IT guru and Chairman of Zinox Computers, Leo Stan Ekeh, has advocated the provision of free Internet access for all Nigerians, identifying this as one of the things that must be done to unleash the innate potentials of the younger generation of Nigerians, many of whom he said can be found in remote villages.

Speaking at the formal inauguration of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GCOP), on Thursday, in Victoria Island, Lagos, Mr. Ekeh specifically told Presidential Spokesman Femi Adesina, who represented The Presidency at the event, to take the message to President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Tell him (President Buhari) to give Nigerians free Internet access,” the Zinox supremo said. “I wish he would have the will to call the major ISPs, give them $1 billion and ask them to give this country free Internet access – wireless cloud. By the time he does that every village will have a multi-millionaire.”

Ekeh, who held his audience spellbound with his extemporaneous Guest Lecture, also identified fixing the education sector as the other thing that must be done to set Nigeria on the path of development.

Arguing that this must be given utmost priority, he said: “Fix education! When people talk of NEPA, roads (as bigger priorities), it’s like telling a child not to go to school until we have fixed power and the roads, but by the time that is done, he would have grown gray hairs.”

Offering success tips to start ups and aspiring businessmen, Ekeh said that the recipe to enduring success is passion. Every business venture, he said, has the capacity to be successful as long as managers of such enterprises drive it passionately and with focus. This, he said, is the rationale behind the success of Zinox Computers, which has offices including in China.

In his words, “If you want to do business, do it passionately and without distraction. I have remained in the IT industry for many years and have focused on it instead of dabbling in everything. It is not that I do not see the oil industry, which is lucrative, but the oil industry, as lucrative as it is, is not for me.”

He praised the GOCOP initiative, saying that online publishing, if done properly, is a goldmine ahich also has the potentials to propel Nigeria’s development but can equally bring the nation down if online publishers decide to misuse the enormous powers in their hands.

•Photo by Rukevwe Onoharigho shows Leo Stan Ekeh delivering his lecture at the GOCOP Launch . . . Thursday at Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.