REPORT OF THE WOMEN INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM 2022 (WIGF2022) ORGANIZED BY
THE CENTRE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT IN COLLABORATION
WITH NIGERIAN INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM HELD ON THE 14 TH OF SEPTEMBER, 2022 VIA
ZOOM

INTRODUCTION
On the 14 th of September, 2022 the Centre for Information Technology and Development held
the 4 th Women Internet Governance Forum as part of the 2022 Internet Governance Forum
activities. The event which is being held annually is part of the Nigerian Internet Governance
Forum (NIGF) pre-event activities., This year, the event theme was Making the Internet for
Livelihood, Love and Life: Tackling Gender and Child Abuse Online and was held online with a
limited physical attendance/participation in Kano. The theme was a well thought one, looking
at the global happenings around gender and child abuse online which has become a norm by
the perpetrators. Madam Marry Udoma, Chair West African Internet Governance Forum served
as the chair with Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, Chair, Kalu D Foundation as the Keynote Speaker while
Jan Moolman, Co-Manager: Women’s Rights Programme, Association for Progressive
Communications served as the Guest Speaker.
Also, two technical sessions were held on Gender Violence Online and Child Protection Online.
At the two sessions, distinguished personalities and experts on Gender Based Violence and
Child Protection spoke and shared their experience and knowledge with the participants. The
first session which was titled Dealing with Gender Violence Online was chaired by Professor
Amina Kaidal of the University of Maiduguri while the speakers at this session were Zainab
Aminu, CITAD Technical Officer, Mrs. Martha Alade, Founder, Women in Technology and Msen
Nabo, Digital Media Associate at Connected Development.
The second session which focused on Dealing with Child Protection Online, had Hajiya Suwaiba
Muhammad Dankabo, Programmes Manager at ActionAid International as chair while Aminu
Adamu Naganye of the Star Newspaper, Harira Wakili, a Gender and Human Rights Activist and
Barrister Aisha Mahdi of Green Edge Attorneys served as the speakers.
OPENING SESSION
In his opening remarks, the Executive Director of CITAD, Y.Z Ya’u started by explaining the
purpose of this year’s WIGF during which he stated that, the essence of organizing the forum
was to encourage discussion, especially among women, on internet governance and harvest
strategies for addressing issues that tend to reinforce the marginalization of women in the
digital space. Mr. Ya’u further stated that the WIGF focuses on two specific issues:

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  1. Issues of Gender Based Violence: in this regards, Mr. Y.Z said a lot of young women have
    suffered and still suffering from different kind of gender violence from people whose aim was
    to deter them from using the internet. He also lamented that in some cases these young
    women face gender violence by their social media friends. Moreover, the Executive Director
    also said many women especially political aspirants are being abused and castigated on social
    media based on their gender, which contributes in furthering the political marginalization of
    women.
  2. Child Abuse Online: on this, the Executive Director stated that the Federal Government of
    Nigeria has set up panel to advise on a policy framework on how to address this issue. Speaking
    further on this, Ya’u hoped the forum would give the participants a chance to harvest strategic
    ideas that can help in shaping the policy, raise awareness and involve other stakeholders in
    trying to sanitize the digital ecosystem so that the women in particular can be able to make
    effective use of the internet in the country, have access to educational materials and ability to
    use the internet without being harassed or intimidated.
    Speaking about the importance of the internet, Mr. Ya’u stated that internet allows individuals
    and academics to make research when there is accessible and safe internet. Fearing that some
    factors may hinder the proper use of the internet, Ya’u advocated that factors which inhibit
    people from using the internet needed to be removed and issue of affordability should also be
    addressed. He observed that women find it more difficult to access the internet than men due
    to the economic disparity that exists between two.
    Moreover, Ya’u said the aims of the forum were to: improve user security competence among
    women, ensure women are able to use the internet safely & secure their communications and
    that their privacy is well respected. At the end, he emphasized that “we must take internet as a
    right for everybody in the country”
    Giving her remarks at the Forum, the West African Chair of the Internet Governance Forum,
    Mrs. Marry Uduma said in discussing about children and women on the net, we need to first
    understand that these category of people are already being marginalized and a huge gap exists
    in the society. She also stated that women and children are every day being abused and
    violence being meted on them online but little is being done to curtail the situation. Further,
    the West African Chair said, these categories needed to be encouraged and supported to use
    the internet without being harassed and their rights not being violated in order to benefit from
    the ample opportunities the internet presents. At the end she encouraged the participants to
    actively participate at the forum.
    The Keynote Speaker at the Forum, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, Chair, Kalu D Foundation mentioned
    that in the early days of the internet, it has been a concern to the whole nation. Discussing on

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the responses to Gender Abuse Online and the multiple questions to address bordering around
gender violence online, the keynote speaker said, there is need to develop campaigns messages
to counter the misusers of the internet and contributed to the current processes of developing
national strategy on child protection online. The speaker also stated that the essence is to find
ways on how to address physical and online abuse, and how to protect vulnerable people from
being harmed on the internet. For this, she said more budget need to be allocated to this area.
Mrs. Ibukun went further to state that under United Nations Charter for Child Protection, every
child is expected to have a fundamental right to education, a right to health and a right to
livelihood, children are supposed to be allowed to speak and to be heard, but a lot of
constraints are preventing them from being able to fully access their fundamental rights
especially in Africa due to the cultural issues. Speaking about the ample advantages of the
Internet, Mrs. Odusate said if there was no internet during the COVID-19 pandemic, many
people could have lost their lives. The internet had also served as school for many children
during the lockdown, however, it also came with many disadvantages where some people used
it to abuse children.
Buttressing child abuse further, the keynote speaker said child and women abuse is a daily
reality in Nigeria; six out of ten children experience one form of abuse or the other, one in four
girls, and ten percent of boys have also been abused according to UNICEF data. She said
Technology when use in the right way has a potential to broaden opportunities and reduce the
level of abuse if there are proper guidance. The keynote speaker also lamented that many
opportunities are still not fully explored, but people tend to use the negative side of the
internet, bullying others and amplifying hate speech on social media platforms.
On the negative consequences of child abuse on education, Mrs. Odusate said report has
shown that one in five children skipped school due to abuse, and of recent, kidnapping of
school children has also brought a lot of problem to children education in the country.
Discussing about the strategies to follow in preventing gender abuse and safety promotion
among children, the speaker said, for that, educational institutions must to be protected as well
as ensuring privacy of children online. For this, government must ensure all the necessary
regulations are in place and civil society organizations need to intensify advocacies to relevant
government agencies on the issues. Also teaching digital literacy and online safety skills will go
a long way in addressing the menace.
Moreover, there was need to articulate and introduce policies on how to prevent the abuses,
promote parental care education, enlightenment on online activities for the children and
women need to be properly educated. There is need for guidelines on installation of
appropriate technology and software to prevent children falling into the traps of their abusers.

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And creating trauma management techniques and advocacy for protecting young people online
will go a long way in finding the solution to the problem.
In her contribution, the Guest Speaker, Ms. Jan Moolman started her contribution by saying
that the journey for the improvement of women’s rights especially on the internet is a difficult
one, looking at how the internet impact the lives of women from the ICT to digital technology,
from the focus of ICT for D from the 1990s to 2000s and even in the contemporary discussion
regarding privacy, disinformation, misinformation, censorship and hate speech, the role of
women in influencing, shaping and benefiting from digital technology is getting much more
grounded, and this recognition is largely due to the consistent work of organizations and people
in the global south that consistently call for inclusion, diversity and bringing gender approaches
to all the work that concerned human rights, both online and offline. Information around
gender based violence has been at the core of this work and has duly serve in bringing different
actors into the same room to find solution, the speaker added. She went further to say that it
took many years of lobbying and advocacy and work within women movement, including
building knowledge, research, campaigning, sharing experience and finally getting a common
language to get recognition on violation women experience when they are online. And this
work and persistency led to the 2018 adaptation of the UN Human Rights Council first ever UN
resolution on preventing and responding to violence against women and girls in digital context
and other different resolutions including the recent one in Africa has brought more relief to
women and girls in the continent.
Speaking on the issues APC and its partners pay more attention to when it comes to women
rights and digital technology, Ms. Moolman mentioned the followings:

  1. Joy, hope and Justice: according to the Guest speaker, for people who experienced
    violence online, there is hope they can find joy with regards to connection, information,
    solidarity, friendship, fun and even in some cases love. And for this, APC and its partners
    think it is important to encourage people to continue the work they are doing and to
    keep women safe and in a productive way on the digital space.
  2. Access: Even though women face many forms of violence online but there is need to
    ensure they have access to online platforms as easily and affordable as possible in order
    to carry out their normal activities. Emphasizing on how women are being marginalized
    when it comes to accessing the internet, the speaker said, the 2019 ITBU report stated
    that globally only 48% of women are online and in the global south this is even lower at
    28%. This according her shows that there is wide gap between the connected and
    unconnected in the society. And unless we are able to address the issue of accessibility,
    many women and marginalized communities will remain in darkness and their voices
    silent.

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  1. Third is about companies that own social media platforms that are regulating contents
    that lacks clarity and consistency and which upon violate the rights of people without
    accountability or remedy. These companies are determining online discourses with
    focus on profits at the expense of users’ privacy and rights.
  2. The fourth is about how feminists organizing online and offline are expanding and taking
    new forms. These groups are upon targeting for gender based violence online and it
    sometimes manifest to offline spaces.
    FIRST TECHNICAL SESSION: DEALING WITH GENDER VIOLENCE ONLINE
    CHAIR: Professor Amina Kaidal
    PANELISTS: Martha Alade, Zainab Aminu, Msen Nabo
    The first technical session was on Dealing with Gender Violence Online. The session which was
    chaired by Professor Amina Kaidal of the University of Maiduguri had Mrs. Martha Alade,
    Founder of Women InTechnology, Zainab Aminu, Gender Technical Officer, Centre for
    Information Technology and Development and Msen Nabo, Digital Media Associate at
    Connected Development.
    In her presentation, Zainab Aminu started by defining the Gender-Based violence which
    according to her refers to harmful acts directed at an individual based on their gender and
    rooted in gender inequality, the abuse of power and harmful norms.  Mss. Aminu said Gender-
    based violence (GBV) is a serious violation of human rights and a life-threatening health and
    protection issue, which is estimated that one in three women experiences sexual or physical
    violence in their lifetime.
    Zainab further stated that gender violence is not a new phenomenon; it has been existing since
    time immemorial which can include sexual, physical, mental and economic harm inflicted in
    public or in private and threats of violence, coercion and manipulation. Mss. Aminu also said
    gender violence can take many forms such as intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child
    marriage, female genital mutilation and so-called ‘honour crimes’ while its consequences are
    devastating and can have life-long repercussions for survivors. 
    Speaking about the impact of cyber violence, the speaker said it differs according to the victim’s
    gender. She gave an example with a study conducted by the Pew Research Centre which
    revealed that 38% of harassed women found their most recent experience with online
    harassment extremely or very upsetting, compared to only 17% of harassed men. The research
    further said that compared to male users, who tend to be more concerned about damage to
    their reputation, females are more likely to fear physical harm. This corresponds to the nature
    of online abuse these groups experience. Where men and boys are more likely to be victims of
    defamation and libel, women are more likely to be subjected to derogatory remarks or sexual

