WEDNESDAY
7-9 AM WAT – Studied the materials downloaded from Net yesterday, wrote up an outline for a Regional Internet Exchange proposal for WATRA. They would like to get the region moving in this direction such that Internet traffic is not all routed internationally even when it is regional traffic.
Spoke briefly with Nsikan from Pittsburgh(?). He’s on a long lay-over and will be heading to London soon, then on to Abuja by Thursday morning local time.
9-10 AM WAT – Arvind and I went on a hunt for cyber cafes. During our walk last night, a lady told us there was one about 4 blocks away from the hotel right next to the Mr. Bigg (looks like a McDonalds type of place). The place she mentioned had a bunch of shops, but no cyber café. They directed us to another place.Found the place they were talking about, but when we went in, they had no power. Bummer.
Decided to see if we could navigate our own way towards WATRA headquarters where we knew there is a cyber café and look for others while we were at it. Found our way there, had to ask several times for directions, but eventually made it, about a 45 minute walk or so.
10:00 AM WAT – at the Mon-Aden Café (1 Koforidua Street, Zone 2, Wuse, Abuja). N100 for 1 hour so we each get an hour. About halfway through, the net goes down so I recon the place. About 12 X 15 feet room, 9 computers, plus 1 controller computer running software called CafeStation. They use DirectOPC (?) as their ISP. CafeAgent is the client software on each PC. Running Windows XP (2002).
A view during our walk across town.
Whilst on our walk to WATRA, spotted this Ministry of Health -- you may be able to notice that it is the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme....I didn't know that leprosy was still an issue, being a naive american and all...
From within the WATRA compound, spotted what looks like a soldier getting hsi boot shined. Framed in the razor wire gave it a nice look. Actually the building to the right is where the cyber cafe is that we have used several times on our trip.11:30 AM WAT – head back to hotel.
12-7 PM WAT - decide to check out the possibility of Internet by the Boathouse. Discovered Live wireless Internet via CTAccess – a new launch of what is planned to be a citywide wireless Internet access system. The current system is in 4 places, one of which is at the Sheraton. Access is free for now, but as it grows they will likely start charging – word is about $30/month (N4000/month).
Life on the wireless Internet is good!
Spend the rest of the day working, pulling in research, and just catching up on computing and networking. Found some good material on IXPs and especially some interesting stuff on regional IXPs in Africa. This appears to be gaining some major momentum.
7-10 PM WAT – not feeling so well, hang with Arvind at a restaurant, but then have to head to bed…phone call from Joseph indicating Dr. Best had arrived…excellent.
THURSDAY
7-8 AM WAT – feeling better, had a bit of a feverish sleep, but better now. Head down to the Boathouse to catch up on email, preparation for the day. We travel to WATRA to meet again with Mrs. Emakpore.
Arvind and Dr. Best at the WATRA facilities.8-9 AM WAT – dicuss/verify research plan with Mrs. Emakpore. 4 research projects are under way:
1) Sustainability of WATRA – general framework
2) Regional IXP working plan/business case
3) Characterization of Regulatory bodies in WATRA
4) Internet usage in Abuja
Prepare for a trip to NCC.
9-10 AM WAT – Meet with Ernest C.A. Ndukwe, Chief Executive, NCC. A very influential gentleman, especially as head of the regulatory body within Nigeria. We briefed him on our research efforts, gaining some insight into the attitudes of NCC. I was also able to gather some information regarding IXPs.
Apparently this has become a national priority (an IXP in Nigeria first, but a regional IXP would be next). Apparently the WSIS meeting in Tunis provided President with some fire, as he has now declared this a goal in 2006 – to have a Nigerian IXP in place.
Even though Nigeria has 3 companies that have received licenses for IXPs, none have actually happened. Mr. Ndukwe cited the mistrust between operators as a key impediment to progress. The regulations within Nigeria are very open and encourage this type of interconnection. NCC as a regulatory body appears to be doing well – on many levels, organizationally, leadership, financial, and enforcement.
Very helpful meeting and much appreciated to have Dr. Ndukwe take his time to meet with us.
11ish AM WAT – arrive back at hotel to spend a bit of time online working until our driver arrives to take us to the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa, car should arrive around 12:30. Grab a bit of chow at the Boathouse (while the Business Center at the Sheraton may be losing some revenue, I think the Boathouse is making up for it by up campers in the bar).
12:45 PM WAT – Driver finds us and we cram (really) into the back of a car to take the quick ride over toe the Directorate.
1ish PM WAT – Arrive and head towards the Directorate. Of course I’m assuming it’ll be similar to our last meeting, our team sitting down with somebody and maybe their assistant or other exec and briefing them on our activities. Wow was I wrong!
We walk into the room, very formal setting, a large official conference table, with some 12 people already at their places, a camera crew follows us in and begins videoing the session. Okay, this is not what I expected!
