Global Policy Forum

by Abhulimen R. Anao *

As we enter a new millennium, the world is in the midst of a major historical transformation which is multidimentional. The transformation is at once technological, economic and social, as it is also cultural, political, and geopolitical. As is customary in human affairs, debates rage as to the exact meaning and purport of this revolution which centres around the twin phenomena of "emerging technologies" and "globalization". For those around the world who are not ecstatic about surfing on the Internet, but who are afflicted by the more basic economic and social pressures such as lack of basic infrastructure and amenities of life, high crime rate, abject poverty and disease, and frequent occurrences which bring about disruption of their lives, globalization is nothing more than a rehash of traditional capitalist ideology. Some may even aver that the emerging technologies are simply tools for renewed exploitation and oppression, of social and political manoeuvre, and the invasion of privacy. However, many people will agree that economic and social development today are reflections of the ability to establish a synergistic interaction between technological innovations and human values, leading to a new set of organizations, institutions and life patterns that create positive feedback loops between productivity, flexibility, solidarity, safety, participation and accountability, in a new model of development that could be socially and environmentally sustainable. Difficulty however often arises in developing or shaping the policies and strategies that could lead to the set goals. Some areas where disagreement frequently arise are from conflicting interests, values and priorities. Lack of knowledge and a common understanding of the processes of transformation under way and their implications are often causes of divergence in social and economic policies.

Globalization and growth of information technology and other emerging technologies do not imply the local production of technology hardware. Many developing countries like India and Malaysia have embraced the emerging technologies, particularly information and communication technology, and are experiencing unprecedented economic growth as a result of this. Many developing countries however have yet to integrate successfully into the global economy. Some 2 billion people around the world -- particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union -- live in countries that are slow in getting onto the train and are thus being left behind. These countries have been unable to increase their integration into the global economy: their ratio of trade to GDP is either maintaining a flat trend or in some cases actually declining. On average, these economies omies have contracted; poverty has increased, and education levels have risen less rapidly than in the more globalized countries. A recent World Bank report indicates that poverty has in fact doubled in Nigeria in the last 20 years. Nigeria is currently rated among the lowest ten in the world on the human development index, this despite the abundant human and natural resources with which the country is endowed!

Let us at this stage explore the concepts "globalization" and "emerging technologies" so as to achieve a better understanding of the topic which we have chosen for discussion in this seminar.

Globalization

Globalization is a new historical reality which is not simply one that has been invented by neo-liberal ideology designed to persuade nationals of a country to surrender to foreign induced market forces. Rather it is one which is inscribed and embedded in processes of capitalist restructuring, innovation and competition, and enacted through the powerful medium of new information and communication technologies. Globalization is multidimensional and can be better understood starting with its economic dimension. A global economy is an economy whose core activities work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale. Thus capital markets are interconnected worldwide, so that savings and investment in all countries, even if most of them are not globally invested, depend for their performance on the evolution and behaviour of global financial markets. Multinational corporations, in manufacturing, services, and finance, with their ancillary networks of small and medium businesses, constitute the core of the world economy. The highest tier of science and technology in the world today, which shapes and commands overall technological development, is concentrated in a relatively few innovative centres around the world. Many scientists and engineers often rely on collaboration with these centres particularly when they attain a certain level of scientific development such that they can only pursue their research by linking up with these centres. Developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa (including Nigeria) rely heavily on links with advanced countries for their development. Furthermore, highly skilled labour is also increasingly globalized, with talent being sourced and hired around the world when companies, institutions and governments really need the talent, and are ready to pay for it. The overwhelming proportion of jobs, and thus of people, are however not global but are local and regional. Nevertheless, their fate, their jobs and their living standards ultimately depend on the globalized sector of the national economy, or on the direct connection of their economic units to global networks of capital, production and trade.

This global economy is new as it is only in the last two decades that the technological infrastructure required for it to function as a unit on a planetary scale (telecommunications, information systems, microelectronic-based manufacturing and processing, information-based air transportation, container cargo transport, high speed trains, and international business services located around the world) came into existence. The economy is dynamic and flexible, thus allowing the overall system to link up everything that is valuable according to dominant values and interests, while disconnecting everything that is not valuable, or becomes devalued. It is the simultaneous capacity to include and exclude people, territories and activities that characterizes the new global economy as constituted in the emerging technologies. Emerging technologies are playing a crucial role in allowing globalization of economic and social activities. Thanks to the present democratic dispensation, the rapid spread of the Internet and use of mobile phones are welcome innovations in Nigeria where communication facilities have been grossly inadequate. The penetration of new technologies such as this in individual nations significantly affects the nations" economic development.