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images and threats, such as non-consensual pornography. She gave another example with
another study which found that female college students (age 18-24) who were victims of offline
stalking were three times more likely to be stalked online than their male counterparts. The
study also found that “while particular variables influence victimization risk among females,
virtually none of the variables in the analyses produced statistically significant relationships
with victimisation among males”.
Moreover, Zainab said key distinction between offline and online gender-based cyber violence
is that it is significantly more difficult “to permanently remove abusive or triggering content
from the Internet, which obliges the survivor to re-experience their victimisation all over again.”
This can exacerbate the psychological impacts of these forms of violence, such as flashbacks of
the incident and/or perpetrator, as well as increase the victim’s isolation period.
Discussing on the long term negative impact of gender violence online, Zainab said the greatest
impact that women experience is self-censorship. Women start censoring themselves online.
And that is what the abusers want. Another impact she said is that online violence attempts to
keep women from major sectors of the public sphere because public only take physical violence
seriously. The third impact is that some women leave the online platform [after being
harassed]. The forth impact which is being associated with online violence is public health issue
and the effects which results in physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm, and erodes
self-esteem.
Offering some solutions on how one can protect selves online, Zainab Aminu mentioned the
followings:
• Creating a strong password 
• Having different passwords for different accounts
• Downloading apps from authentication platforms and using two factor verification
• Logging out of accounts when not in use
• Not using public WIFI for sharing sensitive information 
At the end the speaker said, to stop gender violence online, there is need for public awareness
in order for people to understand it consequences which in many cases metamorphosed to
offline.
The second speaker, Mrs Martha Alade started by quoting the 1993 UN Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence against Women which defines ‘violence against women’ as an act of
gender-related violence (GBV) that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual,
psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion
or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life [or online].

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Discussing on the different types of Gender Violence Online, Mrs Alade said it includes; Doxing
(leaking unauthorized info to public), Sexist abuse, Hate speech, Threat to free expression,
Threat to privacy, Impersonation, Defamation, Gender-based discriminatory memes,
Cyberstalking, Online misogyny etc. On the category of people that experience Gender
Violence, Mrs Martha said women and girls from marginalised communities are the easy
targets and their voices are often unheard. Mrs Alade also said, in most of the times, girls in
local communities are being violated but they are not even aware they are being violated. She
gave a scenario on a case they worked on which happened to a small girl in a community they
are working in and the girl was abused but due to lack of proper awareness about the issue she
was not even aware she was abused until she was examined then it was discovered the girl was
violated.
At the end, the speaker said, to stop gender violence the followings need to be considered

  1. Education in local languages
  2. Increase Sensitization/Advocacy – culturally responsive and relevant
  3. Consent and privacy
  4. Human Rights Enforcements by Public and Private
  5. Employ AI for Filtering offensive contents
  6. Content Enhancement
  7. Enable more support and help channels for victims
  8. Drive programs that amplify voices of the marginalized women and girls
  9. Support NGOs working around the subject

The third at this technical session, Miss Msen Nabo, Digital Media Associate at Connected
Development said appealing to governments to take the issue of GBV more serious is
something its advocates need to take beyond social media and also people’s attitudes need to
be changed. Mss. Nabo also stated that Gender Violence especially online is something that
people come across everyday but most of the times the victims ended up being punished by the
society. The gender activist said when victims of gender violence try to speak out against the
violence mated on them they usually receive silent feedback or they are advised to keep mute
in order to protect their image.
Mss. Msen went further to say that a clear example where government is an accomplice to this
act is the case of Kano State where the State House of Assembly refused to domesticate the
Child Protection Act even though the state is ranked among the states with high rate of gender

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based violence and child abuse. According her, this need intense advocacies and awareness
creation.
Speaking further on how people violate others on social media platforms, Mss. Nabo stated
that sharing someone’s pictures, address, videos without his/her consent are all forms of
violence online and these types of violence can turn to offline. And for this, she suggested that
advocacies and awareness creation need to be carried out in order to stop it.

SECOND TECHNICAL SESSION: DEALING WITH CHILD ABUSE ONLINE
CHAIR: Hajiya Suwaiba Muhammad Dankabo
PANELISTS: Barrister Aisha Mahdi, Harira Wakili, Aminu Adamu Naganye
The second session was moderated by Hajiya Suwaiba Y. Dankabo of ActionAid Nigeria and the
Three (3) distinguished personalities and experts on Gender Based Violence and Child
Protection spoke and shared their experience and knowledge with the participants.
A Gender and Internet Right Advocate, Harira Abdulrahman Wakili started her presentation
with explaining the ample opportunities internet presents to young generations, Mss. Wakili
said that growing up internet offers limitless opportunities through computers, smartphones,
gaming consoles, and televisions, children learn, imagine and develop their social networks. But
she cautioned that these platforms need to be used in the right way, where she stated that
when these are used in the right way – and accessible to all – the internet has the potential to
broaden horizons and ignite creativity. She also said that with these opportunities come serious
risks. Harira added that cyberbullying and other forms of peer-to-peer violence can affect
young people each time they log on to social media or instant messaging platforms. Speaking
about what children can be exposed to on the net, Miss Wakili mentioned that when browsing
the internet, children may be exposed to hate speech and violent content – including messages
that incite self-harm and even suicide. According to her, what happens online reflects the
realities children face every day – at home, at school and in their wider communities. In
conclusion, Ms. Wakili emphasized that every child must be protected from violence,
exploitation and abuse on the internet.
The Second speaker at this session was Barrister Aisha H. Mahdi of Green Edge Attorneys, who
emphasized that with the widespread use of the Internet, the advancement in technology and
the proliferation of Internet-enabled devices have created borderless and unlimited access to
information. Barr. Aisha said progress brings by the internet has given the bad eggs in the
society the opportunities to exploit, put the children at risk, and make them vulnerable to
abuse. She said that there is an urgent need to balance the immense benefits of technology,
commercial interest and ensuring online safety of children with appropriate safeguards and
strong legal and institutional framework. Speaking on the safety on children online, the speaker

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said there is a growing concern about the safety and privacy of children online which is amongst
the problems identified by relevant stakeholders in Nigeria.
Discussing about the internet penetration in the country, Barrister Mahdi said as internet
penetration increases, more children are connected to the grid, and this gives the children
better understanding of technology than the average adult. The speaker also mentioned that
new phones, smart toys, computers, and privileges for using a device give birth to new
responsibilities. Speaking about the exposure of the children to social media, Aisha stated that
the increased use of social media and online services allows children to share and consume
tremendous volume of personal information online. And at the same time the children use the
Internet as a means to learn, share and participate in civic life.
The legal practitioner added that in Nigeria, Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution and Section 8
of the Child Rights Act provide for children’s right to privacy. And Section 23 of the Cybercrimes
Act 2015 punishes child pornography. The Cybercrimes (Prohibition and Prevention) Act also
criminalizes cyberbullying and cyber stalking that could affect children. According to her,
though the Act punishes consumption of such contents and provides for other offenses, there is
no other specific legal guidelines or direction to protect the online safety and privacy of the
Nigerian child. Giving recommendations on how to safeguard children online, Barrister Aisha
Mahdi said:
i. Nigeria needs an online privacy protection law for children which will seek to protect
the personal information of children on websites, online services and applications
and it should be binding on online service providers collecting the personal data of
children to ensure consent management.
ii. Service providers should require the consent of the parents or guardians if the data
collection affects a child below the established age.
iii. There is need to digitalize the Nigerian courts and repeal some laws to ensure
efficient and quick judgments related to children abuses

Sharing his experience at the forum, a Kano based journalist, Aminu Adamu Naganye of The
Star Newspaper said Internet Service Providers and Electronic Service Providers need to ensure
their platforms are secure and do not put children at risk. He added that Service providers
should implement privacy and security by design and default. Service Providers have to do
more in creating and ensuring age-appropriate contents by managing content and dealing
effectively with abuse, misuse of their platforms and illegal contact with children.
Aminu Naganye said the legal framework alone cannot guarantee complete protection for the
Nigerian child. Excessive regulation will stifle children’s participation and access to the immense
benefits of the internet. Speaking further, Mr. Naganye said there is need for increased digital
literacy for both children and their parents/guardians. According him, providing this will ensure
children implement best privacy preferences, understand the implication of oversharing, and
have good online behavior. Another recommendations the journalist gave was that
parents/guardians should ensure they always install safety tools on their wards’ devices which
will protects children from inappropriate behavior and laying their hands on inappropriate

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online contents. It will also prevents disclosure of personal information and assist parents and
guardians manage time spent on the devices.

CLOSING
Following the presentations, participants asked questions and made comments as well offered
specific recommendations that would help in making the internet safer for both women and
children. This segment also allowed the presenters to clarify on some of the issues they raised
and positions advanced as well as father interrogated some of the proposed solutions to the
challenges that women and children face online. Participants agreed that there was need to
carry both the discussion and the proposed solutions offline to reach more people and
especially engage government and other stakeholders to respond to these challenges so that
both women and children would use the internet safely and productive to ensure that it serves
their needs.
The organizers also promised to distill the recommendations and issue a communique as the
outcome of the Forum while exploring all possibilities to continue to engage both the
participants at this Forum as well as other stakeholders to mount a sustained public awareness
on the issues and an advocacy for action to address the problems,

Kano records 140 cases of Gender Based Violence in June

Kano records 140 cases of Gender Based Violence in June

 

Story from Shafa’atu DAUDA, Kano

 

About 140 cases of Gender Based Violence (GBV) were reported with some involving minors in Kano State in the month of June 2022.

 

This was revealed by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) an NGO in the state while addressing journalists during a monthly press briefing on the GBV situation.

 

The CITAD’s project coordinator, Zainab Aminu said GBV had significantly increased in June compared to the reported cases in May.

 

“In comparison with the data obtained in previous months, GBV cases are still on the increase. 140 cases were reported via our GBV App for the month which includes rape, sexual harassment, online harassment, sexual abuse and wife battering.”

 

She expressed happiness over the increased rate of reportage, describing the development as encouraging.

 

Aminu lamented the increase of GBV cases in Kano, calling on relevant stakeholders to join hands to curtail the scourge.

 

According to her, the GBV offenders’ database adopted recently by the government will go a long way in curbing the menace, as offenders will rather desist from the act than be publicly disgraced.

 

Aminu explained that within the period in review, cases of rape were 7, online harassment 22; sexual blackmail 8; sexual harassment 60; sexual abuse 39; wife battering 3 and school violence 1.

 

“As part of our social responsibility, we would continue to advocate and improve awareness against GBV, but we still urge the citizens to take responsibility in their environment to see that these issues are curbed.”

