THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET
Who controls the Internet after the Russo-Ukrainian war? asks Sonny Aragba-Akpore
When the war in Ukraine ends, a bigger war is expected to be fought. That war will determine who controls the information superhighway, the Internet.
It will determine the extent of the Cold War between Russia and the United States of America (USA).The victory either way will determine how people could deploy the Internet for their purposes.
Russia wants state-controlled Internet while the USA thinks differently. Open communication is the inalienable rights of the individuals, America reasons. Open communication is the reason why we see what is going on in the Ukraine, so the Internet should be left open.
This battle will be determined in September 2022 at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Plenipotentiary Conference in Bucharest, Romania.
The ITU is the UNO specialized body for the Internet, telecommunication and broadcasting.
The elections for new leadership for the ITU hold every four years for the Secretary General/CEO among others. The 193 members representing various regions will determine the fate of the leaders.
The current Secretary General, Houlin Zhao from China was elected in 2014 and serves out his two term of four years each by September.
The two major contestants for the Secretary General position are Ms Doreen Bogdan-Martin from the USA running against Mr.Rashid Ismailov of Russia. Bogdan-Martin has worked at the ITU for over 30 years and this is why U.S. officials are stepping up a campaign to defeat a Russian candidate for this UN agency that could determine how much control governments have over the internet.
Russia’s designs on the little-known agency raise the stakes for what the Russian government’s vision of the internet could mean for the rest of the world, especially following its invasion of Ukraine.
“You don’t have to look very far to understand, in this current day and age of geopolitics, how important it is to have the right kinds of open communications networks,” Alan Davidson, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, explained in agency reports.
“Part of why we’re able to see what we’re seeing on the ground [in Ukraine] is because we have open communications.”
The U.S. is running a candidate to lead the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the telecommunications agency of the UN.
If elected, Doreen Bogdan-Martin would be the first female secretary-general of the ITU, and the first U.S. leader since the 1960s. She is competing against Rashid Ismailov, who previously worked for the Russian government and Huawei, as well as Nokia and Ericsson. Federal Communications Commission chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is campaigning for Bogdan-Martin during a trip to Europe recently at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly in Geneva.
Rosenworcel met with delegations from Asia, Latin America and Europe to push the U.S. candidate, according to FCC officials.
There’s a battle brewing over how much of a role the ITU and governments should have over internet standards and protocols, with China and Russia advocating for the ITU to have more control over how the internet operates.
China and Russia’s vision would “encourage governments to have greater control over who’s allowed to use the internet, how it’s allowed to be used and whether or not there should be free flow of information,” David Gross, a former ambassador for international communications policy, said.
That’s in contrast with the Western “bottom-up approach” of technologists, civil society groups and others determining internet standards and protocols.
The nonprofit organization Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) coordinates the internet’s address system and other technical operations.
But Russia and China leaders have said the ITU should be the place for negotiations over the way the internet would operate.
That “multilateral approach” would mean that “the government should be the ones making these decisions,” Gross said.
The vote will be held by secret ballot this fall at the ITU’s Conference in Bucharest. Each country gets one vote.
Bogdan-Martin has worked for the ITU for nearly 30 years, lives in Europe and is seen as a global citizen — a boon for an American candidate taking on an international role.
“Things are largely done on consensus at the ITU, so she knows how to bring around that consensus,” Susan Ness, a former FCC commissioner and a visiting distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund, further explained. “But make no mistake, control of the internet is a critical question.”
The Russian and Chinese vision of greater government control and insight into internet operations could appeal to other member countries as well.
ICANN’s roots as an American organization have long led many other nations to argue that the UN should assume more of its functions. “We are deeply concerned about the direction that the ITU might move in under that kind of direction from somebody who comes from a much more authoritarian view of communications,” FCC said, adding: “We think there’s actually a much more high stakes election than you would normally find in a standard body. That’s why the U.S. government is putting a lot of energy into supporting this historic candidate.”
The Plenipotentiary Conference elects the Secretary-General, the Deputy Secretary-General, the Directors of the Bureaux of the Radiocommunication Sector (BR), the Telecommunication Standardization Sector (TSB), and the Telecommunication Development Sector (BDT), and the 12 members of the Radio Regulations Board (RRB) as captured in Nos 55 and 56 and Nos 62 and 63 of the ITU Constitution.
The Plenipotentiary Conference also elects the 48 Member States that will constitute the next ITU Council (see No. 54 and No. 61 of the Constitution).
Time-limits and procedures: In accordance with No. 170 of the General Rules of Conferences, Assemblies and Meetings of the Union, candidatures must reach the Secretary-General not later than 23:59 hours (Geneva time) the 28th day prior to the Conference, i.e. Monday, August 29,2022
Right to vote: In order to be able to exercise their sovereign rights in full at the Plenipotentiary Conference, member states must ensure that they have maintained the right to vote in accordance with Nos 169 and 210 of the Constitution and that the delegations representing them at the Plenipotentiary Conference 2022 are duly accredited in accordance with Nos 325 and 327 to 331 of the Convention.
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KOKO-BELLO AS THE JOKER CARD
The helmsman at the NPA has justified the confidence reposed in him, writes Jackson Olali
Give it to President Muhammadu Buhari, his passion for a diversified Nigerian economy is peerless. His imprints in agriculture are both telling and compelling. Now, he has an ally in Mohammed Bello-Koko, the helmsman at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
Bello-Koko was on May 6, 2021 appointed the acting managing director of NPA when Hadiza Bala Usman was directed to handover to the most senior Executive Director after she was “suspended for insubordination.”
Prior to his appointment as acting MD, Bello-Koko was the Executive Director, Finance & Administration of the Authority. And barely eight months in acting capacity, Buhari approved his appointment as the substantive top man of the NPA, Nigeria’s ports regulator.