It is important to note that globalization does not eliminate the nation state, but fundamentally redefines its role and affects its operation. The real issue today is not the debate about whether globalization is real or not, or whether it is desirable or not, but to see how the emerging technologies can be better channeled to promote more growth, more trade, greater modernization and better living standards for Nigerians -- and so help the country to reemerge from its present social and economic difficulties. The challenges facing the nation are complex and require good visioning, a sound strategic plan which correctly identifies the viable developmental paths and the resolve to translate the strategic plan into fruitful and efficacious actions.

Emerging Technology

The emerging technologies are fundamentally transforming our society by influencing the way we live, play and interact with others. Our lives are changing as the technology/knowledge infrastructure around us continues to emerge at a very rapid rate. Many Nigerians are taking advantage of emerging technologies for better productivity. It is also obvious that emerging technologies are also changing the nature of conflict, and therefore military strategy and operations in some parts of the world. This was visibly demonstrated in the USA military adventure in Iraq in 1990 (sometimes referred to as the Desert Storm), and also more recently in Afghanistan. The world may again be set presently to witness what emerging technologies will accomplish in the imminent incursion of Iraq by the United States of America!

Without doubt, the development of the information age is truly phenomenal and unique in history. Some characteristics that differentiate this revolution from others that have taken place in society include the following:
It is happening at an extremely fast pace;
It is impacting all corners of the globe;
The effect of the revolution is being experienced by all sectors of the society;
There appears to be no natural rules or laws limiting or governing the pace and direction of the revolution;
The demand for information technology products is insatiable;
Information technology is influencing all aspects of the processes which underpin the functioning of modern society;
The generation that has grown up with information technology has developed intuitive means of absorbing and exploiting the capabilities that the technology offers, sometimes to the bewilderment of the older generation!

Probably the most phenomenal change that Nigerians experienced in the last 3 years has arisen from developments in the information and communication technology sector. For instance, Nigeria has been experiencing an explosion in the use of wireless phone systems in recent times. It is estimated that since Nigeria got onto the GSM phone bandwagon in August 2001, only 15 months ago, about 1.11 million people acquired mobile phones. During the same period less than 30,000 lines were added to the network of the country"s landlines bringing the total to only about 600,000. It had taken the whole of the last 50 to 60 years to attain this paltry number! According to current estimates Nigeria needs a minimum capital investment of $4 billion (N500 billion) within the next 2 years to develop the telephone network that will provide additional 2 million fixed and 1.2 million mobile lines as stipulated in current National Policy on Telecommunication approved in 1999. However, the use of Internet is lagging behind with only an estimated 20,000 -- 30,000 Nigerians on the Internet, even though Nigeria has the distinction of being one of the 11 African nations to have more than 20,000 Internet subscribers. Cybercafes are springing up in major cities, towns and university campuses at a very high rate providing greater access to cheaper phone calls and Internet. However, home internet access is still the preserve of the rich with an estimated average monthly tariff of about N3,200. Internet is increasingly being used to support the work of the research scientists in sub-Saharan Africa and it is changing the ways in which research is being carried out. Many businesses now have computers installed and often rely on wireless technologies.

The ICT Revolution

The speed with which the revolution in information and communication technology (ICT) has taken place is, as we said earlier, truly phenomenal. The changes the ICT revolution has wrought are not limited to one single sector of society. Cars, offices, homes, etc., now carry microprocessors and computers serve as post offices, word processors, bank windows, shopping centres, CD players, photo shops, news media, and, of course, vast libraries (virtual libraries). The changes have been faster, deeper and more sweeping than anyone could have imagined only two or three decades ago.