 

Aminu appealed to parents, relatives and other key stakeholders to always report cases to the various agencies handling GBV cases, stressing that keeping silent will not protect the victims.

 

She also called on the government to establish a Gender Abuse Monitoring Unit in the Ministry of Education and its parastatal responsible for education at different levels and in the schools.

 

Aminu further stressed the need for establishing special courts that will adjudicate GBV cases.

CITAD to Provide Digital Skills Training to 200 Girls

The Centre for Information Technology and Development with support of Lenovo Foundation had on the 23rd of June, 2022 organized a One Day Round Table Forum on the Challenges of Seeding and Nurturing Creativity and Innovation among young Women in Northern Nigeria at Hall B, CITAD.

The Discussion which was chaired by Professor Asabe Sadiya Muhammad, Provost, Aminu Sale College of Education, Azare had Dr. Sana Muaz of the Department of Software Engineering, Bayero University, Kano, Aliyu D. Aliyu, an Independent Consultant and Malama Aisha Bako, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Onyx Investment Advisory Limited, Abuja as the panellists. The discussion is part of the Centre’s project titled Digital Creativity and Innovation for Girls (DICIG) that will work towards empowering girls to have access to digital skills in order to address the gender digital divide in Northern Nigeria with aim to: Provide digital skills training for 200 girls (100 per year), to produce 80 digital entrepreneurs (40 per year) and create 160 new digital jobs for girls (80 per year) Selected participants were: girls between the ages of 18-30 who have a minimum secondary school education and are from Bauchi, Gombe and Kano States in addition to having an interest in building and running their business.

Giving an update of the project at the forum, the program officer of the project, Engineer Kamaluddeen Umar said the three main objectives of the project are to: Provide digital skills training for 200 girls (100 per year), to produce 80 digital entrepreneurs (40 per year), and create 160 new digital jobs for girls (80 per year). Speaking about how the project will be conducted, Engineer Kamaluddeen stated that the program will be conducted on phases. The phase one of the project will be on the Basis Digital skills which will last for one month and it is expected that the participants will undergo a 20-hour basic digital literary consisting of Introduction to Windows, Microsoft word, Excel, PowerPoint and internet application while the phase two of the project will concentrate on advance Digital Skills which will also last for another one month. Participants at this stage will undergo another 30-hour module of advance digital skills. The phase three of the project will look at business ideation which will take participants two months.

He went further to state that the phase four and five of project will give the participants the opportunities to learn business development support services and Transition to market. At the end, he mentioned that a second level of selection will be conducted at the end of the digital basic skills training where participants will be selected based on the followings: performance at the digital skills training phase, interest to continue and preparation and submission of a business idea. Speaking at the panel of discussion, one of the panelists, Aliyu D. Aliyu, an Independent Consultant started by lamenting that there are a lot of challenges with regards to socio- economic and cultural role in society, he went further to say that over 70% of businesses in the country are controlled and owned by men and there are small number of women role models in the society which is affecting the development and creativity of young women in the society. Speaking about problems solving, Mr. Aliyu stated that women are very creative and good problems solvers, all the young women needed now is thinking outside the box.

He mentioned that to be successful nowadays one has to be creative using digital devices, get inspired by others and have a mentor. Mr. Dahiru said getting a mentor will help one to realize his dreams and bring out his creativity. Citing an example at the discussion, the speaker said there are a lot of young women who are making huge amount of money by using their talents and creativity online; what one needs is just to sit and think outside the box and come up with new innovation. Advising the young women at the forum, Mr. Dahiru said young women need to use their time in a way that will better their lives, use social media in an effective and rewarding way, set their priorities and know how to achieve them. He also advised that in doing business one needs to know that what matter most is herself only, think of the way to get grant and create a great business. Also speaking at the forum, Dr. Sana Muaz of the Department of Software Engineering, Bayero University, Kano started by narrating about her own life, Dr. Sana said she grew up in an area where girls are given less priority and attention. Dr. Sana also said that she met with many obstacles while growing up but passion and zeal to excel made her to keep going. Speaking about the importance of ICT, Dr. Sana stated that for women to be economically independent they need to embrace ICT, and for this to happen young girls need to be nurtured. Discussing on starting new and innovative business by young women in the society, Dr. Muaz said starting a new business is not the challenge but how to sustain it and bring good vision into it. She stated that the issue of competition needs to be looked at; young entrepreneurs needs to be creative and innovative in starting their businesses, don’t just go into business because others are making profit out of it, create your own brand. She added Advising the young girls at the forum, Dr. Sana said this society is a male dominated society but women need to work hard to penetrate into it, however, in trying to penetrate, she advised the participants not lose their women self because one day they will be role model to other women.

Do not be discouraged by failure and what people will say about you, focus on what you believe is good and work tirelessly towards its success. In her contribution, Malama Aisha Bako started by lamenting that most of the apps being created are being developed by men which made the applications to be women biased and not addressing most of the women needs. By this Malama Aisha said women need to be involving themselves and equip themselves with better ICT knowledge in order to compete in this competitive world. She went further to say women can make a lot of money on social media if they utilize the platforms well instead of creating nuisance and making the platforms for chatting and fun. According to her, platforms like TikTok and Instagram are paying and bring huge amount of money to those that know how to use them well. Speaking further, Malama Aisha said there are many young women who are selling their products using technology tools. Giving an example, Malama Aisha mentioned that she knows of a woman that is selling tomatoes in a modernized way, where she package it in a crate to send it to her customers in Lagos and the products are being purchased on social media page she created.

Closing the discussion, the chairperson of the forum, Professor Asabe S. Mohammed commended CITAD for coming up with this initiative, she stated that even though this is not the first time CITAD is organizing this kind of program but this one is unique looking at the approach of the program and the different components its contains. She went further to state that nurturing young girls and women is key to the development of women nowadays and this particular one is timely looking at how young women are being abandoned in the society. At the end she urged the participants to seize the opportunity and the challenge thrown at them to better their lives and the society at large.

CITAD, Lenovo foundation partner on nurturing productivity among young women

 

CITAD, Lenovo foundation partner on nurturing productivity among young women

 

 

The Centre for Information Technology and Development with support of Lenovo Foundation on Thursday, organised a one-day round table forum on the challenges of Seeding and Nurturing Creativity and Innovation among young Women in Northern Nigeria at Hall B, CITAD.

Periscope Nigeria reports that the discussion  was chaired by Professor Asabe Sadiya Muhammad, Provost, Aminu Sale College of Education, Azare had Dr. Sana Muaz of the Department of Software Engineering, Bayero University, Kano, Aliyu D. Aliyu, an Independent Consultant and Malama Aisha Bako, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Onyx Investment Advisory Limited, Abuja as the panellists.

REPORT OF THIRD SESSION WORKSHOP FOR ANTI-CORRUPTION CLUB MENTORS

 

The commitment of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) to inculcate in the minds of the secondary school students an early understanding of the negative impact of corruption on the society through mentoring continues on Tuesday 21st June, 2022 at Hall B, CITAD, Kano. The engagement was third phase among the series of the training workshops organized by the centre to build the capacity of secondary school teachers in Kano State to serve as anti corruption club mentors. The third phase of the training workshop has the following objectives:

  • Train the participants how to coach their students to learn about corruption and how to fight it
  • Understanding the Anti-Corruption Quiz System as designed by CITAD and
  • Prepare students for the Anti-Corruption Quiz 

Malam Isah Garba, Senior program Officer, CITAD, made the welcome remark. In his remarks he reinstated the negative impacts of corruption in all aspect of life and emphasized that as someone who taught for several years knows that teachers can have influence on the lives of their students better than their parent. He said that in one way or another we are all victims of corrupted society as experienced and suffered personal loss, intimidation and inconvenience, due to some corrupt practices. So we have to work hard and help the younger generations through social mechanisms don’t fall victims. He added that good deeds have their own rewards, and quoted the tradition that says “whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to those who follow him, without detracting from their rewards at all”. 

Hamza Ibrahim presented the first paper ‘Couching Students to Learn about Corruption and how to Fight it’. The paper explained grand corruption, petty corruption and political corruption as type of corruptions. According to the paper grand corruption consists of acts committed at a high level of government that distorts policies or the central functioning of the state, enabling leaders to benefit at the expense of the public good. The petty corruption refers to everyday abuse of entrusted power by low and midlevel public officials in their interactions with ordinary citizens, who often are trying to access basic goods or services in place like hospitals, schools, police departments and other agencies. A political corruption is a manipulation of policies, institutions and rules of procedures. Political corruption is a manipulation of policies, institutions and rules of procedure in the allocation of resources and financing by political decision makers, who abuse their position to sustain their power, status and wealth.  To assess participants’ knowledge and understanding on the three types of corruptions, the participants were divided into three groups and asked group one to give five examples of grand corruption, group two five examples of petty corruption and group three five examples of political corruption. They should both groups suggest roles that students can play in supporting anti-corruption activities. Below were the group findings. 

Group one (GRAND CORRUPTION)

  • Contract embezzlement 
  • Employment- sales of offers
  • Distortion of government policies
  • Abuse of power
  • Budget padding

Group two (PETTY CORRUPTION)

  • Giving and collecting money while breaking traffic rules
  • Favor in hospitals
  • Use of magic centers (giving money to pass exam 
  • Buying offers in public offices
  • Nepotism 

Roles students can play in supporting anti corruption

  • Spreading information to others
  • Changing the attitudes of the students to be morally sound
  • Drawing comics and cartoons 
  • Organizing debate competitions to show the negative implication of corruption
  • By enacting various forms of corruption through dramas 

Group three (POLITICAL CORRUPTION)

  • Bribing of electoral officers to manipulate the election result
  • Buying of voters card
  • Bribing of delegates
  • Bribing society with minor gift (tsari) such as scalp, matches, soap, detergents, little amount of money etc
  • Diversion of projects

Roles of students in fighting corruption

  • Avoiding of exam mal practice
  • Students should stop unnecessary requests from their parents
  • Students must stop greediness behavior
  • Students should adopt moral and good characters
  • Organizing dramas, write-ups, and short presentations during assembly on corruption

The second paper was presented by Malam Kamilu Isah titled ‘Understanding the Anti-Corruption Quiz System as Designed by CITAD’. Kamilu said that each school will hold a preliminary quiz in their school. This could serve as intra quiz that allows students to compete within the schools among themselves. Those that emerged winners will represent their schools at the state level quiz. There will be provision of airing the final round of quiz competition live on some selected radio stations. Also, CITAD will make use of extra curriculum activities to provide students with experience, knowledge and skills that otherwise would not gain from the formal school curriculum. Subsequently, he requested the participants to back to their groups and answer the following questions: 1. How do we planned to organize preliminary quiz in our school. 2.  How do we plan to organize anti-corruption quiz questions in our schools? Below were the group findings:

Group one

Question 1

  • By notifying the school authorities
  • Selection of interested students from each class
  • Selection of quiz officials
  • Group of students into categories 
  • Schedules (Date, Time, Venue)

Question 2

  • Training of the students on the different ant-corruption topics
  • Giving assignment to the students
  • Setting questions based on treated topics of anti corruption 
  • Pre quiz
  • Schedule (Date, Time, Venue)

Group two

Question 1

  • By informing the school management and seeking for their approval
  • By encouraging the interesting students, though we have anti corruption programs
  • To motivate the students potential ideas toward the anti corruption programs
  • By fixing time that will not affect their learning for rehasal
  • To enlighten the students on the topics to be participated in 

Question 2

  • The questions should be organized base on what we learnt
  • By consulting pass question papers on the relevant subjects such as civic education
  • By consulting other teachers who have interest in anti- corruption

Group 3 

Question 1

  • Creating of the anti corruption club
  • Selection of the members
  • Awareness of the club members about anti corruption
  • The quiz should be inter classes on the club members
  • The quiz result will be displayed, and the winners will be awarded with soft gifts for encouragement

Question 2

  • The question should be based on what you train the students about corruption
  • The question should be base on the level of their understanding e.g corruption in our country. 

