Report of ICT Quiz 18th November 2021 at KUST Wudil

The learning and teaching process is changing style, gradually using communication technology to teach and learn.

Since 2001, the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has been conducting a inter Secondary Schools Information Communication and technology quiz 

This recent one is the twentieth occurring of the quiz which was held on 19th November, 2021 at of the Kano University of Science and Technology.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Mallam Isyaku Garba, Deputy Director of the Center, began with a discussion on the benefits of information communication and technology, and why the CITAD tag is relevant and the effort to manage this competition between secondary schools.

He concluded that “CITAD is committed to contributing to the development of education and communication technology in the community.”

About 32 schools participated in the quiz with the facilitation of the Kano State Ministry of Education and its agencies. Among the schools that competed during the quiz were KUST staff school Wudil, G.G.S.S Gwarzo, M. S. S Gaya, G.S.S Garko among others.

Dawakin-Tofa Science Secondary Schools came  first with 14 points, followed by Government Commercial Secondary School Kano with 12 points and Government Secondary School Tudun-Wada with 10 points. At the end of the day, some of prizes distributed to the winners, includes home computer, printer and more.

The center also honors some of the agencies, institutions and colleges, universities that have contributed to the success of the competition.

The program is sponsored by CITAD in collaboration with government agencies, businesses, individuals, companies and more.

REPORT OF A TWO DAY WORKSHOP ON #KEEPOURFEMALEJOURNALISTSSAFEONLINE ORGANIZED BY THE CENTRE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT ON THE 14 TH AND 15 TH OCTOBER, 2021 AT FLOURISH HOTEL, GOMBE

Looking at how female journalists are everyday facing serious challenge, from cyberbullying and blackmail in order to silence their voice as journalists, coupled with the increasing use of online tools as important instruments for the practice of journalism, this has increased female journalists online vulnerability. A number of female journalists have become subject to privacy invasion. With government clamp down on the social media, journalists are forced to look for ways to bypass blockage. For example, in May, 2021 the Government of Nigeria suspended the operations of Twitter in the country, blocked access to the platform, advised mandatory discontinuation of the use of twitter handles by broadcast organizations and announced a jail term for anyone found using twitter in the period of the suspension. This at once may also expose journalists to falling into the traps of privacy invaders which is capable of undermining the ability of women journalists to practice their profession.

Female journalists in Nigeria are everyday facing challenges with access to online tools. Online harassment has become rampant coupled with hacking of their accounts by either hackers or government agencies who want silence their voices online. In many instances, their vulnerabilities arose in the sense that a large number of people in the community believe that it is a taboo for females to be online with the harsh judgement and harassment meted on them when they are journalists because the society does not recognized their rights. 

In view of the above, the Centre for information Technology and Development (CITAD) as part of its initiatives to create awareness on the safety and privacy online specially to the female journalists in the country had on the 14th and 15th of October, 2021 with support from Association for Progressive Communications (APC) organized a two day workshop to 10 females journalists from five (5) states of Northern Nigeria (Gombe, Adamawa, Kaduna Bauchi and Kano) with the title #KeepOurFemaleJournalistsSafeOnline at Flourish Hotel Gombe. 

This type of training is important to female journalists in the country because it will expose them to the dangers they are in both online and offline while practicing their profession, at the same time the training will help them to know how to protect themselves from attacks and hackers online. Moreover, the two today workshop was designed in a way that the participants will understand fully the different techniques and procedures to follow in order to stay safe online.  

As part of the initiative, on the 19th of August, 2021 CITAD had earlier trained online journalists in Kano state on safety and security online. The aim of the training was to build the capacity of the journalists and raise awareness about safety, security and threats that are associated to working online. 

The Objectives of the Two Day Workshop were:

  1. Build the capacity of the targeted women journalists to safely use the internet (including privacy protection) 
  2. Raise the awareness of the participants about safety and privacy online 
  3. Initiate some female journalists to join the campaign for digital rights and safety and privacy online for women 

Before the start of the training a pre-test was administered likewise after the workshop a post-test was administered to the participants in order to know the level of their knowledge and at the end see whether there is any changes in their understanding of the topics discussed. In the pre-test conducted, in every question asked almost 60% percent of the answers given were wrong while for the post-test the least gotten from the answers right was 85%. For example, when they were asked to mention any two personal Meta Data in the pre-test 90% of the participants got it wrong while in the post-test 100% got it right. Also when they were asked about bypass technology in the pre-test, 95% got it wrong while in the post-test 85% got it right. 

On the first day of the workshop, Mr. Ali Sabo who is the Campaigns and Communications Officer of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) opened the workshop with a welcome address and the objectives of the training. Mr. Sabo stated that the workshop was part of the Centre’s initiative on digital inclusion programs and the CITAD’s effort in promoting women inclusion in both decision making on internet process and ensuring the safety of female journalists online. Mr. Sabo also urged the participants to pay attention on what was going to be discussed during the training so that they could be able to learn and pass on the knowledge to their fellow colleagues. 