The first revolution in ICT started during World War II, with the first large (50 feet long, eight feet tall, and five tons), automatic, general electromechanical calculator, called "Harvard Mark 1". The second ICT revolution has its roots in the 1970s, when the first "processors on a chip" and magnetic discs were constructed. The third revolution is that microprocessors have become embedded in an ever-increasing range of products: the steering systems of airplanes, the control panels of hydroelectric power stations, domestic air conditioning systems, traffic lights in streets, video players, credit cards, remote controls, cameras, hotel room door locks, smart buildings, digital scale in bathrooms, electric toothbrush, car fuel injection systems, etc. The fourth revolution can be traced to the late 1960s when the US Department of Defense drew up guidelines for a communication network among computers. Universities in and outside US were later hooked up to it and some people started to use it to send messages. This has now transformed into the Internet. The fifth revolution is the wireless phone -- mobile phone. Although initially big and bulky, the phones have now been transformed into small devices with so many functions (transmission of messages, radio broadcasts, pictures, movies, music, etc). In all these revolutions, Nigeria has only played the role of "user" of the finished products and often very many years after they came into existence elsewhere. Nigerian participation in the advancement of technology has been lacking; indeed absolutely nil!

ICT revolution has transformed available technologies, the means and methods of studying, the modalities of school operations, the manner of investment and expenditure of resources, and the very way we think about what education could be and should do. With the Internet it is possible to access learning materials anywhere. Nigerian Universities are developing more interest in ICT and some have started to use telecommunications and computers for teaching, as in the University of Benin. The opportunities available on the Internet are numerous and those institutions making use of them are better off for it. Course materials can now be posted on the Internet for easy access to students and assignments can be communicated through e-mail messages. Teachers can be accessed around the clock by the new modes of transmission. But what strategies have the Nigerian educational system adopted to improve ICT facilities? Are current policies, strategies and funding good enough for the present and for the near future? Are Nigerian schools meeting up with the challenges open to them? These are some of the questions which our educational managers must strive to grapple with. The ICT revolution offers new intrinsic opportunities; it dramatically changes what can be learned and by whom, at what pace and with what ease; as well as what can be produced and provided by whom, with what speed and ease. These potential changes, however, pose very many new challenges for educational planners. The challenges fall into those that pertain to either equity or quality and include:

Improving infrastructure for ICT development in the Nigerian educational system. Communication facilities including telephone and VSAT as well as computer facilities need to be increased and expanded for application in teaching and learning in a variety of situations. In the interim, higher institutions in Nigeria should consider the provision of well-equipped computer laboratories for each Faculty or Department. Every lecturer of a certain grade and above (say Senior Lecturer) should have a PC installed in his office;
Providing an enabling environment including the provision of reliable power supply;
Upgrading ICT knowledge and skills in students and teachers through making a course in computer application a compulsory requirement in all university or polytechnic-based programmes. This will of course involve recruiting knowledgeable academic staff in ICT for effective manpower development in schools and Universities;
Improving access to the Internet and other ICT facilities that are capable of enhancing teaching and learning;
Increasing use of ICT in educational administration and management;
Upgrading the maintenance and management of ICT equipment in all educational institutions; and Developing strategies to increase access to funds needed for ICT development and the development of endogenous ICT technologies.

That ICT industry does confer immense economic benefits is not at all in dispute. A World Bank report has shown that over 600% of money invested in telecommunication is generated in economic returns by its impact on local employment and general economic growth. The ICT industry is said to be worth at least US $1 trillion in market capitalization, just behind healthcare and banking industries. Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) has registered private companies providing fixed telephony, mobile telephony, fixed satellite, paging, payphone, Internet and GSM services. Although these services are available, their level of penetration and services offered however still need to impact meaningfully on the national economy. The myriad of problems and bottlenecks that have arisen in this connection include low teledensity, insufficient trunks leading to congestion, unreliable network design and/or deployment, poor interconnectivity, insufficient bandwidth, insufficient human resource development, poor maintenance culture, vandalization of facilities, and exorbitant and sometimes, unjustifiable billing. The national telecommunication infrastructures are largely built around NITEL, a government parastatal which in its mode of operations exhibits all of the characteristic tendencies or disabilities of a government monopoly. Only now is the country bracing itself up to develop a second national carrier that will support and compete with NITEL, but it may be several years yet before we can begin to see the benefits of this. Despite the euphoria that currently surrounds the introduction of mobile phones, it should be remembered that Nigeria is still lagging behind with the adopted GSM (2G) technology.

Unless government as well as educational planners respond to the above-enumerated challenges at least with the speed at which ICT is advancing, the country will remain perpetually behind its counterparts in the developed world and be unable to reap the full benefits of the ICT revolution.

