Running Out of IP Addresses on the Internet: IPv6 to the Rescue

I’ll start this discussion by taking us through the experience of a certain man I’ll call “Dunta” (not his real name) in one African village. Mr. Dunta ran out of names for his children. I’m sure many of us know that many African countries allow polygamy. In that case many men marry more than one wife at a time, although most men marry only one. 

South African President Jacob Zuma, who is married to four wives, is a prominent example of an African marrying more than one wife. He vigorously defends polygamy, saying it’s part of his culture and charging that those who think their culture is superior have a problem. But then, some people in Africa take polygamy to extraordinary levels. Even in a society where polygamy is nothing unusual, Mr. Dunta, a wealthy farmer, was an aberration. He married 53 wives and had over 180 children. 

Usually, it was a man’s duty to give names to each child born to him. And, names in Nigeria are not selected arbitrarily. Each name must have a specific meaning that usually reflects the parents’ beliefs, hopes, circumstances, or a plea or praise to God, or wishes for the child. For example, my name is an assertion that “children are more important than wealth or fame.” At a time, Dunta would name a new child and he will be told that he already had child with the same name. He’d try another name, and he’ll be told it had been taken. He’d try yet another name and he’d be told it wasn’t available. So, in frustration, he named one particular child “Ojulam” meaning "I’m tired of all these." He then reportedly asked his wives and grown children to find new meanings in the lives of the family for which names can be extracted and assigned. They tried, but could only come up with the idea of extending already existing names by adding some emphasis or extension tags. For example, for the name “Ngozi” which means "God’s blessings", he would call another child “Ngoziozo” meaning “God’s blessings again.” Thus, the names of his children started getting longer, weirder and more difficult for people to fathom. Suffice it to say that Dunta continued having difficulties issuing names, and the villagers then started making jokes out of Dunta’s experience, calling him Mr. “Ahagwugo”, meaning Mr. “I’m out of Names.” He died some years back though.

The experience of Mr. Dunta, a.k.a. Mr. Ahagwugo [Out of Names] was like that which the Internet community has had in assigning IP addresses. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has done well in managing the IP address space allocations globally. Even more so, as it came up with delegating 5 Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) to apportion IP address blocks to ISPs and other entities.

The Regional Internet Registry system evolved over time, eventually dividing the world into five RIRs, as follows:

• African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) for Africa
• American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) for the USA, Canada, several parts of the Caribbean region, and Antarctica.
• Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) for Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and neighboring countries
• Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre (LACNIC) for Latin America and parts of the Caribbean region
• Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) for Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and Central Asia

Map of the five RIRs is shown below:

Regional Internet Registries world map

In the address allocating system, the Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) was the 4th version in the development IP and the 1st version of the protocol to be extensively deployed. With IPv4 system, an IP address is a 32-bit number such as 99.34.467.122. Thus, IPv4 can support a total of 2^32 IP addresses; it can support about 4.3 billion addresses. While this number is quite a lot, the fact is that all 4.3 billion addresses have at this time been assigned to different companies and institutions, such as IBM, Ford, MIT. Today, there is a crisis. In spite of this IPv4 ingenuity, being that it’s an amazing mainstay for moving Internet traffic, available (unassigned) Internet IP addresses are running out as a result of the immense growth of the Internet. Yet, it is pertinent to pinpoint that we haven't actually run out of IP addresses at the moment. The problem is that many of the addresses are unused and in the hands of few companies and institutions to whom they’ve been assigned. As a result, it is anticipated that the IPv4 IP address will become scarcer and more costly to obtain for use over the next 1 or 2 years and that this will ultimately create problems for the Internet.

Due to the impending depletion of available IP addresses, a new version of IP addressing was developed in 1995. It is IPv6. It uses 128 bits for the IP address (Comer, 2009). It was standardized as RFC 2460 in 1998 has seen ongoing deployment since the mid-2000s. The IPv6 system will offer a lot more numerical IP addresses than IPv4. Since it utilizes 128-bit number system, it can support 2^128 IP addresses; it can support 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 addresses – a lot more that IPv4’s approximately 4,390,000,000 possible addresses. IPv6 will also simplify address allocations and provide extra network security features.

But, transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6 is not going to be an easy ride. Not only is it going to be challenging for the engineers, but somehow for everyday user as well.