The first technical session was facilitated by Dr. Mu’azu of the Department of Computer Engineering, Bayero University, Kano who took the participants through Understanding Online Gender Harassment. While making her presentation, Dr. Mu’azu said the overall picture of the situation relating to gender and technology has so far been that men have been dominating the field and have left the women behind. Discussing about the importance of women on the net, she stated that women are important actors in the development and to hold them back is to hold back the potential for economic growth. Explaining about the online harassment women face, Dr. Mu’azu said for those that frequently work with the internet, online harassment and cyber bullying are real, they happen tremendously to women at any time, again and again, and the worst online harassment has now gone beyond name calling to include stalking, and sexual harassment which is directly targeted at women. 

The second presentation was delivered by Engineer Kamaluddeen Umar, CITAD Technical Officer. Engineer Kamal discussed on the Privacy Online and its Protection. In the presentation, Mr. Umar started with general misconception people have about the internet which he said that many people think cyber-attacks were not very harmful, while others think other people will keep them safe on the Internet, or they were not important enough to be targeted. Mr. Umar said virtually everybody on the planet has his/her personal data i.e., name, address, pictures, email address, bank details, or medical information online which make people vulnerable to attacks if they didn’t safe guard their data carefully. At the end of his presentation, Mr. Kamaluddeen shared some tips that one could use to protect her/his data. 

The third presentation, Incognito Browsing was also taken by Engineer Kamaluddeen Umar. Here the participants were taken through the process of browsing safely, how they can take advantage of their browsers security that will alert users when there was security threat. Also in this presentation, the participants were taught how to install add-ons that can steer them away from threats. Moreover, the presenter went further to discuss ways to download with care, how to shop online safely, social media safety tips and how to stay safe on social media. At the end of the presentation, wireless Internet safety tips were highlighted. The first day of the workshop was close with practical activities on speedgeeking.

The second day of the workshop started with a recap of what has been discussed the previous day where each of the participants was asked to state one thing she had learnt from the previous presentations. Then Ali Sabo took the participants Feminists Internet Principles. In this presentation, reasons why feminists internet principles developed, how it came into being and its history were discussed by the presenter. Mr. Sabo also went further to explain the 17 Feminists Internet Principles to the participants. The second presentation on Bypass Technologies followed by Suhail Abdullahi. Mr. Abdullahil started by explaining what encryption is to the participants, its importance and how it is used. Then he took the participants through end-to-end encryption and file extension. Furthermore, Suhail discussed about VPN i.e. how it works and it different types and why individual should use VPN. At the end, Mr. Abdullahi talked about VPN providers and cautioned the participants to always use trusted VPN. In the second day also, Engineer Kamaluddeen discussed with participants Personal Meta Data.

During the training participants raised concerned over their privacy and safety and asked questions on how to be more secured and safe online. Some of the important points raised by the participants were:

  1. Elizabeth Kah Nange of Bauchi State Television Authority stated that the number of online attacks female journalists especially in the northern part of the country are receiving every day is one of the issue that is driving them away from online platforms such as twitter and Facebook and sometimes even WhatsApp
  2. Another concern raised by Maryam Bawa a reporter with Solacebase, an Online Newspaper based in Kano was that, females especially journalists and celebrities are being singled out for attacks and government is not doing much to protect them. She gave example with a scenario of what happened with one female celebrity in Kano, where she said her boyfriend shared her nude video online and she was banned from the industry but if this kind of scenario happened to the male actors such kind of punishment are not being served to them 
  3. Bilkisu Ado Zango, chairperson, Association of Women Journalists, Kano State Chapter said female journalists’ vulnerability online is growing everyday as their accounts are constantly being hacked and in many instances the hackers used the opportunities to post nudes pictures and videos. These she said have made many of them to avoid the platforms for fear of their names being ruined 
  4. While speaking on the sexual harassment female journalists face online, Yusuf Ojoma from Adamawa State shared on how men are everyday sending nudes pictures and videos via messenger and asking them to share same and if they refuse to do so they resort to attacks, names spoil, names calling and even sometimes lead to physical harm

Some of the questions asked and answered during the two day workshop were:   

  1. Shaharuza Umar Idris Hinna from Gombe ask on how one could know whether his/her is being hacked
  2. Another participants asked on the step to follow for two way verifications on Facebook and WhatsApp 
  3. While Su’uda Mustapha inquired about how one could create a strong password and ensure his/her account is not being compromised 
  4. With regard to online harassment, Sekyen Manasseh Dadik asked how they could handle online harassers and where to report them.

