CITAD LAUNCHES A NEW OFFICE / COMPUTER TRAINING CENTRE IN JAMA’ARE LGA OF BAUCHI STATE

Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD)'s photo.Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD)'s photo.Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD)'s photo.

 

By Sufyan Lawal Kabo

 

On 17th October 2015, the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) launched a new office in Jama’are LGA of Bauchi State bringing the number of CITAD offices to five: Kano (Headquarters), Dutse, Bauchi, Azare and Jama’are, with focal offices in Katsina and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

The office, which housed a computer training centre is located at Jama’are LGA Secretariat, Adamami road, Jama’are LGA, Bauchi State

The opening ceremony was held at the premises of the new office. It was attended by large number of guests of different categories ranging from students, civil servants, academicians, business men, religious clerics and traditional rulers. Notable among the dignitaries invited were:

+ Member, House of Representative, Jama’are/Itas Gadau Constituency, Hon Isa Hassan Muhammad, Tafidan Jama’are,

+ The Emir of Jama’are HRH Alhaji Ahmad Muhammad Wabi III and other title holders

+ Member, State House of Rep, Alhaji Magaji Isa, Zannan Jama’are

+ The Acting Chairman, Jama’are LGA, Alhaji Muhammad Danladi Yaba

In his opening remark, CITAD Training Coordinator, Malam Ahmad Abdullahi Yakasai, who represented CITAD Executive Director, Dr. Y.Z. Ya’u explained that the prime objective of establishing the office is to promote the use of ICT and to bridge the wide ICT gap between northern Nigeria and their southern counterparts. He explained that a common analysis report has placed most northern Nigerian states at the bottom list in ICT knowledge in Nigeria. This, he said is a challenge that requires great effort to face, else, the ICT gap connecting the industrialized south and northern part of the country may become even greater in the near future.

He added that “CITAD is addressing the need for ICT knowledge in Nigerian educational system for in this technology-driven age, everyone requires ICT competence to excel in life. I have no doubt that the establishment of the new ICT centre will facilitate learning in educational and entrepreneurial skills especially for the youth in Jama’are LGA and beyond.”  

The overall aim of CITAD as an organization he said is to provide guidelines by both research and practice on how ICT could be deployed in the efforts to promote sustainable development and good governance. CITAD he said, has been carrying out educational programmes such as computer training for various groups such as children, youth, workers, community leaders, community based organizations and professional groups. “…through ICT, we believe that our region could meet with global trend.” Yakasai concluded.  

 

In his speech, the Guest of Honour, House member representing Jama’are/Itas Gadau Constituency, Hon Isa Hassan Muhammad, Tafidan Jama’are, represented by Alhaji Magaji Isa, Zannan Jama’are, Member, State House of Rep commended CITAD for establishing a branch office and computer training centre in Jama’are. He described the effort as patriotic and praise worthy. His words: “…Permit me to use this opportunity to call on our people to embrace the use of ICT in our day- to-day activities. ICT has become the bedrock of development, which was why it has been adopted by developed countries around the world. I call on traditional rulers to mobilize people on this sector. Even as ICT faces many difficulties in northern Nigeria, there is no reason why we cannot overcome it provided it receives the needed shore up it deserves from all stakeholders”

The Emir of Jama’are HRH Alhaji Ahmad Muhammad Wabi III being represented by the Walin Jama’are HH Alhaji Abubakar Muhammad spoke last. His speech began by thanking CITAD on behalf of the entire of people of Jama’are LGA for the big achievement it brought to their community. He explained that the importance of ICT nowadays has become a necessity as it is now in everything we do especially as the internet has made the world flat by providing easy access to information. He further stated that “…Students with ICT knowledge would assist to develop the nation, making use of their experience and advancement in technology. In developed countries, education and businesses have been greatly influenced by ICT and emulating this culture will surely make us to follow suite.

To bridge the wide ICT knowledge gap between the north and the south, the Emir called on northern Nigerian governors to make Information and Communications Technology (ICT) a compulsory study across primary and secondary schools and as well provide them with necessary ICT facilities and other assistance.  

Concluding his speech, the Emir made a comment which attracted big cheers and applause from the crowd: “…To launch this centre, I will be among the first batch of students to enroll for the computer training in order to call the attention of my people on the importance of ICT!”

