[Community-Discuss] How to we move from here.

[Taiwo Oye]

Hello,
 
It is quite amusing that several community members are turning a blind eye on AFRINIC's issues which impedes there ability to maintain a stable and open Internet in the African region. It's difficult to understand the philosophy behind this imperceptible loyalty -the subsequent disruption of networks and connectivity is seen to be some of the worrying effects of this issue - which will certainly have catastrophic consequences on numerous Internet stakeholders.
 
There are people who will argue regarding the legal intricacies of Mauritius' decision, which turns this whole ordeal into a bizarre political maelstrom. I believe the honorable Judge is making, and will continue to make the right decision. In light of all the drama ongoing, I will like to shed light of some incidences that brought us down this part. 
 
1. Former AFRINIC staff, Ernest Byaruhanga, used to sell IP blocks to whoever is willing to pay the highest price. It was seen that he also attempted to exhaust AFRINIC's IPv4 reserves with no regards to the community and the scarcity of those particular internet resources.
 
(https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/12/the-great-50m-african-ip-address-heist/).
 
With this, a question must be asked: Did Ernest consider Africa's best interest at heart while he was committing such atrocities? It is also said that he used his connections in AFRINIC to change the ownership databases and transfer them into offshore accounts in Kenya and even the United States. He also made a fortune out of these stolen IPv4 resources due to his clients in Ugandan, and even American, shell companies
(https://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/330379-how-internet-resources-worth-r800-million-were-stolen-and-sold-on-the-black-market.html),  
 
2. AFRINIC has also been consumed by racism when the past CEO Adiel Akplogan, argued there was a race-related conspiracy to take over the organization, in addition to constant bullying and language discrimination between the French-speaking and the English-speaking countries. 
 
https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/17/another_afrinic_scandal/
 
3. At present, while disciplinary measures have been made, the promise of a new culture made by current CEO, Eddy Kayihura, is nowhere to be found (https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/24/afrinic_new_ceo/).Corruption is still rampant with their questionable financial statements, and with their frozen assets, this proves to be a hindrance to the operations of AFRINIC now and in the future.
 
4. As for the AFRINIC board – this is an entire chapter that is almost becoming a joke - , there have been several recent cases of power abuse, which have completely violated the PDP's governing documents and its bottom-up process. Mid-appeals, there were consecutive questionable resignations of two members of the appeal committee, which were followed by the board's decision to suspend the appeals and then revoke the existing Appeal Committee Terms of Reference for replacement, which has resulted in the unprecedented and recent dissolution of the appeal committee.   
 
https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2021/012403.html
 
https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2021/012340.html
 
https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2021/013494.html
 
5. Another recent violation of the PDP's bottom up process was the board's refusal to ratify the policy draft proposal "Board Prerogatives on the PDP" -AFPUB-2020-GEN-004-DRAFT02 ,which has reached the community consensus and was sent to the board for ratification.
 
https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2021/013602.html
 
6. Moreover, AFRINIC has issued 450 987 IPv4/24s. It should be noted that the vast majority of the IPv4 issued is coming from South Africa (105511 /24s) and Egypt (94360 /24s). The membership size, which currently stands at 1930 members, clearly demonstrates a total failure of outreach, while the IPv4 still in stock (1 756 888) demonstrates a total failure of IP addresses distribution.
 
Whether AFRINIC doesn’t properly educate its members on how to request space or doesn’t have reasonable prices that encourage the members to request space, both indicate that there is a failure of AFRINIC’s management and its board.
 
https://stats.afrinic.net/ipv4/
 
https://stats.afrinic.net/ipv4/exhaustion/ipv4_pool
 
7. Additionally, for your consideration, please take the time to look at this document: 
 
https://afrinic.net/finance/2021
 
There are numerous things that are worth discussing. The HR expenditures is about 3,000,000 USD for a 50-member staff - which gives us the impression that they are paid 60,000 USD a year. According to Mauritian labor statistics, it is seen that an average Mauritian is paid 12,000 USD. It is implied that AFRINIC's salary package is almost 5-times of the Mauritian average. This is seen as living lavishly. 
 
With the issues above, obviously Afrinic is in a real mess clouded with various unethical issues. These issues are now becoming a daily affair, affecting the foundation in which the registry was built. 
 
The question is how did we get to this and where do u where go from here. 
 
 
Best regards,
 
Taiwo O
 


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