Malam Ibrahim Nuhu, made the last presentation. The presentation tipped the participants how to prepare their students for anti-corruption quizzes. He said that selection of students must consider participating students, language selection, equip the students with information around corruption issues at national, state, and local levels, mitigation strategies and reporting mechanisms such as petitions, whistle blowing, direct call, email and other online platforms. He lastly shared with participants how in two incidences he reported some corruption cases to anti corruption agencies. 

 

 

Report of second session of anti corruption training workshop

The effort of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) to build the capacity of the anti-corruption club mentors has on Wednesday 8th June, 2022 continued with the second phase of its four series of the training workshop. The specific objective of the second session training workshop was to guide the secondary school mentors their roles and responsibilities as anti-corruption club mentors, and ways they impart knowledge and help their students to learn about corruption and how to fight it.  In his welcome remarks, Malam Kamilu Isa Ahmad, the program officer of the Engaging Students of Secondary Schools for Raising Awareness about Corruption and Accountability project said that, CITAD has chosen the participants from 18 secondary schools in Kano State to serve as mentors for the anti-corruption clubs established in their respective secondary schools. Therefore, CITAD has responsibility of building the capacity of the participants on how to execute their jobs effectively. He said that a good mentor is a good role model, through words and action, who he is, what he does and offers students a window on a possible career.

To recap the main point discussed during the previous workshop, participants were asked after self introduction to at least tell one thing they could remember during the previous workshop. The following issues were raised during the recap session:

  • Activities of EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies
  • Challenges anti-corruption agencies encounter in their work
  • Corruption is pervasive including school environment
  • Mitigation corruption is the work of everyone
  • Tackling corruption from secondary school level could be the best strategy in fighting corruption 
  • Exam malpractice is another form of corruption and parent contribute a lot especially by allowing magical exam centers to flourish 
  • Schools are producing corrupt products

Malam Sani Ado represented the chairman Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission at the workshop. He presented paper on ‘Understanding the Work of Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC). He explained that PCACC helps in establishing corruption prevention practices, and increase citizens knowledge against corruption. He then added that the work of the Kano State Anti-Corruption Commission is to receive and investigate complaints from members of the public on allegations of corrupt practices and in appropriate cases, prosecute the offenders. Also, examine the practices, systems and procedures of public bodies and where such systems aid corruption, to direct and supervise their review.

The second presentation was made by Kamilu Isah, as the program officer of the project, Kamilu dwelled deeply on the roles and responsibilities of the participants as anti-corruption club mentors. According to the presentation a mentor should provide guidance based on past business experiences, create positive counseling relationship and climate of open communication, help understand problems and solutions, lead to change through problem solving processes, offer positive reproach in a helpful way, share stories, mistakes and lessons, assign “homework” (if applicable) to test impact, refer understudy to other business associates, solicit feedback from responsibility and come prepared to each meeting to discuss issues. Other roles and responsibilities include organizing periodic discussions on anti- corruption by the mentors, local or internal quiz to enhance commitments, preparing students for general Anti- Corruption Quiz, organizing of Anti-corruption walk in schools, drama and other competitions, tagging anti-corruption massages on school notice boards, leading students to read anti- corruption massages at the assembly ground during assembly and CITAD is expecting other innovation from the mentors.

To discuss, and analyze and explore ideas participants were divided into three groups and asked to work on the following

Group work one

What are challenges that anti-corruption will face and how are these challenges to be addressed? 

Below were the group findings

Group 1

Challenges are as follows:

  • Political influence such as appointment of leaders, (i.e anti corruption), executive may use agencies against opposition, and intervention in judiciary work
  • Socio-economic problems such as poverty, insufficient funding of anti corruption agencies and fear of intimidation
  • Societal problems such as poor enlightenment, illiteracy and lack of competency 

Solutions

  • Appointment should be base on merit. Agencies should be allowed to work independently
  • Special court should be established
  • Measures should be taken to eradicate poverty
  • Funds should be sourced from international bodies such as United Nation (UN) etc
  • Official of the anti corruption agencies should be allowed to work without fear or intimidation
  • The public should be enlightened properly about corruption through media (radio, TV etc)
  • Ethical and competent persons should be employed

 

Group 2

  • Lack of higher standard corruption awareness programs
  • Adaptation of corruption habits
  • Non enforcement of laws even with the existence of anti graft commission in place
  • Political interference 
  • Irresponsible governance
  • Individual involvement in the fight against corruption face the risk of being harassed, intimidated, harm, and compromise by government powerful elites

 

Solutions 

  • We should have sensitizations in programs to create from government and NGOs like CITAD, the problem may be minimized 
  • Frequent enlightenment from the grassroots e.g. home training, schools and other area
  • There should be full implementation of law
  • People should vote good and qualitative leaders
  • The law makers should enact laws for harassment against anti corruption crusaders

Group 3

The challenges are as follows:

  • Lack of support
  • Lack of orientation or awareness programs
  • Political influence
  • Political influence
  • Lack of interest from part of the students
  • Poor implementation of the existence laws
  • Poor correction measures 

Solutions

  • Support should be given to the anti corruption act through finance, motivation, rtc
  • Conducting workshops, seminars, and public enlightenment
  • Political involvement should be deal with accordingly by laws
  • Development of anti corruption model as part of curriculum
  • Corruption cases should not to be allowed to stay long courts
  • There should be mutual understanding between anti corruption and counseling

 

Group work two

How do we integrate anti-corruption teaching in the school syllabus? 

Group 1

  • Syllabus are formed by educational bodies, therefore, mentors can only advise the educational bodies to add national values such as fight against corruption
  • All teachers should served as mentors to integrate anti corruption teaching in their lessons at convenient time
  • At school level, anti corruption clubs should be established, run and motivated
  • Quiz, dramas and competition should be organized or presented occasionally based on anti corruption topics

Group 2

  • The mentors should be advised the government to integrate anti corruption teaching in the school syllabus.
  • The curriculum planners should be urged to make anti corruption as a topic in every term and in every class especially in the following subjects, social studies, civic education, Islamic studies, governments, etc
  • Every teacher as a mentor should try to integrate anti corruption in his or her subjects or in extra curriculum activities 

Group 3

  • Creation of anti corruption clubs
  • Teachers/mentors should have awareness on anti corruption
  • Development and implementation of educational values in the curriculum
  • Contextual teaching of honesty and integrity
  • Presentation of papers of anti corruption in school
  • Teachers or mentors should motivate students on anti corruption
  • Short messages on anti corruption should be fixed on the school notice board. Eg corruption is a virus.

Finally the participants made the following observations:

  • Electronic boards should be used on major roads for propagating anti-corruption messages
  • Anti-corruption mentors should use last weeks for each term and organize programs on anti-corruption
  • There are challenges of funding the activities of school anti corruption clubs
  • CITAD should be visiting the anti corruption clubs in secondary schools 
  • The mentors need means of identifications for the anti-corruption clubs

 

As part of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) engagement with people living with Disabilities, on Friday 17th June, 2022, CITAD conducted one-day panel discussion on ICTs and People Living with Disabilities. The objective of the panel discussion was to initiate and contribute in mobilizing and amplifying voice of people living with disabilities to demand accountability on issues that affect them. A research has shown that there are over 20 million people living with different types of disabilities in Nigeria. Digital migration of basic services threatening to leave them behind, many people living with disabilities, especially those with hearing and vision impairments, are facing challenges, as there are limited spaces for them to learn, access and use ICTs. One of the tools for demanding accountability today is social media. Of course using social media requires skill. The forum titled ‘Disabilities, ICTs and the Quest for Inclusive Development’, held at CITAD Annex, Women Development Centre, Court Road, Kano discussed challenges that people living with Disabilities face in accessing and using ICTs and attended by about 40 people living with different types of disabilities from across the state.

Malam Ali Sabo, CITAD Media and Communication Officer welcomed the participants on behalf of CITAD Executive Director Engr. Yunusa Ya’u. He extended the warm greeting of the Executive Director to the participants and informed that the panel discussion is part of CITAD wider project on accountability and good governance in Nigeria titled ‘Mobilizing and Catalyzing Citizens Actions for Accountable Election and Governance in Nigeria’. The wider objectives of the project were as follows:

  1. Galvanizing citizens’ voice to demand accountability from both candidates and parties, including mainstreaming gender, disability and other diversity inclusion in our electoral system 
  2. To activate citizen agency for change to act towards rewording accountability and punishing corruption through the electoral process 
  3. To generate critical mass of citizen active engagement with issues of accountability and anti-corruption in the context of the elections

He informed that today’s activity was not a one off activities but part of series of activities including radio programs for people with disability to be discussing issues affecting them and raising accountability. There is also training on how to use social media for accountability and how corruption is affecting the lives of some of their members in  short video documentaries, and series of advocacies. He finally encouraged the participants to feel free and speak out on issues that affect them as CITAD focuses on how to support and amplify their voice in order to demand for accountability, especially on issues that affect them directly.  

Professor Jibrin I Diso Department of Special Education, Bayero University, Kano, chaired the panel discussion. He thanked CITAD for organizing the panel discussion and admitted that CITAD is the only organization that cares about People living with Disabilities in the state. He added that in his experience beside CITAD, Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) has been trying to support and improve public services for Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria and PERL is not an indigenous organization. Prof. Diso expressed his satisfaction with mixture of the participants in the panel discussion. He stated that the most common categories of people with special needs included the following, People with vision impairment, People with hearing impairment, People with speech difficulties, People who are physically challenged and there are some with multiple disabilities. Adding that from the general introduction the panel discussion has representation from all these groups. 

