Experts Task Govt On Infrastructure To Boost Digital Economy

ICT experts have tasked the Nigerian government to prioritise the provision of infrastructure so as to position the country to massively reap the benefits of a digital economy as obtained in some developed nations of the world.

ICT experts who made the call at the NITRA ICT Growth Conference 2.0, in Lagos, were of the consensus that the provision of infrastructure remained Nigeria’s surest pathway to building a robust digital economy.

Themed ‘Creating a Digital Ecosystem in Nigeria: The Hurdles, The Gains,’ the panelists drawn from both the public and private sector establishments, stated that efforts at building Nigeria’s digital economy cannot yield the much-desired fruit unless there is sustained commitment on the part of the government to prioritise the provision of infrastructure.

CFO of Medallion Data Centre, Seyi Olarenwaju, said infrastructure is going to play a vital role in enhancing digital systems in Nigeria’s digital ecosystem, noting that if there is no infrastructure in place, there is nothing.

More than 300 people died and more than 500 were  injured in Lima, Peru, on May 24, 1964 during an Olympic qualifying match between Argentina and Peru after two fans ran onto the pitch, setting off a police response that enraged fans and ended in a riot.

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Most of the fatalities were caused by asphyxiation, with an unknown number shot by police on the streets outside the stadium.

In 1982 in Russia, between 66 and 350 persons died after police had channeled fans through a single corridor at Luzhniki Stadium on Oct. 20, 1982, in a match between the visiting Dutch team Haarlem and Moscow’s Spartak, causing them to be crushed. The incident was hushed up by the Russian authorities.

In England, 97 fans died in a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989, in Sheffield’s Hillsborough Stadium, in a section populated by Liverpool fans.

A 2016 inquest determined that those who died were the victims of police mistakes.

The site had been chosen as a neutral spot, but Liverpool fans were allowed to cram into already-full standing-room terraces and, five minutes into the game, a fence separating fans from the field gave way under pressure of the surging spectators, causing them to fall upon one another

Tear gas use was also cited in Ghanaian tragedy in a May 9, 2001 game between the country’s two top clubs, Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko, in the Accra Sports Stadium.

Witnesses blamed Ghanaian police who fired tear gas into the crowd resulting in a stampede in which at least 126 fans died.

It is pertinent to point out the  football fans, administrators and security agents need to be encouraged to follow laid down rules of conduct to avert such human catastrophe in places that are set up for  entertainment.

e said.