By Joel Popoola
More than 60 years after our independence, Nigeria once again, must be wary of colonialism – this time in a very different shape.
At the end of August, Nigeria and Russia signed a military cooperation deal involving the supply of equipment, the training of troops and “technology transfer”.
Given our need to tackle the simultaneously insurgencies of both Islamists and Separatists, there is no doubting that Nigeria needs this sort of support, not least with historic allies such as the United States currently unwilling to sell military supplies to our nation due to concerns over human rights abuses.
But there is also no doubt that this also increases our dependency on a foreign power, whose interests are not always going to be aligned with our own. The phrase “technology transfer” could mean anything – from the sale of hardware to allowing another country access to our national security infrastructure.
Then there’s the growing influence of China on our growing technology sector.
Again, the need for their involvement is unquestionable. But their motivations are not.
The Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei already operates more than 70% of Africa’s telecommunications network – even though concerns about its links with the Chinese government have led to countries like Britain and the United States banning it from their mobile and internet networks.
Their concern is that Huawei’s dominance could allow the Chinese government to use state-sponsored hackers to spy on Nigeria or disrupt communications – something only likely to become more important as we move towards the era of self-driving cars and virtual domestic technology assistants such as Alexa and Siri.
The Wall Street Journal has already alleged that Huawei has helped Ugandan and Zambian authorities spy on political opponents.
A report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies even claimed that Huawei’s activities could “provide Chinese authorities with intelligence and even coercive leverage.”
This may not be the traditional form of colonialism, which arrived on our shores baring weapons but a new sort of colonialism baring investment in vital infrastructure, but at it is heart it remains remarkably similar – an overseas power with undue influence on our way of life.
This form of international interconnectivity is inevitable in the twenty-first century, and I am no nativist or economic nationalist – and it is of course unrealistic at the present time for Nigeria to develop an independent cloud infrastructure, for example, not least when it is exactly what we need to maximise the potential of our booming fintech sector.
We can also not allow foreign dominion over our emerging digital sector. According to one report, no less than 14 of the 20 most exciting tech start up are Nigerian – and the entire top 10! We must ensure that the benefit of this ingenuity and innovation is felt at home.
Huawei has also announced plans to train up to 3 million young Africans in digital skills, including artificial intelligence. Make no mistake; we need this – not least because as a nation we have failed to provide this for ourselves.
But we also need to be cautious of becoming over-reliant on overseas powers.
The first step towards achieving this is to built a more united Nigeria, and in particular we must bridge the divide between our people and our political class. And ironically, it is technology that can deliver that.
At the digital democracy campaign I lead, we are also working to bring electors and elected closer together.
We’ve created a free smartphone app – Rate Your Leader – to use mobile technology to let elected officials to interact directly with confirmed voters in the divisions they serve – in a way where insults are impossible and dishonesty is undesirable.
This way politicians and people can use Rate Your Leader to connect person-to-person, understanding each other’s needs and positions. This way, leaders immediately ascertain what matters most to the people who vote for them, and join forces to tackle those topics. And voters can even rate local leaders for transparency and accessibility.
And that in turn fosters trust, sadly lacking in so much of our political process. .
Opening up our economy to the rest of the globe is unavoidable, and opens up Nigeria to a world of potential. But we must face the inevitable risks and challenges as a united nation.
To create that united nation we need greater co-operation and communication between people and the political class, both of which can be delivered at the touch of a button.
Joel Popoola is a Nigerian tech entrepreneur, digital democracy campaigner and creator of the Rate Your Leader app. He can be reached via @JOPopoola
