Computer Village and its many worries

Oluwaseun Ayantokun, Lagos

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John Odey,
Minister of Information"PLEASE call me later. I’m not in a good mood. Please let’s talk later,” a co-passenger with this correspondent moaned on phone as they continued their typical Lagos stressful homeward journey after the day’s work less than two weeks ago. The problem was not the the usual energy-sapping traffic jam they were subjected to like most other Lagosians on the road: the day had been made worse for him by a group of frauds at the popular computer village in Ikeja where he had attempted to buy a mobile phone.

“It was my friend, I don’t think I have any reason to doubt its integrity. He is the only person I could trust with money in my office. That was why when he told me he was going to Ikeja, I pleaded with him to help me buy a phone. I gave him N15,000 to help me get a good mobile phone. To help him avoid falling into a wrong hand, I described the location of the shop where I normally make purchase of such things for him and he left. But he came back with a phone that wouldn’t work at all. I checked it properly, it was a dead phone. It’s just too painful,” said the young man that looked something around 36 years old in response to this correspondent prodding.

According to him, the trick played on his friend by the these heartless criminals at the Computer Village was a simple one: a fantastic fashionable mobile phone was shown to him and after negotiation, they packed a different device for him. “They were about three, it was perfectly done by the trio with two of them appearing as if assisting the other one. My friend could not discover the foul game until he came back to the office. And I told him to avoid the street boys,” he said on further prodding.

Many people have fallen victims of these street boys at Otigba Market, and it does not seem an end to it is imminent. In the first place, the boys are multiplying in number by the day. This is obviously because Nigeria’s economy and the government of the land have next to nothing for vibrant youths who are mostly school leavers. Another reason that could be adduced to the problem is that the law enforcement agents in the country are seemingly not seeing the situation as a threat to the security of life and property of the populace. There is a police station at the market with an office accommodated in a container. A visit to the station will convince anyone that no serious effort is being made on the part of the security outfit to fight crime there. Apart from the fact that the village is under-policed in terms of the number of the police normally seen there, it does not appear there is sufficient equipment to face the challenge.

When Tele-Info visited the station not long ago, it took time to watch a constantly repeated drama between the station as an arbiter and various people that have one issue or the other to settle: that is, between traders and their clients while the street boys continue to have field days. When Tele-Info sought to have an audience with the officer it met, it was directed to the state command headquarters to obtain a permission or authorisation before it could be related with.

But for how long will the situation continue to be? It should be realised that the Computer Village has been in the news mostly for good things and has been reported to be the heart beat of Africa’s mobile market even beyond the shores of Nigeria. Also, there is no doubt that this market decides how the pendulum swings when IT and Telecom investors are making attempts to enter the Nigerian market.

The growth in the country’s telecoms sector has certainly impacted on the market. I-Cell, a major phones distributor in Nigeria that distributes to most major dealers at the market is one of those that have been enjoying the good things in the country’s telecom revolution. “At least I-Cell makes about N10 million per week or so in this country,” a source said. The boom is also drawing banks to the place to the extent that the proposed relocation of the market to another place in Lagos State is being seen as a step that will result in extending the market.UBA, Skye Bank, Intercontinental Bank and other banks are all present in the market or very close to it to partake of the good things happening there.

However, it could be said that the number of crimes being recorded there on daily basis is making it a dreaded place to go. For instance, it will be recalled that the only headache Microsoft has with the Nigerian market centres on the activities of the sharp boys at Otigba who make dollars-worth products from the multi-national software giant available for less than N200 by illegally reproducing them for commercial purpose. Indeed, Nigeria is not enjoying comfortable publicity because of this across the globe.

Also, Mrs. Adenike Shittu, MD, Mojoy Ltd, a major IT equipment and mobile phones distributor once told Tele-Info in her office that one of the uncomfortable things about the place is that “you could buy back your stolen phone the next day on any of the streets in the market”. “Mobile phone theft thrive in this country because of the existence of places like Otigba another marketer at the place volunteered”. Of course, most traders there are doing honest businesses, but a lot of phones in the show glasses that line all streets of the market did not come in the boot of second hand cars from the West or China. They were picked or snatched away violently fom their owners within the country. This is not news, but for how long must it be?

“I think there is a lot of problem in this place,” said a journalist who also fell victim of the dubious activities at the Computer Village. In his own case, he was unlucky to have bought a defective A300 model Samsung phone. The infomation at the disposal of Tele-Info shows that this kind of phones was to be returned to its original manufacturer some years back but they found their way to Nigeria and many of those that purchased them were enticed by the cheap price attached to them. They have their sour stories to tell now.

But while the fore-going can be left with approprite government agencies to tackle, one wonders why the police would continue to watch street boys that are not running genuine businesses at Otigba as they keep on making innocent Nigerians cry. There is an urgent need to sanitise the market. This is not a country for crimes to thrive and that should be quickly spelt out at the Ikeja Computer Village.

This is not a matter to be left with the police alone. The effort of the Association of Telecommunications Consumers of Nigeria in collaboration with the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to see an anti-mobile theft law put in place in the country will go a long way to discourage phone theft. It would be a wonderful experience to see that no stolen phone finds its way into the hand of another user as such phone will have been disenabled by any of the telecom operator that finds such on its network, apart from the fact that such anti-mobile theft regime may make it possible to trace the criminal.Therefore, it is time for all the stakeholders in the country’s telectoms sector and the National Assembly to come together so as to expedite action on the proposed law. A stitch in time saves nine, so they say.