Decision Makers 2001
WiderNet Project ConsultingUniversity of Port Harcourt (UPH) Sponsored by the Colleges and Universities Affiliations Program / U.S. State Department June 11 This was my first visit to Port Harcourt and the southeast of Nigeria. Flying into Port Harcourt, evidence of the region's oil industry was everywhere with gas flares dotting the landscape and a hazy sheet of smoke covering the lush equatorial jungle. I was met at the airport by my kind host, Dr. Ebi Bio Awotua-Efebo, the head of the University of Port Harcourt's information technology group and director of NUNET. "Ebi" put me up at the chancellors' lodge, conveniently located on the main campus, and pledged my next day would be busy and productive. (He was right, too!) The NUNET Office
They have a single email account for the general university population and another for the VC. Some customers prefer to have individual accounts set up with Yahoo and Hotmail. In all cases access is through the NUNET staff, who operate the computers on behalf of their clients. NUNET charges N150 per page for incoming and outgoing messages. Their clientele is mostly students and they send 5-10 messages a day on average, although that number increases to 15-20 a day when classes are in session. NUNET is limited by single machine with access to the dial-up connection and, as is the case all around Nigeria, between the sporadic services of NITEL and NEPA (the national telecomm monopoly and the national electric power monopoly), it is difficult to operate consistently. Sometimes NUNET is non-functioning for periods up to two weeks after lightning strikes or telephone service disconnects (occasionally for non-payment.) NUNET's staff consists of Abrahim Oriji, the chief NUNet programmer, and Belema Agborubere, the computer operator. The NUNET office occasionally helps faculty and staff with repairing and configuring their personal computers. They report that they can purchase a functional, inexpensive locally-built clone computer for about N70,000 ($650 USD) in town. With the oil companies and their auxiliary companies in the area, it's generally easy to easy to find parts and get repairs done in Port Harcourt. Otherwise, a trip to Lagos is in order. The MIS Department My next visit was to the Management Information Systems (MIS) office, where, since 1994, they have been trying to create a database to track students and their grades. They report having a hard time getting others around the university to participate. (A common theme: departments rarely see the value of spending time and energy providing information to others if they don't have access to the results of the database in a format which is valuable to them.) On November 17th they experienced a system crash and lost all their data. Since then they have switched to the NUC's software, NUMIS, and have been reentering the data. The MIS office clearly lacks space. They have a newer workstation which doubles as a server and two lesser workstations for data entry. All of this is squeezed into a 8 x 12 foot steel security cage in a room about 12 x 18 feet. They have paper files stacked to the ceilings in all the free areas and it is practically impossible to navigate their offices without becoming intimately connected with student records. Dr. Awotua-Efebo hopes that the MIS office will be assigned space in new "high tech" building. The MIS group would like to expand their database, for example to integrate photographs and are contemplating an SQL system, although they do not feel like they have enough information to go on. They expect that centralizing information services will enhance all university services. They desperately need an Intranet that would allow them construct a data system whereby departments, faculty, and students key information into database. I suggested that they investigate Web-based client/server SQL solutions. The High Tech Center
During our tour, in which we were joined by the architect, Dr. Awotua-Efebo's sister, I learned that most of the rooms were slated to become student computer laboratories and support offices. I spent some time discussing the technical needs and design considerations for digital classrooms. The building currently lacks pathways for network and power cables, so we spent some time defining options for wiring the building. Reportedly, this project is being ignored by the current administration and there's high hope amongst its proponents that MacArthur money will help to revive the project. Construction work is going full force nearby where hostels (dormitories) are being built for the medical school complex.
Planning and Proposals Oddly, it seems that no one I spoke with knew the recent small grant the university received from the MacArthur Foundation was seed money was for proposal development. Instead, there was talk about using the money to purchase equipment and services. Dr. Awotua-Efebo suggested that we meet with the group of administrators and faculty charged with developing the university's larger grant proposal. I met with the VC, Professor Nimi Briggs, for a remarkably short time. We had met earlier that year at the MacArthur Foundation offices in Chicago, so introductions were short and sweet. I presented him with a couple of books on ICT and campus planning as well as the Decision Maker's CD. I invited him to send participants to our decision makers workshop and technician training in Abuja. (No one from Port Harcourt attend this year's decision makers workshop.) He seem preoccupied and tried to give me several assignments, like drawing up a plan for the campus network. I reminded him that I don't work for the MacArthur Foundation and that preparing their proposal was up to them, although I was eager to assist in helping to define and formulate a plan. The meeting ended shortly thereafter. Immediately afterwards we met at the lodge with eight professors and administrators to discuss ICT and present my program on "Preparing Strategic Grant Proposals." The presentation, punctuated by frequent power failures, elicited lots of questions. It was clear that some of those in attendance were just beginning their exploration of the issues, while a few were clearly well-informed and eager to proceed to a much higher plane. Observations and Recommendations Both the NUNet staff and the committee members expressed doubts that the university would pay their way to Abuja for training. In fact, two faculty members complained that few professors have seen Abuja. Even in-country travel is rare, it appears, for Port Harcourters. (By federal law, travelers must be granted a generous fixed rate of per diem. It appears that the per diem, for those travelers that chose budget accommodations, provides a significant boost to their gross income.) However, I think it is critical that those in the position to guide the university's foray into digitization see what has been done at other Nigerian universities and corporations. Otherwise they run the risk of "reinventing the wheel" and making the same mistakes as their predecessors. No one I spoke with had been to visit Ile-Ife, Jos, ABU, or Ibadan. Recommendations Sign up several administrators and faculty for the next decision makers training in Abuja (February 2002) and the upcoming technician's training. Start investigating the progress of other Nigerian universities. Expand the MIS office to include more workstations, a server, and assign a developer to learn Microsoft Access, ASP, and SQL. Focus on developing Web-based data collection and delivery services. Expand the email service to a dozen workstations, adding a server and establishing individual accounts for faculty, staff, and students. A plan for intra-university messaging needs to be drawn up which focuses on providing service to the principal officers and, eventually, the student body. Network the NUNet and MIS offices immediately. (The cost should be less than $500 USD.) Look for one additional nearby office, possibly the VC's, to network next. Plan a 20+ workstation lab in central location near NUNet or at the other end of the fiber cable link to the neighboring "Abuja" campus. Develop expertise with inverters and large battery power backup systems. Consultant's Notes I had grown used to hearing complaints at northern universities that an unfair portion of federal and oil company money was pouring into southeastern universities. At Port Harcourt I heard the opposite. "Those Northerners take care of their own," people reported to me. From my admittedly unsophisticated point of view, it appears that ALL universities are woefully under funded. It seems to me that their harboring ill will against each other makes it less likely that they will reap the benefits of cross training and collaboration. It's the timeless dynamic of the poor railing against each other instead of attacking the root causes of their poverty.
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