Feedbacks from the participants:

  1. Speaking after the two day workshop, Sekyen Manasseh Dadik of Africa Prime News (APN) stated that this is one of the best training she has ever attended, she continued to mentioned that part of what she has learn is to always be careful with her password and not share it with anyone no matter how close they are. Which she promised to share with her colleagues and family. 
  2. Fatima Lawan Abubakar of Guarantee Radio Kano said one of the things she learnt was creating strong passwords which has combination of words, numbers and characters. She also narrated that before whenever she browse at commercial centres she used to leave her accounts without login out but now she has discovered the dangers of doing that.
  3. Now I understand fully how dangerous using public WIFI is, before anywhere I see public WIFI as long as there is no password, I quickly connect to it, but with this training and all what has been discussed I will be very careful about using public WIFI said Fibi Kafi of Bauchi State Television Authority.  
  4. With regards to Gender Based Violence Online Female Journalists face in northern Nigeria, Shaharuza Umar Idris Hinna of Amana FM Gombe said this workshop has now widen her understanding of the topic and how to respond to stalkers and those abusers online
  5. On the Bypass networks and Virtual Private Network, Yusuf Ojoma said before when the Nigerian government ban the use of twitter in the country she resort to using every type of VPN she could find, but with this training she understand that not every VPN one could use as some can be spying on users’ devices, this she said she will take to her fellow colleagues who are also using the VPN to bypass the government ban on twitter    

Closing the two day workshop, the Executive Director of CITAD, Malam Yunusa Zakari Ya’u thanked the participants for their commitments throughout the workshop and their passion towards digital inclusion in the country. He went further to state that part of the training curriculum are: 

  1. A five day mentorship training which would be spread over a month, this would be done in order to allow the participants internalised the skills impacted in the first phase and will be guided by a mentor. It is also a stage for the participants to explore in greater depth the topics covered by the first phase. 
  2. Online presentations on certain themes usually of two-hour duration for a total period of 10 hours. Some of the themes to cover are: Safe Communication, Social Network Protection, Digital Hiding, USIGN Signals, Browning using Tor browser, Strategies on how one can protect self-online.
  3. Individual personal experiential presentation. Each participant is expected to make a learning presentation, drawing from personal experience on how they are able to respond to some privacy or other online challenges 
  4. Public awareness activities: The trained Journalists are to organize meetings to raise awareness about safety online among their fellow journalists and CITAD along with the participants will hold a one-day awareness raising activity on safety and privacy online. During this activity, participants will share various campaign messages on social media, hold online seminar on the subject of digital safety.
  5. A step down training by the participants to their fellow journalists in their respective states which will be supported by CITAD 

At the end he urged the participants to utilize the knowledge gain in the training and take the awareness campaign to their various constituencies.

REPORT OF A ONE DAY WOMEN INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM (WIGF) ORGANIZED BY THE CENTRE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT ON THE 29TH OF SEPTEMBER, 2021 VIRTUALLY

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in conjunction with Local Multistakeholder Committee of the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum as part of their efforts to promote women digital inclusion and ensure women are involve in the internet policy making at every level in the country, organized as a pre-event, the third Women Internet Governance Forum (WIGF). The Women Internet Governance Forum held on September 29, 2021, ahead of the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum held on September 30. Held online, it was attended by over 60 participants from different parts of the country.

The event which started at 11am began with a welcome remarks by Mrs. Mary Udum, the Chair of the West African Internet Governance Forum. Mrs. Uduma thanked CITAD for providing the opportunity for women to discuss issues affecting them relating to access and use of the internet in the country. She said it was necessary that all hands were on deck to ensure the digital inclusion of women. She commended the tireless work of CITAD in promoting the digital inclusion of women in the country. She observed that the theme of the Forum titled: Women, Patriarchy and Digital Inequality: A Look at Global Efforts to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide was apt and timely and should allow us to draw lessons from the experience of countries that had made significant progress in addressing the digital marginalization of women. The Chair, West African Internet Governance Forum went further to say women inclusion at the global level is gradually increasing as preference is given to women especially at UNIGF, African Union in order to bridge the gender digital divide which is very important and appreciable. She also stressed that at African level efforts are being put to ensure gender balance in all organizations. At the end she thanked CITAD for consistently advocating for women inclusion in digital world.

The welcome address was followed by an opening remark by Y.Z Ya’u, Executive Director of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) and the convener of the event. Y.Z. Yaú started by lamenting that the discussion about and around the internet usually features very low women voices due to many factors such as culture and religion, however, he stated that it’s time for the voice of women in Nigeria and Africa to be heard loud and clear on matters of the internet because as stakeholders, women should be the majority users of the internet and without users, we cannot be talking about the internet. He went further to state that for many years CITAD has been advocating for the digital inclusion of women. Buttressing his points, Mr. Ya’u said although there is no statistics, but various samples have shown that women were being left far behind.

Speaking about the importance of internet and connectivity and why citizens should demand for it, Malam Yunusa said internet is a major tool that allows citizens to access education, helps in the actualization of the freedom of information and an avenue to demand for good governance. He added that because of lack of connectivity, these people who are being digitally left behind were also being “identity excluded” and therefore face many challenges in the society such as having problem when traveling, difficulty in accessing higher education, cannot access financial service, etc. Digital justice must be promoted to include all the digitally excluded, the majority of who are women.

At the end he called on the participants to join hands in advocating for effective policies that would enable women to access internet which will give them the right and platforms to participate on policy making in the country.

