NIRA (Nigeria Internet Registration Association) "May" soon destroy the confindence of Nigerians in .NG Domains

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Hello All,

By the time you finish reading this post, please if am wrong, kindly spank me but if am right please, my request of what you are going to do to NIRA is at the end of this post. And if you need further proof because of this post, please kindly be specific in your request and i will provide it for you.

Thanks.

The idea of registering GEO Domain Names came to me early 2013 because of the passion i had for local community. After much thinking and planning, i decided to create a Hyperlocal Platform for Promos in 2016.

I did my research on .NG Domain names and also at that time, NIRA was encouraging us to use our country .NG Domains, so i decided to built business around .NG Domains. I registered these 29 GEO Domain Names below between 2013 and 2015 and i keep renewing them till may 2016, which is 3 years.

(agege.com.ng, ajah.com.ng, ajeromi.com.ng, alimosho.com.ng, amuwo.com.ng, apapa.com.ng, asaba.com.ng, badagry.com.ng, benincity.com.ng, calabar.com.ng, epe.com.ng, etiosa.com.ng, ifako.com.ng, ikeja.com.ng, ikorodu.com.ng, ikoyi.com.ng, kosofe.com.ng, lagosisland.com.ng, lagosmainland.com.ng, lekki.com.ng, mushin.com.ng, ojo.com.ng, oshodi.com.ng, portharcourt.com.ng, shomolu.com.ng, surulere.com.ng, uyo.com.ng, victoriaisland.com.ng, yaba.com.ng)

Please, bear in mind during my research i discovered that, for example IKEJA.NG or APAPA.NG and all the .NG of the GEO Domain names above was actually “Reserved for Government” and the .COM.NG of the ones i registered was opened to the public for registration. Even LAGOS.COM.NG and ABUJA.COM.NG were for premium price by NIRA.

By March 2016, i had developed a MVP of the “Hyperlocal Platform for Promos” and i posted details of it on this forum, (Radar). Many members try to help me out by re-positioning my initial idea and concept in the right direction. And i was about trying to re-position and finally taken the advice given to me in the forum when NIRA destroyed the dream of me using .NG GEO Domain Names for Hyperlocal services by introducing Policy on .NG GEO Domain Names.

I was blocked from renewing all these 29 GEO Domain Names above around September 2016 or October 2016 which is after “3 good years” and the only reason NIRA given through my registrar was that “No new Registration for .NG GEO Domain names henceforth and No Renewal of .NG GEO Domain Names that has been registered before the policy”.

I tried to appealed to them that my livelihood depends on it and also asked them why is it after “3 years” that i had built business around them but i was refused to continue using them and i can only watch them die.

Believe me, i was devastated because all the money and time spent on this project was taken and destroyed in one blow. It was more painful, when i remembered how i used the money we supposed to use for foods in my family to renew these 29 GEO Domain Names and telling my family we have a future.

But i waited and trying to consider some other options.

Things Fell Apart

By November and December 2016, someone had registered three of my .NG GEO Domain Names above which NIRA said i can not renew but watch to die.

(1) Ikoyi.com.ng

and later

(2) Lekki.com.ng
(3) Victoriaisland.com.ng

And what make it worst is that, this same person was allow to renew some of his own .NG GEO Domain Names and to register new ones. I wrote to my registrar and they reported the issue to NIRA but NIRA told them they will take proper action on it. After 3 weeks with no response from NIRA and the same person had gone ahead to registered more of my .NG GEO Domain Names, hence I was force to reported the issue to NIRA myself and asking them to compensate me.

NIRA replied me and apologised that, it was the “lapse in technology that didn’t trap or prevent those registrations/renewals”. But remember, this same technology did actually trapped my own .NG GEO Domain Names.

They eventually put some restriction on the .NG GEO Domain Names but this person will actually make money for himself for a year because he had already Parked .NG GEO Domain Names. But NIRA, still refuse me from renewing my .NG GEO Domain Names and refuse to compensate my business.

Am not disputing NIRA control over the .NG Domain Names and neither can i stop the Government from building more roads and destroying houses but Government at least always shows concern by compensating those affected and that is what am requesting from NIRA, that they should “compensate me either by giving me all my .NG GEO Domain Names plus monetary compensation or just only monetary compensation”.

That is all i demanded from NIRA and nothing more.

