There is a buzz and many things are indeed changing in this election cycle. Jonathan has held his points in the Google buzz metre – none of his opponents comes closer. Based on the poll on our site and mutiple factors, we move Jonathan from 7 to 9 (of 10) as the person that will win Nigeria’s Presidency, today, in Teledia Presidential Barometer. He will win between 55-60%. That is the number we got from our online poll when compounded with other factors. [Thisday poll got 60%] . He is still the person to beat in this election. Indeed, no one can dispute that the incumbent is strong. Yet, go and vote!
Nigeria Presidential Election – Pat Utomi Went Missing and Why We Endorsed Him A Year Ago
Yes, we endorsed Pat Utomi last year. But today, he has faded in the political bookmakers and we give his position to Jonathan.May 2010 Endorsement of Utomi – Next year, Nigerians will go to the poll to elect their leaders. Increasingly, our challenges are accumulating because our leaders have not tacked them with the ‘fierce urgency’ they deserve.
There are many people vying for the highest office of the land- The Presidency. Among them include IBB, Orji Uzor Kalu, Buhari, Pat Utomi and possibly Jonathan Goodluck, the current President. Excluding IBB, I will be open to help any of these fellow citizens craft a technology policy that can put Nigeria on the path of progress. Simply, IBB lacks leadership qualities and the best he can do is to rule and never lead.
Pat Utomi is my choice for those that have declared for this job. He possesses the intellectual rigor and business experience that Nigeria needs to invent itself. I have always seen nations as equivalent of corporate entities where innovation and competitive capabilities do not happen by chance. In the global innovation economy where knowledge has emerged as a key factor for competition, who occupies Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of power matters.
Utomi is the one that has provided a vision on what he plans to do. He communicates clearly and not playing the politics of money-bags. Just visit his campaign site and you will read his plans. He tells you what he plans to do and he is accessible. He is engaging and is arguably someone that will restore Nigeria to its rightful position in Africa and indeed the world.
He is a leader we can be proud to engage other world leaders like David Cameron, Barrack Obama, etc. He can prepare us for a post-petroleum era with his understanding of economics and business. This man has lead company Boards, founded companies, and does not need Nigerian money.
He is closest to the paradigm in developed world where they excel in private sector and then join government to help their nations. Utomi is humble, simple and will lead Nigeria with dignity, honor and integrity.
In 2002, just two years after NYSC, I applied to be a lecturer in Lagos Business School. My desire was to be a student of Utomi while working in his team. Sure, I was inexperienced, but they could not doubt my passion and intellectual zeal. Inviting me for an interview under Prof Albert Alos in a seven-man panel was memorable.
They began the interview with this question: “can you teach Pascal Dozie, your boss?” I was a young banker in Diamond Bank and certainly was not in a position to teach one of Africa’s business legends. I looked at them and said: “Dr Dozie is a legend and I remain his student. No, I cannot teach him”. They told me that they needed experienced business people.
As I walked out of the panel, I saw Prof Utomi and realized that I would not be meeting him daily as I had planned.
After few days, LBS sent me a letter. In that letter, they appreciated my confidence, but regretted that they could not give me the job. So, I lost out to work with Utomi.
If Nigeria is honest with its quest to develop and join the league of emerging economies, Utomi is the right candidate. No argument about this except that in Nigeria we play chess with our futures.
Utomi has the capacity to rally the nation in honesty, hard work and raise our imaginations beyond where we are today and move us to believe in ourselves and create the tools to make us build our nation. He is someone whose goals will not just be to keep government running, but one who can help the nation dream a bigger, larger and glorious vision that generations of Nigerians will unite for.
Utomi is that man who can create a society to engage our brightest minds in government by evolving a new political system designed to solve problems, rather than holding offices. A good man who can engineer Nigeria into rebirth and restoration to offer a prosperous nation that is colorful, fluidic, vibrant and open for change.
This man will help us solve our problems instead of thinking that World Bank and IMF will. Aid agencies will discover a man who understands the convoluted nature of the new international economy and will be more effective.
Yes, a professor of immense intelligence, competence, pragmatism, and unimpeachable. A person of integrity, broad knowledge, enormous vision and solid experience; one that can stimulate more vibrancy in the private sector and move the public sector out of its stasis.
Utomi will tackle corruption and stabilize democracy. And yes, give us electoral reform to remove stagnation, circuitous legal component and time-waste to get parliament focused on their work as soon as possible after elections. This is one of Nigeria’s brightest stars, but our stars rarely light the stage.
For any praise Nigerians give Obama, Nigerians must give Utomi double. Like Obama, he has taught. But his professorship is different, he lead Boards while teaching and has inspired many young Nigerians. His community service is legendary. His efforts to mobilize people for social good are visible. In him Nigeria finds a future, but Nigeria is ethno poisoned to allow competence to triumph over racial lines. He is a man that one will be proud to salute as President. He has earned his respect. This man is someone that any Nigerian firm will be happy to have in its Board.