The limitations of the IPv4 addressing was recognized about two decades ago. And, the implementation of IPv6 has been going on since the last decade. But, progress has been very slow: just a small part of the web has changed over to IPv6. Again, IPv4 and IPv6 fundamentally run as parallel networks. Thus, exchange of data between these protocols entails special gateways. To make the transition, existing networking software and routers need to be changed to support IPv6. And, this will require a lot of time and financial resources.
On January 12, 2011, five companies: Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Akamai Technologies, and Limelight Networks orchestrated World IPv6 Day. It was a technical testing and publicity event for IPv6. Following its success, the Internet Society carried out a World IPv6 Launch day on June 6, 2012. But, instead of testing, it sought to bring about permanent deployment of IPv6 in the products and services of the participants. Actually, the participants achieved some successes and promises. According to Fiocco (2012), “content that currently receives roughly 30% of global World Wide Web IPv4 page-views should now have become available via IPv6.” On the day of lunch, IPv6 traffic on AMS-IX rose by 50%; it rose from 2 Gbit/s to 3 Gbit/s.

For the regular Internet user, there should be no major impact on his or life. Most commonly used OSs actually support IPv6. Windows XP SP1, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows and Mac OS X 10.2 all support IPv6. On the other hand, many routers and servers do not support it. Thus, a connection between a device with an IPv6 address to an IPv4-only router or server is not ordinarily possible. However, there are ongoing efforts to make IPv4 and IPv6 systems interoperable. For example, Hamarsheh, Goossens and Al-Qerem (2012) introduced a new mechanism called AIN-PT. It stands for “Assuring Interoperability between heterogeneous (IPv4/IPv6) Networks without ("minus") using Protocol Translation.” The mechanisms proposed by the researchers seeks to make “communication between two heterogeneous networks (operating on two different IP protocols) possible by tunneling IPv4 packets in IPv6 packets, instead of translating complete headers between IPv4 and IPv6.” Before then on January 6, 2011, Kim Yong Ho and Ryu Gi Seon of LG Electronics Inc. based in South Korea had filed a patent application for IP addressing that will support support IPv4 and IPv6. LG Electronics described their system as “a broadcast dedicated connection identifier … used for broadcasting certain types of Internet Protocol control messages to allow proper IP address establishment for IPv4 and IPv6."

NTT Communications' native, tunneling, and dual stack gateway services

As the NTT Communications' native, tunneling, and dual stack gateway services, illustrated above, demonstrate, there is a lot of transitions going on from IPv4 to IPv6. During the transition, IPv6 and IPv4 will co-exist, with traffic steadily moving to IPv6. 

By and large, IPv6 technology is still emerging. Although, it promises ultimate improvements on network security, many bugs are still being experienced.

References

Comer, D. (2009). Computer networks and internets. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Fiocco, A. (2012). World IPv6 launch: Impact on the Web. Cisco Systems.

Hamarsheh, A., Goossens, M., & Al-Qerem, A. (2012). Assuring interoperability between heterogeneous (IPv4/IPv6) networks without using protocol translation. IETE Technical Review, 29(2), 114-132. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0256-4602.95384

LG electronics inc files patent application for IP addressing to support IPv4 and IPv6. (2011, Jan 12). Indian Patents News. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/835109441?accountid=8289

NTT Communications (2013). IPv6. Retrieved from http://www.us.ntt.net/products/internet-access/ipv6.cfm

The 7 deadly sins of Governor Rotimi Amaechi

The rumble in the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) can become the best thing to happen to Governor Rotimi Amaechi, or it can become his undoing, depending on how smartly he plays it.

Read the 7 deadly sins of Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

Boston Bombers - What A Waste of Precious Lives

Terrorists are very misguided. One might really wonder what informs their cowardly, disastrous and senseless acts or destruction. they end up being killed or jailed - and achieving nothing.

As expected, police captured a 19-year-old ethnic Chechen - Dzhokhar Tsarnaev - suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings with his older brother - Tamerlan Tsarnaev - after an intense day-long manhunt on Friday that closed down the city and turned a working-class suburb into a virtual armed camp.

What a waste of precious lives - killing innocent victims, including a law enforcement officer. Terrorists should understand that there is NO GAIN in their trade.

Congratulations to the people of Boston for the return of peace. 

