Investiture of Sir ‘Demola Aladekomo FNCS as the 11th National President & Inauguration of the 17th National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS)

Date: Friday December 16, 2011

Venue: Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, lagos

President’s Inaugural Address

On behalf of my colleagues on the 17^th National Executive Council (NEC), and the entire members of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), I am delighted to welcome you all to this Investiture Ceremony. Your presence is a much needed encouragement to all of us on the NEC for several reasons. You are highly appreciated.

Let me first, on behalf of all my colleagues, appreciate the services of our immediate predecessors in the NEC, for the profundity of their contributions to the continued development of our beloved Association and profession. In the same vein, I thank immensely all the Past Presidents for the many and diverseinvaluable contributions that each made during their tenures. I know that history will ultimately recompense each of you.

The Office of the President of the NCS comes with great responsibilities. This is because NCS is probably the biggest association of IT professionals on the African continent. I recall the overwhelming mandate that the generality of the members of the NCS gave us during the elections in Abuja on July29, 2001, to serve you. For this we are indeed humbled. Fewer things in life could humble a person more than to be so appreciated by his professional colleagues and peers.

We are taking over the leadership of the NCS at a critical time in the history of our nation when several of our compatriots are at a dilemma over whether the benefits of ICT truly outweighs the evils to which it was being put. We are at a time when cybercrime is on the increase without a corresponding response from either the government or the regulatory agencies. We are assuming office at a time when such vices as phone and e-mail hacking are becoming acceptable form of information gathering for some people; and when the invasion of the private lives of individuals is being regarded as smartness.

We are equally aware and conscious of the promises we made during the electioneering campaigns. God helping us we are determined not to renege on any one of the promises. Thus shortly after effectively taking over from our predecessors, we went into a Retreat Session to articulate what can be termed the ‘blue print’ of the AGENDA for our tenure. The outline is given following:

• Impact the nation through the provision of world class and professional ICT service delivery, quality / certified education and reliable and sustainable infrastructural development.
• Earn NCS a place of honour both in the corporate world and governance through good visibility, relevance and high ethical standards and codes of conduct.
• Deploy ICT systems as the vehicle for job creation (about one million jobs in 5 years)

The agenda listed earlier will be actualized through the following course of action:

1)    Professional ICT service delivery.

Despite the vast number of certified professionals in almost every aspect of Information Technology services, Nigeria is seen and is still largely a consumer nation in the IT world. We still operate a vendor mentality and the industry is controlled by businessmen and not necessarily technocrats. The result is that vast sums of money in foreign exchange are carted off to foreign countries by their representatives / vendors locally.

In most companies especially within the service sector (e.g. banking, insurance and related sectors), IT expenditure is third in the league of company expenses after salaries and infrastructure. On the average, a bank will spend between $2m and $3m annually on IT and related services. Alas, there is very little or no corresponding development of a core of national professionals or indigenous world class service companies to meet this demand locally.

1. Engage in strategic partnership with government agencies, to set up standards in software, hardware and system integration issues with a view to creating and enabling environment for a win-win situation. This will ensure high standards of products and services, job creation and user satisfaction.
2. Champion the establishment of incubation centres/knowledge parks. These are centres where young and up-coming ICT professionals can go in order to sharpen their skills.
3. Introduce ICT job fairs.This would be either an annual or bi-annual programme designed for upcoming indigenous ICT professionals to exhibit their works in the presence of international audience (both corporate and individuals).
4. Facilitate SME financing/funding plans for individual and corporate members by creating an IT VENTURE CAPITAL.
5. Embark on the automation of NCS activities, membership identity and payment.

ICT & appropriate Legal backing:

We are determinedto have appropriate and adequate legal framework for the desired standard of ICT products and service delivery in Nigeria. To this end, we intend to commission a group to study issues involved and make recommendations soonest.

Ladies and gentlemen and my beloved colleagues, we use the occasion of our investiture to make this clarion call to all and sundry to come on board and together let us embark on this noble national assignment not only to lay an enduring legacy for veritable applications of ICT but also for economic, political commercial emancipation of our people. We must rise and face up now to lay the foundation for genuine independence. We need to employ the ubiquitous tool of our profession to achieve credible foundation for our nations take off in respect of science and technology.

The sustainability and the provision of appropriate institutional frameworks for meaningful exploitation of ICT is a task must be done. I dear say the time is now.

Again and again and again, I urge one and sundry to please come on board, together we can do it.

We are here to serve you – to our very best.

Thank you and God bless you.

Demola ALADEKOMO, FNCS

President

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