There are few like him and he wants to have an opportunity. Nigeria, make it an Utomi nation. Utomi is future and we must allow him to help us.
Our nation has enormous challenges and opportunities, from energy to education, security to transportation, health to jobs, and once in a generation, there is an answer. An answer that will prepare us for a New Nigeria through economic vibrancy; holistic, innovative and fluidic process for cooperation and conflict management; technology creation; pragmatic leadership and indeed heal us.
The answer will provide a Nigeria of openness- to goods and services, ideas and innovations, people and culture- where all tribes will share in unified dream and destiny of unlimited promise and hope. A nation where a boy not born in the Emirate or Obanate or Obinate will have equal opportunities as his peers on those feudal kingdoms is the one the answer will usher.
The answer will bring respect, clout and influence in the international scene and propels our citizens to greatness where the brightest of the land stay in Nigeria. It will be an answer that gives us joy as we experienced when in primary schools we sang the Anthem. Honor, Dignity and Service- a treasure to our heroes’ pasts!
——–And without Utomi, we endorse Jonathan for this election——
That answer is Prof Pat Utomi. He will create a generation for regeneration of Nigeria.
Disruptive Technologies, Innovation and Global Redesign: Emerging Implications
Disruptive Technologies, Innovation and Global Redesign: Emerging Implications
Official webpage : http://tinyurl.com/2bheesj
Editors:
Prof (Dr) Ndubuisi Ekekwe, African Institution of Technology, USA & Babcock University, Nigeria
Dr. Nazrul Islam, Aberystwyth University, UK
Call for Chapters:
Proposals Submission Deadline: January 11, 2011
Full Chapters Due: March 11, 2011
Submission Date: June 30, 2011
IntroductionIn the last few years, most parts of the world have morphed into an electronically interdependent economic unit where a disruption in one marketplace affects the others. New technologies have emerged, transforming the ways we do business and, consequently, redesigning the world. Innovation in disruptive technologies pushes new and more agile firms to set new benchmarks, and forces established companies to incorporate evolving breakthroughs into their models or re-invent themselves to stay competitive.
Innovation thus remains a key driver in wealth creation, but the way it happens is changing as a result of new technologies, processes and tools. As social media networks advance, outsourcing ideas to the crowd has become common, while inter-company R&D that pools resources together is a new normal. From agriculture to print media, finance to mortgage and across sectors, industries, and disciplines, the world is being redesigned. The emerging implications are enormous—less energy for processing natural resources, less waste in processed raw materials—and these translate to positive effects on the environment. Yet, few research works exist about these developments, despite the exponential growth rate of new technologies with the potential to massively impact business and society.
Objective of the book
Accordingly, this project will assemble an edited collection of chapters on disruptive technologies, innovation, and the overall global redesign. The main objective of the book is to provide comprehensive evidence of research, case studies, practical and theoretical papers on the issues surrounding disruptive technologies, innovation, global redesign and their implications. The book will serve as a valuable resource on emerging and disruptive technologies, innovation and general global redesign.
Target Audience
This book will be a useful reference for academics, students, policy-makers and professionals in the fields of emerging and disruptive technologies, innovation, economic planning, technology and society, technology transfer, and general technology management.
Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Different areas of global redesign: political, economic, institutional, etc as a result of new technologies and innovation
- Different types of emerging technologies
- Overview of disruptive technologies and their impacts
- The patterns of modern innovation: open innovation, crowdsourcing, etc
- Global overview of emerging innovations
- Technology clustering and transfer
- Innovation and government policies
- Relevant topics on innovation, technologies and global redesign
- Technology mapping
- Social network analysis
- Promise and pitfalls of process and production technologies, process economics
- Infrastructures (education, research and industry) as they relate to new technologies
- Models on technology transfer and diffusion trajectories
- Technology as drivers for knowledge economy (KE) in developing and emerging nations
- Case studies on global new technology programs
- Management of disruptive technologies
- Disruptive technology roadmapping
- Legislative frameworks and legal issues on technology transfer
- Environment and climate issues associated with disruptive technologies
- Disruptive technology forecasting
- Indicators for new technology assessment
- Emerging diffusion paradigm of disruptive technologies
- Virtual education, collaboration and technology flow from developed nations
- Development and funding models from continental and global institutions like IMF, World Bank, IFC, ADB, AfDB, NEPAD, African Union, European Union, etc for technology and innovation
- Disruptive innovations in NGO and intergovernmental organizations?
