When the Red Chamber could not see the red ribbons

The Senate has eventually signed up its first social media account, leaving behind the lower chamber in the global race to embrace the reality of digital communication.  

Its Twitter page – @NGRSenate – was unveiled with a message, “This is the official Twitter handle of the eighth Nigerian Senate. Follow @NGRSenate to receive updates from the Red Chamber and its committees.”

From dozens of retweets and comments that followed, it was obvious that the Internet-savvy Nigerians had long expected the lawmakers to move in the direction it did.

 

The account has since begun to harvest followers from media organisations, civil society groups and student bodies.

Interestingly, the Senate handle was unveiled on the eve of the 500 day commemoration of the Chibok girls, an incident that has deepened the adoption of social media in the country. Internet users might have expected the Senate to dedicate their profile photograph, at least, to the missing girls.While there were red ribbons everywhere, the Nigeria's Red Chamber could not see them.

But there was a disconnection between the Senate’s new page and the tone of the digital space. The Chibok girls’ anniversary message, which many people around the world have adopted on their profiles, was clearly missing on the lawmaker’ Twitter page.

 

Social activists, from different parts of the world, shared their thoughts on the plight of the kidnapped girls, using different hashtags to communicate their frustrations.

But for the Senate’s Twitter page, which could have smartly announced its arrival on the platform with, perhaps, a trending artwork on #BringBackOurGirl, the issue appeared like a ‘no-go area’.

It was not only the Senate’s corporate Twitter page that did not sympathise with the grieved Chibok community and give individuals who have been campaigning for their rescue a sense of leadership. From the different platforms of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to those operated there was no post on Chibok girls.

As far as the Wednesday commemoration was concerned, it was the efforts of the civil society, social media activists and voices from outside the country that kept #ChibokGirls, #NeverToBeForgotten, #BringBackOurGirls and similar hashtags alive.

The Global Week of Action Campaign, which had generated much publicity on digital media, could not also get many politicians outside the National Assembly to donate their platforms to the cause.

    

The campaigners had appealed to world leaders to show more concern towards rescue efforts. Their message drew the attention of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, when he visited the country earlier in the week. 

 

Addressing State House correspondents in Abuja after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Ki-Moon called for an unconditional “release” of the girls. He said he would continue to support efforts to release the girls.

“This week will witness 500 days of the kidnap of the Chibok schoolgirls. I want to reiterate my support for the release of the girls and many other abducted girls and boys whose names and fate remain unknown.

“It is intolerable that their lives and education have been disrupted in this way. The whole world has been moved by their fate. I, once again, call on those responsible to unconditionally release these girls and many other abducted children,” he was quoted as saying.

As the Global Week of Actions ended on Thursday, more individuals re-echoed the frustration of the #BringBackOurGirls, with the hashtag trending globally. They charged the government and the global community to do more to rescue the girls.

For instance, A United States House of Representatives member, Brendan Boyle, posted a tweet, saying it was unbelievable that “219 girls had live with terrorists for 500 days.”

Wikipedia marketing for National Arts Theatre?

Google seems to have an answer for every question. But its search engine could not supply the website of the National Arts Theatre on Wednesday.

Digital tools have become an essential part of modern tourism, with fun lovers ‘visiting destinations even before they commence their journeys.

But the National Arts Theatre, which was a major Lagos tourist site in its heyday, does not seem to have a ‘home’ on the digital space even though it does not cost much to set up one.

National Arts Theatre, Lagos

This may have compound the moribund state of the national heritage.    

Wikipedia, however, may have been doing what the management has failed to do: announcing the tourist potential of the centre to the global community.

Its history and facilities, even though, some may have fallen apart, are captured by the listing site.

“The National Arts Theatre was built during the military regime of Olusegun Obasanjo. Its exterior is shaped like a military hat. It has a 5,000-seater main hall with a collapsible stage, and two 700-800 capacity cinema halls. All of these are equipped with facilities for simultaneous translation of eight languages among others.

“It was designed and constructed by Bulgarian construction companies and resembles the Palace of Culture and Sports in Varna, Bulgaria. Completed in 1968, the National Arts Theatre situated in Lagos is bigger than of Bulgaria,” claimed Wikipedia.