Goodwill messages were made by other dignitaries during the occasion

Toward ending the occasion, the invited guests were taken round the building to inspect the offices, training labs and facilities. In the course, an educational movie titled Fasahar Sadarwa Don Yara (ICT4Kids) was projected for them to watch and copies of the film were distributed to them. The film was focused to provide education on ICTs for children using illustrations that spark the quest for learning ICT skills.

 

 

Group urges Police, DSS to prosecute FFK over comment

Femi-Fani-KayodeFrom Mustapha Adamu, Kano

A Civil Society Organisation has urged the Nigeria Police Force and Department of State Security Service, DSS to prosecute Femi Fani Kayode over inflammatory statement he made against Fulani herdsmen.

Speaking to newsmen in Kano yesterday the Programme  Officer Peace Project of Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Abdulganiyyu Rufa’i Yakub, called on the law enforcement agencies to arrest, investigate and prosecute the former spokesman of Jonathan/ Sambo presidential campaign in 2015.

Kayode, had in an article published in the Guardian newspapers on Wednesday, 30th September, 2015, described Fulani herdsmen as the pest of Nigeria, African Tsetse flies, other derogatory statements, calling on people in the Southern region to unleash violence against the nomadic people.

The group also called on all stakeholders to recognise the danger the statement poses and act decisively to stop it before enemies of the country use the opportunity to drag it into chaos and confusion.

He said “ It would be recalled that FFK in a recent article on page 15 of the Guardian newspaper of 30th September, 2015, described Fulani Herdsmen as ‘pest of Nigeria, African Tsetse flies, blood suckers, leeches, destroyers and killers, terrorists’ and all sorts of names. He did not stop at these de-humanizing descriptions but heedlessly went on to call upon the people of southern Nigeria to unleash collective violence against the largely unprotected people.”

Continuing Yakubu added that “While we condemn this irresponsibly inflammatory article, we strongly demand law enforcement agencies, DSS and the NPF specifically, to investigate and prosecute him for such callous and inciting statements.”

The civil society group also urged the stakeholders to not just condemn the statements but insists that ‎law must take its course, noting that if appropriate punishment is taken against him it would deter those bent on destroying the country’s cohesion.

They however called on the people of the southern region to shun all calls for violence and embrace their fellow compatriots in order to sustain the nation’s peaceful coexistence.