 

PANELS:

PANEL 1:

The first panel which was moderated by Dr. Amina Salihu of MacArthur Foundation discussed on the Challenges of Mainstreaming Women in the Digital World with Chioma Agwuegbo of TechherNG, Abuja who spoke on the Challenges to Women Participation in the Digital Economy/Mainstreaming Women in the Digital Economy, Hamza Ibrahim of Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) discussed on Do Women Suffer Misinformation on the Net? And Zainab Aminu, Gender Technical Officer, CITAD presented a paper on Combatting Online Gender Violence as Key to Enhancing Women Participation in the Digital World.

The first presenter, Ms. Agwuegbo of TechherNG started her presentation with a suggestion that girls should be allowed to study whatever field they want, by that the speaker said girls will be able to reach their full potentials. Giving an example with out of school children in Nigeria, Ms. Chioma said, in 2018 there were 10 million out of school children in Nigeria of which 60% were girls.

Lamenting about the negative consequences of patriarchal system in the underdeveloped countries, the speaker stated that the system dictates what and who women become in the society, as such it is denying many women access to technology which is the only liberator of women backwardness and leading to the silencing of their voices.

Closing her presentation, Mrs. Agwuegbo suggested that there is need for increase collaboration between public and private sector to ensure more involvement of women in the ICT sector, encourage women to take careers in technology based areas, resourcing of materials that will allow women to occupy the digital space. She concluded the presentation by asking the participants “when we advocate for women to pursue their dreams, do we really have a society that will allow them to do that?

In her presentation, the Gender Technical Officer of CITAD, Miss Zainab Aminu stated that Gender-Based violence refers to harmful acts directed at individuals based on their gender which is rooted in gender inequality, the abuse of power and harmful norms. She also stated that Gender-based violence (GBV) is a serious violation of human rights and a life-threatening issue. It is estimated that one in three women will experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. Discussing about some forms of Gender Based Violence, she mentioned that Gender-based violence can include sexual, physical, mental and economic harm inflicted in public or in private. It also includes threats of violence, coercion and manipulation. This can take many forms such as intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation while the consequences of gender-based violence according to her are devastating and can have life-long repercussions for survivors; it can even lead to death.

Ms. Zainab further stated that in a research the Centre for Information Technology and Development conducted on the impacts of gender-based cyber violence on victims discovered that gender based violence includes reputational damage, mental illness, physical and medical issues, disruptions to a victim’s living situation, invasions of privacy, silencing or withdrawal from the online environment, and damage to personal relationships.

While making comparison on the impact of gender based violence online between women and men, Ms Aminu stated that cyber violence appears to differ according to the victim’s gender, where she gave an example of a research 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. She added 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 images and threats, such as non-consensual pornography.

Discussing about the impacts to women and girls when they experience violence online, Ms Aminu mentioned that the greatest impact women experience is self-censorship; women start censoring themselves online which is what the abusers want.

Discussing about some ways to reduce the GBV in the society, the presenter mentioned that public awareness was the key to solving this problem and providing severe laws and punishment that would deter others from committing the same crime

The third speaker, Hamza Ibrahim of the Countering Misinformation Group of the Centre for Democracy and Development took the participants on how women suffer misinformation on the net. In his presentation, Hamza Ibrahim made it clear that women do suffer misinformation on the net. He gave an example with how perpetrators or purveyors of misinformation spread the news of president Buhari’s marriage with Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar Faruk which had inflicted damages to both the First Lady, Aisha Buhari and Minister Sadiya Umar Faruk. He further stated that women all over the world were being targeted either online or offline, but the most injurious ones happen on the net.

Closing his presentation, Malam Hamza said that more efforts especially around sensitization and awareness creation need to be intensified.

PANEL 2:

This panel featured Ms. Toyosi Akerele Ogunsiji, Founder Rise Networks/The Rise Labs who discussed on Fostering Creativity and Innovation for Mainstreaming Women Participation in the Digital Economy and Dr. Sana Abdullahi Mu’az of the Department of Computer Science, Bayero University, Kano who discussed on How Do We Get More Women in the Digital Profession for Better Representation of Women in the Digital Economy.

Making her presentation at the event, Dr. Sana Mu’az started by confessing that the diffusion of ICT has brought change to all aspects of human lives. She said the digital economy has grown much faster than the rest of the economy and the rapid development of digital technologies has created challenges for inclusive growth which led to under-representation of women. Discussing about how digital competences shape the careers of women, Dr. Mu’az said women represent about 50% of university students in most developed countries but the case is different in the underdeveloped countries and for younger children, there is no difference in the use of computers in most of the developed countries.

Moreover, speaking about how women are using digital technologies, the speakers said most of the developed software in the world are usually developed by males even when gender differences in skills are insignificant. And she also lamented that women perceive their skills as being lower than those of their male counterparts in such environment. At the end of her presentation, Mrs. Sana discussed on the opportunities or threats career women face between work and life as follows:

 

There are “leaks” in the education pipeline of women

Research has shown that computer science is seen as a domain for men according to cultural beliefs

Some males respond by “chasing” girls and women away from the field

Research proves that gender-based differences in organizational rewards were almost 14 times larger than gender-based differences in performance evaluations

The second speaker, Ms. Toyosi lamented that, in Data Science, the highest paid job in the world you can only find one female out of four employers which she attributed to fact that since from the beginning, even from homes women are encouraged or sent to read Home Economics in schools while their males counterparts are encouraged or sent to read technology based courses. In this case, Ms. Akerele said the stereotype we created among our children is among the major factors that are discouraging women from joining the ICT courses, she cited an example with how parents bought things to their children, where she said, parents normally buy toys to their female children and aeroplane to their male child.