- Legal, climate change, policy, etc issues on emerging technologies
- Technology clusters and incubation centers
- Entrepreneurship in disruptive technologies
- Sustainability of programs focusing disruptive technologies in developed, developing and emerging nations
- Roles and national technology policies as they pertain to adoption and diffusion
Submission Information
Academics, researchers, policymakers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before January 11, 2011 a 2-3 page manuscript proposal detailing the background, motivations and structure of the proposed chapter by clearly explaining the mission and concerns of their proposal.
Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by January 31, 2011 on the status of their proposals and sent chapter organizational guidelines.
Full chapters are due by March 11, 2011 and should range from 7,000-8,000 words in length. All submitted chapters will be peer-reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.
Publisher
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” and “IGI Publishing” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com.
Important Dates
Proposal Submission Deadline: January 11, 2010
Notification of Acceptance by January 31, 2011
Full Chapter Submission: March 11, 2011
Review Result Returned: 31 May 2011
Revised Chapter Submission: 30 June 2011
Final Notification of Acceptance: 30 July 2011
Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document):
Prof (Dr) Ndubuisi Ekekwe
African Institution of Technology, USA & Babcock University, Nigeria
E-Mail: info@afrit.org or nekekwe1@jhu.edu
Or
Dr. Nazrul Islam
Aberystwyth University, United Kingdom
Email: drnazrul201@gmail.com or mni@aber.ac.uk
Direct link to this page:
http://tinyurl.com/2bheesj
Goodluck Jonathan Will Win Nigeria’s Presidency – Tekedia Prediction
This is our prediction. Jonathan will win this election by 55-60%. This is what our polls gave us and it seems to confirm Thisday’s.
Congratulations – Mr President. Goodluck Jonathan, now the country needs a fresh air.
Yet, make sure to vote.
With All The Talks About Debt and Retirement – Why Not Try Technology?
Daily, we have become accustomed to reading about the many challenges America faces as a nation. It has unemployment problems, runaway federal deficit, real estate depression, health care crises and senior citizens that live longer. Yes, many see people living longer as a problem because we still operate industrial age economics with its archaic retirement system for a knowledge century.
Accordingly, when we look at what it will take to care for retirees over long stretch, economists get worried. From Germany to Japan, managing human longevity in the developed world has taken a central role in governments. On Sept 7, 2010, millions of people demonstrated in France over the government’s plan to change the unemployment age from 60 to 62.
But are these people really retiring, technically?
People retire at sixty years and then spend six hours a day on social media. These hours could have actually been redesigned to become work, if the system has mastered the constructs of the knowledge economy. When someone retires from running a small website and spends the number of hours we put on the social media, it simply shows our system is broken.
We fail to understand that in the knowledge era, someone could work far beyond seventy years. Yes, that old economic model of factory and farm economy that depended on physical energy is ending. Accordingly, the retirement age it produced should be replaced. I see no reason why a webmaster that maintains a website should retire from it and then spend 6 hours a day as a retiree on social media.
What the world needs is a new system that defines retirement based on the industry. In other words, we have to develop industry-based retirement system that looks at what it takes someone to do its job. While it makes sense for a farmer to retire at a younger age because of the physical requirements to work, it is not really important for someone whose work resolves around the web to do the same. So, we could say that the factory and farm workers could retire two years earlier than the knowledge workers.
Though it is bound to create challenges in the system, we can make do by finding ways to ensure that those knowledge workers that put so much time in the social media can invest some of the time in creative activities and government will pay them. So they might have retired, but government will put them through a transition stage through which they can technically work for the government via the web.
As more jobs move to the web, senior citizens can still provide opportunities than going into retirements immediately. It is possible that we can extend the years by creating a program where as they socialize on the web, we can develop work they can do. It is building a system that seamlessly blends into their retirement experiences.
The developed world needs a solution to meet obligations to the future and it is imperative that we use new opportunities technologies have provided. And associated human habits they have helped create. Nations need to quantify and understand how some government works could be done via the web and distributed to senior citizens who even during their retirements can help. Doing that means having a process that is structured to be in sync with their social media experiences.
Take for instance data collection and web surveys. Such activities can be assigned to senior citizens under a partnership through which they can be asked to help. It is important that private companies can be encouraged to develop a model where they can tap the enormous hours people invest on social media, especially the senior citizens, and use that to save costs. They could work remotely from their homes under flexible work schedules.
For a nation like Japan that has 23% of its population over the age of 65 and fertility rate of 1.34, about 0.7 below the acceptable minimum for a developed nation to maintain a constant population, it must think deep into new models for retirement. This will require more thoughts than what some of its provincial governments are doing- running dating sites for singles to boost procreation.
The developed world needs a system that evaluates the new nature of work. As work moves towards knowledge, requiring lesser physical energy, we have to find ways to extend the time people retire without obstructing how they have viewed their post-work lives. By using technology to build productive works into their retiree’s experiences, America and indeed the whole developed world could discover ways to continue to tap their senior’s experiences while balancing the nations’ budgets.