REPORT OF THE ONE-DAY MEDIA SENSITIZATION FORUM ON HATE AND DANGEROUS SPEECH IN KANO BY CITAD

NTRODUCTION
The Centre for Information Technology and
Development (CITAD) with support
from Nigeria Stability and Reconciliatory
Programmed (NSRP) on the 24th
August, 2015 organized a one-day media
sensitization forum on hate and
dangerous speech. The program took place at the
conference hall of Aminu
Kano Centre for Democratic Research and Training
(Mambayya House). It
brought together Journalists and media
practitioners from various media
houses, members of CSOs and CBOs spread
across Kano state.
The program was attended by 50 representatives of
the invited stakeholder
organizations and the objective of the forum is “to
contain the speed of
hate speech in the society and to strategize on the
way forward in curbing
hate speech at both levels of reporting and
advertorials in Nigerian spaces
with a particular emphasis on Kano state.
The program kicked off with welcome remarks by
Malam Abdulganiyyu Rufa’i
the Program Officer (Peace) CITAD who welcomed
the participants to the
forum and explained the objectives of the workshop.
Malam Kabiru Dakata of CITAD made a
presentation on Understanding Hate and
Dangerous Speech at the first session. He started
with an outline of what
hate and dangerous speeches are and their
linkages. He explained further
that hate and dangerous speech are different but
linked i.e. one can lead
to other, viz;
1. Hate and dangerous speech are differentiated by
the influence of the
speaker.
2. They hardly lead to positive outcome.
3. Affects the speaker more than the target.
4. They are conveyed by different medium of
communication
He outlined the key attributes for the identification
of hate speech in the
context of Nigeria. He highlighted that in law any
speech, gesture or
conduct, writing or display which is forbidden
because it may incite
violence against individual or a group of people is
considered a hate
speech. He asserted broadly that a hate/dangerous
speech can be taken as
any form of expression that:
1. Harms directly or indirectly an individual or a
group of people because
of their affiliation to group that can be identified
either by ethnicity
religion or geography, etc..
2. Disparages or intimidates individuals or a group
on their baisis of the
identification
3. Denigrates people on the basis of their
membership in a group, ethnic or
religious etc
4. Condones discriminatory contempt against
people with disability or women
because of their gender.
5. Abuses figures that symbolize religious or
cultural practices.
In the last segment of his presentation, Dakata
cited examples of
hate/dangerous speech from the Rwandan
perspective. He explained how the
Hutus used the media platforms available to them
(then) during the Rwandan
civil war of 1994 to spread speeches of hate against
the Tutsis which
eventually claimed the lives of hundreds of
thousands of people. He
emphasized on the importance of media in making
or marring the peaceful
coexistence of a heterogeneous society like
Nigeria.
The second session was presented by Malam
Abdulganiyyu Rufa’i of CITAD. He
explained that CITAD domesticated the UMATI
coding framework methodology
which allowed CITAD to a have hate/dangerous
speech monitoring methodology.
He went further to present the synopsis of the
outcome of hate/dangerous
speech monitoring done by CITAD for the period
covering January to mid
July, 2015. Of which the following stood out:
1. That about 80% of the people disseminating hate/
dangerous speech use
English language to do so with a 15% visible content
in Hausa language in
Nigerian social media platforms.
2. That about 69% of the disseminators of hate/
dangerous speech in the
Nigerian social media are identifiable and can be
reached easily in case of
countering.
3. That of all the media platforms in Nigeria
generating hate/dangerous
speech, face-book stands out with 66% followed
remotely by online news
articles with 14% and then twitter 10%.
4. That about 45% of hate/dangerous speech posts
generated in the Nigerian
social media are calling for riot, 30% are calling for
beat/injure and then
23% are calling people to kill.
5. That there are a number of hate/dangerous
speeches that are being passed
around and whose circulation had previously stirred
up violence.
The session was followed with comments and
questions from the participants
and was responded by Abdulganiyyu Rufa’i.
The third session entitled “Dangerous speech on
Political Programs in Radio
Broadcast was an open discussion. Some of the
media practitioners and CSO
activists who graced the program commented with
many linking the problem of
Dangerous speech on political programs in media
broadcasts, as a whole, to
deliberate deviation from goal-driven model of
journalism to
commercially-driven model by mostly private media
houses.
The third session was also facilitated by Malam
Abdulganiyyu Rufa’i of
CITAD who presented the countering strategies
deployed by CITAD during the
period. He started by saying that monitoring was
followed by countering
dangerous speech that were found to be volatile. He
said that CITAD
deployed several strategies for countering and
elaborated the four major
strategies used by CITAD in countering hate/
dangerous speech, viz;
1. Influencing the speaker through counter speech