When speaking about the achievements made by women in the technology and science, the presenter said the first individual to win noble prize twice in the world is a female and the three people that wrote the mathematical formula that sent the Americans to the moon are women but the technology is biased towards women.

Moving forward, the presenter said, in order to ensure more involvement of women in the Information Technology sector, government, individuals and private companies (most especially the giant tech companies) must:

Create equal opportunities for both men and women

Focus on research and development

Have a system that reward female teachers in the area of technology

Create strong collaboration between the entertainment industry, technology sector and policy makers

Have more stem programs that focus on girls and boys in order to co-create and collaborate

More efforts to support people (women) who are already working in the area

 

Observations:

Women are being underrepresented in the tech jobs

There is negative stereotype of females in the society

Women are the major victims of terrorism and other forms of violence

Technology is biased against women

Women suffer a lot on the net

Computer science is seen as a domain for men according to cultural beliefs

Women and girls are being chased away by men from the field

Online violence keeps women away from a major sector of the public sphere

Public only take physical violence seriously, ignoring or believing that online violence does not exist.

Some women leave the online platform after being harassed

Online violence is a public health issue and the effects are very detrimental

RECOMMENDATIONS:

There is need to create equal opportunities for both men and women

There is need to Focus on research and development

There is need to have a system that reward female teachers in the area of technology

There is need to create strong collaboration between the entertainment industry, technology sector and policy makers

There is need for more STEM programs that focus on girls and boys in order to co-create and collaborate

More efforts to support people (women) who are already working in the area

Need to create platforms where to be naming and shaming of perpetrators of misinformation and at the same time naming and hailing those working to combat it

Create platforms for women working in the tech areas to be sharing their experience and successes to encourage the upcoming generations

Creation of safe and transformative schools for young girls

There is need for the creation of mentorship club for young girls

Creation of safer environment for women to thrive

There is need for women in tech to be going to the secondary schools to teach young girls and boys technological courses

 

REPORT OF CAPACITY BUILDING ON COMPUTER NETWORKING ORGANIZED BY THE CENTRE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT (CITAD) ON THE 16 TH OF SEPTEMBER, 2021 AT DAKWA ICT CENTER

ItREPORT OF CAPACITY BUILDING ON COMPUTER NETWORKING ORGANIZED BY THE CENTRE
FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT (CITAD) ON THE 16 TH OF SEPTEMBER,
2021 AT DAKWA ICT CENTER

 

[gview file=”https://www.citad.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Edited-Abuja-Report.docx”]

CITAD SENSITIZES TUNGAN ASHERE COMMUNITY IN FCT ON COMMUNITY NETWORKS

CITAD SENSITIZES TUNGAN ASHERE COMMUNITY IN FCT ON NETWORK CONNECTION BASED ON LOCAL ENTITY AND THE MARCH OF BARRICADING GAP OF NETWORK CONNECTION TODAY 20th AUGUST, 2021.

On its continued efforts to link communities with networks and have access to affordable networks, the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) had today 20th August 2021 sensitized the Tungan Ashere community on community network connection based.

The sensitization campaign is part of a larger activity of the Centre on Supporting Community-led Approaches to Addressing the Digital Divide Nigeria which is being coordinated globally by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) with support from the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) through their Digital Access Programme (DAP).

As network problem is becoming rampant in Nigeria, in accessing services such as voice call, text message, and Internet access as a result of the lack of community networks in Nigeria.

The community networks project sensitization program has already been implemented in other communities in the country; Jama’are and Itas in Bauchi, Dakwa in Abuja all are among the communities that are benefiting from the program.

This sensitization program was held at Tugan Ashere Community FCT.

The program started with a definition of community network and its benefits to the communities; these are some of the major contents that were discussed during the by CITAD technical officer Engineer Suhail Sani
among other topics that were discussed include service render by community network, regulatory conditions of the project, and sustainability issues for the community networks.

Also, part of the discussions was the linkages of the communities to open access to networks.

Religious leaders, youth representatives, and traditional rulers were among the participants that attended the sensitization. In the end, participants asked questions and offered contributions.

REPORT OF THE COMMENCEMENT LECTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ACCOUNTABILITY (SM4A) CONDUCTED ON THE 29TH OF JUNE, 2021 AT CITAD OFFICE

The Centre for Information Technology and Development had on the 29th of June, 2021 held a commencement lecture for its Social Media for Accountability (SM4A) Training which is being supported by the Macarthur Foundation at its Social Media Lab. The lecture was organized to sensitize the first thirty selected participants out of the hundreds applications received who will benefit from the program. At the commencement lecture, Dr. Nura Ibrahim, Head of Department, Information and Media Studies, Bayero University, Kano presented a paper title Youth, Social Media and Making of Accountability Governance in Nigeria while Professor Ismail A. Zango, Director Mambayya served as the chairman of the occasion.

