Government has consistently maintained that the problem is not with laws because they are there but, the people just don't obey the laws. Are you advocating for some stringent punitive measures?

Let me give you example. We had Ribadu in EFCC, no matter what he does people will criticize. But if we must be honest, he brought some level of sanity; he made those in government, the governors, senators and so on to have some level of fear for recklessness. But we made a huge mistake; some came up and said “is it his birth right? Let him go for training, after all the position is not a person”.

Where did we get that stupid attitude from? Of course the position is the person. Let's go back to history. In America they had Hover in FBI; he stayed there till he died because he was effective. They had Elliet Nest in Chicago; he was not removed just because his time was over. He continued because he knew what he was doing.

In this type of job it is the individual that creates the job, like Dora Akunyili in NAFDAC. You don't change a person who is doing a good job especially when such a job requires talent. It is like a building, you don't change the architect because he has done four years on the project, you keep him until he falters. Go to any country that fights corruption, when you find the right person you keep him until he looses his ability.

We are not just serious with these issues. Look at football, do you change the best footballer that Nigeria has because he has played four years and should give others a chance when he can still play? That is why I said it is government thing. A good crime fighter is difficult to find. '

Do you think that the merging of ICT and related ministry as currently proposed will enhance ICT advancement in Nigeria?

That is what I am saying. The issue is government. When we had a problem of non performance of the Nigerian Airways, they changed the name; when we had problem with power, they changed the name from NEPA to PHCN. All these are cosmetics and lack meaning. We are now merging NCC and NBC, God knows why? Is it because of frequency? We already have a frequency board so why do you want to force those two together when they have very distinct jobs. We are bringing together Science and ICT. ICT is information communication technology while Science is a very broad subject; the whole thing is politics, they are just playing politics.

Talking about poor GSM services, ITU and NCC are trying to encourage number portability (which allows a user to change to other network while retaining his number) which many think is good for the industry, what is your take on this?

It is a fantastic idea but it will fail with the present attitude of our regulator. The enforcement is the case as always, because if you have a Glo number and you want to move to MTN there has to be some protocol interchange between the two networks. What it means is that you can have a small cellular operator that can choose to operate in say Kwara state, so that when you are driving to Kwara state for instance, you just switch over to that network and it allows for healthy competition. But mark the word I used “switch over”, who is going to do that? Is it these networks that we have now? By the time they sabotage it, which normally they will do and the regulator starts dragging its feet as it has always done, it will fail.

You are aware of constant threats through SMS yet those who send these threat messages could not be traced. Some individuals and organizations like ATCON have argued that SIM accreditation will check this menace, how correct is this?

We are reaching that level, we are not there yet. Abroad you use credit card, here is a different environment. How do you integrate the man in the village? How does he buy his SIM card? You issue form and ask him to fill? In an environment where you don't have ICT itself well done, other challenges around it will arise. People who are criminal will not give the right information; they could get fake NEPA bill and fake other things that may be required and get a SIM pack.
To accredit mobile is difficult but fix line is easy. Many things are militating against development in Nigeria. For instance we have structured our system along the US model where the police can prosecute; where is the police motivation in Nigeria? Abroad if you catch someone stealing, it is the police against the person, if he fails to come to testify they will get a court order to force him but here you have to drive the police to prosecute.

You seem to lay the blames only on government as if the mobile operators and the public have no role to play, what do you consider the way forward for effective GSM operation in Nigeria?

Government should seek advice from people who are ready to give genuine advice.

But government has been doing that
They are not. They seek advice from those who are willing to say what they would like to hear. They know the people who are ready to give ideas and stand by it, face the challenges and argue it out but they will prefer to bring their friends.

because you think the industry has a lot of money and you want to cash in. Are any of you really serious about solving these problems? We are talking about corruption; it is the bane of technological advancement as in other sectors. Let people account for their wealth; it is not just about asset declaration, account for it. You have fifty houses, how did you get it? How do you think China got to where they are today? They had death penalty for corrupt government officials; introduce that in Nigeria and my argument is simple, if any one opposes it I will show you a thief.

All you need to do is to put such strict guidelines that no innocent person can be framed. The truth is that there is no real need for us to be serious because we have gas, we have oil and we have free wealth coming. So we don't need to work, we don't need to be serious. Other countries like Dubai look at what they have done with their wealth; ask anybody Dubai is getting better than America.

We in Nigeria give excuses based on over population, tribe plurality, poverty and so on. India has more population, tribes, poverty, religion yet they are developing by lips and bounds. You therefore, need people that can do the business of developing the country. If someone suggests honest man like Christopher Kolade as the President, half the people will say no way because he will not allow the usual thing to go on. So that is why I say everything is government, government.

going. As far as I know the government is focused on just collecting money.

But some of your people are government consultants.
The bottom line is that they will go for those people who will tell them what they wish to hear and that also affect all ICT businesses.

Could that be why cybercafés are dying?
Police harassment is one of the major reasons why cybercafés are not flourishing; the police raid them often accusing them of encouraging Internet fraud which is partly the truth. Power is another issue that rears its head. But the main thing is harassment by EFCC. You see, to get these things done properly there must be a clear dealer network, you must have small operators, the big boys cannot do all these.

Despite some growth in ICT in Nigeria, we are really not meeting the MDG goals, as some experts have indicated. Where lies the disconnection?
When you say growth, where do you see the growth? I only see it in the companies that can afford it like the banking industry all computerized, because they need it. If you move out of Lagos, how many cybercafés do you see? Do you have any robust data base that you can access? Today I wanted a phone number of a friend that has a Multichoice line and there is no place I could get his phone number.

So there is no seriousness on the part of government to achieving the development millennium goal yet, money is being moved around in National Assembly. How do you think the public view what is going on in the House, the money that is being shared, even officially their allowances? A member of the House of Representatives takes over N30million a quarter, how do you think the other people in public view it? Who decides their salary? They do. So the general belief is that everybody is concerned about money.

How do we improve on our local software industry?
The problem is government policy. Look at the development of India software. Government encourages them, commissions people, shares information between them and the developers. The government wants to know who has written a good one and they use it. We don't do that here. India is a good example of a country that had the same problem as us, the same social, tribal and economic problem so why are they developing and we are not?

Look at the quality of education; is the government worried about that? You see students pass their exams but ask them the basic questions about their course they don't know. And some of them will openly tell you that they just read to pass exams.