Alumona: How Nigerians Can Enjoy e-Governance

Prominent Marketing Communications expert, Jenkins Alumona, has explained that the deployment of e-governance and other Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in Nigeria would only be functional when ordinary Nigerians could benefit from such.

Alumona, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Outcomes Limited Group, said this recently at the inaugural edition of the Nigeria e-Government Conference in Lagos.

Speaking on a sub-theme of the conference: “Government Service Delivery in the Information Age: Citizens’ Expectations,” Alumona said the non-availability of critical infrastructure such as electricity greatly hindered majority of Nigerians from participating in the e-governance process and limited the progress of the initiative.

He stated that all issues which limited citizens’ participation in the process must be resolved before the goal of an effective governmentto-citizen e-governance system in the country could be attained.

“Whichever area you want to focus on, whether it is e-governance or efficiency, we must never forget that if there is no direct benefit to the people, then it’s a complete waste of time. I don’t know how many people here know of a growing industry called ‘phone charging.’

He said: “If you don’t focus on the big ‘E,’ which is electricity, how do you get to e-governance? How do people get to benefit? We’ve heard submissions here on broadband, how it is expanding. But I wonder: can you access broadband using torchlight or firewood? So, if you don’t have access to electricity, how do you benefit from e-governance?”

Alumona, a former journalist, also called on Nigerians to hold the government accountable in ensuring that the relevant infrastructure and services are provided for their well-being.

“The previous speaker talked about some part of our constitution that tells us that we really cannot do anything to the people we put in power. That’s a wrong thing. We need to hold them (government) responsible even as we talk about the benefits of e-governance,” he said.

The conference had in attendance representatives of the Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler; the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta; and PostmasterGeneral of the Federation/Chief Executive Officer of NIPOST, Bisi Adegbuyi.