in unison.
2. Counter speech by influential leaders.
3. Developing audience resistant to dangerous
speech.
4. Reporting to regulatory agencies.
The final session was made a plenary session and
it was chaired by Ado
Sa’idu Warawa of Freedom Radio Kano and he was
deputized by Tijjani Yahaya
of NTA, Kano and Halima Muhammad of Rahama
Radio Kano to mainstream gender.
The session discussed and came up with the
following observations:
1. Hate and Dangerous speech is an issue in
Nigeria today as a result of
the proliferation of such messages in both
traditional and new media.
2. Political party affiliates use both traditional and
new media to promote
hate and dangerous speech.
3. Xenophobic attacks in countries outside Nigeria
on Nigerian nationals
happens too as a result of hate and dangerous
speech and that can be
handled if the traditional media in Nigerian can step
up its efforts with a
lot of commitment to the condemnation of such
atrocious acts.
3. Private media houses are found wanting in the
proper mitigation of
issues related to hate and dangerous speech and
this is attributed to their
primary motive: they are usually more
commercially-driven than development
driven.
4.No active regulatory agency exists to enforce
NBC’s code against hate and
dangerous speech on media platforms available.
The meeting then offered the following
recommendations:
1. There is need for capacity building training for
media personnel
facilitated by proprietors of media organization to
broadcast responsibly
on airwaves and avoid dangerous and hate speech.
2. There is a need for the use of traditional media to
influence new media
by encouraging discussion of trending topics on
current issues and making a
particular topic newsworthy.
3. Conventional media, using resources available to
it, can set agenda for
social media.
4. Private bills should be sponsored in the
parliament to make
government-owned media houses like NTA, FRCN
etc. independent of the
political leadership
5. The existing Government policies and laws are
flawed and outdated. They
should be reviewed and made to promote reporting
with professionalism and
integrity.
6.Taking the campaign to higher institutions of
learning whose audience is
large and extended on ways to tame hate and
dangerous speech and
mainstreaming it into curriculum.
7. There is need for the guild of corporate online
publishers to organize
training programmes for their members on what
should be and what should not
be reported online.
8. Hate and dangerous speech should not be taken
for granted and as such
media organizations should form coalition that will
monitor and counter
hate and dangerous speech.
9. There is need for a roundtable discussion
between media organizations to
identify modalities that will mitigate hate and
dangerous speech taking
into cognizance how and where hate and dangerous
speech should be reported.
10. There is need for creation of social media policy
and social media
personnel to contain hate and dangerous speech.
11. Public awareness is instrumental to countering
hate and dangerous
speech more especially if the campaign takes to
streets using banners and
flyers to educate people on the dangers of hate and
dangerous speech.
12. Media organisations in collaboration with CSOs
and CBOs should put
pressure on the government to privatize
government-owned media outlets.
13. There is need for religious and traditional
institutions to issue
admonishments to their members on the dangers of
hate and dangerous speech.
14. There is need for the establishment of clear
hate and dangerous speech
policies in their terms of service and mechanisms
of enforcing them.
15.There is need for teaching the youth (who are
majority on social media)
to think critically about all the media they consume
in order to help them
to recognize both overt and cloaked hate and
dangerous speech on social
media.
16. There is need for a collaborative effort by media
platforms and
regulators to jointly monitor and mitigate hate and
dangerous speech.
17. There is need for intense traditional media
campaign using catchy spot
programs to discourage public from engaging in
hate and dangerous speech.
18. There is need for media outlets to indulge in the
habit of settling
government taxes duly to fast track the involvement
of government in
enforcing laws guiding the tenets of broadcasting.
19. There is need for the remodeling of ‘yan-baka
venture as it may present
a very lucrative source of employment for the youth
if harnessed wisely.
OUTCOME(S)
1. At the end of the sensitization program the
representatives of the media
organisations, CSOs and CBOs came to the
conclusion that a collective
action is needed to help mitigate dangerous and
hate speech on traditional
and new media and that culminated into the
formation of a coalition
christened “Media Coalition against Hate and
Dangerous Speech”.
2. Media stations pledged to convince their
managements to develop a social
media policy and appoint social media manager to
moderate discussion and
prevent hate and dangerous speeches in their
social media platforms
3. The media organisations seek the Technical
support of CITAD to develop
their Social media policy and request that CITAD
give their Social media
managers a technical training to moderate and
develop social media
platforms for their programs.

