12 May 2010
By Sule Ya’u Sule
In what can be regarded as a summit-level sales pitch
with a touch of class, a Kano State delegation, ably
led by His Excellency, the Executive Governor, Malam
Ibrahim Shekarau, returned to the country after a
highly successful road show through the chiselled
hallways of California’s Silicon Valley, raising the
profile of the state’s Information Communication
Technology (ICT Park). The delegation was in the
United States and the United Kingdom, between April 4
to 15, wooing Investors and Stakeholders to one of the
legacies of the Ibrahim Shekarau Administration.
The Kano ICT Park is already household name, locally
and internationally. The theme of the Park, making
Kano a leading ICT player in Nigeria and the
sub-region, however compels commercial and technical
partnership with international players in the ICT
sector. The idea and scope of the Kano ICT Park theme
are huge, considering the state’s human resources
potentials. The ICT Park is designed to play a
leading role in modernizing Kano’s socio-economic
structures and infrastructures, create a robust
revenue base, engage millions of people in productive
jobs and develop a manpower base that will transform
the state’s human resources outlook.
It is also designed to attract and domicile foreign
direct investment. It was in the pursuit of these
noble objectives that His Excellency led the
delegation to the United States. The first point of
visit was Cisco, a high-tech ICT service provider
based in California’s Silicon Valley. There, the Kano
delegation was received by the Company’s Vice
President, Cisco Service, Mr. Bill Ruh. His
Excellency explained to the Cisco team plans to deploy
Cisco branded equipments in the operations of the Kano
ICT Park. The Cisco officials applauded the news.
Mr. Ruh confirmed to the Kano delegation that the
local team of Cisco officials covering the West Africa
beat will be mandated to explore ways to assist the
Kano ICT project.
Next stop was search engine giant, Google, where the
Kano State delegation was conducted round vital
departments by the Business Development Chief, Mr.
Marc Freed Finnegan. At Google, the State
Commissioner for Science and Technology, Dr. Bashir
Shehu Galadanchi gave a lowdown of the concept and
theme, as well as the development path, of the Kano
ICT Park project. The two teams went into discussion
on areas of partnership and assistance from Google.
It was similar story at HP, where the delegation was
received and briefed by the Company’s Director of
International Trade Development, Mr. Walter Reichert.
Discussions were favourable in the three companies
visited and there was agreement on follow-up meetings
to concretize issues that were discussed. Formal
agreements will follow at later dates.
His Excellency used the occasion of a town hall
meeting organized by Nigerian Professionals in
California to further press home the benefits of the
ICT Park. At the highly attended interactive forum,
Malam delved into the strategies being pursued by his
Administration to sustainably situate Kano on a path
of economic buoyancy and self reliance. The ICT Park
idea, he said was conceived by experts in development
economics along with stakeholders. The administration
had put together the First Kano Economic Summit in
April 2006, inviting over 1000 experts and critical
stakeholders to brainstorm on strategies to address
Kano’s declining economic fortunes, shrinking
industrial base, booming population and declining
revenue, in order to sustain the much idealized
welfare state. The Kano Economic Summit which was put
together in partnership with Kano Peace and
Development Initiative, a non-profit organization, and
other groups with the stated objective building
consensus in the “design and implementation of
appropriate strategies for restoring Kano’s economic
prosperity”. Following the Summit recommendations,
the Kano state government set up an 18 man committee
headed by Dr. Mansur Ahmed, the Chief Executive of the
Nigerian Economic Summit Group to tinker new
strategies employing the strengths and human resources
of Kano people to prepare a blueprint for prosperity.
The core recommendations of the group included the
establishment of an independent power, an expanded
revenue base, development of agriculture, commerce and
water supply and reconstructing the state’s crumbling
industrial and economic infrastructures. The ICT Park
project was one of the ideas for achieving the grand.
His Excellency explained his government’s efforts
toward the expansion of Kano’s economic base and
empowering its people. After His Excellency’s
presentation, the Director General of the Research and
Documentation, Ibrahim Ado Kurawa, explored deeper
themes in the administration’s development
initiatives. At the end, Nigerians in Diaspora
present Rose as one in saluting the commitment of the
Kano State Government in repositioning the state’s
economy and in establishing the ICT Park, in
particular.
Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora in America,
California Forum, Dr. Steve Agbah, lauding Malam’s
vision in establishing the ICT Park and other
projects, said the Administration’s courage in
including non-indigenes in the Cabinet was highly
commendable and portended a future of mutual
co-existence for Nigeria. Thanking the professionals
for their interest, Malam challenged them to take
interest in what is going on at home. Citing the mass
failure in this year’s WAEC/NECO exams, the former
National President of ANCOPPSS and WAEC Examiner said
there was need for all stakeholders to close ranks and
ensure that only credible people were elected into
public offices
The delegation’s next stop was the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation office in Seattle, Washington State,
where it was received by the Director of Delivery of
the Foundation, Dr. Rajeev Venkayya. Dr. Vankayya
thanked the Governor for his commitment to the
eradication of Polio, adding that the commitment had
brought down the infection rate. History will
document the fact that no governor in Kano’s history
has done more to safeguard the health of the people
than Malam. The commendation from the Bill Gates
Foundation is an important endorsement on the efforts
of this administration in containing such diseases as
Polio.
Another town hall meeting with Nigerian professionals
in New Jersey provided another opportunity for Malam
and the Kano delegation to make a stronger pitch for
Investors to do business in the ICT Park. The
occasion was the Gala Night/Fund Raising Banquet of
NIDO, New Jersey at which Malam was honoured with
Exemplary Leadership and Excellence Award, alongside
National Planning Minister, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman,
Hon. Abike Dabiri and former Cross River State
Governor, Donald Duke.
Malam’s last engagement on US soil was in Washington,
where he granted an interview to the VOA Hausa
Service, on Monday April 12.
The second leg of the delegation’s mission took to
Cardiff, Wales as Guest of the Cardiff University.
After a tour round the University conducted by Ms Sara
Hadwin, Malam settled for the main business of the day
which was a public lecture. In front a packed
audience of Muslims and Non-Muslims, Malam delivered
his lecture. “Islam and the West: Misconception or
Misrepresentation“ in which he argued that the
association of Islam and violence is a common
misconception that the general Western public has
developed about Islam. He urged building blocks of
understanding and forging a common front against
ignorance and misrepresentation between Islam and the
West.
“What matters most to Muslims the world over is that
almost all today’s proxy wars are fought in Muslim
lands: Principally Iraq and Afghanistan, and to lesser
extent, Pakistan. These are not wars essentially
between Muslims but wars initiated and moderated by
the West”.
The reaction of the audience to Malam’s lecture
indicates the development of an open mind to sound
reasoning on such a topical issue. The delegation has
since returned but the impressions of a successful
road show to market one of the landmark achievements
of the Administration, the ICT Park project will
linger on. In the near future, when this historic
project takes off fully and begins to play the pivotal
role it was designed to play in the transformation of
lives in Kano society, historians will do well to
acknowledge how a determined and talented Governor,
staking his greatest personal asset, his integrity,
linked up with the outside world to make a difference.
SULE YA’U SULE is the Senior Special Assistant, Media
and Public Relations to the Kano State Governor and is
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