Bulgarian Place of Culture 

The site also narrates some of the recent controversies that trailed the edifice, saying many Nigerian playwrights, led by Prof. Wale Soyinka, protested the proposed privatisation of the asset to a standstill.

On Facebook, several pages attempt to tell the story of the centre in their own ways. One narrative is taking readers through major events hosted by the place, which it described as a “master piece.”

But a site of its own – operated by its management – that should have aggregate diverse views and give the world a clear picture about its status is not available.

In contract, the Place of Culture and Sports in Varna, beams on its website. Visitors can explore the site with four different international languages. Its digital platforms work 24 hours daily attending to clients from different parts of the world.

Computer with artificial human brain is here

Modern computing is built around, at its very core, adding and subtracting numbers. Simple calculations running billions of times per second keep track of all the important values, from what operating system you’re running to your stage in Candy Crush. With the unveiling of the new TrueNorth chip, IBM is fundamentally challenging that method with a chip based off the human brain.

Even as we pack more cores into processors and design new forms of memory storage, our computing technology is nowhere close to the power of the human brain. The human brain has roughly 100 trillion synapses – a neural network that took 96 racks of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab Sequioa supercomputer to simulate, and even then, the supercomputer was only able to perform that simulation at a speed 1,500 times slower than your brain does.

A computer needs so much power for this function because it is astounding what the human mind is capable of, even passively. Actions like seeing a ball coming toward you and catching it are easy for you, but programming a computer to do all of those things is a complex circus of calculations and responses. The goal of the project is to create a computer that can simulate vision, and take action in response to stimuli and memory, and TrueNorth is the closest technology has come yet.

The TrueNorth chip is part of an effort that began at IBM in 2008, with the goal of producing a new form of computing architecture based on the brain’s neuron and synapse network. Rather than simply running calculations across 4 or 8 cores as quickly as possible, the TrueNorth chip recognizes patterns and leverages them for more efficient data handling and processing, with the help of its 4,096 cores.

These cores aren’t like the cores found in your home processor though, and they’re used quite differently. Rather than running all the time, each core is called to operate when needed, keeping heat and energy use down. All of the cores communicate across an event-driven network, which also means that the system can scale, cores can stop functioning, and everything will continue to operate without interruption.

Those 4,096 cores working in harmony represent one million neurons and 256 million synapses. That’s still a far cry from a human brain’s ten billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses, which is the ultimate goal of the IBM cognitive computing project. These computers, which would take up less than two liters of space and consume only one kilowatt of power, could revolutionise everything from transportation to vision assistance. It’s a totally new direction for computing, unlike any related innovation we’ve seen in 70 years.

source: businessinsider.com

For Umana Umana, we have not started online reporting

The Akwa Ibom State 

Add caption

governorship election tribunal hearing may have set a new template for instant digital news reporting.     

 

The legal battle is between the then All Progressives Congress candidate, Umana Umana and Gov. Udom Emmanuel, who won on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.

 

With Twitter, Facebook and several other digital platforms, those who are interested in the court procedure could monitor live the process from any part of the world as it unfolds Abuja.

 

Umana’s team seemed to have resolved to capture the entire excise in a permanent form – digital space.

 

On Wednesday morning when the tribunal resumed, Umana and his team went to Facebook, Twitter and campaign portal, announcing their expectations for the day and the format they expected the procedure to take.

 

“Tribunal to resume today while the petitioners' forensic experts are to testify,” reported several Twitter handles.

 

They followed up with second-by-second reports on legal documents that were tendered before the tribunal and remarks by the presiding judge.

 

In addition to hundreds of social media platforms that have been reporting the matter, the team has also created a new Twitter handle – @TrackAkwaIbom – which is dedicated to live reporting of the hearing.

 

The ex-SSG’s personal Twitter handle and campaign digital platforms also give live updates.   

Ahead of Wednesday’s sitting, Umana urged his supporters to prepare for the rerun of the election.

 

The politician said the people could confidently start preparing for the rerun of the election, as justice was underway.

 

“Go back to your various units and confidently start talking about the pending new rerun election. Justice will come soon,” he tweeted.

 

Earlier, Umana tweeted, “We have come this far as the first bold and honest step in Akwa Ibom project for openness and accountability as we seek justice. The justice is: cancellation and election rerun so that the peoples’ voice will be heard regardless of what outcome will be.