Preparing for the Future

Our major concern with the current trends in the global distribution of technological advancement ought to be the apparent "technology divide" (or "digital divide") which exists between the industrialized countries of Europe and North America and the developing ones. This disparity does not in itself clarify what could be done to facilitate technological innovation in developing countries but it does point up areas where opportunities may lie for the latter to establish a niche that can stand them in good stead to be able to participate beneficially in the sort of international cooperation that the emerging technologies promise. This point is explored further below.

Technology is widely recognized as one of the major determinants of economic growth. Lack of access to the most basic technologies and knowledge needed to create sustainable livelihoods has confined billions of people to the persistent tricycle of poverty, disease and hunger. That the transfer of technology from developed countries to developing and poorer countries will result in economic growth and thereby reduce poverty is intuitively appealing, though not without grounds for a certain degree of skepticism. It is argued that globalization will make technological developments accessible to people in Nigeria and eliminate the technology divide; that it can ignite a virtuous cycle of technological upgrading and skill accumulation; consequently, that what is needed for the realization of this lofty promise is for governments and international organizations to promote policies and programmes which will ensure effective transfer of environmentally sound technologies that are publicly owned or that lie in the public domain (that is, non-proprietary).

A contrasting point of view however is that "emerging technologies" do in themselves have tremendous potency, having the potential under ideal conditions to uplift the poorer countries from their present economic backwardness, but that the conditions under which the technologies will be applied in developing countries are seldom ideal. We can certainly say this for a country like Nigeria where, as was clearly seen in the preceding section, the challenges posed ( i.e., poor infrastructure, inefficient poorly managed institutions, absent or malfunctioning linkages, etc., etc., etc.,) are enormous and could be really overwhelming. "Globalization" (which means the opening of markets to international forces) on the other hand has the intrinsic tendency to expose the rudimentary economic, political and social structures which still prevail in the developing countries to the debilitating weight of unfair competition from their more advanced counterparts, to the detriment of the former. This would then further erode or weaken their developmental base and sap away their vital energies, because in the prevailing scheme of things, these countries always seem to be on the receiving end. In the end we would then have a situation akin to that which is very graphically portrayed in the bible, namely, "unto those who have more shall be given, but of those that do not have, even the little which they have shall be taken away from them!"

If we ignore or downplay the potentially negative forces which were hinted at in the immediately preceding paragraph, we will at any rate agree that there are many vehicles for technology transfer. The main ones are foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade. FDI and trade can inject new knowledge and technology into developing countries, which then have the potential to diffuse widely throughout the local population. Technology transfer in the form of FDI increases the capital stock within a recipient country leading to spread of new technical knowledge or know-how to other economic entities. If Nigeria is to march along with the developing world, some areas of application that possess significant strategic attractions include:

Information systems,

Knowledge management,

Information vulnerability,

Human factors,

Intelligent autonomous systems,

Materials & bio-molecular technologies, and

Genetic engineering

Advances in these areas elsewhere have continued to benefit from the emerging technologies with the result that most developing countries (Nigeria inclusive) now lag considerably behind in these areas of knowledge. It is strongly argued that the resulting gaps can best be filled by a focused technology development programme based on clear perceptions of the immediate and projected needs of the country.

The speed with which raw materials and input components are transformed to final products and delivered to intermediate or final users has been a key determinant of success in the global economy. Experience has shown that lean and agile manufacturing practices, transportation and warehouse logistics, information technology assisted conversion of data to knowledge and expeditious communication of this knowledge, have made a huge difference, leading to a global economy where goods move at an ever increasing speed. The challenges that arise from these evolving scenarios have been addressed by the Japanese in the eighties using the hybrid of "just-in-time" and "simple is better" approaches and by the United States using the "systems approach". The level of complexity and uncertainty of market swings, cross-nationally correlated business cycles, and global disturbances require global macroeconomic and geopolitical coordination at the level of government. However, at the level of industry practitioners, it also requires a better understanding of the stochastic dynamics of our global economy; it requires the extraction of knowledge from the labyrinth of data compiled by our enterprise information systems and the intelligent use of this knowledge.

In positioning Nigeria for the challenges posed by emerging technology, we need to identify our needs, locate sources for meeting the needs and initiate appropriate actions designed to meet the needs. The areas where actions will need to be taken in preparing Nigeria for effective response to the challenges posed by the forces of globalization and emerging technologies are discussed below under the following headings:

Science and technology development,

Good governance and transparency in economic policy making,

Foreign investment and collaborations,

International cooperation in research and development,

Developing endogenous technologies,

Establishing a reliable, cost-efficient infrastructure,

Regulation of international trade and investment,

Community consideration,

ICT policy and strategies in Nigerian schools, and

Access to web services.

