"I wanted the best for my child in terms of information technology. I met this man and paid him 132,000 naira for the job," the visibly angry lawyer said, pointing at a middle-aged operator of a computer shop in the heart of the bustling Ikeja computer market.
All he wants now is a refund of his money so that he can buy a new set, he said.
Nigerians are becoming increasingly fed up with what experts have described as "junk" imported secondhand computers and cell phones that are flooding Africa's most populous country from Europe, Asia, and United States.
Basel Action Network, an American NGO, published a report recently in which it said that some 500 containers of 400,000 secondhand computers are emptied monthly in Apapa seaport in Lagos.
In Lagos, Nigeria's most populous city with some 15 million people, hundreds of computers and accessories change hands daily in the fast-growing Ikeja "Computer Village" market, prompting fears of health and environmental hazards because of substances contained in them such as lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, and brominated flame-retardants.
Nigeria, Africa's largest consumer market, "is fast becoming a dumping ground for junk and secondhand computers that are not only injurious to our health but constitute an environmental menace," said Oludayo Dada, a senior official in the federal environment ministry.
John Oboro, assistant general secretary of Computers and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN), which has some 2,000 members, complained that Nigeria had no law to manage computer waste.
"People dump their waste anyhow and this is not healthy," he said. "We have set up a 20-member committee to tackle the problem. For many years, we overlooked the problem. Now is the time to confront it."
He said that the government will soon make an inventory of all the computers in the country so as to set up a recycling plant.
Lagos computer dealer Mike Osondu said that products from Europe and America are usually of high standard, but admitted that unscrupulous importers are hurting the market.
"It is true that some unpatriotic Nigerian businessmen ask their foreign manufacturers to produce low quality products which are cheap," he said.
Cell phone technician Yusuf Ademola called for a government policy to regulate the IT industry, complaining that frequent power cuts damage electronics and many Nigerians cannot afford generators.
"Erratic power supply is hindering business and destroying our appliances. The other problem is the cost of running generators. The government should do something about the public power system," he said
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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