 

“Last week ended on a high for us. The evidence presented in the court made the most ardent supporter of Godswill Akpabio cringe.

 

“The videos sent a chill to viewers as they watched in horror the arrogance and impunity that denied Akwa Ibom the right to vote.”

 

Like Umana, a former governor of the state, Godswill Akpabio, had reportedly told Emmanuel and his cabinet to start preparing for a fresh election.

 

Online media reports said the ex-governor told Emmanuel in a closed-door meeting to expect a cancellation of the election.

In the past few days, the reports have been re-posted by several APC members. They said Akpabio had in the remark admitted that the elections in the state were, indeed, rigged.  

Only Pakistan outgrown Nigeria’s population since 1950, as males dorminate females

The new United Nations data on global population prospects has showed that only Pakistan has overtaken Nigeria, in terms of population size, since 1950.

The data sourced from its website traced the growth of world’s populations since 1950, the changes it has undergone and forecast how the rest of the century will be. It said Nigeria had moved from the 13th most populous country in 1950 to the seventh position.

The country overtook Bangladesh, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Germany to attain its current status.

Both Nigeria and Pakistan were listed among 21 countries that accounted for 75 per cent of world’s population in 1950. This year, they both sit among the 26 countries that control the same 75 per cent in the current 7.3 billion population.

The Asian country, which was behind Nigeria in 1950, now takes sixth position, following Brazil. The table is topped by China, India, the United States and Indonesia.

Coming behind Nigeria in the rank are Bangladesh, Russia, Mexico, Japan and Philippine, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Egypt, Germany and Iran. Others are Turkey, Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand, the United Kingdom, France, South Africa, Myanmar and Tanzania.      

Sixty-five years back, only Nigeria and Egypt were the African countries on the list of the few countries that control three-fourth of world’s population.

It also listed Nigeria among the nine countries that are expected to account for more than half of the world’s projected population increase between 2015 and 2050. The countries were listed as India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, the United Republic of Tanzania, the United States of America, Indonesia and Uganda.

 “They are listed according to the size of their contribution to global population growth,” said the reported.

On the average, according to the UN study, the world has more females than males. But it listed Nigeria among exceptional countries where males dominate females. It put the country’s population at 182. 202 million, with the male gender taking 92.789 million. The rest 89.413 are females.

The report, like many other recent studies, tipped Africa as the leading driver of the new growth rate.

“Africa continues to experience very high rates of population growth. Between 2015 and 2050, the populations of 28 African countries are projected to more than double. By 2100, ten African countries are projected to increase by at least five-fold. They are: Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Somalia, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia,” it projected.     

This Facebook video attracts over 12 million views in 4days

Little was known about Peggy Hubbard before on Thursday. But her Facebook video tongue-lashing #BlackLiveMatter protesters in St Louis, the United States, has made the African-American Illinois woman an instant celebrity.

The protesters took to the streets on Wednesday to march for an 18-year-old boy who was shot by the Police.

But Hubbard said the protesters abused #BlackLivesMatter, an hashtag dedicated for fighting injustice against the black, by fighting for criminals rather than standing up for those who truly suffered injustice.

In the video, which has gone viral on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media platform, Hubbard said the mother of a nine-year old girl killed by a stray bullet deserved a solidarity and not teenagers “who did not listen and die by the gun.”

At 9pm on Sunday, the original Facebook post by Hubbard recorded 6.2 million views 280,000 shares, 62,000 likes and 14,500 comments.

 A repost of the same six-minute video hit Facebook on Friday. In the past three days, the duplicated copy has recorded more views. It has recorded 6.23 million views but fewer comments, shares and likes. Put together, post by Hubbard has polled approximately 12.5 million views.

If Hubbard’s From my Heart video were a country, it would be more populous than Sweden or Finland and Denmark combined. And by 2006 population census, it would be bigger than the combined population of Ekiti, Yobe, Taraba, Ebonyi, Nasarawa and Bayelsa states.

It is incredible when you put the figures of views from YouTube and other platforms plus the shares together.  

This is a transcript of the six-minute video brought the entire world together at the weekend, “Last night, who do you think they protested for? The thug, the criminal, because they’re howling, ‘police brutality.’ Are you kidding me? Police brutality? How about black brutality.

