By Benprince Ezeh

THE Nigeria Internet Registration Association, NIRA, wants the Nigerian media to promote .NG as the nation’s domain name. The idea was given impetus by Sunday A Folayan, reverend and president; Mohammed Rodman, vice-president; Edith Odiagu, secretary; Shikiru Shehu, the dean and  Emmanuel Edet, a member of the board of trustees, who spoke glowingly about adopting the domain name. They also warned that the internet will take over the world by 2020.

The issue was discussed in a training held at the NIRA house in Surulere, Lagos on Friday July 20, 2018, themed: A word of opportunities.

Folayan, the executive president of NIRA said that the media had a duty to promote the national identity in .NG.  “I am aware that so many people doesn’t want to use local domain names for their internet because of poor infrastructure, poor penetration, and lack of manpower which contributes to why Nigerians seems not to be interested in it.”

“Internet started in the US only for military reason, was only made open for general because of foresight.”

In his contribution Rodman gave the history and invasion of telephone as well as the internet. He said that telephone was invented by Alex Graham in 1876. Before the telephone, he said switch was what was being used in the early days for communication.

Rodman said that the word internet was driven from a Greek word Inter and Network, which was invented on October 29, 1969. Since then the internet has grown in an immense number. Over 3.2billion people use internet worldwide.

In the cause of the training, Shehu  said that Nigerian economy will enhance through the use of the .NG as the domain name in our businesses.

According to him, Nigeria is still considered to have the biggest economy in Africa. “We are rich in resources such as oil and 153 in United Nation’s Human Development Index,” he said.

Edet, on his part, spoke about the safety of brands and its trademark, “brand protection and trade marking on internet is very essential in safe guarding of product name, symbol, design and term.

“Trademark and domain are internationally in nature, trademark is licensed under law policies unlike domain which is under administrative policies.”

Before leaving, Edet gave a quote from Donatella Versace that says, “It’s very important for a brand to have an identity through the years, but it’s also very important as well to evolve because times change fast.”

Closing remarks was taken by Folayan, who said that Nigerians needed to adopt .NG as the national identity that soon human efforts will not be needed again rather all will be done by robots before 2030.

– Aug. 29, 2018 @ 12:55 GMT |