As an industry technocrat, Bello-Koko understands the weak points, the dialectics of ports administration and the imperativeness of the NPA as one of the strong pillars for effective diversification of the economy, the dream of President Buhari.
So far, he has carried on with transformational zeal and clinical empiricism of a nifty surgeon. First, he effected a shift in the psyche of the staff through a retreat. If anything, the retreat achieved a fundamental purpose. It weaned many of the staff of the ‘government workers’ mentality, which is usually a soporific dose for lethargy and indolence in the public sector workplace. He demanded more from his team to position the Authority towards greater efficiency, safety and accountability. He outlined several strategies that would help him and his team place the NPA on a solid pedestal that would help them do more and build capacity for greater market share.
Bello-Koko made no pretence in serving the intent that he was the proverbial man on a mission. He simply put the marker down. He wants to run an efficient, nimble-footed ports administration that would be lean on operational cost but buoyant in revenue generation to the government coffer.
He set out on a regime of reforms which saw a progressive decline in incidences of corruption buoyed by his deliberate institution of a culture of zero corruption enhanced by infusion of technology into the operations of the Authority. Hitherto, ports operations especially revenue collection and speed of documentation had been shrouded in opacity and riddled with human intrusion which bred avenues for sharp practices. The new NPA leadership is dealing with this ugly trend using automation, upskilling of staff and value orientation.
Bello-Koko himself summed up the resultant effect of this recently: “We have seen the progress recorded in port operations and the revenue into government coffers; it shows that sooner than later, the port industry in Nigeria would become the most attractive maritime cluster in the region, going by our market share and capacity.”
In a presentation to the House of Representatives Committee on Ports and Habours recently, he gave a breakdown and roadmap which inspired both hope and optimism of Nigeria becoming the port of choice on the continent. With the creation and take-off of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), port activities around the continent are expected to nose up. Nigeria is expected to take a clear lead in this regard. And with Bello-Koko’s transformational leadership, she looks primed to dominate the continental port operations.
The balance sheet tells the story. A breakdown showed that from January to September 2021, the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) performance of NPA rose by 120%, while operating expenses was cut by about 20%.
In his presentation, Bello-Koko noted that NPA’s IGR rose to N256.28 billion as against the sum of N214.65 billion which was projected by the Authority during the period. The figure represents a revenue performance of 120% for the nine-month period or 95% of its total annual budget for 2021.
Within same period, operating expenses (as at the end of September 2021), stood at N55.1 billion as against the budgeted figure of N65.49 billion. The expenditure comprised employees’ benefits, pension costs, towage services, supplies, repairs and maintenance and sundry administrative overheads. This indicates a savings of N10.39 billion or 85% performance of the approved budget of N87.32 billion.
And in compliance with the quarterly remittance of its operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) and provisions of the Finance Act 2020, the Authority remitted the sum of N62.66 billion to CRF for the year 2021 (as at October 31, 2021). Further breakdown showed that a cumulative sum of N89.9 billion was transferred to the CRF in six months, making it the highest remittance into the CRF by NPA in a one-year period.
What has resonated the most with industry stakeholders was that all this was achieved within the difficult period of Covid-19 pandemic with its attendant restrictions in trade, movement of goods and general global economic lull.
One of the major planks of President Buhari’s economic engineering is to achieve sustainable diversification of the nation’s economy, making it less dependent on crude oil export earnings. To achieve this, according to the advisory of the National Economic Council, leakages must be plugged, and IGR through duties, taxes and levies must be enhanced.
Bello-Koko seemed to have been propelled by the President’s desire. He has emplaced a functional, tech-driven system to further enhance revenue collection and operational efficiency. The Authority has begun the process of consolidating its various electronic platforms under a unified port community system. This is also in line with global best practices.
The biggest and most efficient ports in the world today are situated in China, Singapore, South Korea, The Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Belgium. They are all busy and efficient. One thing common to them all is automation. Major ports in the world have long migrated from human-driven operations to digitally-enhanced operations. This has been the mantra of Bello-Koko: the need to infuse technology into the operations of the NPA. And he’s keeping to it.
The NPA is currently running on a bouquet of tech platforms including Oracle Financials and Human Resources Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Revenue & Invoicing Management System (RIMS), e-Ship Entry Notice (e-SEN), and Customs portal for online submission of bills. There is also the Hyperion budgeting software; Command, Control and Communication & Intelligence (3CI), Truck call-up access control system and Harbours System linked with the 3CI for harmonization of vessel operations.
Partnering with the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Authority is achieving a landmark in its operations by tying all the systems into an integrated, one-shop Port Community System (PCS). The IMO is providing technical aid to the Authority to achieve this.
Without any doubt, Bello-Koko has under one year justified President’s Buhari confidence in him, first by appointing him in acting capacity, and second, by approving his substantive status.
Earlier this month, the Authority flagged off the first non-oil export processing terminal, situated in Ibeshe-Ikorodu, Lagos State. This is not only a historical feat, it gives practical essence to President Buhari’s quest to expand the economy, boost local production, widen the market and make Nigeria a major foreign exchange earner through non-oil exports.
The Ibeshe-Ikorodu facility designated EssLibra Terminal, heralds the official launch of the 10 certified Export Processing Terminals, spread across Lagos and Ogun States. Nigeria has for decades depended on crude oil export to finance her budget and sustain her existence. But with crude oil price taking a shellacking at the international market, Bello-Koko’s reformatory leadership is what the nation needs at the moment. It’s a leadership that inspires hope that the nation’s redemption lies outside crude oil. It lies within men and women like Bello-Koko.
· Olali writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State