“A little girl is dead. You say black lives matter? Her life mattered. Her dreams mattered. Her future mattered. Her promises mattered. It mattered.

“You are out there tearing up the neighborhood I grew up in. I was born and raised there by a single mother with eight kids. She raised eight kids by herself and lost one, one. That boy did not listen and died by the gun.

“You want to be upset about black lives? You want to be upset about police brutality? There is police brutality out there. I will give you that. But night, after night, after night on Channel 4, Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 30, Channel 11 and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: murder, murder, murder, murder. Black on black murder.

“Yet you tear up other people’s (stuff) for a criminal, a thug. Bailing out criminals and thugs.

Let me tell you something. I got a kid locked up. Oh yeah, I put him there. I turned him in. Yes I did because I’m a strong black woman. I am a black mother. I told my children that if you (mess) up, if you go to jail, I am not getting you out. You will stay there. You will do the time. I am not coming to visit you. I ain’t sending you magazines. I’m not doing anything for you because I did everything… If you don’t care about me and your father working and putting in time and effort to raise you and be there for you. And we took note of everything you were interested in. And you ended up in there. Then you belong in there. Don’t drop the soap. That is what I told my son.

“You guys need to stop. You’re hollering this black lives matters (stuff). It don’t matter. You’re killing each other. White people don’t care. They don’t care. Save us some tax dollars. I need new parts for my Harley. If you want to die, die. Go ahead and knock yourself out. Your life does not matter. If it doesn’t matter to you then it doesn’t matter to us. That is the truth of the reality. If you don’t care then we don’t care.

“Why should we go out and protest for your ass? You broke the law. You’re carrying another stolen gun. You’re yelling “F” the police. “F” you. You’re shooting at the police. Police drops your ass. Poor ‘so and so’ he died due to police brutality. 127 homicides later… Y’all want to holler ‘police brutality’? You’re tearing up communities over thugs and criminals. You’re putting plaques in the ground over somebody who would not stop. He had a chance to stop. How many times is someone going to tell you to stop doing that (stuff) before they do something to you?

“Do you think the police are out here for fun? Do you think they’re out here for games? They’re not going to tuck you in. They’re not going to give you a cookie and sing you a lullaby. No, they’re going to pop a cap in your ass. You shoot at them and they’re going to shoot at you. If you try to kill them, their job is saved and protect, not serve and die.”

Welcome to Geoff Iyatse's blog: Chris Oyakhilome’s new church

Welcome to Geoff Iyatse's blog: Chris Oyakhilome’s new church: Photo source;punchng.com   The Twitter account of the President of Believers’ Loveworld, Rev. Chris Oyakhilome, has continued to d...

Chris Oyakhilome’s new church

Photo source;punchng.com

 

The Twitter account of the President of Believers’ Loveworld, Rev. Chris Oyakhilome, has continued to deplete in terms of following.

But the cleric may have found a replacement for Twitter. His page on Yookos, another social networking site, is doing exactly what Twitter was doing for the pastor years back, or even more.

As of May 14, Oyakhilome’s Twitter following was1.36 million. Between that date and Thursday, it lost about 140,000 to stand at 1.22 million as of Thursday.

Oyakhilome was the most followed Nigerian on the micro-blogging site until last year when he lost that position to Ayo Balogun (popularly known as Wizkid) whose community has crossed 1.6 million followers.   

While Oyakhilome has not benefited from the recent increase in Nigeria’s Twitter activities, his following on Yookos is growing very fast.

Nowadays, his Twitter followers can only relate with links which are routed to Yookos.

Since May 7, 2014, the cleric has not shared content on Twitter save his Yookos’s posts – yookos.com/community/pastorchrislive.

What does he do on the alternative site? He preaches, announces prayer appointments and harvests testimonies/prayer points. While his popularity on Yookos has been growing, recording thousands of views per post, those who follows him on Twitter are left in the cold

In fact, Yookos has become Oyakhilome’s new virtual church, replacing the place of its sensational television broadcast. Comments on his home page on Thursday were 30,009.

On August 14, he posted on the platform, “In both 15min sessions at 12noon and 10pm (local/GMT), we will pray in the spirit, testifying according to this scripture that we have overcome all satanic forces and activities.