Phar Tech. Auwalu Adamu Abdullahi is an interpreter from the department of Special Education, Bayero University, Kano made the first presentation. He presented paper titled ‘Understanding the Challenges of People Living with Disabilities in Accessing and Using ICTs’. In his paper, people of differing abilities face diverse challenges in accessing the Internet. The same Web site can offer opportunities for one group and excludes another. For example, regarding Web-based distance education, it has opened opportunities for persons with physical disabilities to take courses online, but if such persons also have weak or limited function of hands and fingers, their participation in the course may be limited or impossible. Similarly, a Web-enabled mobile device with a touch screen is wonderful to a user with a hearing impairment and yet horrendous to a user with a visual impairment, if it is not designed to provide alternative methods for interactions. He mentioned the following as major challenges that affect PWDs directly and indirectly. Lack of fund, insufficient of the ICTs devices, inappropriate chosen of the ICTs devices for PLWDs, installations of the softwares and calibrations of the ICTs devices.

The second presentation was made by Bilkisu Ado Zango, Zonal Coordinator, National Association of People with Physical Disability, Kano. She made presentation on ‘How People Living with Disabilities Use Digital Technology to Create Voice on Issues Affecting Them?’ She explained that PWDs can use technology especially social media to create voice because technology can lower barriers that people with disabilities encounter in their daily lives, such as speaking, travelling, reading, and writing. It can allow them to participate and enjoy the benefits of the digital society, with the same access to information as everyone. She added that social media allows people with disability to tell their own stories on their own terms, as well as feel connected to a community. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have the potential for making significant improvements in the lives of persons with disabilities, allowing them to enhance their social, cultural, political and economic integration in communities by enlarging the scope of activities available to them. 

Malam Isyaku Garba, CITAD Program Coordinator made the last presentation. His paper addressed the training needs of People Living with Disabilities and highlited the possible solutions. He categorized the challenges according to the categories of people living with disabilities as follows: 

  1. Institutions are struggling with relevant personnel such as sign language readers and interpreters and cannot afford to have a set for each faculty or department. Hence they have as pool in the department of special education. 
  2. Institutions have structures, including libraries, laboratories, lecture halls, that have been built without consideration for the needs of students with disabilities.
  3. The lack of policies on disabilities and or policy on ICTs for Disabilities means that many lecturers do not know how to integrate students with special needs in their classes 
  4. Institutions are lacking staff who have been specially trained to lecture and guide students with special needs.

Challenges with respect to vision impaired students

  1. Like physically challenged, they have the problem of mobility and therefore of physical access to digital resources.
  2. No training facilities and programmes for such students in the computer centers of the institutions.
  3. There is no sufficient number of sign language interpreters of the institutions.
  4. Digital resources such as e-books, e-journals etc have no appropriate voice interface for students with vision impairment to use them.
  5. There are no training facilities or programmes for this category of students to learn to use digital system in the institutions.

Challenges to digital inclusion with respect to Visual impairment includes:  

  1. When projectors are used in lecture rooms, students with vision impairment cannot see what is being projected on the screen.
  2. There is no braille equipment ( except in the departments of Special Education. Consequently, examination and assignment questions have to be read for them and even when there is braille support (mostly on a personal basis) most staff, except in Special Education, and do not know how to read braille.
  3. Lack of policy and poor appreciation of needs of these students have seen a number of lecturers preventing or stopping vision impaired students from recording lectures, which they need as they cannot write lectures when there are no supported systems for braille recording ( except on personal basis).
  1. Digital resources do not have appropriate interface for this category of students, and therefore, even if they have physical access, they do not have terms of using the systems.
  2. There are no training facilities or programmes for this category of students.
  3. As admission and registration portals are disability friendly. Such students have to be assisted to register and in some cases the people assisting them with the registration make mistakes on the courses of study and this cannot easily be found out.   

The paper then proposed the following:

Governments:

  1. Review the National Disability Policy to include provision to address the challenges of people with special needs in accessing and using digital system in the country.
  2. Encourage all institutions of higher learning to develop and implement a disability policy that address the digital needs of students with special needs.
  3. Articulate and Implement National Digital Inclusion Agenda that addresses, among other thing, the digital marginalization of people living with disabilities.
  4. Direct relevant ICT-related authorities, such as NITDA, USPF etc to support initiative aimed at addressing the barriers of people living with disabilities from accessing and using ICTs.
  5. Support the production of devices and software for people with disabilities to access and use digital system for educational purposes.   
  6. Encourage the Joint Matriculation Board (JAMB) to establish more special centers for people with disabilities to sit for UME.
  7. Enforce the implementation of the National Curriculum of Education which makes computer studies compulsory at the secondary school level and make sure that children with disabilities are catered for.
  8. State government to ensure that all schools for children with special needs and those in conventional schools have access to ICT training facilities.

 

Institutions of Learning:

  1. Develop and implement the ICT policy much in the line that the Gender policy was promoted to protect the students living with disabilities from discrimination and abuse and ensure that they properly incorporated into academic process by making available all the necessary disability assistance in teaching and study aids.  
  2. Review their ICT policies to incorporate the needs of students (and staff) living with disabilities, such that they can have to and use ICTs as tools for academic work.
  3. All admission and registration portals / website of institutions of higher learning should be disability friendly and compliant by providing for content to be accessible for students with vision and hearing impairment.
  4. Institutions should not derail the ambition of people living with disabilities by deny them the courses they are interesting (discrimination). Rather, they should seek for innovative ways that should cater for the need of different disabilities. 
  5. Academic staff of institutions should be made to understand the needs of students with special need and be trained on how to handle them in classrooms.
  6. Provision should be made for the necessary interface for students of higher learning to engage with digital systems in their education work in the institutions.
  7. Institutions should make provision for language interpreters as well as braille equipment and make this widely available across the departments and courses.
  8. Improve the design of structures, lecture halls and laboratories to make them accessible for students with special needs.
  9. Establish special libraries for the use of students with special needs and ensure that such students access and use all e-books and other digital learning materials. 
  10. All institution ICT centers should create space for training students with special needs on digital skills as well as let them access and use the Internet for academic work.
  11. Given the people with disabilities constitute about 10% of the national population, all institutions should endeavor to about 10% of their admission space to people with disabilities.
  12. Institutions should accurately capture data of the disability at the point of registration and use that data for planning and provisionary purposes
  13. There should be uniform practice with respect how people with disabilities admitted into institutions of higher learning in the country. This should relate to the sitting of UME and post-UME examinations. Where institutions are not able to provide facilities for the candidates with disabilities to sit for these examinations, they should wave them or provide alternative test for them. 
  14. There is need to sensitized both staff and students inhigher institutions to understand the special needs of students with disabilities and therefore, make staff and lecturers more sensitized to think on how they should mainstream them into their teaching.

Others 

  1. ICTs and telecommunication companies should devote a substantial part of their corporate social responsibilities and commitment to support social inclusion of people living with disabilities educationally in schools.
  2. CSOs should mount a substantial advocacy for national digital inclusion agenda that will that will mainstream people living with disabilities in national digital space.
  3. CSOs should monitor the extent to which institutions of higher learning implement digital inclusion programmes.
  4. CSOs should support digital skills provision for people living with disabilities at all levels.
  5. Philanthropist should establish centers for people living with disabilities on digital skills.

During the general discussion, participants made the following comments:

  • PWDs must learn how to use social media platforms. If PWDs could not make the use of social media it could be difficult for them to attain and achieve their goals as social media platforms are major tools for the demand of accountability everywhere in the world
  • CITAD should continue with its engagement with PWDs especially on internet and ICTs
  • The issue of PWDs bill is still hanging around in Kano State, CITAD should spearhead for its actualization
  • There is need for organizing step down training to larger society of PWDs in Kano to bring everyone involve particularly with regard to the issues raised at this panel discussion
  • We shouldn’t limit ourselves on ICTs, there are other challenging issues that affect PWDs in the State
  • We must part of Budget processes since from the planning, implementation and monitoring not limiting ourselves to the budget hearing.
  • There is PWDs ICT special Center in Zaria, Kaduna State, Kano doesn’t answer her name in this regard. We must stand and see the establishment of such center in Kano state
  • I was part of CITAD Digital Livelihood Training, CITAD should organize such training for PWDs
  • PWDs used to encounter challenges since from home, I couldn’t be enrolled in primary school in 1976 because of my disability. As part of the polio victims, my parent sent me to beg for money and food on the streets and sent my siblings to school. We must wake up and challenge and change this narration.
  • Inclusive education helps and motivates those that are physically okay when they see us among themselves. 
  • Ja’iz Bank is the only financial institutions that provides ATMs services for PWDs in Kano
  • In developed countries, people with vision impairment can be able to separate monies in contact.

In closing remark, Prof. Jibrin Diso thanked CITAD for giving room for such kind of discussion. He also thanked the participants for their time and words and urged them to be in touch and join hands with CITAD to demand for accountability on issues that affect them.

 

 

 

REPORT OF MEETING WITH ITAS AND JAMA’ARE MICRO-ORGANISATIONS, TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2022

Introduction:
The meeting was part of the resolutions reached during peer meeting held on 28/4/2022 where the
need to meet with all the seven organizations became necessary, after observing the slow pace, weak
commitments and inadequate understanding of the project by many of them. Apart from the micro-
organizations, similar meeting was conducted with the technical mentors while another with the
advisory committee members will be convened. The essence is to deepen the understanding of the
project and also to get some concrete commitments from the organizations toward delivering the
project’s goal.
It is expected that the outcome of the meeting with these micro-organizations will provide insights for
CITAD to identify possible gaps and prepare ahead of year three of the project. The Executive Director,
coordinator of the SCN and CITAD staff of both Itas and Jama’are attended the meetings.
Objectives of the meeting:
1. To share some successes recorded, challenges and way forward by and for the micro-
organizations
2. Update participants on CITAD’s support to micro-organizations around CNs project
3. To get commitments from the micro-organizations on how they intend to sustain the project
The meeting started with Itas community at about 11;10am. The Dan’masani of Itas and also Board of
Trustee member, Itas Community association Mall Idris opened the session with a prayer. Thereafter,
the training officer CITAD, Itas office Muneeb gave a brief welcome remark.
Jointly, Muneeb and Sani explained some of the achievements made from the commencement of the
project to date as;
1. Step down trainings on social marketing to other community members
2. Organized sensitization on CNs to other community members
3. Conducted evidence-based advocacy to various stakeholders in the community including the
LGC. Here, they were able to obtain a piece of land donated to the organization to serve as a
place to set up the digital center. Approval letter was also obtained from the LG.
4. Successfully attended the NSCN organized by CITAD in Kaduna and equally stepped down the
training to other members
In Jama’are, some of the successes mentioned include the following:
 Successfully stepped down the SCN trainings to other community members
 Secured plot from local government for the CNs project
 The project brought marketers together and learnt more about social marketing which exposed
them to e-marketing
Some of the challenges highlighted by Itas include;
1. Difficulty in getting the attention of community members to understand the need for CNs
Some challenges also shared by Jama’are were:

