Nigeria has become a hostage to nature – Zinox Boss 

 
Known for his forthrightness dealing with issues, especially as they affect industry growth and national values, Chief Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman of Zinox Technologies Limited, has once again decried the country’s over 95 per cent dependence on oil, likening this to being held hostage by nature.

The man who is synonymous with the first indigenous world acclaim computer in Nigeria, made this comment while he was welcoming some Nigerian ICT professionals from the Diaspora who paid him a courtesy visit in his office recently. Mr. Ekeh praised the professionals for the visit but urged them to come home permanently and join in the task of nation building.

He urged that they should not wait for such a time when there would be uninterrupted energy supply or water, instead he impressed it on them that the nation is in dire need of professionals to serve as the arrow head for Nigeria’s participation in the global knowledge economy.

Expressing his pain, the Chairman of Zinox said that it was disheartening to note that Nigeria has surrendered to nature by allowing oil to be the mainstay of the economy.  He said that oil requires huge capital to explore and refine, breeds corruption, pollutes the environment, triggers political instability and still could dry up one day.  Leo Stan Ekeh described as unacceptable the fact that any group of people can think of survival in the 21st Century without the application of brain power.

He advised them to be positive about Nigeria as in no distant time our leaderships at different levels shall become digital knowledge compliant and focus on building a new economy where wealth becomes a right to every citizen as against what the nation has experienced in the last 50 years. He informed them that President Goodluck Jonathan has already activated this with the launch of his Facebook page and hope other leaders could follow this example.
 
Mr. Ekeh said that the beauty of the knowledge economy lie in its endorsement of social mobility.  The poor can rise to become billionaires through the development of Information and Communications Technology. Whereas oil blocks get allocated to the very rich thus widening the gap between the rich and the poor. ICT presents society with a level playing ground for the actualisation of individual and societal goals. All that is required to exploit the potentials of Information Technology and also build large human capital base for the country is for the governments to commit sincerely to creating the right environment for teaching and learning in schools.

He further encouraged that governments should intervene regularly, because of the low level of disposable income, to ensure that interested individuals have access to the tools of wealth creation.  For example, the Zinox Boss observed that Nigeria’s 50th Independence Anniversary would be remarkable if the Federal Government gives out at least 200, 000 laptops to deserving Nigerian university graduates; in actual fact, the National Assembly should make a law that every Nigerian passing out of the National Youth Service Corp must be given a laptop.

Responding, the leader of the visiting ICT professionals, Dr. Ibitoye ’Dimeji, said that the visit to Zinox was undertaken to place a clear face to the leadership of this exemplary  company that they were already familiar with through news reports and the internet. Dr. Ibitoye said that Zinox is one of the few success stories that foretell a bright future for the country. He said that they were particularly impressed when they visited the Central Bank of Nigeria and discovered that the CBN is standardised on Zinox Computers.