1. Science, technology and sustainable development

Science and technology can assume two major roles in furthering sustainability and technological development. First, science and technology can help to decrease vulnerability by expanding our knowledge base and increasing the country"s adaptive capacity (e.g. on the economic front, the diversification of the economy, the enervating persistent devaluation of currencies, and the inability to repay our national debts). Second, science and technology can help to respond to the numerous contingencies (demographic, economic, social, environmental, etc) that an unknown future holds. The impact is long-term. Therefore government policies need to consider explicitly long-term uncertainties. Generation, testing, and adapting emerging technology options to a variety of local conditions are processes which require many decades of concentrated perceptive study and analysis, and coordinated combative efforts involving considerable investment of human and material resources. It is a matter for lamentation that the country spends very little to promote and advance research in science and technology. It is of course a truism that Nigeria cannot begin to expect to be able to adapt to emerging technologies and globalization if it fails to accord adequate priority to expanding relevant scientific and technological base through education and research.

Universities have the traditional role of developing manpower in the country. Unfortunately, Nigerian universities are at present so grossly under-funded that they cannot make any impact on the development of science and technology. Universities should in addition to their traditional fortes, now take on new roles in the drive for economic development and if possible in growing new firms. In order to be able to do this effectively, the universities must in the first place be funded adequately by government and patronized by the private sector. Universities should in particular now develop innovative ways of diversifying their sources of revenue. One way of doing this could be to move closer to and align with the productive private sector. Through expanding the scope of their services to this sector a mutually beneficial, symbiotic and synergistic relationship will in time come to prevail. This will also afford the universities the needed stability to be able to make bold developmental plans and projections, and contribute more strategically to national development.

There is no doubt that technological considerations in Nigeria should pay attention to key sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and processing. Apart from this, any new development agenda must also consider long-term sustainability as well as cultivating or imbibing vital technologies in the fields of human health, energy, water resources, information and communication, and environmental management. It should also consider the development and sustainability of a favourable political environment. It is important to realize that no matter what technologies are developed, they cannot thrive or blossom under a political environment which is hostile or catastrophic.

2. Good governance and transparency in economic policy making

As hinted earlier, the pressures of globalization can sometimes amount to a double-edged sword. They can accentuate the benefits of sound policies and on the other hand, also the costs of poor policies. First, countries with sound macroeconomic and structural policies will attract trade and capital, and will ultimately put themselves on a path of convergence with the more advanced economies. Nigeria needs to take bold, decisive and transparent strides to tackle corruption which is not only eating deep into the country"s fabric but is also hindering investment inflow through the impairment of confidence by the international community of investors. Second, Nigeria must continually improve and modernize the country"s regulatory framework. Faster progress is needed to strengthen the supervision and regulation of financial institutions in a world of highly mobile financial flows, so that incidents such as Enron and Worldcom do not also become a feature of the Nigerian economic environment. Third, technology products that may be considered luxuries in the developed countries can solve problems peculiar to developing countries like Nigeria. Come to think of it, how can Nigeria fight corruption, heavy traffic on our roads, etc., without adequate communication that is uniquely adapted to our own specific conditions and needs? Nigeria should therefore implement policies that will not only allow import of high technology products and processes but will also encourage their diffusion into our national life -- through our ability to absorb, imitate and develop or evolve new technologies. This strategy has been adopted in many Asian countries with tremendous benefits which have led to the emergence of sound economies in those countries.

3. Foreign Investment and Collaborations

Foreign direct investment is relevant to transformation of technological know-how. It should be noted that investment by trans-national corporations can be beneficial if coupled with a strategy to improve absorptive capacity. Nigerian academic institutions and business organizations should invest in trans-border collaborations of potentially great benefits for development of endogenous science and technology capabilities.

4. International cooperation in research and development

In recent years, there has been a major thrust to globalize research and development. Many research and development organizations like UNDP, WHO, UNICEF, etc are fully established in Nigeria as in some other developing countries. From the experience in India, research and development centres act as strong signals for foreign investors and for entrepreneurship development. Nigeria needs to strengthen her capability to enhance research and development through formulation of forward-looking research projects and collaborations (local and international). Capacity building initiatives must be included in research plans. Availability of knowledgeable and skilled manpower must also be given due consideration. New higher degree programmes need to be relevant to local needs and should be developed in close cooperation with government, industries, and other sectors of the economy.

