Civil society voices from Nigeria are welcome on this blog. Here are two: one on information technology and one on agriculture. Read on ...

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A N50m Philanthropy to Excite IT Sector in the New Year
Vanguard (Lagos)

NEWS
16 January 2008
Posted to the web 16 January 2008

By Miebi Senge

MO Ibrahim, the Sudanese billionaire businessman is a global icon in philanthropy.

Last year he instituted a $5 million Leadership Prize, now the world's biggest prize for leadership and good governance for an African president who voluntarily leaves office.

The American computer mogul, Bill Gates needs no introduction. Besides his Microsoft portfolio, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have done so much to empower third world nations.

Nigeria needs the likes of Dr. Ibrahim and Gates, to drive its ICT growth, unfortunately, people in that genre are far and in between. Mr. Leo Stan-Ekeh, Chairman and CEO, Zinox Technologies has moved beyond marketing his Zinox Computer brand to philanthropy. His latest effort, the Z-SCOP (Zinox Students Computer Ownership Project) is aimed at empowering Nigerian students acquire PCs at affordable rates.

Stan-Ekeh isn't as rich as Ibrahim or Gates, and his little effort is like a drop of water in the Sahara. However, his good efforts appear to be striking the right cords as an anonymous Nigerian businessman recently donated N50 million into his Computerise Nigeria Project (CNP) to enable workers and students purchase 5,000 PCs at 10 per cent discount.

This esteemed but modest Nigerian stated that he was providing the funds for three main reasons: He wanted to be identified with the CNP concept; to empower various segments of the Nigerian society with affordable systems; and to enhance nationwide access to IT products and tools as Nigeria strives to reduce the digital divide with developed economies. He reasoned that only a knowledge based economy would deliver the manifest destiny of Nigeria.

The philanthropist explained that his intervention was spurred by the successful run of CNP, knowing it has embarked on numerous schemes designed to demystify and continually bring down prices of computers.

According to him, the far reaching vision of Z-SCOP made him to realise that "no single individual or government can adequately provide the IT needs of the educational sector". He believes the human capacity needs of Nigeria "require consistent and systematic interventions".

In channeling his contributions through the CNP, he believes the NGO has been consistent over the years and therefore offered him a credible platform to contribute his quota.

He was comfortable with the efforts of CNP and said the donation of "N50m was a direct gift to students and workers of this country to enable them take advantage of the opportunities offered by Information Technology and help achieve the technology skills necessary for the attainment of the objectives of FSS 2020."

Before finally announcing his "little effort aim at helping other Nigerians", the philanthropist stated that he had been holding talks with the CNP staff for over six months, "but every other details and final agreement was only wrapped up during the Christmas holidays".

Mrs. Vivian Abii, Chief Executive Officer, CNP, told Vanguard it was a mutual agreement between the body and the businessman with very stringent conditions. The conditions includes that CNP must not sell the PCs above agreed price for the 5,000 units.

"The PCs and Laptops from CNP must also include original Microsoft Operating systems and complementary educational software for homes and schools. All the laptops must have theft tracker and a shock proof executive carry bag.

All the systems must be sold at the same price nation wide."

She stated that the agreement also includes technical support and warranty. "In terms of support, all the systems would have a 3-year warranty. First year is comprehensive, second year would be free labor and the third year also free labor."

Explaining the conditions under which the 5000 computers would be sold and be covered by the terms of the agreement, Abii warned that "these prices would apply to only students and workers who pay in one lump sum."

"The agreement translates", she explained, "to an additional 10 per cent discount on existing offers. For example, customers who buy under Z-SCOP would have a 10 per cent discount added to the discounts already guaranteed by Z-SCOP, provided they pay in one lump sum.

The discounts accruing from this agreement would not be available to people who buy under the installment payment plan and corporate sales prices."

Computerise Nigeria Project, is an NGO registered by law for the "purpose of creating awareness for, and achieving the adoption of the computer as a major tool for work and play".

It has over the years passed huge discounts and subsidies to consumers through many marketing sales schemes culminating in a partnership with many workers Cooperatives, homes and small offices. The CNP was also recently commissioned by the Federal Government to computerise all its universities in collaboration with Afrihub.

Copyright (c) 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

http://allafrica.com/stories/200801160129.html

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Pitfalls of Agra in Boosting Food Security

Business Daily (Nairobi)

OPINION
20 January 2008
Posted to the web 21 January 2008

By Mukoma Wa Ngugi
Nairobi

"Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It ensures that the rights to use and manage lands, territories, waters, seeds, livestock and biodiversity are in the hands of those of us who produce food" - Declaration of the Forum for Food Sovereignty, Nyeleni , February 2007

From November 25th to December 2nd, African farmers, agricultural and pastoralist organisations from over 25 countries gathered at the Nyeleni Centre in Selengue, Mali to discuss the pitfalls of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra)-the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation initiative now chaired by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. With around 100 organisations present, thousands of Africans concerned with social justice and agriculture were represented.

