Niger Delta: Militants without guns give Nigeria ICT breakthrough
Can anything good come out of the Niger Delta, no? Yes! One information and communications technology (ICT) product alone out of the fantastic brains of four Niger Delta youths is taking school to people that cannot go to school, especially in regions such as North East. This has attracted attention around Nigeria, Africa and beyond.
These creations emanated from a group of university students who shunned armed militancy in the Niger Delta but took up soft weapons to engage the world. The group has developed various products that now transform the way government offices run and the way learning and teaching are conducted.
The latest innovation is BrainFriend, an application that now brings schools to homes where people cannot go to school. It is making waves around Africa in particular. This product is ready for unveiling in the coming weeks.
Ikechi Nwogu: How it all began
One of them, Ikechi Nwogu, who is now the director of finance and administration in their company, Cinfores, gave the background of their accidental but exciting beginning.
“Cinfores is an amazing story, a story that began in our final year in the university. It began from a point of distress, now to a point of testimony. It was distress because we had to come together not just as undergraduates and friends but we came together from a very long strike.
“Nothing was happening and we couldn’t conclude our project to graduate. After losing our father, we came together in a mournful mood. We came together and resolved to push education in our own way. We began to solve past questions from 1978 to 2001 at that time. We began to put together as much of these as we could, starting from the basic subjects that cascaded to this very moment.
“It was from a point of distress (even politically). We were known as Niger Delta people; nuisance of the nation, militants. But we felt there could be good message. We came up with a new message of ‘oil of change’. We said our weapons were not gun and knife but brains and ICT to change our world.”
Nwogu further said: “We began to put our solution in whatever technology form we could lay our hands on. We began to contact whoever we could meet, registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), registrars of universities, etc. We were doing all of this with our pocket money. We bought some computers, recorder, etc.
“We were blessed with friends who could spare us their knowledge by solving past questions. Our parents were strongly behind us in motivation, but we were prayer warriors. Together, we shared our food and broke bread. We did not know such act bonded us together in integrity and trust. Today, these are the things that have kept us together.”
He said they shifted into the government of that time; “The linkages and access were created, giving us a certain type of voice. It gave us an opening and thus, parents and school owners could listen to our story. Institutions could listen. Word of mouth and other connections took us to places; to state governments, to the federal government, and even outside Nigeria.”
On how their applications can help fight insecurity, he said it is through awareness creation. “There are two videos we can talk about. One is Rape. It has been converted to animation such that children can now know what Rape is; with use of colours, children can know what to beware of. They would know how to react when any person (outside dad and mom) touches them in some parts of the body. Also, they would know how to identify a criminal. These come in curriculum format. The more they learn, the more conscious they would be. Over time, it becomes a new culture where everybody is aware of his environment.”
Ibifuro Asawo, CEO: We can make school come to you
One aspect of our security product is awareness creation component in security education which is one of the subjects under Religion and National Values in school curriculum.
That’s where the lesson on Rape is explained, knowing who is a criminal, etc.
“In the other part, we are looking at how our people in the North East would cope in these violent times. We have done a lot of deployments of this app in Nigeria including the North East where schools are not functioning.
“When we are deploying around Nigeria, when we get down to the North East, you see that schools are not functioning. You would have to look for where to drop the computers and other equipment you needed to deploy. You have to make do with houses of emirs and school heads.
“We are saying, there is virtual learning environment. School must not be physical all the time. You can use tablets and online learning to deliver the teaching and learning. That is where we are moving to. It’s an avenue to address insecurity challenges in some parts of the country where children are no longer going to school.”
Electricity: You need power for every gadget and we have told this to the government at every moment. Just the way we charge our mobile phones, that’s how we are going to look at this. With the DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) system coming up, it allows you to study at your own time whenever light is restored in your home. We are not saying you must go and buy generators, but as lifestyle changes, people may buy things that would help schooling in their homes. People will begin to look at alternative sources of energy.
Economy: As we speak, we have got companies all over the country asking questions about our products. We have five West African countries that are part of WAEC (West African Examinations Council) showing interest. Companies are speaking with us and even asking us to develop content for them in as far as East Africa. We can outsource and now create jobs. We have a large number of people in this place and that is job being created. This scheme will create numerous jobs in Nigeria.
Brainfriend out soon
Today we have come to do a pre-launch of Brainfriend which is Nigeria’s foremost e-learning and exam preparatory software conceived some 17 years ago. It has evolved in the past 17 years and today we are calling the world to come and see some of its new features.
This is an educational software that encourages effective teaching and learning by offering e-books, questions, answers (with explanations), videos, animation, games, edu-social media, etc, as well as career guide and the national curriculum for teachers. Features and benefits of the solution app include over 70,000 questions and answers, over 25,000 theorems, definitions, formulae; over 60,000 subjects in primary and secondary schools including the three major Nigerian languages and entrepreneurial studies; prototype questions, Advance level questions in key subjects, etc.
We have now included what we call ‘Study Groups’ for collaboration, live classroom, etc. The pandemic taught us that we could do things differently. So, we now have the live classroom. We have educational games all bundled together in the new Brainfriend.
It is something that we think would bring school to our homes. We always say we go to school, but we are thinking that more than ever before, school can come to our homes.
We are looking at opportunities where students, schools, parents and others would embrace this solution after the launch next month and use this to solve their problems.
We started as four friends but now we are seven directors. We are now over 150 in the organization, but one third of this number is made up of people developing the solutions.
More prospects
The much desired BRACED Commission (Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River, Edo, Delta) is coming back, this time, through IT Union. There would be huge collaboration through IT to make all the states in BRACED to work in synergy and be on same page. It is demand that drives improvement.
Hacking: This initiative helps to push the youth to positive IT activities instead of hacking as the most attractive proposition in IT. For instance, ours is 17 years journey with zero capital. The vision will continue because of the strong business model which is an enterprise.
Schools use our product and we have over 2000 partnerschools all over Africa. Many states in Nigeria, schools, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), are working with us. It’s really an education support app.
It is about ICT for development with such benefits as efiling now being done in the Rivers State judiciary. There is e-affidavit system, and an entire system of automating the judicial processes. The Rivers State University Teaching Hospital is now to do e- booking e- consulting, etc. Land administration is also to be on e-system. The Rivers State Internal Revenue system is automated and digital. Filing is now done electronically and even tax certificates are processed online. These areas are exiting the pilot stage.
Conclusion:
There is the need to show the world that beyond violence and militancy, there are positive things happening in the oil region, the Niger Delta, and in the southsouth of Nigeria. We must show that Nigeria is making headways as leaders in some areas.