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Daily Trust (Abuja)
June 17, 2002 
Posted to the web June 17, 2002 

An expert on Internet Technology (IT) and the marketing executive of Internet Service provider (ISP), known as Rose Clayton Limited, Mr. John Fatokun has called on the federal government to decentralise the Internet bandwidth of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL).

Mr. Fatokun made this call in an interview with IT World in Abuja last week.

He stressed that there was a cog-in-the-wheel of progress for the IT sector generally because not much development was achieved in the area of Internet access and communication since only NITEL was issued the licence to provide this country with the Internet Super-high-way bandwidth which was very slow and epileptic.

He added that it was long over due for decentralisation in this country, and the issue of launching Nigerian satellite in the orbit to provide the necessary telecommunications and IT infrastructures that are very fast and affordable. He lamented that the indigenous IT Professionals have been urging the federal government to support the private sector to launch the Nigerian satellite but no-thing was done to provide the solutions in that regard.

He further stressed the need for expansion of rural telephony, including full Internet access for e-mail communication by the rural dwellers, even as he appreciated the Association for Local Government of Nigeria's (ALGON) Rural Internet Communication System (RICS) Project.

The expert however expressed fears that the RICS may fail because of the dialogue connection which he said lacks the necessary infrastructures. Mr. Fatokun said that the sustainability of any IT project is the most important thing to its development especially in the rural areas.

He suggested that there should be standardisation of IT training, saying that very few IT training centres could provide the IT skills effectively, but that majority could not provide the needed practical skills because they usually rush their students out and graduate them after collecting their fees.