Now, the theme of the conference might at first glance seem outrageous. After all, we are talking about Bill Gates here -a man who has become the poster child of good philanthropy. But this is precisely my point: because Agra is a Bill Gates initiative with widely respected Kofi Annan as the chair, most of us are not going beyond the first glance.

But it is important that we send a second glance Agra's way because what is at stake here is the very future of the continent's agricultural practices - what is grown, how it is grown, who gets to grow it, who processes it, who sells it and where and how much the African consumer will pay. Simply put, if food is the basis of life, what is at stake is the very sustenance of the continent.

But in order to fully appreciate the role the sweet sounding Alliance for a Green Revolution is playing in Africa, we need to take a step back and situate Agra in the context of other international and national forces that are undermining the well-being and sovereignty of African nations - forces that are in fact part of the problem, even as they present themselves as part of the solution.

Amongst the international forces undermining Africa's well being is an overt US foreign policy whose goal is to consolidate a growing Empire through the pipeline of the war on terror - under the guise of spreading democracy. We have seen how well this is working in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. But even more insidious is the arm-twisting of African governments to pass anti-terror bills that tie African domestic policies to US foreign policy goals.

On top of this we must add US foreign policy-led organisations such as the USAID, and the International Republican Institute, currently active in over 40 African countries.

Organisations such as the International Republican Institute (IRI) build on the tracks laid down by missionaries. The missionaries came to Christianize and civilise, the IRI types come to democratise, liberalise and westernise.

The missionaries paved the way for the colonialists our history teachers were fond of saying. In the future, they will be saying that organisations such as the IRI paved the way for the US Empire.

Lest this seems far-fetched, here is an example of these seemingly disparate forces at work. The IRI in 2006 helps Africa's first woman president, Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf into power. So instrumental is the IRI that when receiving a Freedom Award from them, she declares that the "IRI was particularly active in promoting these elections. Very quickly an office was established.

They came, they did workshops. They brought political groups together. They worked with the media. They educated. They instructed. They supported. They assisted the process." But even before the democracy solidified, Liberia becomes the first country to offer the United States a military base for its African Command Centre.

There are no coincidences here -the IRI paved the way for US further militarization of Africa using Liberia as a launching pad. Meanwhile in Liberia, Firestone has the gall to invite the Liberian people into its website with a photograph captioned "since 1926 we have succeeded together and we have suffered together, now that peace has returned, learn how we are working for a better future for Liberia."

Firestone, much like Shell, has a philanthropic arm used to cover up the actions of the other heavy, hungry and brutal arm. Under the exploitation of colonialism, industries and corporations served the nation-state. Today it is the other way around: the nation-state serves industries and corporations.

It is into this mix that we need to throw initiatives such as Agra. Waiting at the wings, or more correctly, waiting in the Agra boardrooms, are seed and fertilizer organisations such as Syngenta (with total sales of $1.2 billion in 2004) and Monsanto (a multi billion dollar seed company), amongst other players. Agra says that it will help "millions lift themselves out of poverty and hunger by dramatically increasing the productivity of hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers and improving livelihoods."

Agra further states that it will "develop and strengthen Africa's small and medium-scale seed companies to develop and sell appropriate seeds to farmers, [it will also] develop rural agro-dealers (small rural shops, mainly owned by women) and work with local food processors that can add value to products [and] and with local micro-finance institutions."

Pointing to Asia, Agra claims that the green revolution there lifted millions from poverty. This claim was refuted by the Mali conference participants who pointed out the tragic case of Indian farmers.

In India, farmers initially flourished under the green revolution because millions of dollars were used to buoy up the farms. But as soon as the money stopped being pumped, Indian farmers found that they could not afford hybrid seeds, or the high price of pesticides, and they entered into debt, eventually losing their land to banks.

Agra's promise of Agro-dealers in Africa, and its promise to follow the Asian model means small scale African farmers will be strangled by ever widening circles of dependency and debt.

Agra's critics contend that the alliance will not take a definitive stand against genetically modified foods. This was of grave concern to the organisations in attendance at Selengue.

The Agra website leaves a lot of wiggle room when it states that "Introduction of genetically engineered crops are not part of Agra strategy at this time" but a little later states that "Agra will not shy away from considering the potential of bio-technology in reducing hunger and poverty and we do not preclude future support for genetic engineering as an approach to crop variety improvement..." Once the mask of philanthropy is removed, we find profit-hungry corporations vying to control the seed market in African countries, create a path for genetically modified seeds and foods and to pry open a market for chemical fertilizers -which in turn will have an adverse effect on African indigenous seed populations and destroy bio-diversity, not to mention the devastation of the environment and the salination of the soil.

The philanthropic arm that Africa welcomes is in real terms paving the way for further exploitation of our resources.

Mukoma Wa Ngugi is co-editor of Pambazuka News . He is also the author of Hurling Words at Consciousness (AWP, 2006) and a political columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine.

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200801210512.html