I know a lot of people are not aware of this new Policy on .NG GEO Domain Names and still holding on to their “Golden” .NG GEO Domain Names which they had built business or planning to build business around them.

Now, my request of what you are going to do to NIRA if am right is this;

we should all remind NIRA, that the .NG Domains is still fragile and they should help all Nigerians that depend on it and will still depend on it, to have full “confident” in it because their Policy wise in the long run may destroy Nigerians “confident” in .NG Domains.

Thank you,
Realone

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Padi-padi business don enter am be dat naaa :laughing:

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@bigtt76
Though it may seem so for now but with GOD everything is possible, thanks.

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@Realone I want to say I feel your pain but somehow I think that won’t be fair.

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@87_chuks
Thanks, but what can i do?

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This is really bad!! I dont knw if i feel pity for you because you lost your right to renew or because you were warned against your strategy by @akindolu, @xolubi etc which you gave deaf ears to in this Munkly.com - a hyperlocal promos services

All the best.

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@Oluwasnipes
Please, is there anything wrong trying to do things differently?
Radar is for shaping people ideas and strategy and that is why many people come here. The advice @akindolu, @xolubi and many others gave are one of those shaping. but remember it does not mean i can not go forward with mine and also taking those advice as a caution.

Also, @Freshboi_Ekundayo did actually gave enough Expo in that post you refer and i thank him for that because those Expo actually is one of the ideas and strategy i put down when the idea of Hyperlocal came to me. And base on reserach i did afterward, each cityname.com.ng will be base on it. So do you now see why most people come here?

The community helps to caution and remind you of what you have forgotten.

Thanks

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Do you have copies of your correspondence with NIRA, receipts of payment and related info concerning this?

I will link you up with the Chairman of NIRA and you can make a case (if there is any)

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@inyangeffiong
Thank you so much for your concern and i really appreciated it alot.

I have everything you requested. Please, kindly link me up.

Again, thanks alot.

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Hello Inyang, Thanks for the link. I am reviewing and will comment shortly.

Thanks.

Sunday.

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Hello sir, I’m wondering if you are the NIRA boss. If it’s yes, then it’s nice to really have your comment, as promised.

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@sfolayan
Thank you sir for coming.
And as @nwaomachux said, it’s really nice and great to really have
your presense and your comment here. Thank you sir.

@inyangeffiong
Again, thanks alot.

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Dear Sir,

My attention was drawn to your post by a concerned friend. My sincere apologies for the pains you went through regarding the set of Geonames that form the base of your business.

I advise here that you go through the policies of NIRA as collected at http://nira.org.ng/legal/policy especially if you are building a business around premium resources like domain names, to avoid these types of issues. These policies have not been changed and reviewing them, It helps on the long run.

If I understand you well, the contention is:
Issue 1. Geoomains that are not available to you, should not be available to any other person.
Issue 2. You need compensation, if you will not be allowed to use those geodomains again.

I note that your Registrar and at another time, the registry staff have responded to the issues, but you may not be satisfied with their responses, so let me shed some more light.

Issue 1: The accidental availability of the domains to others was due to an implementation loophole. The domains, after recovery, were not moved to the appropriate custodian registrar for Geonames. You must understand that the Registry and Registrars have responsibilities, hence the need for periodic audits . We audited to recover from you, we will fix the loophole and recover from them shortly.

As provided in: NIRA_Domain_Names_Policy.pdf
3. General Rules
3.1 We reserve the right to check your application for compliance with the Policy either before or
after your Domain Name is registered or renewed with us.
3.2 We will accept applications which comply with the Policy and register Domain Names on a first
come first served basis. This means that, except where set out in the SLD Rules, we will not vet your
application to:

  1. restrict who may apply for and register Domain Names; or
  2. restrict which Domain Names may be held by you; or
  3. restrict the number of Domain Names which may be held by you

Regarding issue 2:

Specifically from NiRA_REGISTRANT_AGREEMENT.pdf
(2) in no event shall the registrant pursue any claim against NIRA and in no event shall NIRA be liable for any loss, damage or expense (including, without limitation, any special, indirect, incidental, exemplary, punitive or consequential damages or for economic loss or damages resulting from loss of use, lostprofits, lost business revenue or third party damages) arising out of, resulting from or in any way connected with:
[…]
(k) the use of any domain name in the registry and any conflict or dispute with or any claim (as
defined in section 3.1(i)) against the registrant or the registrant’s registrar, including one
relating to:
i. registered or unregistered trade-marks;
ii. business names, partnership names, corporate names and other trade names;
iii. names or indicia of individuals or groups or individuals;
iv. any other intellectual property rights;
v. defamation of any person; or
vi. unlawful discrimination with respect to any person; or
(l) NIRA’s failure to confirm or verify any membership information.