 

In his opening remarks at the commencement lecture, the Executive Director, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Engineer Yunusa Zakari Ya’u who was represented by the organization’s Training Coordinator, Malam Ahmad Abdullahi Yakasai said the reason behind coming up with idea of the Social Media for Accountability Training is to equip and train Youth on how best to use the social media for accountability and to see to the creation of New Nigeria where justice and accountability will prevail. He continued to say that social media provided an avenue for people to inject their voice and many individuals are using social media without tapping its potentials and how best it will benefit them and their country. He urged the selected beneficiaries to utilize the resources that will be provided during the training in order advocate for a better society using their different social media platforms.  

Remarking at the event, the chairman of the event, Professor Zango mentioned that some social media users, influencers and self-styled warriors are using their social media platforms and fringe websites to proliferate misinformation and fake news, for just growing their online followership. Zango also added that youth can use social media to bring about positive changes and reforms in the country. Also social media can be used to hold government officials accountable for their action which in normal circumstances cannot be done. The chairman urged the beneficiating youth to verify any information or news before posting it on social media and post genuine and accurate information on their social media platforms in order to draw the attention of our leaders for accountability. At the end, he cautioned the youth against using the social media for blackmail and sharing of fake news.

 

Presenting his paper at the commencement lecture, Dr. Nura charged the youth to be good ambassadors of their communities. While presenting, Dr. Nura said technology can serve as a powerful tool for public opinion that could compel leaders to be accountable saying that if there is an issue with national interest, youth should take it to the social media, make an issue of it, and demand accountability from the parties concerned.

 

However, Dr. Nura cautioned social media users to discern between credible information from malicious posts, adding that if one stands on the path of truth, he can’t do anything against the truth but for the truth. Giving example with power of social media, Dr. Nura said apart from organising protests, the social media has been used to also hasten the speed of activities relating to governance in different spheres. In 2021, there was a case of crisis in Wukari of Taraba state, with people getting injured and killed. Internet users quickly uploaded the information on Twitter, calling on the Police to come to the community’s aid. Shortly afterwards, the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) responded via Twitter that officers had been deployed, and the issue addressed. 

 

At the end, Dr. Ibrahim said Social media have revolutionized the way people communicate. In Nigeria, youths, who have higher levels of affinity with the social media, are using it to achieve different ends. It holds lots of potential for news, information, entertainment, mobilization, interaction and expression.

CITAD AND ACTIONAID NIGERIA TRAIN WOMEN ON PEER EDUCATION IN FCT COMMUNITIES

CITAD with support from ActionAid , Nigeria trained 50 women in 10 communities of the FCT of AMAC and Kwali Area Councils on Peer Education.  The objectives training  were to strengthen the capacity of 50 women across 10 communities in AMAC and Kwali Area Council on how to address issues that affect their lives politically, socially and economically, and  to establish a committee for the women to mobilize and organize themselves  for collective action for  women rights development and discourage Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) in their communities. The training too place in two separate phases, the first phase took place between 9th and 11th June, 2021in AMAC and the second phase between 14th and 16th June, 2021 in Kwali Area council.

         The training was carried out using a designed manual that is designed to inculcate the information in to the participants; The trainings were interactive and participants were taken using ways of localizing customizing the wordings for better understanding of the concepts in the manual.

The Participants fully understood the concepts as the evaluation processes during the training shown, at the end of the training Local Networks were established, the aim of these networks are; 

  1. To strengthened the capacity of women to address issues affecting them socially, politically and economically.
  2. To help in establishing a  peer cycle group  in each community, with a maximum of 20 women, with identification of the groups focal persons, meeting dates and meeting frequencies 

It was also agreed that; the trained women will step down the training to other women in their communities so that the knowledge learnt will become universal in the communities to ensure sustainability of the ideas and the moves. 

At the end of the programmes the women made the following appeals:

  • They solicited for  adult education Centres to be established  in their communities, so as to boost their literacy skills.
  • The women also recommended that men  in their communities should also be trained on women’s rights and other issues to empower women, because most times they do not support their women’s development politically, socially and economically.

Issues around land is affecting the community negatively, this has led the women request on ways their lands can be saved. 

Nigerian youths charged to be active in politics

 

A youth activist in Kano, Mrs Hauwa Mustapha, has advocated for institutional support for the youth at formal and informal levels, to build their confidence for political participation.

Mustapha made the call at a virtual conference organized by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) with support of Rosa Luxembourg Foundation on Wednesday in Kano.

CITAD virtual meeting focused on youth inclusion in politics and governance with theme “Critical Knowledge Production Series Dialogue: Youth Political Inclusion: How to Strike a Balance Between Age and Principles.”

In her presentation, Mustapha stressed the need to broaden youth engagement beyond the quest for political office, but in policy and program analysis.

