material; allegations need to be verified before publication. The spread of the English language and of the internet in both countries can enable scurrilous coverage to instantly ricochet to the other end, feeding a vicious cycle.

Above everything, all stakeholders should appreciate that even as people-to-people ties are an important component of overall Indo-Nigerian relations, the latter are far more important and must not become a hostage to the former. There is an imperative need for concerted joint action to insulate the win-win paradigm of Indo-Nigerian ties from stray consular cases, which are bound to occur as our two friendly countries and their peoples engage more extensively.

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Pix of the contributor: Mahesh Sachdev recently retired as Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria

Stakeholders push for efficient infrastructure sharing

DigitalSENSE Business News:

Industry stakeholders in the nation’s telecommunications sector have pushed for efficiently managed infrastructure sharing in Nigeria.

A round-up of a two-day stakeholders meeting hosted by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in Lagos, DigitalSENSE Business News reports, saw every stakeholder who contributed at the event pointing at how to make the infrastructure sharing a successful model, especially drawn from other parts of the world to boost broadband deployment.

The event which was the second annual consultative forum on engineering and emerging technologies organized by the NCC, held with the theme “Spectrum Dependent Infrastructure Sharing in Nigeria: Trends, Issues and Impact,” the participants stressed the need for adequate infrastructure sharing model among players in the industry.

The Executive Vice Chairman,  NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah represented by the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Engagement at NCC, Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi, confirmed that part of the regulatory issues that needed to be addressed in order to control the potential of the Nigerian nascent broadband industry was access to infrastructure by the existing and new players.

NCC also advised already licensed operators to make effective use of their licenses, especially in the face of scarce spectrum resources, so as to achieve good projections of the national broadband policy.

Maintaining that active infrastructure sharing was part of the advantages being leveraged in the advanced telecoms markets.

The EVC noted that access to and availability of spectrum resources was a prerequisite to achieving broadband provision.

"Current development in the Nigerian telecommunications industry has created a few vertically integrated players that have built infrastructures that are being leveraged on to compete in the provision of broadband services. These infrastructures and resources are usually only available to new players at a premium as their replication and acquisition of the required resources are both capital intensive and have long lead times for delivery,” Juwah said.

The trend, he said, had resulted in unfavourable pricing of services such as widespread broadband access.

Juwah stated that regulatory intervention in the market was to ensure open and non-discriminatory access by all players to reduce barriers and other challenges.

Juwah said addressing the main barriers of entry in the industry would boost competition, increase innovations by players and also improve penetration of broadband services.

Director Public Policy, Middle East and Africa, GSMA, Mr. Peter Lyons, advised the regulator not to apply force on operators in the implementation of infrastructure sharing.

"The regulator should rather provide a platform for safer competition among the operators," Lyons said.

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Pic: Dr. Juwah of NCC.

iStore Nigeria offers iPad mini on Facebook promo

ITRealms:

iStore Nigeria has commenced a weekly four-week promo with an iPad mini for grab as prize.

ITRealms gathers that the four-week offer would be facilitated with the posting of weekly accessories specials that are available at iStore.

“All you need to do, in order to stand a chance to win the iPad mini is just like each post,” official Facebook page of iStore Nigeria.

Equally, the winner of the iPad mini, ITRealms gathered would be chosen randomly from all the likes received on all the accessories posts.

According to our sources, this promo was introduced in order to enable iPad users especially those using the mini to add colour to their device, iStore Nigeria is offering an incase Maki jacket for iPad mini for N6,000 to save N1,500.

"One lucky reader will be chosen at the end of the 4 weeks and an iPad mini will be awarded as a prize," an official reiterated.

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ISOC takes survey on African ccTLDs

ITRealms  Exclusive!

The Internet Society (ISOC) has commenced survey on African country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs), ITRealms exclusively reports.

The African Regional Bureau Director, Internet Society (ISOC) Mr. Dawit Bekele revealed this to ITRealms, requested that completing the online questionnaire that takes at most 15 minutes of your time.

“The study aims at helping the development of a program to assist African ccTLDs understand their market and better compete in the industry,” he said.

Pointing out that input will be kept confidential and only aggregated information will be shared.

ISOC, he said, is also happy to inform that, as a respondent, qualify for a lottery that might win a Samsung Galaxy SIII mini mobile phone by completing the questionnaire before December 6, 2013.

“Don’t forget to give your email address in the questionnaire in order to participate to the lottery,” he said.

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Pix: BobHinden-ISoc BoT chairman