Mina Ogbanga: Where are all our technology geniuses? (Y! FrontPage)

by Mina Ogbanga

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“With many a youths involved in technology building,refurbishing,repairs and maintenance,how come we still deal with a seeming large number of technicians who,in saving your device, still turn you into a “guinea pig”?”

It is another Sunday and  I am here praising the wonders of technology as I stare at the TV following religiously the launch of the iPhone 5 and the BB Q30 amongst others.

My excitement with new technology is, however, toned down when I think of the pain and disappointment many go through daily when supposedly high-end devices refuse to perform when they are most needed.

The challenge overall, ends up not being the inability of these devices to perform but the pain of losing vital (at that point of loss, every information becomes critically vital) information stored overtime…therein lies the issue…. You are then compelled to visit technology experts where you realise, sadly, that the problem you face might not have a satisfactory solution after all. You then ask yourself these gnawing questions: “With many a youths involved in technology building, refurbishing, repairs and maintenance, how come we still deal with a large number of technicians who, in saving your device, still turn you into a ‘guinea pig’? How much of technology expertise do we truly have?How far have we gone with the ‘skills acquisition’ programs across the nation? What exactly are the target focus of these centres?”

These were some of the questions I asked myself when I recently encountered yet another technology blow.

“Madam, this is a motherboard problem, I’m afraid you may never be able to retrieve your document.”

This is what I had to deal with when my two BlackBerry phones refused to come on and I actually thought the end had come. Counting your blessing suddenly seemed like a cliché.

Tonnes of BB contacts, thousands of photos, over 300 songs, 500 notes, my demos, thesis… literarily everything were on these phones. Yes, thank God I went all out to ensure I had a back up in the cloud for starters, and allowed for the weekly updates but unfortunately, the IT team assigned to restore the information rather wiped all back ups leaving only the phones for me.

But I refuse to give up. This can’t be the end.

Anyone out there thinking of giving up? Get up and get soaring, we all need to contribute to building expertise in the areas of technology in Nigeria. The time is now.

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Mina Ogbanga is an ardent development activist with a strong passion for sustainable development in rural communities, institutional building and social performance.

A social entrepreneur par excellence, Mina has had over 20 years of development experience. A Post Graduate Alumni of Cambridge University UK, United Nations Training Institute, Alumni of Harvard Kennedy School Boston, US, LBS etc and a Doctoral Researcher in Nigeria,

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

One comment

  1. BBQ30 is not in existence what was announced is the BlackBerry Z30! Kindly edit!

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