She said through formal and informal institutions, the youth can be encouraged and guided on orientation and development of basic skill required for self-development, mental and psychological health, adding that there should be responsible and accountable communication strategy, useful for diverse local, national and international youth network with common interests.

Mustapha also traced the Nigerian history and justified how youths were engaged in leadership before, during and after the military rule.

REPORT OF A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN CELEBRATION OF 2021 WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL DAY HELD AT CITAD OFFICE, KANO

World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated annually on 5 June and is the United Nations‘ principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of the environment. First held in 1974, it has been a platform for raising awareness on environmental issue such as marine pollution, human overpopulation, global warming, sustainable consumption and wildlife crime. World Environment Day was established in 1972 by the United Nations at the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (June 5-16, 1972) that had resulted from discussions on the integration of human interactions and the environment. Two years later, in 1974 the first WED was held with the theme “Only One Earth”. 

Also, as part of its efforts to help in safeguarding the environment the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD has for many years been organizing different kind of activities ranging from public lectures, town hall meetings, road walks, twitter chats and radio programs in order to enlighten the public about the importance of keeping their environment safe and clean in order to protect it from disaster, erosion, pollution and rising global warming and also to warn them about the danger to polluting it. This year, like every other year the Centre organized a roundtable discussion with its Executive Director, Engineer Yunusa Zakari Ya’u as the discussant and Malam Aminu Aliyu of the Department of Economics, Bayero University, Kano as the moderator. The tittle of this year’s lecture was Circular Economy in the ICT Sector. 

In his welcome remarks which served as the opening of the discussion, Engr. Ya’u focused his discussion about the importance of a circular economy and why Nigeria and Nigerians should adopt it in order to generate more jobs and avoid societal pollution. Part of the advantages of the circular economy as identified to Malam Ya’u are, the circular economy helps to improve resources’ performance and fight the volatility that climate change might bring to businesses. It has benefits that are operational as well as strategic and brings together a huge potential for value creation within the economical, business, environmental and societal spheres. However, during the discussion, Ya’u also lamented that over the years Nigeria has become a dumping ground of second hand ICT goods whether be it is electronics; refrigerators, televisions, radios, handsets, and also plastics waste which littered every corner of our environment.  Which according him is not healthy for the country. Going further, Malam Ya’u said experts are looking at this in three dimensions: a. Environmental Hazard: which health experts considered as harmful to environment; b. Job Creation: in many instance the waste is generating a lot of jobs and new business opportunities to teeming employed people who are going round to pick those waste and sale it to recyclers and the third dimension that is the Development Partners who see environment as part of the sustainable development goal, these category of people see waste as challenge to creating a sustainable development environment. In concluding his remarks, Engineer Ya’u identified two major challenges of creating circular economy in the country as lack of infrastructures and awareness he also called on the authorities to ensure the speedy passage of favorable policies for recycling in the country.

While making contributions, some of the participants at the roundtable discussion believe that with proper awareness creation and favorable policies circular economy especially in the ICT sector will boost the country’s economy, save the environment and reduce waste pollution. Also another contributor highlighted that recycling of ICT waste in Nigeria which are normally done in either China, Europe or America will create millions of jobs to Nigerians if government pay more attention to it and ensure a favorable environment where it can be done here.

At the end of the discussion there were unanimous agreements that awareness creation and intensive advocacy to relevant agencies and engagements with government need to be intensified in other to preserve, sustain and save our environment. 

CITAD Presents Books On Hate Speech, Corruption To Journalists

Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has presented hate speech books to journalists in Adamawa State to raise awareness on hate speech and corruption.

CITAD senior programme officer, Isa Garba, said the best way to tackle hate speech and corruption is for the society not to support the perpetrators.

The presentation of the two books: “Context and content in hate speech discourse in Nigeria” and “The compromised state, how corruption sustains insecurity in Nigeria” is in line with CITAD’s culture of documentation of development.

Garba lauded the role journalists play in advocacy and urged them to pass the message to the general public in a simplified manner.

He expessed worry that hate speech has been identified as major cause of religious and ethnic crisis especially among politicians regardless of its consequences on the society.

Garba noted that in order to guard against the intergenerational transfer of hate speech, CITAD adopted a system that crowd source what is perceived as hate speech which is analysed using hate speech monitors.

He said CITAD is championing sensitisation of the public on the effect of such negative tendencies, while urging NBC to intensify efforts and ensure punitive measure on defaulters.

Use digital technology to combat violence, CITAD urges FG

By Ismail Auwal

Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has called on Federal Government to embrace the use of digital technology in the fight against violence.

The Director of the center, Mallam Yunusa Zakari Yau, in a statement, said that Insecurity has today become too generalized in Nigeria that nowhere is safe in the country.

“Kidnapping, banditry, secessionist violence has all become common place that peace is the only illusive constant.”
He said that, “in the past our fear was of armed robbers. Now armed robbery appears to be the lesser evils. The business of kidnapping people has become an easy way to make money for all classes of criminals, insurgents and they with a cause that support violence.”