 Difficulty in getting allocation/approval letter for the donated land (due to bureaucracy)
 Some communication gaps between the micro-organization members and the advisory
members
 On-line meeting challenges (network issues). CITAD is advised to reconsider its online meetings.
Most of Jama’are members missed the one-month online meeting due to network challenge.
 The appointed board of directors are yet to understand the concept of CNs. They require some
tutorials to carry them along
Way forward:
1. The organization agreed to sustain sensitization on CN to larger community
Other comments/observations made includes –
 CITAD urged to conduct a high-level meeting with the state government for their buy-in into the
CNs project
 Source of financing the CN was raised??? Here, CITAD ED explained that, the community is
expected to work/collaborate with the identified champions to in the community to mobilize
resources (technical, finance, human, etc).
Update from CITAD:
CITAD’s executive Director Engr Y Z Ya’u drew the attention of the participants that, CITAD is only
serving as an intermediary on getting CN in Itas and not provider. Also, he explained the following as
part of what CITAD had done and other issues that require clarification;
1. CITAD is collaborating with other partners such as the Infratel and earlier result has shown that,
the company has seen some economic viability of the area and may therefore, wish to venture
into service provision in the area.
2. CITAD has secured registration with CAC for the micro-organizations
3. CITAD is currently working with the national regulatory body (NCC) to register the micro-
organizations as ISPs to access license for practice
4. Community members are encouraged to have the basic skills especially technical on CNs
5. CITAD is also working with other partners such as the ITU, others on follow-up for the approval
of national policy on CN and other supportive activities to create awareness among the policy
makers
6. The community members were made to understand that, the proposed CNs is to serve as
“digital center” beyond internet provision to others such as “empowerment for youth”.
7. A board member of Itas (Dan’masanin Itas, Mall Gambo Idris) pledged to sustain sensitization
and will convene meeting with other CBOs on CNs
The next steps:
COMMUNITY ACTION BY WHO
ITAS Step down to other CBOs on outcome of this
meeting and on the need for CNs generally

Dan’masani to convene the
meeting with support of
Muneeb – CITAD to follow-up

JAMA’ARE CITAD will develop a flier on CNs and distribute
to organizations as package to be used during
advocacy on CNs

CNs project team – Haruna to
follow-up

CITAD To consider training of board of directors of
Jama’are Community Network Limited

CNs project team- Haruna to
follow-up
Itas & Jama’are Use social various media platforms to advocate Itas & Jama’are

for CNs and its policy

Lessons learnt:
 From the two meetings it was observed that, there was assumption by the organizations that
CITAD will deploy all the necessary requirements/equipment to set up a CNs
 The micro-organizations still need aggressive trainings and mentorship over resource
mobilizations
 There is also need to strengthen their skills on advocacy

Identified result:
 After attending the physical school in Kaduna one of the beneficiaries (Nura Muhammad Sani)
influenced by the acquired skills from the project, set up a community-based service center in
Mashema community of Itas local government. The center serves as a place for preparing
students to register for JAMB and other business transactions such as the provision of POS
services.
Closing remarks:
The meeting was closed with a vote of thanks by Mall Gambo Idris. He appreciated CITAD for siting its
office in Itas community where he said more than 500 students were trained on computer to prepare
them for JAMB examinations. The Baraya and Dan’masani of Itas pledged to convey the outcome of the
meeting to the district head.

REPORT OF ANTI-CORRUPTION CLUB MENTORS ORGANIZED BY CENTRE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT WITH SUPPORT OF MACARTHUR FOUNDATION HELD ON THE 2 ND JUNE, 2022

(SERIES ONE)
By
Sagiru Ado Abubakar
In its effort to provide students with knowledge and skills to fight corruption and contribute in
raising young people who will assist and contribute in the fight against corruption Nigeria, the
Centre for Information Technology and (CITAD) has on Thursday, 2 nd June, 2022 conducted the
first of its four series Training Workshop for the 36 secondary school teachers from 18 senior
secondary schools across Kano state. The workshop served as Master Training to build the
capacity of the selected teachers which in return will step down the training to the anti-corruption
clubs formed in their respective schools.
CITAD has been implementing a project titled ‘Engaging Students of Secondary Schools for
Raising Awareness about Corruption and Accountability’ supported by MacArthur
Foundation, with the following objectives:
1. Inculcate in the minds of the students an early understanding of the negative impact of
corruption on the society
1. Use the opportunity of the engagements with the students to raise public awareness about
corruption and how to fight it
2. Encourage students to think critically on how to address the menace of corruption in the
society.
In his opening remarks, the Executive Director, Centre for Information Technology and
Development (CITAD), Malam YZ Ya’u said today in Nigeria corruption has become a major
hindrance to the development of the country. We have seen in daily basis corruption cases in the
country and we have to widen our knowledge to understand that corruption is not only about
public sectors, it is about what is wrong and what is right. To fight corruption, we must teach our
young ones good values and ethics especially the rule of law. This is to show young people that
there is law against corruption. Malam Y.Z continue to say that, we must ensure anti-corruption
agencies are above everyone with no exception and no one is above the law. As mentors,
CITAD expects you to go to the wider society to say no to corruption and teach them how to
learn to fight corruption. It is a big challenge that CITAD throws to the mentors but it is the only
way we can rid this menace out of our society especially if we succeed in integrating the fight
against corruption in the school curriculum. He then informed the participants that the workshop
is a pilot campaign to see whether we can convince school administrators that there is way we
can include anti-corruption fight in the way we teach our students. He finally mentined that the
activities of the project are to conduct inter-secondary schools quiz in the State, build the

capacity of some students and to update knowledge and skills of teachers in the area of fighting
corruption in secondary schools. One of the expected outcomes of the project is to support state
government to incorporate anti-corruption knowledge in the curriculum of secondary schools as
part of the Civic education syllabus.
To assess the participants’ knowledge about the workshop and establish what participants
already know, the participants were asked to write on sheet of papers their expectations of the
workshop. The following information was generated from the participants:
 We expect to learn ways to prevent our students in participating in form of corruption in
and outside schools
 CITAD as an IT organization, we expect to be taught the technological ways of fighting
corruption
 To understand why corruption offenders are not been punished
 To learn how to avoid taking corruption
 To provide us with new ideas and logic that we can use to address the danger of
corruption to our students and other people in our society
 To know the root of corruption and its types
 Expecting to jointly eradicate the issue of corruption in the country
 Through the help of EFCC and ICPC to be oriented about the consequences of corruption
 To teach us the method and techniques to tackle corruption
 To enlighten our students to read hard and shun away from all corruption practices
 To add voice on the negative effect of corruption
 To listen from the reliable source corruption related issues
In his remarks, Malam Umar Muhammad Yakasai, Director Training and Recruitment, Kano
Senior Secondary Management Board (KSSSSMB) said managing secondary schools requires
partnership and they are happy to have CITAD as their partners. He said that just last two weeks
teachers under his board were at CITAD for Guidance and Counseling workshop. He then added
that corruption is a theme that disturbs everybody and the country. He finally thanked CITAD for
bring them on board in this journey and mentioned that CITAD poetry publication on corruption
NGausa has been in circulation in their schools.
The first presentation was taken by Alh. Dalhatu Abdallah, Assistant Superintendent,
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on
understanding the work of ICPC. Abdullahi said that ICPC receive and investigate complaints
from members of the public on allegations of corrupt practices and in appropriate cases,
prosecute the offenders. Also examine the practices, systems and procedures of public bodies
and where such systems aid corruption, to direct and supervise their review. Duties of the
Commission include section 6 (a-f) of the ICPC Act 2000 sets out the duties of the Commission
as paraphrased in the following:

 To receive and investigate complaints from members of the public on allegations of
corrupt practices and in appropriate cases, prosecute the offenders.
 To examine the practices, systems and procedures of public bodies and where such
systems aid corruption, to direct and supervise their review.
 To instruct, advise and assist any officer, agency, or parastatal on ways by which fraud or
corruption may be eliminated or minimized by them.
 To advise heads of public bodies of any changes in practice, systems or procedures
compatible with the effective discharge of the duties of public bodies to reduce the
likelihood or incidence of bribery, corruption and related offences.
 To educate the public on and against bribery, corruption and related offences.
 To enlist and foster public support in combating corruption.
 With respect to the prosecution of cases, the Corrupt Practices and Other Related
Offences Act 2000 provide that every prosecution for offences under it shall be deemed
to be done with the consent of the Attorney-General. Furthermore, it is provided that the
Chief Judge of a State or the Federal Capital Territory shall designate a court or judge to
hear and determine all cases arising under the Act. Presently, there are two such
designated Judges in each State of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory
• Malam Haruna Adamu made the second presentation titled ‘Understanding the Various
Dimensions of Corruption in Nigeria’. The presentation focused on the role of Anti-
Corruption Club Mentors with a view to identify and discuss less technical ways to
reduce corrupt practices in secondary schools. As a social environment, schools are the
best places where corruption can be analyzed and mitigation strategies taught for future
use by the future leaders (students). Haruna Adamu set the objectives of his presentation
as follows
• To identify the role of mentors on delineating Corruption and its effect on society to
secondary school students in Kano
• To strengthen the capacity of Anti-corruption club mentors on reducing corrupt practices
in the society
• To identify new mentoring strategies for Anti-corruption mentors in Secondary Schools
of Kano
• Develop a more realistic work plan for mentoring on Anti-corruption for secondary
schools in Kano
While talking about forms of corruption, Haruna said that corruption in Nigeria happens in
several ways and in different dimension. He criticized the law makers in the country who
according to him tried to institutionalized corruption. Adding that even lobbying from the law
makers can be a form of corruption. Other forms of corruption include, Extortion, Cronyism,
Nepotism of favoritism, Patronage, Graft and embezzlement, Bribery, receipt of illegal proceeds

(extortion, kickbacks), Theft and privatization of public resources and funds, Illegal
appropriation (forgery, falsification, embezzlement, misappropriation of money, property),
Abuse of state funds, waste, Nepotism, favoritism (appointment to the posts of relatives and
friends), Collusion (granting preferences to individuals, conflict of interests), Taking gifts to
speed up problem-solving, Protection and covering up events, Electoral violations (buying votes,
rigging election results), Extortion (civil servants illegally set a fee for services or artificially
create a deficit), Clientelism and patronage (politicians provide material services in exchange for
citizen support), Illegal contributions to election campaigns (transfer of gifts to influence the
content of the policy), Abuse of power through (intimidation or torture) and Manipulation of
regulation (falsification of elections, decision-making in favor of one group or person).
He finally urged the school mentor to play the following roles in the ANTI-corruption Clubs:
• Develop and implement the Anti-corruption modules for students
• Demystify all Anti-corruption terms to students for ease of understanding, ownership and
sustainability
• Facilitate partnerships among students and
• Create interface between Anti-graft body and the students
Malam Idris Isyaku, Head of Public Affairs, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) represented EFCC Zonal Commandant at the workshop. He talked about the work of the
commission. He explained that Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is a
Nigerian law enforcement agency that investigates financial crimes such as advance fee fraud
(419 fraud) and money laundering. EFCC was established in 2003, partially in response to
pressure from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), which named
Nigeria as one of 23 countries non-cooperative in the international community's efforts to fight
money laundering. The agency has its head office in Abuja, Nigeria. Adding that while the ICPC
targets corruption in the public sector, especially bribery, gratification, graft, and abuse or misuse
of office, the EFCC investigates people in all sectors who appear to be living above their means,
and is empowered to investigate and prosecute money laundering and other financial crimes.
Ali Sabo, CITAD Communication Officer, presented paper titled ‘Assessing the Ant-Corruption
Efforts in Nigeria Since 1999: Challenges and Prospects’. At the end of his presentation, he
divided the participants into three groups and asked each group to:
1. Identify some potential policy-related sources of corruption in Nigeria and proffer
possible solution
2. Ways use to curb corruption at grassroots level

Report On 2022 International Girls in ICT Day Celebration

Girls are poorly placed to benefit from the knowledge economy in developing countries. As such they have less access to skills training and development that would enable them to gain employment in the ICT sector. When females are employed, they generally work at lower levels, with less pay and this discourages them from participating optimally in science and technology education. These disadvantages further prevent girls and women from benefitting equally from the opportunities offered by the new technologies that would enable them to participate in the knowledge economy.

