|
 Daily
Independent Online.
* Tuesday, June 22, 2004.
One last .ng river to cross
The testy tone of contenders for control
of Nigeria’s .ng Internet name has mellowed in recent time following a
January intervention by President Olusegun Obasanjo into the long-drawn
dispute.
A fall-out of that intercession is that
the Nigerian Government has eventually gained control over the Nigerian
Country Code Top Level Domain (.ng ccTLD) Name.
That emanated out of this month’s
ratification of a “redelegation” request by Nigeria at the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the global technical
co-ordination body for the Internet infrastructure.
Nigeria's .ng Internet name serves as her
unique identifier and the suffix also routes Nigerian bound messages on
the Internet.
But the seemingly inconsequential suffix
has been at the heart of a continual battle among major information and
communications technology (ICT) bodies hoping to control the resource.
Obasanjo was soon to mediate in January
when the contending parties not only failed to reach an accord but the
snowballing dimension the issue was assuming led to embarrassing
consequences for government and the nation at large.
The transfer to the National Information
Technology Development Agency (NITDA), on behalf of government, called
“redelegation” in technical parlance ends over eight-year old dispute
among stakeholders seeking to wrest control from ex-administrative
contact person, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, who also backed status change by
ICANN.
Daily Independent investigations revealed that the transfer took effect June 9,
2004 following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) made and entered into
on April 19, 2004 by and between ICANN and NITDA, on behalf of
government.
The President and Chief Executive Officer,
ICANN, Dr. Paul Twomey and Director-General, NITDA, Professor G. Olalere
Ajayi, jointly signed the MoU in which ICANN now recognises NITDA as the
.ng domain name “manager”.
Prior to the ratification of the MoU, ICANN had also
recognised Mrs. Odusote as the in-country ‘Administrative Contact Person’
for the domain name.
A copy of the MoU obtained by Daily
Independent states that, “ICANN hereby recognises the manager as the
manager of the Delegated ccTLD during the term of this MoU.”
Additionally, the MoU binds NITDA to
“acknowledge that ICANN is, and throughout the term of this MoU shall
remain, the Internet coordination entity responsible to the global
Internet community for the development of policies for the overall
coordination of the Internet domain-name system (DNS) in a manner that
maintains it as a stable and interoperable global naming system for the
Internet.”
Following the MoU reached with the
Nigerian government, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the
body that manages the Internet domain-name system root, on June 9, 2004
altered the administrative contact information created March 15, 1995 on
its web site.
The road to redelegation has been a tough
one, not only for the local combatants, but for ICANN as well as various
global technical monitoring bodies for the Internet infrastructure.
On February 18, this year, a special
meeting of the ICANN's Board of Directors was held via teleconference,
which deliberated on Nigeria’s request for redelegation.
The Chairman, ICANN Board of Directors,
Mr. Vinton G. Cerf, presided over the meeting, which also had in
“attendance,” Mr. Paul Twomey, President/CEO, ICANN; Africa’s
Representative on ICANN, Mr. Mouhamet Diop, among other board members.
The board meeting, which topped its agenda
with the .ng issue also discussed the Establishment of a Regional Office
in Brussels, among other issues.
According to the minutes of that meeting,
“the board reviewed the issues and status surrounding the .ng
redelegation. No board action is required on this matter until such time
as all of the necessary IANA documentation is completed.”
By the subsequent Special ICANN Board
Meeting held April 2004, which deliberated on the .ng issue including a
similar redelegation request of .ps (Palestinian Territories) Internet
name, among other issues.
In its resolution on the Nigerian
Redelegation, the ICANN has recorded some progress.
Minutes of the meeting states that,
“whereas, on 10 March 2000, in resolution 00.13, the Board authorized the
President and staff to work with the ccTLD managers, Governmental
Advisory Committee, and other interested parties to prepare draft
language for ccTLD contracts, policy statements, and/or communications,
including appropriate funding arrangements, to be presented to the Board
and posted for public comment as soon as practicable.”
It adds that, “whereas, on 13 March 2001,
in resolution 01.37, the Board directed ICANN management to press forward
with continued vigor toward the completion of draft legacy agreements,
and to pursue, as needed, acceptable ccTLD agreements.”