We Can Track Stolen Cattle Online — CITAD Boss

Yunusa Zakari Ya’u, is the Executive Director,
Centre for Information Technology and
Development (CITAD), a non- governmental
organisation. In this interview with PATIENCE
OGBODO-IWUAGWU, Ya’u spoke on CITAD
programs, how information communication
technology can be used to track down cattle
rustlers, rehabilitation for internally displaced
persons (IDPs) in the north-eastern part of
Nigeria, among others. Excerpts.
Can you tell us some of the programs embarked
upon by CITAD?
In the last one year, our activities focused in
four different directions, which are all
complementary to each other. One area of major
important to us is the crisis in the north eastern
part of the country. Because we considered it
very significant, we have rolled out a couple of
programs, aimed at making our own
contributions in resolving these problems.
We have four different interventions in the
region. One is to document the crisis itself in
terms of human right abuses and efforts that
ordinary people and communities are making to
secure the environment.
And one of the outcomes of that effort was a
book that we presented about three months ago.
The other intervention within that project is to
mobilize citizens to realize that peace building is
not just the responsibility of government, but that
every citizen has a role and responsibility to
play.
The second intervention is that we realized that
crisis has relationship with the level and quality
of education in the region. If you look at the
developmental indices compared to all other
regions, north-east is the worst.
Some of the indices are: low enrolment figures,
low competition figures, low retention figures
and we taught it was important to intervene. So,
we have supports from USAID and commenced
major regional interventions in the area of
education.
This is about galvanizing for stakeholders to
come together and dialogue and see the way out
of the decay in educational system in the
country.
We also taught about accountability, because a
lot of resources are been put there, but there
are little to show. So, one of the things we have
done was to embark on research in all the six
states of the region in order to establish the
state of education in each of the state.
Our findings showed that in the region, we have
many schools that exist only on paper, but do
not exist in reality and I think this report will
soon be made available to the governors in each
state in the north-east.
We are also working in each of this state with a
number of civil society organizations and other
interest groups such as: Nigeria Union of
Teachers and the Teachers/Parents Association
to build structures that will demand for
accountability from government on the use of
resources that is meant for educational sector.
The third project in the region is what we called
promotion of safety and security in schools and
around internally displaced people camps, in
order to create space for the girl child to enrol
and continue her education.
You know that following insurgency, a lot of
schools were closed down especially in Bornu
State, where many of the schools are being
used as IDPs camps, but even more important
is that following the abduction of the Chibok girls,
many parents are hesitant to allow their
daughters to go back to schools.
This is because they feel that the schools are
not safe and secure, so we taught them that
there is need to get government to do something
to ensure that the schools are safe and more
secured.
We are also rebuilding the confidence of parents
and girls that schools will actually be safe and
secure for them and one of the ways you can
demonstrate that is to establish learning corners
and learning centres within the IDPs camps.
Therefore, CITAD alongside Women Right
Protection Agency and ADAPTA, which is an
association that specializes in working in the
camps, now work together to achieve our aims.
You see that we bring three different partners
with different synergies. ADAPTA knows how to
work in the camps; WRAPER is excellent in
terms of gender issue and CITAD in terms of our
connections with authorities and other
stakeholders in the region.
So, that project is about getting our girls not just
back, but also back in schools. We have been
going round different camps. Our team just
came from Chibok yesterday and we gave been
visiting camps in Bauchi, talking to the
emergency officials on the strategies in terms of
upgrading learning space for them.
The Fourth project is monitoring and countering
of dangerous hate speeches. We realized that it
denigrate other people on the basis of either
ethnicity or religion among others.
It tends to catalyze into violence and we have
seen it in various places, like Rwanda, Kenya,
Somalia and so forth.
So, we think that Nigeria cannot afford such hate
speeches inspired violence, so we have been
doing a couple of things around hate speech.
We need to sensitize especially the media and
the general public about hate speeches, because
a lot of people are not even aware of what
actually constitute hate speech. They just think
it is freedom of expression.
We have been going round organizing
sensitization programs on hate speech. We had
one here in Bauchi and we also monitor the hate
speech on internet, we have developed
mechanism and a platform for monitoring on-
line hate speech in the social media.
In what ways do you think that your intervention
will help to restore peace in the North East and
give IDPs sense of belongings?
I think bringing peace is the responsibility of
everybody and CITAD is a none state actor that
do not have weapon neither do we have the
license to fight directly, but we can mobilize
citizens to contribute in terms of being security
conscious, understanding the dynamics of peace
building , trying to live peacefully with
neighbours.
We have produce two major policy brief
document , the first one was the strategy that
the former Jonathan’s government was using to
prosecute the anti-terrorism act and we thought
that they were a lot of gaps.
For instance there wasn’t much involvement of
the communities because communities are
made up of people who know the terrain, who
know the environment, who know who are likely
to be members of Boko Haram.
Therefore, you need to work with them hand to
hand. We also saw gaps in terms of the
relationship between the army and the
communities, the community on one hand are
victims of Boko Haram, who attack them and the
other hand they are victims of highhandedness
of the military and other law enforcement
agencies.
We issued a policy brief, outlining how we think
government should be able to address some of
these lapses. We also did a second one on IDPs
camp, we went round Yobe, Maiduguri and
Adamawa and accessed ways in which camps
were being run and we came out with a report
and policy on how we think that government
should respond to the plight of the IDPs
particularly in terms of health, accommodation,
feeding, and restoring the dignity because a lot
of them.
Victims of Boko Haram insurgency have
suffered and they have seen trauma and many
of them were running risk of mental breakdown.
For instance, we saw a girl in one of the camps,
this girl happened to witness the killing of her
parents and sibling, for all duration she has
stayed in the camp up till now the only thing that
she says is mummy, mummy, she has lost
every sense, her speech has gone away so
these are serious trauma and you need trauma
healers, people who are professionals in this
field.
But, unfortunately we don’t have many in
Nigeria, I know that the a sister organization in
Adamawa brought some from Rwanda to train
some local people in dealing with trauma
diseases and that is just inefficient because in a
case you come and train somebody in three
days, you are not sure whether he will really
acquire everything. So, we want to keep
Government on the right track and keep citizens
on the right track.
How can ICT be use to tackle the problem of
cattle rustlers?
Just like the tracking down of education, it’s also
building the platform where people report
immediately those cattle are stolen. They can
report in various ways. They can send sms,
send watsapp, web base platforms. We have
developed the site, its call www.catrist.ort, and
this is a simple platform to get all information
and display it in its special form.
If it happens in any location, you will see the
coordinate so immediately its reported, it get
also broadcast and also the relevant agencies
can pick it. They will know the location, they will
have the picture of surrounding places including
roads, waterways, forest and that way they will
be able to know how to arrange and rescue the
cow.
We have used students from universities to do
what we call the mapping of the forests. They
have data party, we bring students from higher
institutions and provide them with tools and
they map the different forests and put them
online.
We have also been training cattle breeders as
part of the sensitization on how to use these
tools to report particularly test messages and
watsap, we have done that training in Bauchi ,
Katsina, Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara. We
recognised that a lot of them are not literate and
so we just commission a couple of people to do
what we call library obsymbols so we give them
double of symbols that represent numbers,
location, state and so forth, if you don’t know
how to type all you need to do is to touch on
those symbols and once you touch it, the
person who is at the back end of the platform
would know that they have stolen your cattle in
a particular Location and the numbers of cattle
stolen.
If you are sending a text message, we also have
your number, somebody will verify, we don’t
want to broadcast an unsubstantiated report
because you need to be sure, and for us to do
that we build network of volunteers against
cattle rustling.
These are the people who will be on ground to
be checking, to make sure that the reports sent
are genuine. We also have discussion with cattle
breeders association and some state
government on whether it is possible to use
tracking technology on the cattle. So far Kaduna
state has made pronouncement on that, but it
was hasty pronouncement because it is an
extremely costly project to do at the moment
and I am not sure that the state government will
be able do it. I thought what they need to do is to
get professionals, get telecoms service
providers and think about developing more
appropriate application.

