....I said yesterday that 'we are a community in disparity' ...earlier this year there was a campaign on #Internet4All powered by the Global Shapers Community which was based on the strong belief that universal access to the internet represents one of the most realistic and effective routes to delivering Africans economic and societal progress over short period of time.
I pleaded with our 'hubs, technocrats, bereaucrats, ministries .....'to join the conversation, so we could put the issues on the agenda ahead of the 2016 World Economic Forum on Africa, which took place in Kigali in May. I got the usual 'their thing' vs 'my thing' response. Some even felt as if there is a pay that comes for advocating for the right policies.
Now, we are here with The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approving a new “floor plan”, or their idea of minimum pricing, for data services by mobile operators “to address market distortions, unhealthy price wars and value erosion that could threaten the going concern of the service providers”.
A stakeholders’ meeting with service providers was held in October to discuss “anti-competitive practices” in the data market and to get their comments and inputs on what the price floor should be. (can't you see that all they think about is THEMSELVES???? where are the needs of the people in this all? Where is the survey from the NCC on our social space? What is growing concern of service providers above the end users? It's the end users....NCC not just the providers.
....when only 20% of Africans use the internet – and we are already dealing with a digital poverty. Huh...Can we stop bickering at Buhari and our village chiefs simply ask all these 'techy' hubs, startups, networks, gossip blogs and you name it to stop being sole proprietors of simply amazing ideas and come together as a team to ASK the right questions or take appropriate steps?
Airtel is busy stealthily wiping data before you can understand what's going on, they give you such ridiculous must sit on top of a mast to use your glo data, mtn services are simply preposterous.....and we think that data pricing is JUST the problem?
We are not goats that pens can be made and we are shoved in, we are humans....citizens. However, we too are not left out in this blame game....cos I would like to know exactly what some of us use data to do asides 'browsing' and then we leave our data on at night to sleep. ...that's an issue for another day. What are the dividends of the freebies and air space we have had so far? How has your being online improved our economy? When we would rather stream an accident live that check for survivors (lemme not digress biko).
The citizens need to be placed at the centre of policymakers’ considerations, not just as target, but also as agent. There is need to aim to develop policies and design services that respond to individuals’ needs and are relevant to their circumstances not just service provider interests.
Where are the user words....‘co-creation’ and ‘co-production’ where is the pursuit of sustained collaboration between government agencies, non-government organisations, communities and individual citizens. Why exactly would NCC make a decision for the people and not with the people?? And then the people.....the people.....
Can our conversations truly centre on the fact that "broadening access to the internet can drive collaboration on a massive scale, and empower us to leverage the Internet to do more with less”. “internet for all can only be achieved by focusing in equal measure on access, affordability, skills and content."
*HOW do we influence our government to provide internet to its citizens and empower them to realize their potential?* please those are the kind of comments I would like to see of this thread! We need solutions, the problems are in our face. While at it you can still join the campaign http://www.internet4allafrica.org we can achieve more collectively.
Also, you can send "Dear Honourable Minister an increase in the price of data is testing the resilience of over 100 million Nigerians who are already groaning under the present economic hardship. Please prevail on NCC to revert to the status quo! Call or text the Minister of Communications (Adebayo Shittu) on 08035868386, 08099213903 to let him know we do not want increase in Data costs.
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