2011: Atcon to Engage Presidential Candidates
- By Abimbola Tooki
- Published July 5th, 2010
- News
- Unrated
The Association of Telecom Operators of Nigeria (Atcon) is set to engage all the presidential candidates in next year’s presidential election with the aim of “stopping the unsuitable ones among them from coming into office since such minds can only take us back, not forward.”
This position was made known by Engineer Titi Omo-Ettu, president of the association last week in Abuja while presenting a paper on “The Business Opportunities of Mobile Services” at the annual assembly of IT Professionals in the country. “To me, while politicians are campaigning to catch our votes we too shall be campaigning to stop the unsuitable ones,” he said.
Omo-Ettu disclosed that Atcon will invite presidential candidates of all political parties to address its members, which cut across all the six geo-political zones of the country, on what plans they have for ICT development in Nigeria.
He admonished all other professional associations at all levels to also engage the politicians at various levels what they have in stock for their professions and trades too. “With that, we shall put politicians on the spot and prepare them for accountability in all aspects of their responsibility even before they transform into ‘excellencies’ and ‘honourables,” he said.
Omo-Ettu made it clear at the forum that the metamorphoses of technology has made Nigerians improved their living standards and sharpened their business instincts that things that were not possible a few years back are now possible. “I used my personal experience of having to modify some of the claims which I made in a few of my presentations of old to prove that the whole world may just have been changing and improving all in a space of less than 15 years that the internet arrived our shores,” he said.
He used a few data to demonstrate that there is no stopping the reliance of users life on mobiles systems and the huge business that is in there “if we must make all the un-served over 130 million Nigerians to be served.”
Omo-Ettu submitted that the technology exists now waiting for the business initiatives to take over. “Nigerian IT practitioners must know that their own aspect of the business is mainly in content creation which, for now, is only imported if it exists at all in our own industry,” he said.
He also noted that good political leadership is one of those things that will take Nigeria to the promised land and that “professionals in all their groupings can bring this about by making sure it is only the politicians who are ready and willing to use ICT that have the right to lead us, come 2011.”
Omo-Ettu also used the occasion to canvas rapid development of broadband in the country because “broadband is what enables us to do all the things we want to do speak and listen, emailing, image transmission, images in motion and multimedia” adding that “in order words, we can watch a football match where it is being played from wherever we may be on the surface of earth.”
For this to happen, however, he listed some of the requirements to include restructuring of the country’s telecom, broadcast and computer industries into one ICT industry; restructure the education system to make school products functional and teach technology for business in school rather than technology for its own sake.
This position was made known by Engineer Titi Omo-Ettu, president of the association last week in Abuja while presenting a paper on “The Business Opportunities of Mobile Services” at the annual assembly of IT Professionals in the country. “To me, while politicians are campaigning to catch our votes we too shall be campaigning to stop the unsuitable ones,” he said.
Omo-Ettu disclosed that Atcon will invite presidential candidates of all political parties to address its members, which cut across all the six geo-political zones of the country, on what plans they have for ICT development in Nigeria.
He admonished all other professional associations at all levels to also engage the politicians at various levels what they have in stock for their professions and trades too. “With that, we shall put politicians on the spot and prepare them for accountability in all aspects of their responsibility even before they transform into ‘excellencies’ and ‘honourables,” he said.
Omo-Ettu made it clear at the forum that the metamorphoses of technology has made Nigerians improved their living standards and sharpened their business instincts that things that were not possible a few years back are now possible. “I used my personal experience of having to modify some of the claims which I made in a few of my presentations of old to prove that the whole world may just have been changing and improving all in a space of less than 15 years that the internet arrived our shores,” he said.
He used a few data to demonstrate that there is no stopping the reliance of users life on mobiles systems and the huge business that is in there “if we must make all the un-served over 130 million Nigerians to be served.”
Omo-Ettu submitted that the technology exists now waiting for the business initiatives to take over. “Nigerian IT practitioners must know that their own aspect of the business is mainly in content creation which, for now, is only imported if it exists at all in our own industry,” he said.
He also noted that good political leadership is one of those things that will take Nigeria to the promised land and that “professionals in all their groupings can bring this about by making sure it is only the politicians who are ready and willing to use ICT that have the right to lead us, come 2011.”
Omo-Ettu also used the occasion to canvas rapid development of broadband in the country because “broadband is what enables us to do all the things we want to do speak and listen, emailing, image transmission, images in motion and multimedia” adding that “in order words, we can watch a football match where it is being played from wherever we may be on the surface of earth.”
For this to happen, however, he listed some of the requirements to include restructuring of the country’s telecom, broadcast and computer industries into one ICT industry; restructure the education system to make school products functional and teach technology for business in school rather than technology for its own sake.