Engr. Dr. Lule Yakubu Bassi is the Director General (DG as Mike calls him) of the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa, Ministry of Cooperation & Integration in Africa. He proceeds to fill us in on the mission of their ministry, namely:
1) Advocacy – connecting with Nigerian experts inside and outside of Africa. There are some 37 million Africans that live outside of Africa, 17 million of them are Nigerians. They are trying to reconnect these xpats to Nigeria. As he is fond of saying (I may lose something here) --- When Nigerians die, they want to be buried back home – they are tired of just receiving bones, they would like to receive some live bodies to help!
2) Expatriates – they have a growing database of xpats willing to server in Africa
3) STEP – Scientific & Technical Exchange Program – this has some $25 million dollars in the African Development Bank with the ability to spend $2.5 M each year as seed funding for new programs. The eLearning program that Dr. Best has been involved with is one such program.
4) Collaboration with other Institutions – both inside and outside of Africa, funding agencies, NGOs, etc.
We then introduce ourselves and brief the group on our research. In particular he was interested in Arvind’s work on Internet usage and indicated that one of their program officers should work with Arvind to provide some additional information.
One anecdotal note that came out during this: there is some tension in and around the city regarding the demolition of a bunch of structures. From several conversations, I’ll try to summarize my understanding. Back (late 80’s, early 90’s) when the capital was being moved from Lagos to Abuja, a city plan was constructed (ostensibly to overcome the problems that occurred in the mostly unplanned Lagos). This city plan was quite extensive and very functionally (and exclusively) zoned.
Unfortunately, as the ministries were moved to Abuja, the city could not really support the full build out as per plan. This encouraged people to break the zoning rules in order to get things done. Houses built in a zone intended to be a technology park, ISP’s built where they shouldn’t…all sorts of things that just weren’t to plan.
Well, they decided that the way to fix this was to demolish the structures that were not ‘right’ according to plan. Apparently, they notified the people living/working in these structures that they were going to be demolished, but that is the extent of the compensation that was received (if I’m wrong, nobody has identified any type of compensation as yet).
One of the places that was razed was an ISP that the DG and staff had worked with quite extensively over the years. Interestingly, the cite of the building was across the street from the Sheraton in what is now a dirt field (well, dirt and rubble).
This demolition, reasonably, has caused some tension. Not only has it been disruptive, but there is no specific intention of using the land that has been cleared…very odd way to make things ‘right’.
Okay, back to the here and now – the DG has arranged a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja. Not just with us, but with a large portion of his team as well…
2:00 PM WAT – we all pile into 3 cars (of course ours had no AC!) and drive about 35 minutes out to the University of Abuja. I was in the car with Nsikan, the driver and two of the Ministries staff. In particular, Ogwo Christiana C. (Christy) who is the Principal Program Officer, and one Theodore O. P. Sefia, Esq., LL.B., B.L. – Assistant Chief Legal Officer. Theodore is quite animated and discusses many topics that are affecting Nigera (I note an undertone of frustration at the lack of progress).
2:45ish WAT – Arrive at the university and are ushered into a similar (albeit without the imposing table) meeting as before. In this instance, we are meeting with Prof. Nubu O. Yaqub, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja.
The DG rolls out his speech again, we do another round of introductions and research briefings. Then the VC gives his little bit.
UofA has about 8000 students plus some 25,000 distance learning students that come into campus on weekends. It was established in 1988, many different programs.
Sadly, they lost their Registrar in the recent plane tragedy on the flight to Port Harcourt and were in mourning.
The VC has been there for 1.5 years, they are currently in temporary campus, with a massive, massive piece of land granted to them (11,800 hectares), but without a budget to develop the land.
Interestingly, the school has no Internet access – WHAT? And this didn’t seem to bother the VC much…
Things were wrapped up very quickly (like, can you say “get the heck out!”) as they took a group photo and ushered us away so that the Governor would not see us when he arrived….
Head back to hotel…crammed into a non-airconditioned car full of people…but with pleasant conversation with Theodore. Meanwhile, Nsikan takes a nap in the front seat!
4-7 PM WAT – Nsikan and Arvind head over to WATRA to complete some work with Mrs. Emakpore – Nsikan to do some survey approval, and Arvind to complete the silly IRB stuff…
Evening WAT - Nsikan and two of his friends (Joshua and Ben) took us to a local Nigerian restaurant. Outdoor seating and a beautiful evening. Apparently an evangelical gathering is going on next door, sounds like they are getting quite into it…Order a couple of beers and pepper soup. Apparently comes in several varieties, including:
- cow tail (ox tail)
- chicken parts
- fish (parts?)
Being the chicken that I am, I go with what appears the safest choice of chicken. Several hours go by.
They introduce me to some type of nut(?) that is way bitter, apparently has some caffeine, and perhaps some nicotine(?). Ick…but had to try it!
Soup arrives, definitely has chicken parts in it (should have gotten a picture). It’s rather dark, which is likely a good thing! Oddly, the American crew gets their soup, but none of the Nigerians got theirs – something got messed up with the order, they were not happy at all. I still think it was a ploy to see how the Americans would do eating this soup!
So, the soup is definitely spicy and peppery, very yummy! Once I figured out what the chicken parts were, it was fine, but that first bite…hmmm. Actually ended up being a boat load of chicken with a spicy pepper broth. Good stuff, thanks Nsikan!
Back to hotel and a nap…
