Experts in data management have called on the Federal Government to utilise the opportunities available in the sector to sustain the fight against corruption. While the experts agreed that Nigerian data management has improved over time, they insisted that the country is still far from attaining the level of the developed nations.
To them, the Federal Government was not tapping diverse opportunities in the Information Technology sector to solve the problems bleeding the economy, especially corruption. Former chairman, Nigeria Computer Society, Mr. Aderogba Adeoye, explained that though taming corruption is a big task, he however insisted that proper data management can solve the malaise of corruption, which has eaten deep into the fabric of the nation.
According to him, government should deploy data experts and the problem will be solved. He said, “IT alone helped the immediate past government to save several billions of naira, through the introduction of e-salary payment. It also eliminated a lot of ghost workers.
That is IT as a corruption fighter. Also, if we can computerise court processes, that will eradicate long processes in the judicial system by 90 per cent.
“The immediate past Minister of Agriculture also used IT to curb corruption in the distribution of fertilisers among farmers. If government introduces any IT tool across different sectors, the economy will grow. We have seen that in the banking sector.
Technology saves time and cuts cost. The only missing link is data management and we cannot run states like Lagos and Rivers without proper data.”
Another IT expert, Ms. Funke Ayoola, urged the government to emulate developing nations like Malaysia and Singapore, which are more digital compliant than Nigeria. For instance, she stated that Malaysia and Singapore have gone farther than Nigeria, because the countries have massive data management and activities that Nigeria lacks.
Ayoola argued, “In IT, we don’t trust anyone, because the main issue is transparency. The government has to assemble experts for a catch-up exercise. We need to harmonise our data capturing, because developed nations don’t use multiple identities but a universal one.
“We have strategic national data banks like the Federal Road Safety Corp, National Identity Management Commission, telecommunication companies, and the West African Examination Council among others.
These agencies have information about most, if not all Nigerians, and those information need to be harmonized.” She added that deploying data management also curbs terrorism and security threats.
In simple language, she said, “If my mother in the village can talk to me on the telephone without seeing me, then the police should be able to track criminals without running from pillar to post.
That should have saved us from the embarrassment of prominent Nigerians being kidnapped. That is where data management comes in. The most critical element today is to get our data harmonised.
All agencies set up by the government for data capturing must submit the information to a base that will serve as an engine room for effective utilisation of data.”