 

Concerned about the decline in the number of school girls opting to study technology-related disciplines and who work in technology focused organizations in most countries worldwide, 28th of April 2022, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in collaboration with Dala Ina Mafita organised an awareness programme to mark the International Girls in ICT Day. The event was held at the Guidance Standard School, Goron Dutse, Kano. The participants were girls from different community-based associations as well as students of public secondary schools in the state.

 

Observed in more than 166 countries across the globe, the Day, an initiative of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the International Girls-in-ICT Day was backed by all ITU members.

 

The Day was aimed at creating global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the field of information and communications technology (ICT).

 

Access and Safety was selected as the 2022 thematic priority as part of the initial step for girls to be able to access the digital environment in a safe way. 

 

Speaking at the event, CITAD Executive Director representative Malam Ahmad Abdullahi Yakasai, said the Centre partnered with the organisers to expose participants to the various career opportunities available in the ICT sector, apart from encouraging them to aspire to such jobs.

 

Yakasai, told the participants who were drawn from different communities in Kano that the world now revolved around ICT and that the future holds a lot of promises for them should they go into the ICT sector.

 

CITAD Gender Officer Zainab Aminu, said that while significant progress has been achieved with increasing the participation of girls in the gender gap in ICT remains unacceptably wide, with representation continuing to be disproportionately higher for males than for females, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

 

Zainab, expressed concern that the gap was even wider in Nigeria, relative to countries like Ghana and South Africa. She reaffirmed that investment in early ICT education, affirmative action on the hiring of women in STEM and a reorientation to change the sociocultural beliefs and practices that deter women’s participation in STEM, as approaches that should be explored to reduce this gap.

 

The Chairperson of International Federation of Women Lawyers – FIDA, Kano State Branch, Barr. Bilkisu Ibrahim Sulaiman, noted that the global event presented a platform for various stakeholders to not only highlight the gender digital divide but proffer solutions and build partnerships that will help accelerate the movement towards the increased involvement of girls in ICT. She expressed appreciation for CITAD in continuous support for the Girls in ICT initiative and commended the CITAD sensitization lecture which will provide an opportunity for girls to gain a first-hand experience of working in the ICT sector.

 

Next was an interactive session with Engr. Kamaluddeen Umar leading the session, said empowering girls to choose a career in ICTs is not just good for girls and their families, it can be a major accelerator of socio-economic development at the national level.

 

According to him, the Day serves to inspire both government and the private sector to find ways to equip girls and young women with the skills they need to become ICT professionals.

 

At end of the sensitization participants asked some questions relating to the presentations made and they fed their curiosity. 

 

 

  

 

 

REPORT OF A MONTHLY DIALOGUE ON ANTI CORRUPTION FIGHT IN NIGERIA ORGANIZED BY THE CENTRE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT (CITAD) ON THE 21ST OF APRIL, 2022 VIA ZOOM

The Centre for Information Technology and Development had on 21st of April, 2022 under its project on Mobilizing and Catalyzing Citizens Action for Accountable Election and Governance in Nigeria supported by MacArthur Foundation held its Fourth Dialogue on Anti-Corruption Fight in Nigeria with another three set of its sub-grantees; Jack Fidelis Vincent, Independ Journalist based in Maiduguri, Olumide Olaniyan of Lucidity of Absurdity (Poetry) and Fred Sam-Itepu, Head of Operation, Rise Networks while Dr. Kabiru Sufi Sa’id, Principal Lecturer, Kano State College of Education and Preliminary Studies chaired the Dialogue. As it has become tradition in the Centre that every month it’s conducting the dialogue, in the month of March, the Centre hosted Danlami Nmodu, mni, Publisher NewsDiary Online, Bikiya Graham-Douglas, Executive Director, Beeta Network and Dr. Tunde Akanni, Lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, Lagos State University with Clement Adebayo as the moderator

The dialogue started with an opening remarks by the Executive Director of CITAD, Engineer Yunusa Zakari Ya’u. Engineer Ya’u begin his remarks with aim of organizing the monthly dialogue where his stated that; the aim of the dialogue is to give the sub-grantees under this project an opportunity to regularly share their work with a wider audience in promoting accountability and fighting corruption in Nigeria. He also mentioned that the dialogue is aimed at giving both the sub-grantees and young people who have interest in the area an opportunity to discuss and share ideas. Engineer Ya’u went further to state that CITAD has for many years been working in the area of accountability and fighting corruption in Nigeria and empowering young people to demand for good governance. Buttressing further on the essence of organizing the monthly dialogue, the Executive Director said is to create a platform for the sub-grantees and those who have an interest in the area to discuss ideas and learn from each other as corruption and lack of accountability are the major obstacles towards the country’s growth and development”. 

Moreover, Malam Ya’u lamented on the set back fighting corruption is recording in the country where he gave an example with presidential pardon granted to two convicted former governors of Plateau and Benue States after being tried and found guilty of stealing public funds while serving as governors in their states. At the end he urge the participants not relent on their efforts in the fight against corruption as it takes time to rid corruption out of the society.  

Speaking on the different tools and mediums he utilizes in demanding for accountability and fighting corruption, Mr. Jack Vincent said in Maiduguri he used to organized small round table meetings to hear the opinions of people on how they perceive corruption and the best way to tackle it, from the opinions gather, he organizes radio programs including phone in where people call to give their own contributions and air their grievances. Also, Mr. Vincent used to do Vox Fox where he sample the opinions of the public on how corruption and bad governance is affecting their lives. Other activities conducted by this sub-grantee include documentaries. In the documentaries, Mr. Fidelis focuses more on capital projects that are poorly executed such as hospitals, roads, schools etc. in the state. This, he said they aired on their live radio program and also share on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

On his part, Mr. Olumide said their work is targeting at people at grassroots where they are enlightening them about the effect of corruption through the use of poetry. He said what they normally do is to ask people questions on the post elections issues like what their representatives are doing to better their lives. Also, Mr. Olaniyan said they organize mobile dramas where they went to local markets in Abuja in collaboration with markets officials and perform dramas on corruption. In the drama, Mr. Olaniyan said they are using four languages such as Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Pidgin English. Another tactic they explore is reading poems to community people on anti-corruption and accountability. In this case, he said they allow the community people to read the poems themselves in order to internalize and make the fight against corruption a habit. At the end he stated that they are sharing the messages to larger audiences using social media platforms like Facebook to popularize the messages.

Moreover, the final speaker at the dialogue, Mr. Fred discussed mainly on the application they created in order to track corruption and fake news in the area of fighting corruption in the country called “Run Am”. He said, the application is created to mobilize citizens against corruption and discuss issues of accountability in Nigeria. Speaking further, Mr. Fred said, the application is trained to source information on corruption and election from credible sources by tracing the authenticity of images used like where they have been taken, who took them and what time they were taken. At the end, this speaker said using technology to fight corruption is the best and most efficient way to rid the corruption out of our society and instill good governance in the minds of Nigerians. 

At the end, some participants made comments about the topic in discussion. One of the commentators at the dialogue stated that “the anti-corruption institutions in the country are just making fool of themselves considering the action of the president and his cabinets most especially with the recent pardon of the convicted governors”.   

 

 

TIME TO TAME THE MENACE OF TECHNOLOGY-ASSISTED GENDER VIOLENCE

Text of press conference addressed by Y. Z. Yaú, Executive Director, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 at CITAD, Kano

 

Members of the press, I welcome you to this press conference on an issue of national importance. This is the issues of technology-assisted gender violence. By technology-assisted gender violence we mean the way in which technology is deployed specifically to harm women and girls, including harassment online, rape, kidnapping and killing facilitated via interaction and use of digital technology. 

Within the past two weeks, we have two very disturbing contents on the internet, both of which degrade and dehumanise women and the individuals involved. The first was a posting of sexual escape of students of Chrisland, Lagos in faraway Dubai which went viral, leading to the suspension of academic activities in the school. The second concerned a lady in Ado-Ekiti who was invited her to a hotel room by her friend who had arranged with his three other friends and not only gang-raped her but also posted the act on the internet. A third case in which a lady was kidnapped for money occurred earlier last month in Abuja when a man the lady befriended on social media invited her to his hotel, only for him and his friends to kidnap her, demanding N50million from her parents as ransom.  There have been many other such cases in which social media friends lured their female friends only to rape them and in some instances, kill them to cover up the crime. 

Cases of young girls falling victims of this technology assisted crime have been on the rise and are contributing negatively to the efforts to address and overcome the gender dimension of the digital divide in the country, which casts women on the negative side of the divide and making it difficult for them to access and make use of the opportunities and benefits digital technology offers for educational advancement, economic empowerment and social inclusion. 

CITAD has for the past five years been engaged in monitoring and countering gender violence online and take this very serious, because we have in an earlier research found that gender-based violence online has been a major factor inhibiting factor for the effective use of digital spaces by girls and women in the country as they have internalised the fear that harmful content online has induced in them. In another research, we found that harmful content online is targeted at female politicians and women in career such as female journalists and academics, with the aim of discouraging them from those spaces, thus furthering their marginalization in those spheres. For example, female politicians are subjected to social media abuse and intimidation and that in many of cases, they were forced to drop out of contesting of elections because of this. In addition, parents and husbands are also using the same excuse to prevent their daughters and wives from using the internet. Unfortunately, in the world we live today, we must all make use of the internet. 

In all these cases, it is the country and society that suffer from this criminal misappropriation of the powers of the internet. As learning, commerce, social interactions and government services move online, it means that those left behind digitally or are unable to access and use the internet, will equally be left behind in those other spheres. Women constitute slightly more than half of the population of the country. As majority of these women are remaining offline as a result of gender violence online and other harmful contents, it means that a large population of Nigerians is left behind. In this situation, Nigeria cannot achieve the sustainable development goals as most of them require effective deployment and use of the internet. Girls are at disadvantage in getting admission to higher education because they have been prevented from learning to use digital skills which are necessary for passing the entrance examinations to the higher institutions in the country. Yet here in the North we complain of lack of sufficient number of female doctors and other health related professionals, even when we deny girls the opportunity to learn digital skills to gain admission to study for medical profession. Women are the majority of citizens who are identity excluded in Nigeria and consequently also financial services excluded, making it difficult for them to access financial services and progress in business. Lack of identity also is inhibiting their ability to exercise their freedom of movement as some important modes of travel cannot convey people without authenticated identity. 