Those should suffice to address the two issues.

On a much different note now: I note that you misunderstand some facts in your business model, namely a mis-assumption that geonames should only be registered under the .gov.ng sub-domain. NIRA reserves the right to prevent such disguised abuse. For example, while jamb.gov.ng is the official Jamb website, someone who registers jamb.com.ng and purposes it as a matriculation examination website is deemed maliciously impersonating JAMB, no matter the amount of disclaimers on the site that it is not related to JAMB.

It is a mis-assumption to register Geonames in whatever sub-level domain, while not being the legal entity responsible for such names even under the .gov.ng. sub-level domain.

I hope we can move forward with this, and hope you will appreciate the good work the registry staff are doing on behalf of NIRA, to project the identity of the Nigerian brand in cyberspace.

It is not easy, but indeed, Rome was not built in a day.

Best Regards …

Sunday Folayan
President, NIRA Executive Board.

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… My thoughts when I first saw this thread.

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I am the President, and I have now posted a comment. Thanks a lot, grateful and ready to address any other issue or questions.

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@sfolayan
Dear Sir,
Thank you for taking your time to respond. I really appreciate it alot and infact, i am highly honored.

All NIRA Policy was read by me during my research so that i do not violate any of them.

But Sir,
(1) in my case, i am not mis-assumption because in 2013 through 2016, i saw LAGOS.COM.NG and ABUJA.COM.NG under “Premium” not “Government Reserve” like IKEJA.NG. which means that NIRA is not expecting Government official or “Legal entity” to be interested in (LAGOS.COM.NG or ABUJA.COM.NG) but a Private body or any Individual in Nigeria. And that is why i went for .COM.NG of the ones i registered.

I will now beg to ask this question Sir,
(2) If i had registered LAGOS.COM.NG or ABUJA.COM.NG around 2013 or 2015 at a “Premium”, let say #3,000,000 a piece base on legal assumption as a private body or Individual, what would now happen?

(3) If NIRA want to follow the Guidelines of their policy and not make the public to miss-assumption them then NIRA should not put any GEO Domain Names in “Premium” category which we all know that this category is intend for the Public.

(4) Base on the facts i stated above in number 1, 2, and 3, i believed my business is entitle for a compensation.

Thank you sir,
Realone

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Thanks @sfolayan for your reply. I believe once the above is done, it will indeed show that NIRA is consistently following it’s own rules as you’ve patiently laid out. As it stands, with the domains in question still in other private hands, it’s too early to tell - that justice has been served.

Moving on to a slightly related note, .ng domains prices. Here’s my free advice to help NIRA make more money and increase adoption:

• Charge zero fees at registration: They’re currently artificially high - right at the point most entrepreneurs - are price sensitive. The reality is that a lot of people are turned away by the cost.

• Charge fees from second year (& can progressively increase onwards): An ongoing business is more valuable to NIRA (and to Nigeria), in the long run.

• Make the .ng domains widely available: For instance, NIRA can work with CAC to give newly registered companies .ng domains. The aim is to increase the pool of registrants.

In my view, NIRA is one of the few government agencies that can influence behaviour (both entrepreneurs & consumers), in a positive way through policies. But those polices have to take a long term view.

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Dear sir,

You wrote:
“But Sir,
(1) in my case, i am not mis-assumption because in 2013 through 2016, i saw LAGOS.COM.NG and ABUJA.COM.NG under “Premium” not “Government Reserve” like IKEJA.NG. which means that NIRA is not expecting Government official or “Legal entity” to be interested in (LAGOS.COM.NG or ABUJA.COM.NG) but a Private body or any Individual in Nigeria. And that is why i went for .COM.NG of the ones i registered.”

Are you in a position to clarify NIRA’s intention using assumptions as a basis? I was expecting you will show me a response to an enquiry that shows that what you claim is the intention of NIRA, and then based on such an advise by NIRA, you proceeded to register those domains.

