On the night of 15th January, several forces combined to take the life of promising David Ntekim-Rex leaving his family, friends, colleagues and admirers to grieve what was clearly, an avoidable and needless death.

Of all the suggestions on how those who mourn might cope with the irreplaceable loss and keep the memory of the young departed at heart, I find the one suggesting Liam Neeson’s The Honest Thief model quite fascinating.

The Honest Thief is a movie featuring Liam Neeson. There will be no spoiler alert here beyond the fact that Liam Neeson decided to put one of his exceptional skills to use following a painful experience.

In recommending Liam Neeson’s The Honest Thief model, members of Nigeria’s software community are being asked to memorialize young David by deploying their skills to specifically address some of the security-related issues facing Nigeria at the moment. Incidentally, those who play in this territory globally, that is, in the field of technology are the controllers of the levers of power with regards to the big issues of security. What is the place of technology in global security? What is the place of apps and software in global security? Haven’t we noticed that the ‘strongest’ countries in the world rely heavily on technology in their security architecture?

What if the death of David became the wake-up call which the software community in Nigeria required to change gears and push some of the famed potentials into material tangibles? What if the death of David became the trigger that challenged members of Nigeria’s software community into developing solutions that helped reduced to the barest minimum the number of ‘black spots’ across the country? What if the death of David enabled the throwing aside of every form of pussy-footing and blame game while the skilled members of the community concentrate on what they can do ‘technologically’ about these inner-city security what abouts? Would the memory of David not be properly served in the process?