We can use software to monitor the election, deliver credible results in real time — Emadoye

Business Remarks January 8, 2019 Interviews, TECHNOLOGY Leave a comment

In this interview with BUKOLA OLANREWAJU, the Immediate Past President of the Institute of Software Practitioner of Nigeria (ISPON), Mr James Emadoye speaks on government failure to truly enforce Local Content Development in Nigeria Information Technology space.

You advocated for Local Content Development in Nigeria during your tenure as the ISPON President, how has it fared?
To be honest with you, it’s difficult to pinpoint the achievement so far. This is because the choices we make in our country are most times not beneficial to us.
We have a country with large population of viable and smart youths but we choose to import most of our requirements and needs. The active Nigeria population (aged 15-54) is about 95.5million and more than half are jobless, still millions of graduates enter into the labor market every year. Yet both the government and the general public encourage importation of both goods and services.
For instance, the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) is powered by software company from Estonia, this create jobs that would have been created for our citizens for foreigners in that country. By the way Estonia population as whole is not up to the population of Lagos Mainland. It is likened to a situation where a family with 9 male children of between ages 15 to 54 goes to a family with only one male child for their needs.
It should be said that whenever government decides to buy a foreign software, they help create jobs for foreign countries, leaving our people jobless.
This is a major challenge and that’s why I concentrated my two-year tenure on advocating local content development. We created awareness and nobody will claim they are not informed today. This effort also resulted into the Order 3 and 5 by the government.
Is job creation the only benefit to be derived from local content development in Nigeria?
Local Content Development has enormous benefits for both the software manufacturers, the citizens and the country as a whole.
Focusing on job creation; if there are jobs for our youths it means the economy is moving, corruption will naturally reduce, cases of ‘Yahoo +’ will be eliminated. Our youths are just looking for survival and when you are out of school for 4-,6 years without meaningful means of sustenance, who will not become susceptible to anything that can give them some means of self-fulfilment?
Local Content Advocacy is not only on software but on all aspects of our country.
*A country without productive base can never develop. So long as we concentrate on the importation of our needs, we cannot develop or make progress. *
In the 80s, there were many job options for graduates to choose from and lot of manufacturing companies were functional. Unfortunately, none of them are in existence today, leaving us with the option to import our needs and no employment for Nigerian citizens.
We need the government that will understand the importance of education and employment, in addition to what it means for an economy to work. At whatever level a child stops schooling, he/she should be able to secure a job commensurate with his/her education and skills.
Speaking of education and employment; how employable are IT graduates today in relation to the relevancy of our educational curriculum?
To a large extent, I agree with those experts who says Nigerian graduates are unskilled, thereby unemployable. But it is still the general problem we have.
We are not managing our educational system well and that’s the reason it’s like that.
We need to remove the funding and the administration of our tertiary educational system from the apron string of government. We need our tertiary institutions to be fairly autonomous, this will allow room for improvement in the curriculum and styles of teaching, we should stop turning our VCs and Registrars to politicians who must go to Abuja before they can manage their schools.
Funds should not be a problem to them.
*Once they can stop the Vice Chancellors, the Registrars and the Bursars from making Abuja and the corridor of power, their offices, our educational system will work better. But so long, we leave them to be subject of annual budgetary rituals before they can do their work, the system won’t improve*
To address this, is there any collaboration between ISPON and Nigeria tertiary institutions?
All the time, there has been collaboration with the schools and we are planning on organizing conferences and seminars in schools as to bridge the industry/research gap. The industry is willing to work with the schools but in their current form, the university community are extension of Abuja, they won’t see the need, there is a national cake, just go and justify your portion. If they are allowed to charge fees and government can set up a working Student Loan Trust Fund for all needing Nigerians, then they will do better and all Nigerians will be able to get quality education. It’s a system that is already in practise in most of the countries that we look up to, UK, USA etc. Their working relationship with the industry will become better and improved.
How supportive is the Executive Order 003 and 005 in addressing the challenges of Local Content?
Executive Order 003 and 005 are supposed to be supportive.
However like every other thing in Nigeria, implementation is usually a problem. In Nigeria, we do have good plans, good operating statements and good blue print but implementation is a problem.
I have the opinion that the both Executive Orders should be committed to law, so that it can outlive the current government. Also, with punitive measure well spelt out under the law, perhaps we may then be able to enjoy the benefits.
*At the moment, MDA seeks way to bypass these orders; they also find reasons to justify their actions.*
Out of the four major software used by government, remita is the only one locally developed software. All others are shamefully foreign.
*It is shameful for whatever reason that Nigeria import software, despite the large number of active and capable population.*
Could this be attributed to lack of trust on Nigerian software and what’s the risk?
The risk is large. There is zero privacy to whatever government is doing or planning, it is exposed to, monitor by the outer space and can be controlled by others.
Software is basically the same, irrespective of where it is written, so it’s not the issue of trust.
There is no prefect software; updating, supporting and corrections are general factors and ongoing.
It is not the issue of trust but purely, the way we are. The questions to ask ourselves are: why do we hate and do not have faith in ourselves, what future are we going to bestow on generation unborn, if we continue this way? Why are we like this?
You once said while in office that war against corruption is a digital war which is very small to fight. Can you throw more light on this?
War against corruption is indeed a digital war. It is easy for us to monitor where corruption is taking place nationwide through the use of software, even without leaving the office.
With the aid of software technology, it is possible to monitor and report breaches on a daily basis, all financial transactions can be monitored, what else do we need to fight corruption?
The Tax Identification Number (TIN) also helps the government to trace deposits and withdrawals in different business accounts. With BVN corruption ought to have disappeared totally. We are therefore not fighting corruption, we are only playing politics. These are few examples of how we can use software to fight corruption