The center argued that the government and its security and law enforcement agencies have not shown the leadership that will inspire the citizens that indeed, they can beat this and restore peace in the country. Instead, they seem to be in a debate among themselves as to who can offer the most ridiculous explanation of their failure.

“One thing that is obvious is the increasing use of digital technology by the different assortments of merchants of violence in the country. They wage a campaign of terror and violence using intelligence, this means that government’s’ counter insurgency must also turn to be based on intelligence.”
Making effective use of intelligence requiring an elaborate capacity to deploy and use digital technology. sadly, we have not seen this in the way that army and other agencies are prosecuting the campaign against insurgents.

Embracing digital technology is about equipping and reequipping our army and intelligence agencies who have been underequipped now for quite some times. Part of the reason is the systematic corruptions that is embedded in the different national institutions of governance and security in the country,” he said.

According to the center, a foundation step is needed to dismantle the war-economy around the counter-insurgency efforts. The war-economy has been articulated by people and organizations that benefit from the situation to continue to allow the violence to continue with no interest in winning the battel.

“All these involved in feeding fat on the misery of the citizens should be brought to book. Once that is done, a lot of resources would be recovered to fund the reequipping of the army and security agencies to strategically counter the insurgents and bandits.”

Part of that reequipped is to deploy digital technology for intelligence gathering, processing and transfer to enable the effort be driven by intelligence and be well ahead of the insurgents.

Uses of technology

1. Drones to locate and eliminate insurgents and bandits
2. Monitoring the movement and activities of bandits and insurgents
3. Tracking money movement to see establish how they are funded and how they use money to support their activities
4. Locating and monitoring of the sites, camps and concentrations of insurgents and bandits
5. Tracking supplies and logistics
6. What government should do:
7. Develop, through consultation its Use of Technology for Counter Insurgency Plan and Strategy
8. dentity and address connectivity blind spots in the country, especially within environments where bandits and insurgents are operating
9. Empower citizens to use and access to technology so as to the best use of it
10. Develop a full characterisation of insurgents use of social media and track down their conversations using the identified markers
11. Develop, using internationally accepted standards, protocols for monitoring suspected insurgents
12. In doing these, government should not:
13. Indiscriminately monitor citizens to trample and desecrate their right to digital privacy
14.It must never mount a mass surveillance of is citizens because it is not only counterproductive and wasteful but also a derogation of the right of citizens to privacy
15. It must avoid the temptation to turn power of technology into weapon for political witch-hunt.
16. It must also have clear data protection policy. Right now there is too much a digital citizens’ personal data in the hands of so many agencies of government without clear rules of data collection, data storage, management and use as well as sharing. We do not know which third parties have access to this data, how it is use and for what purpose. The global standard is that data subject must know who use, for what use such data is put to.

Report of One Day Capacity Building on Community Networks For The Jama’are Micro-Organizations Held At CITAD Office Jama’are

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) is implementing a project entitled Supporting Community-led Approaches to Addressing the Digital Divide Nigeria coordinated globally by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) support from the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) through their Digital Access Programme (DAP).

This is part of a global project to catalyze the flourishing of community networks as a means of connecting the unconnected

The project focuses on selected locally managed community networks in three regions, Africa, Asia and Latin America, to strengthen their impact, reach and sustainability

This group of community networks will form the core of a peer community that can connect and broaden support for community-based connectivity initiatives, nationally, regionally and internationally

The project will achieve its objectives through peer learning and exchange, awareness raising, technical assistance, capacity building for the development of scalable, innovative and sustainable networks, policy and regulatory advocacy and community mobilization.

The training was held at CITAD office Jama’are branch on Tuesday 04th May 2021, with 8 attendees from Itas DEX Initiatives, Jama’are Traders Association, Jama’are blowse Association, and Itas youth Association, opening remarks was said by Engineer Suhail CITAD Technical officer, he welcomed each and every one who attended the training he says that the purpose of the training is to aware and shows the benefits of the community networks to the peoples as well as how to start or build their own community networks,

The training slides has 9 modules, and started at 10:00am by Engineer Suhail with the introduction to community networks, what services community networks offers and types of community networks, he gives clear definition of community networks by the Internet Society (ISOC) and services that community networks offer like voice, data E.T.C and ended the section one of the training with discussion about the types of community networks and answering questions from the participants,

Goes to 30 minutes break from 11:30am to 12:00am after the section one of the training has ended

Back to the training Engineer Suhail continuous with the explanation on how to start community networks, what facilities or infrastructures needed in order to start community networks, and explanation on what regulatory conditions required for communities to start their own community networks,

And again goes to 30 minutes breaks from 1:30pm to 2:00pm, after the section two of the training completed

The last section of the training has started from 2:00pm by Engineer Suhail, he explains how the community network link themselves nationally and internationally, and ended the last section of the training by explaining the ways for community networks follows to solve sustainability issues, that is how the community networks continuous sustaining itself even without any support from others organizations like APC.

The whole training finished with the vote of thanks by the Engineer Suhail CITAD technical officer, he thanks everyone for attending the training and he encouraged these micro-organizations members to be very active and spend their time by acquiring new skills so that the project will successfully be achieved and implemented in their area.