If you really read my response, Internal classifications are not a basis for guestimating the intentions of NIRA, when there is no correspondence clarifying that.

Still on your claim to compensation,

again: I wrote:
“(2) in no event shall the registrant pursue any claim against NIRA and in no event shall NIRA be liable for any loss, damage or expense (including, without limitation, any special, indirect, incidental, exemplary, punitive or consequential damages or for economic loss or damages resulting from loss of use, lost profits, lost business revenue or third party damages) arising out of, resulting from or in any way connected with:”

If I propose that a compensation be paid to you, I am in violation of the trust of the Association.

There are indeed very many more opportunities within the .ng domain space. Personally, I think you should move away from the realm of argument arising from conjectures, and seek advise on other opportunities, so that you can quickly move on.

Cheers.

SF.

I have edited this to answer your questions as numbered, since it seems my answers were a bit diplomatic and you just will not want to read between the lines. So … here goes!

How did you come to the conclusion that NIRA is not expecting Government Official or Legal Entity not to be interested in lagos.com.ng just because lagos.gov.ng will be their interest? If a non-government entity is allowed to register lagos.com.ng when the equivalent lagos.gov.ng belongs to Lagos government, isn’t lagos.com.ng phishing? Isn’t it pretending to be what it is not? Look, when you think other people are blind to the opportunity that you have envisioned, it may not be that other people are blind to opportunities, it is you are blind to reality and caution. Sorry, but I think you like explicit explanations, so indulge me, I usually write in a couched language.

When you pay N2,000 to register a domain, we will not deploy resources to vet the domain name registration at the point of your application. You will probably register it, and we will audit later. Nigerians should assume that Nigerians are not bad. isn’t it? Note that the cost of audit is far more than the cost of the domain name.

On the other hand, I will respond to your hypothetical assumption. if you pay N3m to register a premium domain, we will complete all due diligence fore your registered name shows up in DNS, which means that if you are not entitled to it, we will not take your money in the first instance.

Since you did not register a premium domain name, let us avoid the assumption please. Premium have no two meanings, it gets premium service.

NIRA is following its own rules. You are the one not understanding the economic sense embedded in it. NIRA put certain geoname in premium because of course they are premium. If you have the opportunity to run NIRA, if you must sell, will you sell lagos.com.ng at the same price as kauranamuda.com.ng? Will you sell portharcourt.com.ng at the same price as kosubosu.com.ng? And who told you Lagos State Government who is entitled to the geoname will not pay the premium price? You seem to think you are the only interested party. Isn’t it? Those entitled to it, are also willing to pay a premium sir.

Sir, I did not set the rules, it was set my members who have the cumulative thought and experience to do so. You are criticizing what people have done, based probably on these set of assumptions around some limited understanding of the issues. IN attempting to clarify and explain, you seem to hold on to your position, and allege limited knowledge of what it should be, on our own part. Are you not bullying us intellectually? If you no longer have confidence in NIRA and .ng, does it mean that Nigerians do not have interest and confidence in it again? I don’t think so. Please slow down sir.

Based on the rules, which I have quoted to you earlier, and based on the advise of the NIRA legal counsel, you are not entitled to a refund. From the economic perspective, because it served you for the duration of the period that you paid for it, you enjoyed the economic value. You just could not renew, hence NIRA does not owe you for it.

Lastly,

Please submit yourself to the admin, to be spanked on the bumbum, on our behalf.

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Thanks @PapaOlabode,

Regarding the retrieval, I have escalated this to the responsible group within the organization. I am sure they will do the justice in this matter, but as I wrote, the initial problem must be fixed before retrieval, so that a third registrant will not come into the picture. It will portray us as not serious.

Nice ideas you have listed there. One of the things many people do not know is that NIRA runs by policies set by members. The Policy Development Process is at http://nira.org.ng/images/Policies/NIRA-_POLICY_DEVELOPMENT.pdf Anyone can be a member by paying the annual membership fees. Once a member, you can then influence the policies. Please join. us

On a final note, How expensive it a .ng domain? The most expensive registrar sells a .name.ng for N500, a com.ng for N2,000 and a .ng for N15,000. I do know a registrar advertising for a .com.ng for as low as N999. Some offer hosting, some do not. Some bundle, some do not. Please shop for the Registrar that fits your pocket at http://nira.org.ng/registrars

Cheers

SF

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