http://dailyindependentnig.com/2015/09/we-can-track-stolen-cattle-online-citad-boss/

COMMUNIQUE OF THE MEDIA SENSITIZATION PROGRAM ON HATE AND DANGEROUS SPEECH BY CITAD

As part of its campaign towards a peaceful society, the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in conjunction with the Mac Arthur Foundation and the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliatory Program (NSRP) organized a one-day media sensitization program on hate and dangerous speech. The event which took place at the conference hall of Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Research and Training (Mambayya House) on the 24th of August, 2015 had in attendance Journalists from various media houses spread across Kano state, members of Civil Society Organisations as well as members of some CBOs and highlighted an in-depth look into the monitoring and countering perspectives of Hate and Dangerous speech with CITAD as a case study and thereafter featured an in-depth discussion on how to counter hate and dangerous speech.
The sensitization training was facilitated by Malam Abdulganiyyyu Rufa’i and Malam Kabiru Dakata both program officers of CITAD and a plenary session was held with a panel chosen at random from the representatives of the participating media houses and Ado Sa’idu Warawa of Freedom Radio Kano emerged as the chairman and he was deputized by Tijjani Yahaya and Halima Muhammad of NTA and Rahama Radio respectively. The session discussed and came up with resolutions agreed by all participants as ways of mitigating or preventing hate and dangerous speech through countering and most importantly review of existing laws that are too restrictive.

