| Decision Makers 2001 Visit to Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria Sponsored by Colleges and Universities Affiliations Program / U.S. State Department June 9 and 10 This was my fourth visit to ABU, where I have lectured and consulted since 1998. It was a delight to see old friends Prof. Patrick F. U. Taylor, Prof. Tonie Okpe, and Prof. George Kwanashe, now Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic). ABU recently conducted Windows NT network training, using UNIJOS' Dan Inusa as coach. ABU is in the envious position of having $1 million USD in the bank for ICT development. They have been taking cautious steps over the last two years, ever wary of the pitfalls of unplanned ICT. They have established a computer committee and this committee has been investigating a plethora of options. However, little significant progress has been made outside of one outstanding exception: they've recently gotten into the Internet Café business. ABU's current proposals include Internet connectivity (via satellite), a fiber optic campus backbone, radio links to the remote campuses, 150 computers for administrative units, 320 computers in 16 labs around the campus, 22 servers, and a maintenance workshop. Their current plan also includes a $193,000 for a campus wide cable TV system. Internet Cafés Motivated by the desire to service visiting journalists covering a recent international sporting event hosted by ABU, the computer committee secured a space and quickly slapped an Internet Café together. The Café has ten computers networked together with a modest 33k modem connection to a Kano ISP. I visited at 11:30 on a Saturday night to find the place packed with students: one at each keyboard with several other students looking over their shoulder. Most impressive was hearing Prof. Taylor describe his epiphany: those students who rose to the challenge of networking the Café and who continue to oversee the Café and who tweak its computers are precisely those students he can use to build the campus network. "These students are fearless and they spend hundreds of hours here," he pointed out. "Here are my network technicians and trainers!" This scheme has been so successful that they have built a second café and are planning a third. The Campus
Like most of the campuses I visited this trip, ABU was pretty quiet because of the academic staff strike. Except for the Senate Building, which was the scene of some unhappy activity. Apparently, the new government is enacting new procedures to rid the books of "ghost workers" -- those non-existent workers who somehow manage to collect a paycheck every month. The latest tactic involves everyone needing to show up with picture identification to collect their paycheck. As this verification process takes a considerable amount of time, payday apparently has stretched in to "pay week" and those at the furthest end of the alphabet are growing more discontent as the process stretches on. We moved my presentation off campus since the academic staff was on strike and a campus venue was deemed too risky. The union was informed of the visit and they requested that no media report on the event. This will go down in the WiderNet annuals as my first presentation at a nuclear research facility. Presentations and Discussions I gave a 90-minute presentation on "ICT in Academia" to 30 senior staff (a good sized crowd for a Saturday afternoon!) The interest seemed very high and the questions were thoughtful and pointed. Clearly a lot of groundwork discussion has been done at ABU. I followed up with a 90-minute "Strategic Grant Proposal" presentation to ten members of the university computer committee. ABU has the resources at hand to parley into a larger, cohesive package of ICT development. They are at "take off" stage and seem to need just a bit more encouragement. Met with the VC for one hour and discussed a large range of issues regarding their campus ICT progress. He's clearly interested in making headway with ICT... it only seems like a matter of time. Consultant's Notes
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ABU put me up at their guest lodge on campus, so I got to spend some time walking about and absorbing the environment. Salaries have improved 10-fold since the election of a new president in 1999 and I sensed that the university staff was significantly less anxious about their day-to-day existence. The university seems to be in a "repair" mode, there were lots of spruce up projects happening around the campus and the faculty housing area. Many whom I spoke with had an optimistic outlook about the campus and its future. Recognizing, of course, that I tend to speak with those who are interested in ICT, it seemed that many of my colleagues peg a great deal of hope on ICT as a vehicle to reinvigorate the university. | |||
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Visiting campus during the national academic staff strike -- and having to move to an off-campus venue because of this -- brought to the forefront the issue of who gets to participate in the new digital communication systems being designed for campus. I suggested to my hosts at one point that, instead of asking the union leaders to turn a blind eye to our activities (academic staff were attending our meetings even though they were supposed to be on strike), perhaps we should be inviting them to sit at the table and help us design the system. In the end I suspect that unions (who play a critical role on Nigerian campuses), students, and others will need to be drawn into the enterprise if these new digital communication tools are to be used effectively on campus. Inside the enterprise, as they come to understand how these communication tools can serve their purposes, they will provide enthusiasm, assistance, and synergies. Outside the enterprise, beyond the scope of the new digital communication culture that will rapidly grow around campus, they might become alienated and paranoid, coaching their members to fight the changes and impede progress. |
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