Nicolas Maduro Sworn in as Venezuela President

Let Peace Reign in Venezuela

"I am calling to stop splitting the country into two camps, I am calling on everyone, including opposition politicians, to start talks on different scenarios." President Nicolas Maduro

Is Your Business a Part of the Mobile Revolution?

High-Impact Digital Marketing Systems for Your Business

Send your captivating sales messages, sales invitations or coupons to thousands of customers through their Mobile phones. Visit http://www.hitechgonewild.com/ 

ColdFusion MX Online Training Courses - Learn ColdFusion MX with e-LearningCenter's Online Courses

I found what I think is a good ColdFusion MX training if you're one of those that just can’t spend even a day or two away from the office. I believe the our online ColdFusion MX Tutorial+ online courses are worth trying! 


Here's the link: http://www.e-learningcenter.com/coldfusionmx.htm

RIM attracts 15,000 apps for BlackBerry 10 in two days

http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/rim-attracts-15000-apps-blackberry-10-in-two-days-210837

Woman Delivers Horse In A Nigerian Church....

Beautiful American colors!

Official Google Blog: Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, photo fun and...

Official Google Blog: Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, photo fun and...: View Ripples

When CEOs Reject Good Offers That May Have Come from Nobodies: The Case of Google and Excite

Excite CEO throws out Google from the door. Click on image for larger view

CEOs are saddled with offers everyday. But it appears that when looking at these offers, especially unsolicited offers, the CEOs tend not to look primarily at the substance of the ideas, but at the persons behind the offers. Most times also, they either not look at the offers at all or they delegate the examination of the offers to subordinates. The tendency is for the subordinates to iron out all the reasons why the “untested ideas” must be turned down. Ostensibly, they do this to protect themselves from being blamed for anything that might go wrong should the new idea be accepted and not work. Again, they must create an impression of protecting the CEO and the company. And, that has been the mistake most CEOs make.

Truly, these CEOs make important decisions everyday – mostly good decisions. But they make terribly bad decisions too. One of the worst decisions a CEO has made in modern history was made by George Bell, CEO of the one-time popular web portal Excite. The CEO turned down Larry Page's and Sergey Brim's offer to buy Google from them for a paltry $1 million. The two Google founders were, at that time, graduate students of Stanford University and they were feeling that the Google project was taking too much of their time, and that their studies were being neglected. Thereupon, they set out to sell Google and offered to George Bell, whose company Excite was the powerhouse of Internet search at that time. George Bell did not only reject the offer, but he also got into a heated discussion with one of Excite's venture capitalists, Vinod Khosla, who had negotiated a $750,000 offer with Larry Page and Sergey Brim.

Google is today, one of the most successful companies in the world and is worth nearly $200 billion while Excite is all but extinct.

CEOs ought to understand that people that have already made big names are unlikely to contact them more than “nobodies” with great ideas. Larry Page and Sergey Brim were poor university students when they came up with the idea of Google. Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Dell’s Michael Dell, RIM’s Mike Lazaridis and Apple's Steve Jobs were all “nobodies” and not even college graduates when insightful CEOs broke the norm and took on the ideas of these geniuses. 

The Great Tech War Of 2012

Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon are battling for the future of the innovation economy.

Let it be known: these modern oligarchies will not last forever as they are today - especially in their various domains, as they keep trying to invade each others' territory and trying to outdo or undercut each other. 

Yet, no one should count BlackBerry out in the wireless arena. The giant has been wounded, but is not sleeping. So also, the terribly struggling T-Mobile can bounce back and win its well-deserved share of the market if its CEO Phillip Humm can find none-frontal-attack ways to reset T-Mobile's faulty brand perception. 

In the social networking arena, Facebook needs to panic. Google+ is coming. Google+ is adding some class that Facebook may not have thought about. But, I'll leave the details for another day, as the data is yet being gathered.

In all cases though, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon all need to be on guard. The tech world is very dynamic and no one knows the next big thing that is coming in 2 to 3 years or 5 years. Farhad Manjoo of Fast Company magazine puts it well: " ... despite this oncoming war, in which attacking one another becomes standard operating practice, their inevitable slide into irrelevancy likely won't be at the hands of one of their fellow rivals. As always, the real future of tech belongs to some smart-ass kid in a Palo Alto garage." 

Before the tech kid appears, I still insist, don't count BlackBerry out and Facebook needs to worry. Google+ has something coming.