What roles can software companies play in this Election period?
There are lot of roles for us to play. Earlier this year, we wrote to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) offering them our services. We told them what we could do to help but we haven’t received any reply till date. The same way software can assist in fighting corruption, software can also assist in making our elections more credible. A lot has been achieved in the past with the automated accreditation machines, unfortunately, the law has made their uses useless up till now. I hope that the amendment to the electoral law will make them a must in our elections. We can use software to monitor the election and in fact make election results real time.
How favourable is the market to Start-Ups?
Out of a hundred, one or two might become successful.
What we should know is that even Bill Gates, if he was a Nigerian as a start-up, he may not have become a success. Here we talk of start-ups and totally forget the established companies that are finding it difficult to be going concern. If we look inward for our needs both start-ups and established firms will all do well and employment opportunities will increase.
What other challenges are software companies facing in Nigeria?
Software companies suffer mainly from infrastructural challenges which include power, broadband internet and lack of capital for expansion and growth. These challenges can run one out of business. Software business gestation period can last up to five years. And it is so difficult to get seed funding in Nigeria.
Speaking of Capital; how corporative is the Bank of Industry to championing the creation of Software Business Desk of N5billion you proposed last year?
It is unfortunately, the response we got from the bank hasn’t been favorable. We are still in discussion with them but I can tell you that we are not getting the positive response from them, in term of funding software development in Nigeria.
By now, with the effort that we put in, we should be reporting successes but such is not the case. Perhaps, let me use this medium to appeal to the BOI again. We believe that investment in software will be of great benefit to Nigeria as a country. The BOI is one sure bank that can do it, we are therefore appealing to the bank MD to look into our proposal again. You will be doing this country a lot of good by creating a Software Desk at the BOI.
Is there continuity in projects you worked on even after you’ve left office.
Well, I believe in continuity of projects, so that we can mark off where we have recorded success. But it is not in my place to speak on that, perhaps, you have to speak with the new ISPON President on this.
What can you point to as success during your tenure?
We created awareness as to the abundance resources in the sector, we created and printed a software directory document and submitted same to some of the MDAs. The BOI proposal was one of my major focus, I believe it should be easy to fund software today with the level of awareness that we have created. We maintained cordial working relationship with the Ministry of Communication, NITDA, NOTAB, NCC and other relevant agencies. On the professional front, we maintained a progressive synergy with the apex body in the computing profession, the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) and the regulatory body Computer Practitioner Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN). We also initiated working relationship with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria all with the aims of ensuring that local content is fully adopted nationwide.
What governmental policies do you think need to be changed to favour software market?
Like I said earlier, order 003 and 005 should be commuted to law; we should be bold enough to stop importations of software; if we can’t develop, let’s not use it, but I know we have the capacity to develop our own software. Government should challenge the Nigeria child and we will see and reap from the outcome of that challenge.
How can we reduce cyber-attack in Nigeria in the year 2019?
Cybercrime is also an aspect of software. As new software development spring out, there are also some people thinking on how to attack it either for the purpose of creating market for their anti-virus or just causing headache to people and nations.
Cyber war is a reality and its more deadly than physical warfare, you can imagine if attack is directed at our military, Airport, Banks etc.
Few months back, Delta Air was affected and none of their plane could fly for 24 hours, that’s cyber war. Just imagine what that means. We need to allow the software industry to grow and it will also throw out people specialising in the monitoring and prevention of cyber-attacks. Patronage is the main requirement for growing the industry.
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