“Declare that you walk victoriously through life and in all circumstances. Pray also for fellow Christians around the world that they would continually increase in the knowledge and wisdom of God’s word.”

As of Thursday, the post had attracted over 4,500 views and several responses. Comments streaming on the page daily are testimonies and prayer requests. 

His counterpart at the Household of God of God Church, Rev. Chris Okotie, stopped updating his Twitter page when the platform was beginning to attract attention.

 

For instance, in the height of Boko Haram bombing earlier this year, Okotie tweeted suggesting what former President Goodluck Jonathan should have done differently to win the war against Boko Haram.

“You don’t keep a failed group of war commanders when your troops are being routed on every front, and territories lost almost on a daily basis.

 “There are Boko Haram sympathisers in political parties, military, intelligence services and government. Therein lays our failure to win this war. Yakubu Gowon led federal forces to overcome Biafra in 30 months because he had behind him a cohesive administration and competent war machinery.

“Goodluck Jonathan, who has neither a strong war machinery nor a loyal cohesive administration behind him need to look at Gowon’s template in this terror war,” he tweeted.

Also, Okotie was among the few clerics that took to Facebook to demand Jonathan’ withdrawal from the presidential race, saying his preoccupation should have been how to strengthen the economy and end the uprising in the North-East.

Today, Okotie rarely tweets or updates his Facebook page. The last time he tweeted was July 13, and it was a motivational post.

Adadevoh in our minds

A year after, users of different social media platforms today  remembered the late Medical Director of First Consultants Medical Centre, Dr. Stella Adadevoh, whose death has been described as a national sacrifice.

Adadevoh was afflicted with the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease and she died on August 19, 2014 after fighting hard for several days, alongside her colleagues, to stop Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian, from sneaking out of the hospital to spread the contagion.

Many Nigerians have saluted the late medical doctor for her courage, while a few initiatives have been launched to immortalise her.

From one webpage to another, Adadevoh’s image, her sacrifice and courage streamed back to life on Wednesday as Internet users marked the first anniversary of her death.

By noon, Topsy, a social media analytical tool, had captured close to 2,000 tweets in memory of the deceased.

Interestingly, the social media posts came from individuals and corporate entities, as well as foreigners. Various local and foreign media also joined concerned Nigerians to mark the day.

Etisalat Nigeria described Adadevoh as a true humanitarian, while Gemstone, a capacity building group, said she was a “heroine who gave her life to protect Nigeria from the EVD.” Access Bank Plc and many other organisations also used their Twitter pages to remember the life of the physician.

Tweeting on @SolaOyedeji, Olusola Oyediji, said, “Whenever I think of Ebola in Nigeria and how it was tackled, Dr Adadevoh is the first name I think of. I cannot think of one person who had ever sacrificed that much for a country that cares less about her.”

Writing on Instagram, Monalisa Chinda reflected on the role Adadevoh played to contain the spread of Ebola in Nigeria. Here post soon generated far-reaching reactions from her fans, with many urging the Federal Government to set up a medical centre in her honour.    

“Dr, Adadevoh, this country is Ebola-free because of your selfless act. We will always remember you. May God bless your soul as you continue to rest in peace,” posted Chinda.

Daniel Olatunde urged government to immortalise Adadevoh on Facebook. He wrote, “Many of us are only interested in politics and sundry matters, but we forget those who have helped the country at a crucial time. Even in sports, we fail to recognise men and women who have won us laurels.

“Adadevoh died in the process of helping the country to deal with an epidemic. Has the government awarded scholarships to her wards up to PhD level? That is not too much to ask. The Nigerian Medical Association should put pressure on the government to immortalise her for her rare courage.”

A Facebook user posting as Kwami Adadevoh noted that, through her action, the late Adadevoh saved Nigeria from subsequent Ebola outbreaks in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

“We remember her fondly. We also remember the other health care workers who were involved in the Ebola outbreak and their sacrifices. In her honor, her son and family have set up the Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh Health Trust to help address Nigeria’s unfulfilled health needs and improve our health sector through four areas: education and training, policy, research and disease control,” he wrote.

Does Nigeria need tech disruption?

By Muyiwa Moyela 

There is so much data everywhere, yet not enough 

for Nigerians to use.