5. Developing endogenous technologies

The emerging approach to global research and development activities tend toward "clustering" of innovative activities in a few centres in the world where technology originated. For instance, research and development is today heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and Japan, and the outcomes are not often designed to be beneficial to developing countries. This on its own tends to rob developing countries of knowledgeable individuals who often go to such centres and do not ever return to their country of origin. Nigeria needs to establish its own foundations for research and development to address local and national issues. It is through such initiatives that the country will be able to become viable partners in international research and development efforts. Building the foundation for this involves a better understanding of the dynamics associated with human capital development, institutional innovation, scientific infrastructure and overall relationships between knowledge creation and economic activity. The latter two should exist side by side. One should indeed not leave out the other. If scientists and inventors continue to see the products of their researches and inventions ignored, lie waste and not exploited beneficially, they will become frustrated and migrate to those countries of the world where these can be better utilized.

International networks are often relevant across disciplines. Nigeria needs to build high calibre managers for a sustainable research and development. It is also essential that policies should be developed that reinforce the knowledge patrimony and protect valuable information. This is needed so as to be able to protect and preserve the benefits and outcomes from the country"s research and development efforts.

The requirements of the knowledge-based economy makes it imperative for the country to invest heavily on quality education. Education must be accorded a higher priority than is at present indicated in the country"s national budget. It is lamentable that the Federal Government of Nigeria with a yearly budgetary allocation of between 6 and 8 percent lags far behind the developed countries of the world, and even some African countries that have gone as high as 30 or 40 percent. The performance of Nigeria on this is a far cry from the UNESCO prescribed minimum of 26 percent for developing countries. Policy makers need to focus more on improving the quality of education at all levels through adequate funding. In the face of dwindling interest in teaching jobs due to poor remuneration and the irregular payment of salaries, the country needs a new initiative to rekindle interest and engender confidence among teachers and university lecturers, so as to attract the best and brightest brains into the teaching profession. Only this will bring about effective education in all our educational establishments. At the moment the situation is very far from ideal. The assertion in a recent World Bank report that products of the Nigerian educational system may be somewhat inferior to their counterparts in other parts of the world may not be entirely lacking in validity after all!

In most developed countries of the world, the government serves as the largest developer of, customer for, and user of information technology and other emerging technologies. Local, State and Federal governments need to assume leadership roles in transforming the society through enhanced use of modern technologies. The Federal government must define a coordinated and aggressive information and communication research programme which addresses long-term technology challenges, including computer security and privacy, scalable information infrastructures, and standards for data sharing and integration.

6. Establishing a reliable, cost-efficient infrastructure

The government of any nation has a traditional role of providing an enabling environment for technological development. Nigeria needs to establish a reliable, cost-efficient infrastructure necessary for technological development. In the last decade, electric power supply in the country has been very erratic. Telephone services and other public services have also been very poor. The country needs to improve the supply of critical services such as power and telecommunications as well as maintain roads, and develop new ones to provide good links with areas which have high potential for investment and development. Private sector participation initiatives should be designed to enhance benefits to consumers in terms of inducing high quality at lower costs through the encouragement and fostering of competition.

7. Regulation of international trade and investment

The country needs contingency mechanisms to cushion the economy against adverse effects of fluctuations in the international economic environment. Sound fiscal policy should be applied at all times. Government should actively encourage export, especially non-oil exports, through deploying support mechanisms which minimize exposure to risk and enhance international price competitiveness. A sound foreign reserve policy and the judicious and transparent use of stabilization funds will smoothen price fluctuations for large commodity exporters and thus encourage investment in activities which seek to diversify the economy.

The regulation of international trade and investment should recognize the importance of developing technological capabilities within the country. National policies are required that encourage the diffusion of technologies appropriate to the needs of the poor and enable the development of technological capabilities. Policies that encourage innovation and experimentation need to be integrated with poverty reduction strategies. Enabling access to new technologies is partly about making more productive technologies available and also partly about providing an environment (institutional, financial, social, etc.) that supports access by marginalized people. Nigeria needs to deploy national and international regulatory frameworks that support the development of local technological capabilities, including the regulation of trade and investment and the intellectual property rights of the citizens.