 

OBSERVATIONS
Hate and Dangerous speech is no doubt an issue in Nigeria today as a result of the proliferation of such messages in both traditional and new media.
Political party affiliates use both traditional and new media to promote hate and dangerous speech.
Xenophobic attacks in countries outside Nigeria on Nigerian nationals happens too as a result of hate and dangerous speech and that can be handled if the traditional media can step up its efforts with a lot commitment to its condemnation.
Private media houses are found wanting in tackling issues related to hate and dangerous speeches as most their primary motive is driven towards profit generation not societal orientation.
No active regulatory agency exist to enforce NBC’s code against hate and dangerous speech on media platforms available

RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. There is need for capacity building trainings for media personnel facilitated by proprietors of media organization to broadcast responsibly on airwaves and avoid dangerous and hate speech.
  2. There is a need for the use of traditional media to influence new media by encouraging discussion of trending topics on current issues and making particular topic newsworthy.
  3. Conventional media, using resources available to it, can set agenda for social media.
    Private bills should be sponsored in the parliament to make independent government-owned media houses like NTA, FRCN etc
  4. The existing Government policies and laws are flawed and outlandish. They should be reviewed and fashioned-out in ways that promote reporting with professionalism and integrity.
  5. Taking the campaign to higher institutions of learning whose audience is large and extended, more especially building the capacity of the professors/lecturers on ways to tame hate and dangerous speech and mainstreaming it into curriculum.
  6. There is need for a collaborative effort by media platforms and regulators to jointly monitor and mitigate hate and dangerous speech.
  7. There is need for intense traditional media campaign using catchy spot programs to discourage public from engaging in hate and dangerous speech.
  8. There is need for media outlets to indulge in the habit of settling government taxes duly to fast track the involvement of government in enforcing laws guiding the tenets of broadcasting.
  9. There is for the guild of corporate online publishers to organize trainings for their members on what should be and what should not be reported online.
  10. Hate and dangerous speech should not be taken for granted and as such media organizations should form coalition that will monitor and counter hate and dangerous speech.
  11. There is need for a roundtable discussion between media organizations to identify modalities that will mitigate hate and dangerous speech taking into cognizance how and where hate and dangerous speech should be reported.
  12. There is need for creation of social media policy and social media personnel to contain hate and dangerous speech.
  13. Public awareness is instrumental in countering hate and dangerous speech more especially if the campaign takes to streets using banners and flyers to educate people on the dangers of hate and dangerous speech.
  14. Media organisations in collaboration with CSOs and CBOs should put pressure on the government to privatize government-owned media outlets.
  15. There is need for religious and traditional institutions to issue admonishment to their members on the dangers of hate and dangerous speech.
  16. There is need for the establishment of clear hate and dangerous speech policies in their terms of service and mechanisms of enforcing them.
  17. There is need for teaching the youth (who are majority on social media) to think critically about all the media they consume in order to help them to recognize both overt and cloaked hate and dangerous speech on social media.

OUTCOME(S)

  1. At the end of the sensitization program the representatives of the media organisations, CSOs and CBOs came to the conclusion that a collective action is needed to help mitigate dangerous and hate speech on traditional and new media and that culminated into the formation of a coalition christened “Media Coalition against Hate and Dangerous Speech”.
  2. Media stations pledge to convince their managements to develop a social media policy and appoint social media manager to moderate discussion and prevent hate and dangerous speeches in their social media plat forms
  3. The media organisations seek the Technical support of CITAD to develop their Social media policy and request that CITAD give their Social media managers a technical trainings to moderate and develop social media platforms for their programs

TRAINING STUDENTS FOR PEACE CAMPAIGN IN KATSINA STATE

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On 22nd August 2015, the Centre for information Technology and Development (CITAD) in its efforts of promoting PEACE CAMPAIGN organized one day workshop on the use of social media for peace campaign for student leaders in Katsina State. The aim of the training which held at the Muhammad Sunusi II ICT Centre, Alqalam University, Katsina was to train student leaders, on using social media to promote peace campaign in their schools and communities. It was attended by 26 people from various tertiary institutions in the state.

