What Governor Yero Should Do in 2014?
By
Ibraheem A. Waziri
iawaziri@yahoo.com
My LEADERSHIP Newspaper Column, Page 35
Internet of Things (IoT) or Internet of Everything (IoE) is the reigning concept of the 21st century world that is set to be ruled by electronic chips. The concept was born in 2009. It is being identified with Kevin Ashton, a high tech entrepreneur who helped co-founded Auto-ID Centre at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It foresees the possibility of having everything of the world including humans and animals being represented as objects with unique identifications in databases that can be shared on the Internet or even the World Wide Web which can be accessed by different electronic devices apart from Computers and Phones. Already stake holders across the world are sold to the idea as Cisco Incorporation, a United States-based and a world leading Computer Networking Gadgets Production and Services Company, has seen an opportunity in an estimated value cost of about $14.4 trillion.
Honestly, I can’t get this amount of money expressed in Naira. But I can imagine the share of that amount that can come to Nigeria or my state, Kaduna State, and the transforming effect it can have in the lives of the people. I understand that just as the dream is seen to be too tall, bringing Nigerians or indigenes of Kaduna State close to benefiting from it might seem a taller or even an impossible undertaking. But far from it, carrying the vast human resources, from the remotest villages, along in this project is a very simple task and provided they can read and write not even in English but in Hausa which is an international language and the Lingua Franca of Northern Nigeria.
In this year’s budget, Kaduna is said to have earmarked to Ministry of Education about 17 Billion Naira. Another 1 Billion Naira is said to have been set aside to give foreign scholarships to indigenes on specialized fields of science. Even though the details of how these monies will be spent and the processes, procedures that will guarantee that commensurate value is obtained, are not outlined. The simple positive and fair thought is the state is ready, within the year, to guarantee a revolutionized knowledge that will begin to improve the intellectual and economic lot of its future generation in this globalized and highly digitalized world.
It is my thought that with such opportunities as provided with concepts as IoE and given that Cisco Inc. is everywhere in the world, including Nigeria, looking for official partners and human resource that will help it harness the identified opportunities, Kaduna State should acquire a special interest to have a segment of its youth engaged in this productive and economically rewarding venture.
I personally had the exclusive privilege of undergoing a Cisco Certified Networking Associate training in 2005 that led to certification. It meant then I was equipped with the craft at the very basic to be able to connect one computer or any networking device to another in such a way that they could share electronic information, safely and effectively. It is on such craft and expertise that communications on the internet and other electronic mobile devices are based. There are higher trainings and certifications to deal with the most complex technical aspects of the craft as the world is in very short supply of professionals with such skills, now that there is a concept as IoE!
What interests me is the fact that Cisco manual for the training is translated into world major languages and clearly with interest from Kaduna State, all of it can be translated into Hausa for easy access to some of us who have no basics in English. Cisco will definitely welcome such suggestion since it means it will increase its own reach, acquire more manpower and consolidate further its business achievements. On the part of Kaduna State, it will have the credit of being able to have its citizens, even those who have never had the privilege of passing through formal primary or secondary schools, transformed into world class cultured professionals, travelling from one part of the world to another, integrated into one of the most rewarding crafts leading and guiding the modern world. It will safeguard further the future of its youth in one of the most promising world economic stakes of the century.
I must add that this is only one out of the many aspects of the crafts associated with the Internet or the concept of IoE that our governments, Federal and states, can fully utilize in their crusades against the monsters of poverty and ignorance in the 21st century.
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