BlackBerry can roar back like a wounded lion. Facebook can fall like MySpace. And Apple can fall like Yahoo!.

T-Mobile, too, can roar back. While one cannot completely disregard T-Mobile's current technical challenges, the company's greatest difficulties might owe more to erroneous public perception of the T-Mobile brand than its technological realities. CEO Philipp Humm must therefore find creative ways to reverse the faulty perception of the T-Mobile brand. 

Those that are writing off T-Mobile might be mistaken.

Back to the social networking war. Although it's going to be a daunting task for Google+, with the right technical and human strategies, it can dethrone Facebook.

New Technology that Can Remotely Disable iPhones from Taking Photos During Riots

We can no longer question the volcanic impact Mobile phones and social networks can make on national security.

The disturbances in the Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, England, Malawi and other countries seem to be leading to new thoughts in technologies that minimize the spread of information about riots and internal uprisings.

A patent that has been filed by Cupertino has the potential to allow governments or police to remotely disable iPhone cameras of demonstrators. If this technology succeeds, demonstrators’ Mobile phone cameras can be remotely stopped from taking and sending pictures of the disturbances and posting them on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. This can, thus, minimize the speed and intensity by which information about the riots and demonstration spread over cyber space. 

Exponentail Growth of African Undersea Cables

With Internet penetration rates exponentially increasing in Africa, we can no longer question the volcanic impact social media and networks can make in Africa.

We have already seen the impact they have made in North Africa, with the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. But, many people still question whether anything like this could happen in Sub-Saharan Africa. Discoveries by Nnenna Nwakanma, a prominent social media expert show that things are happening in strange places in Sub-Saharan Africa and that the potential of social media and networks in citizen policy engagement can only be likened to a pregnancy whose term is already in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Differential Equations in Security Intelligence Calculations

New advances in mathematical and computer sciences are aiding intelligence analysts in more accurately calculating the quantitative probabilities of future occurrences or in some cases, the directions of specific events or actions by targeted individuals. One of the areas of science that have seen phenomenal increase in their applications to intelligence calculations is Differential Equations – a prominent area in calculus.

Differential equations are mathematical equations that unravel an unknown function of one or several variables that relate the values of the function itself and its derivatives of various orders and magnitudes.

Examples of Differential Equations



Simply put, a differential equation is an equation that contains a derivative. A derivative is a measure of how a function changes as its input changes.

In some cases, as in the case of the first example above, the equation may contain just one derivative and little else. In others, as in the last example, it may contain more than one derivative, and the derivative may be first-order (see explanations of “separable first-order linear ordinary differential equations” below), second-order or any other order!

While a differential equation must contain at least one derivative, the equation may contain other terms involving variables, as in the three middle examples given.

Although the second and third equations look fairly similar, the information they contain is very different.

Separable First-Order Linear Ordinary Differential Equations

A separable linear ordinary differential equation of the first order has the general form:



where f(t) is some known function. We may solve this by separation of variables (moving the y terms to one side and the t terms to the other side),



Integrating, we find

where C is a constant. Then, by exponentiation, we obtain



with A another arbitrary constant. It is easy to confirm that this is a solution by plugging it into the original differential equation:



Some elaboration is needed because ƒ(t) is not necessarily a constant—indeed, it might not even be integrable.

Arguably, one must also assume something about the domains of the functions involved before the equation is fully defined. Are we talking about complex functions, or just real, for example? The usual textbook approach is to discuss forming the equations well before considering how to solve them.

Why Differential Equations Are Becoming More Useful in Intelligence Calculations

Differential equations have often played prominent roles in engineering, physics, economics, and now, intelligence.

In making intelligence calculations, the philosophical bases of most of the modern intelligence analytical instruments (such as the Lockwood Analytical Method for Prediction) are that:

1. The future is not predetermined 
2. The future is the sum total of all interactions of "free will" 
3. The future is a spectrum of constantly changing relative probabilities. 

Since a differential equation tells us about the relationship between two (or more) variables, they are now being used to uncover the interactions of the human free will. Often what we want to do is to solve the differential equation in order to see the relationships more precisely.

By solving a differential equation, we seek to find the function that satisfies it (the conditions or interactions of the human free will). In other words we apply differential equations in order to find the relationship between the two variables directly, and not necessarily involving any derivatives.

