‘My plan is to rebrand and reposition Computer Village’

Adenike Shittu, a business woman and entrepreneur operates inside the Computer Village. Her approach to business and relations with customers has set her apart as a woman of class and panache whose honesty is undisputed. She is one of the candidates vying for the position of CAPDAN president, the umbrella association of Computer Village businesses. In this interview, she speaks on her aspiration, economy and the need to rebrand the village. Excerpts:

Why are you vying for the position of president of your association here in Computer Village?

I’m vying for the position of president of CAPDAN, which is Computer and Allied Products Association of Nigeria, because I have been a member from inception. I have been part of the organisation right from the time it was registered and I have seen it all, and I did not vie for any position from the onset because we considered ourselves as elders. We just wanted its success; we wanted a well-organised and coordinated association that is what we are interested in, but along the line we started to see that few things went wrong, and the association was not being run the way we expected it to run. And at a certain point in time, it was decided that some other executives should come in and that election should take place. This was set in motion by electing an electoral committee for the purpose of the election but this has been dragging on and on in the market. As a result, we have not been able to achieve the aim, but the main reason am interested in this position is that this is where I do my business. So, this is where my own interest is; and I want to see the village flourish and the association doing well because I have looked and thought about it , and desire that we could have an association that could boast of people of integrity, people that do business not considering all that they can gain. But who will consider their customers too. We have for too long been given bad names here, and I tell you all the names they gave us are not completely true because the same people that call us all sorts of names come here to buy from us to sell back to their customers. I know that there are bad eggs but that exists everywhere in every institution, in every market and in every organised place. But that does not mean we should be given that kind of name.

Be that as it may, we have been given that kind of name, what can we do to change it? What can we do to rebrand Computer Village? That is the reason am vying for the position, some people will never come here, they will tell you they won’t come here except they want to lose their purse. Am telling you it is that bad. We want a situation where people coming here will be happy and get what they need to get and get the original products. When we say this is what this product does, let it be so. When a customer is cheated he or she should be able to receive justice as the product complained about is either repaired or replaced. These are the things I have in mind, a Computer Village that has parking place, where people can come in, park and peacefully do their business. They should be able to buy, sell and do things the way they should be done. That is the Computer Village of my dream, and this is the reason why I want to become president of this Computer Village so that I should be able to put right what is wrong, run it and make it a place I can be proud of. Because when people see me sometimes, they say eeh!, is that where you do business? And I always tell them to come and do business here, it is then they will know that there are responsible, honest people around. The fact that some people are irresponsible does not make all of us irresponsible, and the irresponsible ones we urge them to turn to a new leaf.

If you are voted in, what will be your priority?

My number one priority will be rebranding, because many of our members are on their way out, because business is not booming, business is not doing well, and you know a tree cannot make a forest. All of us must be here for us to call it a market. I will make it a priority for all of us to come together and encourage those who are already discouraged. I will also ensure we encourage customers who are already discouraged as well. Let them come back to this market where they will see that sincerity and honesty are the order of the day. Again, am looking at a Computer Village where we can be together as a group, pay our tax, pay government levy and the government will recognise us. I know that we are paying our tax, but it gets to the wrong hands, the wrong pockets, just ending up where it shouldn’t have just because we are not organised. I want to see an organised Computer Village where everything is organised with a functional office, where people can lodge complaint and reports, where they know that if anything goes wrong they have a point of reference, a place of reference. These are going to be my priorities.

Information Technology (IT) is a very big industry, if voted in, how do you hope to interface with government?

If I become the president, the first thing I will do is to change approach because it is only a foolish person that does the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. We are going to organise ourselves, initiate committees, government relations committee, market facelift committee, rebranding committee, etc. We are going to create different committees to handle different challenges, and we organise ourselves responsibly to pay into government coffers what is due to the government. That is the first thing we are going to do to attract government attention. By the time we pay federal tax, state tax and local government dues, now tell me who is not going to listen to such an association? So, they will listen to us naturally. I don’t want to tell you that I will do this and that because I know Buhari or the Vice-President. No, we are going to take certain actions that will attract government’s attention. What we need is action in the right direction, changing of our attitude towards payment of tax and dues to the right quarters and let them see our impact. We will send representatives to government and they will listen to us.