8. ICT policy and strategies in Nigerian Schools

One country that has experienced phenomenal growth in ICT technology is Malaysia. Malaysia implemented the first computer system in 1966. Since then the government has introduced various initiatives to facilitate greater adoption and diffusion of ICT in order to improve capacities in every aspect of business, industry, education and in general life. The policies adopted by Malaysia are:

First policy was "ICT for all students" -- this was adopted in order to reduce the digital gap among different schools.

Second policy accorded emphasis on the role and function of ICT in education as a teaching and learning tool, first as part of a subject and then as the subject itself. This policy stressed the use of radio and television as teaching and learning media as well as the computer as a tool for accessing information, communication and enhancing productivity.

Third policy: Emphasis was placed on using ICT to increase productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in the management setting.

These polices have paid off handsomely for Malaysia and the country is now a technologically advanced country. We have no doubt that similar policies will work with equal, possibly even greater, efficacy in Nigeria, if adopted and effectively applied. Another case in point is the phenomenal ICT revolution which took place in India during the last two decades, which has enabled the country to become a key player and indeed a world pace-setter in the development of computer software. Entrepreneurs in India became aware of the tremendous competitive advantage which they have as a result of their low wage structure, over their counterparts in the United States of America. Quickly imbibing and internalizing the emerging technology Indian companies became highly specialized low-cost producers of a wide range of ICT products which they sell to some of the blue chip companies and multinationals including Swissair, Microsoft, General Electric, IBM, Oracle, Nortel, Cisco, Lucent, etc. Indians were able to achieve this remarkable feat because of a deliberate policy of government to encourage their citizens to integrate with the emerging technologies, while taking advantage of their cheap labour. Nigeria has the potential to become the India of the African continent. With its teeming population of unemployed graduates, a vibrant labour force, a rich crop of high networth individuals imbued with an uncommon entrepreneurial spirit and aggressive drive, all the ingredients are there which are necessary for bringing into being a Nigerian silicon valley.

From the Malaysian and Indian examples, it becomes clear that the point at which the ICT revolution can take its roots is the school. In this regard, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can also be a key player in ICT diffusion in Nigerian schools. They can be an exemplary role model for the sustainable introduction of ICT across the educational system in Nigeria. Apart from active involvement with advocacy, NGOs can vigorously participate in ICT education in schools. The NGOs can work around industries, government, etc., to retrieve unwanted computers and distribute to the educational system. Examples of NGOs that are successfully engaged in this direction are "SchoolNet Namibia" and "Bridges" of South Africa. SchoolNet Namibia is a volunteer driven organization working to see all Namibia school children get access to computer and Internet. Bridges is a research and an advocacy non-profit organization that promotes access to ICT in developing countries through research, testing and promoting best practices for sustainable technology use.

9. Community Consideration

Various technologies have been adopted in developing countries but they are often not accessible to the people who need them most (in the rural communities). At the community and household level, technology change can make a positive difference to the lives of women and men living in poverty. The effective transfer of technological knowledge that meets the needs of people living in rural/poor communities can find use in - developing and expanding the people's capabilities to acquire new knowledge and make their own intelligent choices on economic, social, political as well as national issues; and establishing a social and political environment that responds positively to policy measures by government.

Making technology transfers applicable to poverty reduction requires an understanding of the relationship between innate capabilities and human development.

10. Access to Web Services

The Internet is fast becoming one of the biggest markets in the world. Web services are enterprise applications that exchange data, share tasks, and automate processes over the Internet and are increasingly being used to create a global market. Internet services present bounteous promises allowing pieces of software written in different languages, or running on different operating systems, to talk to one another cheaply and easily. This creates opportunities for easy information flow. But, how well has Nigeria utilized the opportunities offered by the Internet? Is it not surprising today that Nigeria is one of the countries in the world with very little information on the Internet? For example, of all the universities in Nigeria only a very small number have websites providing information that meet the needs of the international community. The Federal and State governments have made no impressive presence on the Internet and are leaving the assumed "heavy investment" to private organisations. The outcome of this neglect or ignorance is that developed economies have little information on investment and good partnership opportunities in Nigeria. Nigeria has thus so far failed to avail herself the opportunity of projecting herself positively to the outside world. This leaves a yawning gap begging to be filled; but since nature abhors vacuums, the more negative aspects of life such as drug abuse, financial scams, crime waves, tales of woes and deprivation and the occasional aberrations of the legal system, have naturally risen to fill this gap. That Nigeria is better known to the outside world for the more negative aspects of her national life is at once unfortunate as it is partly a product of the failure to use the products of emerging technologies (ICT) productively and positively in projecting her image more correctly. The prevailing situation is a great disservice to our fatherland.

Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen, what we have tried to do in the foregoing was to scan the Nigerian environment (not necessarily clinically or schematically; such an approach would have been too didactic and would certainly be unsuitable for the nature of the audience), in order to determine the extent to which it has been able to identify or integrate with the evolving global economy, and assess the possibilities which the emerging technologies which centre principally around ICT offer us for prosecuting that mission. We saw that globalization is not merely a trend, but a cyclonic force which currently sweeps through all countries of the world; Nigeria as such has not the luxury of choosing whether or not she will join the train. Immense advantages are promised by globalization, but it is sometimes wrongly imagined that there are no drawbacks. Globalization is unfortunately a zero-sum game which has the capability of producing the win-win outcome that is popularly canvassed, only, but only if all countries are able to interrelate with one another individually from a position of strength. That this is not always the case is made manifest by periodic statistics which show that while some countries have grown richer over the past few decades many, others such as Nigeria, have actually become poorer. Since the world is a finite entity, it is clear that the richer countries are only growing at the expense of the poorer ones. Globalization will tend to hasten the extant inequitable process of resource transfer.

The principle of exchange which propels international trade and finance is not a clever human invention but one which is imposed by a set of adamantine natural laws from which no creature or nation can exclude itself. That all countries (indeed all creatures) must exchange something in order to survive is an indisputable fact. Man only has discretion in determining what is to be exchanged. Failure to obey this law can only spell doom for the country or creature concerned. Globalization is but a concept which derives from this natural process, made possible by the compelling forces of emerging technologies, which have made time and space to shrink so dramatically that virtually everything now seems to manifest on a real time dimension. If Nigeria is to benefit from the evolving forces of globalization and ICT then she must do so from a position of strength; otherwise the same forces can only hasten her demise as a nation, as an entity.

Taking a look as the extant conditions prevailing in the country and our predispositions as a people, however, we cannot say that the country is ready or poised to take the fullest advantage of these compelling forces. We have a political situation which is inherently unstable and continuously manifests tendencies of a rickety ship struggling in a tempestuous sea, almost always about to sink. We have a sick economy which despite massive doses of injections and other medications refuses to recover. The country suffers from a crippling external debt burden which never diminishes in size despite continuous servicing. (It has remained in the $30 billion bracket since the last 20 years even though we are told that we have continuously been servicing it!). The country is endowed to an unimaginable degree with natural resources which we have somehow chosen to mismanage and dissipate because of the endemic and corrosive practice of corruption. We have a people who are greatly endowed with high intellectual capacities and an uncommon spirit of enterprise although most of the time we choose to apply these endowments in negative ways. We have a huge market which is the envy of other nations but which performs aberrantly because of its inherent distortions. We have infrastructure which performs abysmally despite massive investment of resources. We have a huge population of educated youth which has only preferred to be schooled in wrong things such as drug peddling, cultism, gangsterism, fraud, extortion and blackmail. These are some of prevalent traits which appear to conspire against our efforts to integrate successfully with the global economy. These endemic factors tend to offer justification to the use of certain derogatory terms to describe Nigeria, such as, "a sleeping giant", "un unfulfilled promise", "a failed project", even as "a mere geographical expression".

Ladies and gentlemen, the challenge before policy makers and all us is to develop strategies and policies which will address these issues and convert them from negative to positive factors in our efforts to integrate with the global world and benefit maximally from the emerging technological revolution in the Information and Communication Technology sector. Like our able and ebullient Mr. President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, I also see hope in the Nigerian enterprise. I see a bright light flickering at the end of the tunnel. It only needs a little addition of oil to make it shine more brightly. I am convinced that with our enormous intellectual and spiritual endowments as a people, with our characteristic irrepressible and indomitable spirit, with our superabundant natural resources, with the large and vibrant market assured by our teeming population, Nigeria under the new democratic dispensation which in only three years has turned so many things around already and promises so much, is perfectly capable of waking up from its long slumber to begin to play the leadership role which providence has bestowed on her as the biggest black nation in the world. Globalization and emerging technologies will unleash powerful forces which can aid Nigeria immeasurably in fulfilling her destiny.

Mr. Chairman, sir, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you all for listening.

*Professor Anao who is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin presented this paper at the maiden Zinox annual lecture.

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