Applications of differential equations to intelligence analyses have produced excellent results for intelligence analysts because of the advancements in database technologies. With richer databases, most occurrences in our modern societies have moved from the indeterminate realm to the deterministic sphere. That is, in predicting human actions, intelligence analysts now depend less guesswork and more on scientific accuracy. In other words, most human actions can now be effectively calculated based on existing data.

Wikipedia for Spies: The CIA Discovers Web 2.0

Wikipedia for Spies: The CIA Discovers Web 2.0

Folks I Hope You Understand Facebook's New Database Marketing Strategies

Those of you on Facebook and other social networking sites must have noticed that Facebook, like Yahoo!, Google and Bing, has recently been asking you to provide more details about yourself.

Facebook now wants you to provide such additional information as your schools of attendance, your city of birth, your city of residence, and current employment.

The company also seeks information about your preferences in music, movies, TV shows and games. Facebook is also interested in your religious identity (even though its founder is an atheist). They also want to know your relationship status, whether you like men or women, and all those social tidbits. Of course they want you to disclose as much of your general activities as possible. What’s more, Facebook wants you to divulge your political party or political views, your favorite quotes, books, etc. Of course, Facebook has your birthday and sex even though you may have chosen not to make it public.

Do you imagine for a moment that Facebook is accumulating all this information simply to enable "your friends" on Facebook to have a richer mental portrait of you?

Well, it's not about you or your friends. It's all about dollars -- advertising dollars. Just hold on right here. I'll return to the dollars in a second.

You'll also notice that Facebook's new platform has a wider and more conspicuous space for ads than before. If you haven't noticed, then, look at the column on the right hand side of your profile page. You'll see the ads. And you'll see that the ads are informed by the information you have provided. Again, you'll notice that the ads column is wider and more conspicuous than before. The ads appear just below the "People You May Know" block, which suggests two possible "friends" for you. Now, you'll see the "Sponsored" ads below. This arrangement is not random by any means. A great visual gimmick is at play. The "People You May Know" block visually diffuses the fact that you are being seduced to stray into the marketplace - the money column - featuring the ads. The new platform was smartly designed to draw your eyes to the ads without you knowing what has just happened. And it works

In fact, when I studied the new Facebook platform and juxtaposed it to the former platform, I couldn't help but respect Facebook's marketing ingenuity.

Anyway, you better know that the reason Facebook is collecting all that extra information from you is to build up their database for marketing purposes. Which brings me back to that matter about advertising dollars.

Facebook is on an aggressive monetization mission. It's seeking to compete more vigorously against Google, which it considers its chief rival, for advertising dollars. On its part, Google views Facebook as a real threat to its advertising dollars goldmine. Facebook has a long way to go yet in its rivalry with Google. Google currently rakes in about $32 billion annually in advertising income whereas Facebook still manages to earn just about $1 billion annually, even with its nearly 600 million users worldwide.

So, here is the thing: The data that you provide to Facebook will enable the company's computer algorithms to point more relevant ads at your profile pages, and to encourage you to click on the ads so they can make money. Most of those ads are pay-per-click – which means that Facebook gets paid only when you click on the ads. Those ads are Facebook's bread and butter. That's where the company hopes to make billions of dollars in additional revenues. That’s why Facebook wants to know everything about you.

Targeted advertising is not happening only on the Internet. New technologies are being developed to direct more relevant (targeted) ads to your TV screen. With more sophisticated data warehousing and analytical technologies, you’ll soon be seeing different ads on your TV from what your neighbor who is watching the same TV station, at the same time, sees on his/her screen.

Anyway, there's actually nothing wrong with Facebook asking you for everything about your life. After all, you signed up for their "free" service and people are having fun providing the information anyway. Nor is it wrong for Facebook to use the information you willingly provided to make money.

But it helps – it’s wise – for you to know the nature of the game going on.

ManageEngine's Server & Application Performance Monitoring Software

ManageEngine Applications Manager is offering software that would help businesses ensure high availability and performance for their business applications.

 

The hope of the availability and performance monitoring program is to ensure that enterprises' servers and applications have high uptime. According to the makers, the application performance management capability includes server monitoring, application server monitoring, database monitoring, web services monitoring, virtualization monitoring, cloud monitoring and an array of other application management capability that will help IT administrators manage their resources. The software is avilable for a 30-day trial at ManageEngine's Web site.