In real terms, we all create and consume tons of data every day. According to ICT analysts, the human race generates about 2.5 billion gigabytes of data daily. And this is sourced through more than one trillion devices.

Data and information management should not just be the headache of information communication technology experts. Managing data ought to be everybody’s concern since we all produce or use data in one form or another, either individually or at an institutional level.

Nigerian agencies living in the past

Even President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly told relevant ministries, departments and agencies of state to find a solution to the nation’s data dilemma. Currently, several Nigerian private and state owned enterprises collect the same data for different reasons. Banks collect Know-Your-Customer and other bio-metric information.

The Nigerian Immigration Service, through its Passport Office, also collects bio-metric data. The police do the same thing, while various driver and vehicle licensing authorities also collect similar information from citizens and drivers.

The National Identity Management Commission will also need data to produce national identity cards. But the databases of these government-managed institutions do not connect.

Nigerian airlines currently seat on millions of travelers personal data and travel records. Most of our academic institutions and health care facilities still keep valuable student and patient records in shelves and lockers

For how long shall we continue to live on yesterday’s solutions?

The agriculture value chain used to be an analogue, weather-dependent industry. But this has changed – thanks to bio-technology and other disruptive techniques.

In automotive science, technology has become compulsory, thus helping the global car industry to drive up safety, mechanical efficiency, fuel economy and comfort level. What used to be a simple act of mobility is now not so simple anymore. Now it generates real-time and latent data, which can be useful information for drivers, car designers, engineers, traffic managers and pedestrians.

IBM estimates that 90 per cent of data generated by devices, such as smartphones, tablets, connected vehicles and appliances is never analysed or acted on. As much as 60 per cent of this data begins to lose value within a few seconds of being generated.

It is obvious that technology will drive Africa’s economic and social reforms. This is simply because five disruptive technologies are converging at once, creating a new continent: social media, mobile, cloud, sensor networks and big data.

African need? 

Any one of these innovations alone will cause substantial disruption. But, together they have the power to reshape how we think of and build the most basic systems in our economies and societies, whether it is how we organise business operations, develop our energy grids, run transportation systems or structure interactions between citizens and governments.

A few places are better positioned to benefit from the convergence than Africa. Because of the comparative immaturity of its physical, governmental and economic infrastructures, these technologies have the potential to create greater benefits there than anywhere else.

At the same time, Africa has the need – and the economic ability – to make the most of these innovations. Many regions are thriving as trade increases at double-digit rates, democracy and open elections are more widely embraced while infrastructure improvements connect Africans to the rest of the world.

Africa’s cities, for instance, face the dual challenge of managing economic growth and urbanisation following hard on its heels. Africa’s metropolitan areas are undergoing their fastest phase of urbanisation ever – creating pressure that could cause existing systems and services to buckle and break.

Nigeria need massive disruptive technologies

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populated economy, the need for disruptive technologies is apparent. In the area of tax collection, there is a huge compliance gap. Mobile systems could help tackle the issue of revenue generation, making it easier for individuals and businesses to pay taxes electronically. Hosting city services in the cloud would lead to a more transparent and cost-effective system, while applying big data analytics would make it easier to track fraud and people who are not paying taxes.

We are also long overdue for smart energy solutions. Nigeria currently leads the continent in load shedding and outages, as power supply has never progressed gone beyond the 3,000 to 4,000 MegaWatts range. Smart meters and smart grids could monitor and manage electricity distribution, while diversifying energy supplies could balance the load.

For example, a number of companies have begun to invest in off-grid energy solution across Africa. Telecoms provider, Airtel, is piloting the use of wind and solar power as a backup to grid power for its mobile stations.

Of course, our transportation sector would also gain a lot from these disruptive technologies. As consumption habits and car cultures go, Nigeria represents any auto maker’s delight. With a head count of about 180 million and still growing, it is arguably one of the largest motor vehicle markets in the world, rubbing shoulders with the likes of China, the US, Europe, India, Brazil and Mexico.

Clearly, big data, analytics and mobile systems can help provide a better understanding of the flow of traffic and bottlenecks on our streets and highways, providing the kinds of insights that can be used, along with other technologies, to create new maps for directing traffic and constructing new transportation systems.