It is for these reason that we at CITAD takes the issue of technology-assisted gender violence online as a serious national problem, that the government has to consider and take necessary means to address it.  We note the recent empanelling of a Committee by the Federal Government to study and propose solutions to ensuring the protection of children online. While we welcome this action, we would like government to also consider and act in the same manner with respect to gender violence online. It is important to reflect that technology-assisted gender violence is pernicious as it is not easily visible, making the victims to suffer doubly as victims of violence and as victims of stigmatization when they report and make their suffering public. This is why victims do not report, allowing themselves to suffer in silence. 

In this respect CITAD will like to call on the federal government as well as state governments to as a matter of national urgency:

  1. Set up a panel to study and propose solutions to technology-assisted gender violence, including proposing legislations on how to deal with it. In making this call, we would like to caution against throwing the baby with the bathwater. Government should not use this as an opportunity to inhibiting access to the internet for citizens but rather improve on how citizens are able to access and safely use the internet. 
  2. The Federal Government should incorporate safety and privacy online in the computer studies curriculum of secondary schools. In this way, computer studies can then not be just done to get a credit for admission to higher institutions but also to get life skills that will prepare the students for successful emersion into the digital world. While we have made computer studies compulsory at secondary schools, we have not incorporated safety issues in the curriculum. This gaps should be addressed quickly because learning computer studies is not just for passing examinations but to gain skills that are needed to fit into the digital world of today.
  3. Lot of the criminal uses of the internet is relating to poor understanding of digital rights. In particular, government itself has not shown proper appreciation of the importance of digital rights. Without a bill of digital rights, the use of the digital space can be counterproductive as we see it now. In this respect, the National Assembly should quickly pass the Digital Rights Bill and the President should sign it.
  4. The federal government should also come up with a national digital inclusion agenda that will address the many challenges that inhibit the effective access to and use of the internet. This will contribute greatly in addressing the various dimensions of the internal digital divide in the country. 

 

REPORT OF THE WORKSHOP FOR GUIDING AND COUNSELLING (G&C) OFFICERS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS BOARD, KANO STATE

By

Sagiru Ado Abubakar

As part of its contribution to support the school system to effectively guide and counsel
students, the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has on Tuesday,
April 19, 22 organized one-day workshop for Guiding and Counseling (G&C) officers of Science
and Technical Schools Board, Kano State. CITAD noted that the world is becoming complex and
advising young people for career prospects and trajectory is no longer easy. This is why career
counseling has to also change, become more heuristic and take into cognizance of the change
in work itself as well as the dynamics of the labor market at both micro and macro levels.
Giving his welcome remarks, Malam Yunusa Ya’u, Executive Director Center for Information
Technology and Development (CITAD) said that there is need guidance and counseling officers
of schools to continually be upgrading their skills in order to cope with the demand of their
tasks. He said that the workshop was organized to achieve the following objectives:
1. To introduce Guiding and Counseling (G&C) Officers to new developments in the area of
guidance and counseling
2. To update their skills and enhance their capacity in advising young students
3. To expose the participants to the use of technology for guidance and counseling that
will help them to carry out their task of guiding students better
The workshop took place at Hall B, CITAD Office, Kano and covered the following topics:
1. Labor Market Dynamics and Career Counseling of Young Students
2. Use of Technology in Career Counseling
3. Nurturing Creativity and Innovation in Young People

4. Pathways to Promoting Reading Culture among Students of Secondary Schools
Malam Kamaluddeen Umar, CITAD Technical Officer, said that his paper will look at some ICT
tools and platforms that can be used for guidance and cancelling for officers and students. He
explained that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become global tools in
solving almost all aspect of human activities in an efficient way, guidance and cancelling is not
left out in leveraging this ICT and its tools. In education sectors, lots of applications and
platforms have been used both by teachers and students to disseminate and acquire knowledge.
Guidance and Counselors Officers can conduct surveys to learn more about what students need
or expect when it comes to educational guidance. A school counselor can distributes surveys to
students at the beginning of the school year to learn how things are going at home, at school,
and with friends. He then gave the following Digital Survey Tools:
 Send surveys, review your results and analyse charts and individual responses seamlessly
across your desktop, tablet, and phone.
 JotForm : online form builder and survey builder that lets you create and fill forms &
surveys for data collection even when you are offline.
 Nearpod: is instructional software that engages students with interactive learning
experiences. With Nearpod, students have the ability to participate in lessons that contain
virtual reality, 3D objects, PhET simulations and so much more. Interactive software
features empower student voice through activities like open ended questions within their
presentations, obtaining real-time data quickly.
While commenting on his paper, participants commented that when talking about technology
especially internet, teachers must seek for consent from both parent and ministry before they
allow their students to use internet. In rural areas where there is no internet connections to
use technology in guidance and counseling does not even arise. That’s the issue of access while
talking about affordability and availability of technological tools is another problem. They
forwarded their aforementioned challenges to the Science and Technical School Board, Kano
State.

Report of Monthly Dialogue on Public Education on COVID19 Vaccine Project

 

On Tuesday 1st March, 2022 the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) organized a virtual dialogue to deliberate issues around slow uptake of the COVID19 vaccine. The dialogue which took place via the Zoom platform hosted two public health experts-Dr. Hassan Shuaibu Musa, Principal Medical Officer and Lecturer at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi and Dr. Ma’awuya Aliu as speakers, Hon. Jafar Mohammed Zuru, Commissioner, Kebbi State Ministry of Health gave a keynote address while Dr. Mainasara Yakubu Kurfi, the Head, Department of Mass Communications, Bayero University Kano served as moderator. 

The one hour thirty minutes virtual event titled “Discussing COVID19 Vaccine Uptake Series 2.0” began with goodwill message from Hon. Jafar  Muhammed Zuru, Commissioner of Health Kebbi State who was represented by Haruna Abdullahi, Director Immunization and Disease Control in the Ministry, in the message he commended CITAD for organizing the dialogue adding that it is a timely effort as it brought qualified stakeholders to deliberate on the vaccination issue, he urged participants from various states to listen to the speakers with interest and make use of the strategies they will share during the dialogue. 

Hindrances and factors responsible for slow uptake of the vaccine, hesitancy or non acceptance of the vaccine shared by the speakers during the dialogue included the following:

  1. Fear of side of adverse effect of the vaccine
  2. Healthcare workers vaccine hesitancy 
  3. Lack of national policy on vaccine administration
  4. Lack of targeted communication strategy 
  5. Lack of risk communication assessment mechanism and response strategy 
  6. Unavailability of vaccines in some locations 
  7. Lack of sufficient credible information on vaccine efficacy 
  8. Societal perception on the virus and vaccine
  9. Circulation of false narratives on the vaccine on social media 
  10. Cultural and traditional beliefs on the vaccine
  11. Poor vaccine administration and delivery 
  12. Poor public knowledge COVID19 asymptomatic patients  

 It noted was during the dialogue that hesitancy of the vaccine by healthcare workers is heavily and negatively impacting the vaccination exercise, it was also learned that for example in Bauchi state only 11% of the state’s healthcare workers took the vaccine, the concern therefore was how would the public have trust and confidence in the vaccine if healthcare workers are also reluctant to take it? Another issue raised during the dialogue was that many people COVID19 patients are asymptomatic and the public justify their misconception on the virus, for example again in Bauchi state 78% of COVID19 patients were asymptomatic. After intense deliberation on the above areas, questions and comments by the dialogue participants, the speakers recommended the following:

  1. Taking the vaccine should be made mandatory for all healthcare workers in order to boost confidence of the public on the vaccine. 
  2. States should develop information dissemination and communication strategy to constantly engage the public on the vaccine. By extension it was recommended that live phone-in radio programmes should consistently be aired to provide detailed and sufficient information to listeners in local languages, respond to questions they have as well as use the programme to restrategize the information and communication chain. 
  3. There is the need to have a national and state policy on vaccination, the policy should take into cognizance the contexts and peculiarities of different communities. 
  4. Vaccination authorities should leverage mass gatherings-social, religious, traditional, etc with COVID19 vaccine.
  5. There is the need to amplify positive testimonies on the vaccine particularly testimonies of people the public will believe and trust. 
  6. There is the need to have a functional risk communication strategy
  7. States should embark on mass campaign on the mainstream media, social media and local or traditional gatherings.   
  8. Information and communication approach should target behavioural change

Pantanmi Tasked on Implementation of Policy on Community Networks

Ugo Aliogo

The Coordinator of Nigerian School of Community Networks(NSCN) Haruna Adamu Hadejia, has called on the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, to ensure full implementation of the draft National Policy on Community Networks.

Hadejia, who disclosed this yesterday in Lagos at a media briefing enjoined the Galaxy Backbone Plc to provide communities with access to its backbone for them to use as their community networks getaways.

He urged the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) to support the upgrading of the many communities’ digital centres they set up in the country to serve as basis of community networks for communities that desirous and passionate to set up such in their communities.

He  appealed to the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) to develop guidelines and regulations for the operation of community networks in the country and to allow communities to access and use TV White Space (TVWS) for the purposes of setting up community networks

He further explained that NITDA needs to work with communities at grassroots level to drive digital literacy which is critical for the effective utilization of digital technology and which is the foundation upon which the digital transformation agenda of the country would rest.

He urged Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to sustain evidence-based advocacy for the establishment of CNs across the country.

Hadejia called on the private sector operators to as, part of their corporate social responsibility to support communities to set up community networks.

According to him, “We call on all other stakeholders, including political office holders to support communities to go digital as critical contribution to community development. We also call on the private sector operators to see community networks as complimentary, but not competitors. Community networks have failed to take roots in Nigeria because we do not have a national policy to guide their emergence and provide a supportive environment for communities to leverage various opportunities to bridge the connectivity gaps.

“Community networks are telecommunication infrastructure designed, deployed and managed by communities to meet their communication need. Globally these community networks are helping many countries such as in Kenya, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico to address the internal dimensions of their digital divide.

“The Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) has said there are 114 communities where GSM signals are either weak or not at all. These are called underserved and unserved communities. These communities could, if there is a policy that would provide clear rules for interconnectivity, frequency and spectrum allocation and use, etc, could mobilize their own resources and create their communication infrastructure to address their need.

“The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has in the last eight months, been engaging the policy makers especially the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, the telecommunication regulators, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other stakeholders in the country such as NITDA, USPF and Galaxy Backbone with the aim of arriving at a consensus on developing a national policy for community networks. They all agreed on its desirability, noting that community networks will help greatly in accelerating efforts of government to address the digital divide and to prime the country to achieve its digital transformation agenda.”