Nigeria - A High Tech Savvy Country

Nigeria is a West African country that has a stupendous endowment of natural resources and intellectual power. With a population of more than 150 million – Nigeria recently surpassed Bangladesh to become the 7th most populous country on earth. 


Nigeria’s intellectuals, both at home and in the diaspora, have marked their presence all over the world. They have excelled in physics, mathematics, medicine, engineering, computer technology and other imperative areas of modern human endeavor. 

Granted, Nigeria has some serious social and economic challenges. But none of Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges is actually unique to it. 

While it will be foolhardy for me to make any excuses for Nigeria, I must nonetheless note here, that the well-publicized problems of corruption, fraud, threats of terrorism, political and religious rigidities as well as beleaguered economic machineries are ubiquitous. Even the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India and other talk-of-the-town nations have their fair share of these ills of humanity. To illustrate, data by Infobase Limited, a California-based database and geospatial data company indicates that the US, the UK, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, South Africa, Canada, Italy and India all have higher authenticated crimes rates than Nigeria. Another database provided by data360 – another California-based database company – containing UN’s global crime trends covering several years, did not show a disproportionate reason for worry for those interested in exploring Nigeria. The top 40 most worrisome countries, included Swaziland, Columbia, South Africa, Jamaica, Guatemala, Russia, Mexico, Paraguay, Belarus, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Thailand, Philippines, Barbados, Argentina, Poland, the USA, India, Germany, England, France, Portugal, Canada, Australia, Spain, Switzerland, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Pakistan (in that order).

No! Not Nigeria. Some critics might be surprised that Nigeria was not there. But indeed, Nigeria was not there.

Therefore, no one should allow any real or perceived shortcomings of Nigeria to hoodwink him or her into losing sight of the enormous potentials that Nigeria offers. Nigeria is emerging global economy. Those who recognize this, and get in early, and contribute to the good of the country will stand to benefit.
 
This begs the question: How does one reach Nigeria and harness the potentials of its people?
 
There are many profound ways in which the world can benefit from the energy and enterprise of Nigerians. Nigerians have embraced technology more rapidly and more intensely than most other developing countries. Internet and mobile devices – which are the main drivers of today’s economic performances, have permeated the Nigerian society. Nigeria’s cities and its suburban towns are heavily connected to the global information superhighway. Nigerians of all cadres are online – the rich, the man, the woman, the poor, the educated, the not-so-educated; everyone. In fact, even elderly local women in Nigeria – living in the vast countryside are now connected, with their handsets often tied to their wrappers as they go to the market or their farms.

Here are the statistics showing Nigeria’s connectivity:

Internet Usage

Nigeria, has over 44 million active Internet users, and ranks 10th in the world, according to data from Internet World Statistics. See the graph below:

Nigeria ranks 10th in the world in internet usage; and by far, surpasses other populous developing countries such as Indonesia (population 237,556,363 with 30 million internet users), Mexico (population 112,336,538 with 27 million internet users) and Philippines (population 95,000,000 with 27 million internet users). Pakistan, which has a population of 176,603,000, has less than 20 million internet users.

Mobile Phone Subscription

Nigeria has over 91 million mobile subscribers, and also ranks 10th in the world, according to aggregated data from CTIA-The Wireless Association® - an international organization of the wireless communications industry, the Hong Kong Government’s Office of the Telecommunications Authority, the Industry Statistics-Subscriber Data by the Nigerian Telecommunication Commission, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) based in Geneva, Switzerland, and more.

Only China, India, the United States, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Germany and Pakistan have more mobile phone subscribers than Nigeria.

Given these high numbers of hi-tech adoption by Nigeria, as shown above, there is no doubt that many global companies and investors will do well for themselves as soon as they “discover” and explore Nigeria.
 

The smart companies will begin to find that they can actually profit by locating many operational bases in Nigeria and by linking them to their other hubs, through technology. These companies will save money due to reduced costs of labor, physical plant, insurance and taxes. Yes, they’ll save money, even over the operational bases they may already have, or may be contemplating to establish in India, China, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa and Egypt. Yes, they’ll find that Nigeria is truly a land of economic opportunities. They’ll be baffled by the amazing returns they’ll rake in, just like they were bamboozled when they discovered China and India, and started investing heavily in those countries. These intelligent global investors, who were originally ridiculed upon moving into China and India – countries that were discounted as impoverished third world nations – are now making huge fortunes from the get-up-and-go disposition of the two Asian tigers that are now somewhat stagnating. 