The statements goes thus: “Whereas,
negotiators for NITDA and ICANN have reached agreement, subject to the
ICANN Board's approval and final verification of translated data by ICANN
staff, on the terms of the ccTLD MoU for the .ng top-level domain;
“Whereas, the President recommends that
authorization be given to enter into this agreement subject to the
foregoing;
“Resolved [04.38] that the President is
authorized to enter into on behalf of ICANN the ccTLD MoU for .ng in
substantially the form as provided to the Board, with any minor
corrections or adjustments, and verification of documentation, as
appropriate; and
“Resolved [04.39] that, upon signature of
the agreement, the President is authorized to take such actions as
appropriate to implement the agreement.”
IANA, which is also responsible for
receiving requests for delegation and redelegation of top-level domains,
investigating the circumstances pertinent to those requests, and
reporting on the requests, has modified its database to recognise NITDA
as both the “Sponsoring Organisation” and “Administrative Contact” for
the domain name.
However, U.S.-based Mr. Randy Bush of
RGnet, LLC, Washington still remains the Technical Contact for the
Nigerian domain name.
In appraising government’s request for
transfer, IANA states that, “the structure proposed by NITDA and endorsed
by the Nigerian Government is to have NITDA undertake management of the
.ng ccTLD under appropriate oversight of the Nigerian Government
concerning the national policy interests.”
The appraisal adds that, “NITDA and the
Nigerian Government also acknowledges and supports ICANN's responsibility
for coordinating management of the DNS, including the .ng ccTLD, to
safeguard global technical coordination interests. In reviewing the
request, in light of the Nigerian Government's endorsement of NITDA as
the appropriate manager, and in view of achievement of agreements
documenting the framework of accountability described above; the IANA
concludes that the .ng ccTLD should be redelegated to NITDA.”
President Olusegun Obasanjo, had
intervened in the dispute when on Friday January 16, 2004, he convened a
meeting of ICT stakeholders in the public and private sectors to resolve
the domain name dispute.
The issue had pitted two ICT bodies, the
Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) and Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) against
each other over who controls the national resource. NCS endorses
management by an autonomous body while NIG insists it has a government
licence allegedly issued it for domain name management.
In resolving the controversy, the
President directed that the TLD, being a national resource, should be
managed by government, and therefore NITDA should immediately assume
custody of the .ng ccTLD.
He also directed Mrs. Odusote to transfer
possession and custody of the TLD to NITDA.
Obasanjo also added that NITDA should set
up a non-governmental organisation (NGO), representing the interest of
the Internet Community and ICT stakeholders in Nigeria, to handle the
actual management of the .ng ccTLD under the supervision and control of
NITDA.
In implementing the President’s directive,
NITDA recently announced calls for memorandum and position papers from
the Nigerian Internet community and general public “to forward
submissions, memoranda and/or position paper on any aspect of the .ng
management.”
NITDA says it plans to hold a National
Stakeholders Forum this month to gather public opinion on the structure,
composition and proper name of the non-governmental institution to be
created following the President’s directive.
However, initial signals emanating from
the industry indicate that the road ahead is still far from clear.
While the successful redelegation may
signal a likely end to dispute over the national resource, contenders
want Obasanjo’s order to be implemented, “to the letter.”
A senior government official says, “the
President actually directed that ngNIC should be set up to manage the .ng
domain in Nigeria.”
Reacting to the development soon as
Obasanjo’s intervention, President, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Dr
Chris Nwannenna, said that, “the President has spoken our position that
it is an autonomous body that should handle the management of the .ng
domain name.”
He said that NCS would support the
creation of an autonomous body to manage the domain name based on
government directive.
A senior government official adds that,
“the President has spoken because his logic is that being a national
resource, since it was already sold to NITEL, it’s technically nolonger
Mrs. Odusote’s property and it’s now with government.”
However, a source insists that Obasanjo’s
directive is that an advertisement should be placed for suitably
qualified bodies of stakeholders to participate in the management of the
domain name.
A source said that this will thwart any
plan by NIG to insist that the licence issued it for domain name
management does not resurface at the imminent stakeholders’ forum meant
to set up an “all-inclusive body for the management of the domain name.”
For now, most observers are tight-lipped
over the planned stakeholders’ forum, which they expect will pool
viewpoints together for the setting up of the NGO to manage the domain
name.
“We have submitted our position to NITDA
and it remains that we want an autonomous body that will represent the
interest of the Internet community in the country”, said President of
NCS, Nwannenna.
He refused to comment on the specific
details of the NCS memorandum.
However, some observers told Daily
Independent that more than the ICANN redelegation, the forthcoming
forum to set up the domain name management body will mark a defining
phase of the long domain name dispute in the country.
|