And now this: Nigeria is the African tiger. Nigeria is still waiting for the smartest, world-shattering and most alert global entrepreneurs who must now look outside Asia and South America for greener pastures. 

Nigeria also offers tremendous opportunities for those that want to expand their global market.
 

The most recent economic data, from an unclassified CIA database, shows that the commercial value of Nigeria to the international community is very significant to the prosperity of many global companies, prospective global investors, and ultimately, to the development of the economies of various nations.

The CIA data implies that with Nigeria’s estimated population of over 150 million people, and again, the 7th in the world (and the 8th most populous country just a few months ago), the nation has a lot of potential customers for businesses that are serious with international commerce.
 

What’s more? With an estimated GDP (purchasing power parity) of $353.2 billion in 2009, Nigeria ranks 2nd in Africa (behind South Africa, ahead of Egypt) and 33rd in the world. Although the nation’s GDP real growth rate, which was estimated at 3.8% in 2009, showed constant decline within the previous five years, indications are that the aggressive policies of the current administration would likely raise the GDP in 2 years.

What all these boil down to is that if you into global business, Nigeria can help produce and deliver your products and services, and Nigeria can help buy and use them.

The most effective way anyone can reach and rally the Nigerian people in this information era is through ingenious Web and mobile technologies. After all, many goods and services are now being delivered wirelessly. These technologies offer businesses effective tools to build a large and strong workforce or customer base. They also offer both Nigerian and foreign public officials or international organizations effective tools to build large and strong grassroots movements, or to expand and solidify their grassroots support. 

But there’s a problem that must be tackled head-on.

It is apparent that while the massive adoption of high technologies by Nigerians have its blessings to the country and the international community, it also presents significant challenges to peace loving citizens of Nigeria and the world. 

Perhaps the most critical aspect of Nigeria's hi-tech usage is its national security implications. Terrorists and other terrible people have also discovered the Internet and wireless communications.

The Internet and other hi-tech systems truly have significant ramifications on the security of Nigeria at a time when these systems are routinely deployed to make contacts, recruit and mobilize networks of radicals and troublemakers around the world. There is no wonder why the United States of America and many other countries are now investing heavily in understanding and monitoring the reach, uses and power of the new and ever dynamic Internet and mobile technologies. 

Dr. Linton Wells, a distinguished research professor at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, sums up the national security challenges posed by the internet and other high technologies:

"This is not just techie-geeky stuff, but serious stuff with national security ramifications."

 
Indeed, in a globalized environment, Nigeria and other peace-loving nations and organizations must work closely together, with mutual respect for each other, to ensure that international criminals are effectively monitored, so as not to undermine the blessings and opportunities bestowed upon modern society, by modern high technologies to facilitate international commerce and peace.

* Mr. Nwankama Nwankama is an information technology strategist. He is a Nigerian, and resident in Maryland, USA..

Africa's Leadership Problems

I read Mr. Godsway Yaw Sappor's article published in GhanaWeb with great interest. It was entitled: The Failure Of African Leadership, Cause Of Africa's Problems

Africa has 10% of the world's oil and gas deposits, and according to Mr. Sappor, Africa also has 50% of the world's gold, most of the world's diamonds and chromium, 90% of the cobalt, 40% of the world's potential hydroelectric power, 65% of the manganese, millions of acres of untilled farmland, as well as other natural resources.

It's disappointing to note that in spite of Africa's natural wealth, it is home to the world's most impoverished and abused people.

Mr. Sappor, further observed that many African leaders are quick to blame Africa's continued struggles on the legacy of colonialism. Others accuse its neo-colonial dimension, and some others pose culture, climate and bio-geographic factors as the explanation to the reasons of Africa's myriad problems.

It is true that colonialism and Western imperialism did not leave, and has not left any African country in good shape, but Africa must look internally and stop blaming outside powers for their own internal failures and lack of leadership. In fact, many African leaders have treated their brothers and sisters a lot worse than the colonial masters, and many are playing into the hands of their current foreign masters.

I urge African leaders to look internally at the failures in the leadership they have offered Africans and stop blaming outsiders.