The workshop started with a welcomed address delivered by Mal Huzaifa Yakub Musa, CITAD Online Apps Officer. In his address Huzaifa Yakubu Musa drew the attention of the participants to the fact without peace, there would be no developed and that youth in particular have great responsibility in ensuring that we mobilize our communities to strive to main peace. He said this workshop was to enhance the capacity of the members of the Students for Peace (S4P) in their efforts to use social media to campaign for peace in their campuses and communities.

In the first session, Kamilu Isa Ahmed, Programmes Assistant (Peace) introduced the CITAD4PEACE Project he said CITAD had been implementing with support from MacArthur Foundation whose key objective was to sue social media to mobilize citizens and stakeholders to the need to work for peace restoration especially in the northern parts of the country. He explained the different components of the project which included various training programmes, establishment of peace platforms such as the students for peace (S4P), working with students in secondary schools, peace messages dissemination in the social media, tackling contemporary crises such as cattle rustling and Boko Haram insurgency and monitoring and countering of hate speech has been a drivers for conflicts In the society.

To lay the foundation for the workshop Kamilu also did a presentation on Volunteerism and Civic Responsibility. This was to underline thefact that activities of the S4P are entirely voluntary and that it was important for the participants to understand and locate volunteerism as a core value in the discharge of their civic responsibility.

The first technical session was on Understanding Social Media in the context of Peace Campaign. This was also facilitated by Kamilu Isa Ahmed. The presentation explained to the students that also social media could be used to spread rumors and hate speech; it is also an important tool to spread messages of peace and love. He explained that because it is reach, speed, and cost effectiveness, social media was very important tool for communication and campaign. It was necessary that youth understand how to taken of its advantages to spread the message of peace and campaign for peace building in the society.

The second technical session focused on the three major social media platforms namely YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. This was facilitated by Shehu Usman Salihu, Programme Assistant (Technical) who took the participants taken through the various platforms of setting up accounts, managing them and sending and managing messages.

After lunch the first session was hands on training on the YouTube, Twitter and Facebook with participants doing various assignments to enhance their skills in the use of these platforms. This was following by a session on Managing Students Peace Clubs during which Kamilu Isa Ahmed shared experience with students on how to manage the club in their schools.

The following session was an interactive one in which the participants were led to come up with some platforms for theircampaign. They was done in groups first. The groupsthen reported as follows:

  • The participants from Umaru Musa ‘Yar Adua University Katsina (UMYUK) (Umyukstudents4Peace proposed the use of instagram, Facebook page and Twitter
  • Those from Al Qalam University Katsina(AUK)which was only established at the training proposed to set up a Facebook platforms  and a twitter handle after the workshop

The participants agreed to sensitize other members of the clubs and promised to come up with innovations programmes that will promote peace campaign in Katsina state and the nation at large .they also promised to work hand in hand with CITAD even after their graduation. The science students among them promised that during their student industrial workshop and experience scheme   (SIWES) they will promote the use of social media to promote peace any where they were posted to and in their respective communities as well while the students from faculty of education promised to promote peace during their teaching practice (TP) wherever they were posted to by establishing peace clubs In the schools.

 

ENHANCING CAPACITY OF HERDERS TO REPORT CATTLE RUSTLING USING SOCIAL MEDIA

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As part of its contribution to the efforts to address the problem of cattle rustling which has been bedeviling many states in Northern Nigeria, the Centre for information Technology and Development (CITAD) to its training programmes on how to use social media to report cattle rustling to Katsina for Fulani Headers in the State. The workshop held on 23nd August 2015 at the Muhammad Sunusi II ICT Centre, Alqalam University, Katsina. Participants numbering 21 were drawn from different Local Government of the state. The objective of the training was to train herder on the use of social media for sending out alerts on rustling attempts communities. He added that this was part of a large project on promoting peace that CITAD was implementing with support from MacArthur Foundation and thanked the Miyati Allah Katsina State for partnering with CITAD in making the training a reality.

The training stared with a welcome address by Mal Huzaifa Yakub Musa, CITAD Online Apps Officer who expressed appreciation for the participants who inspite of the short notice honored the invitation to be here for the workshop. He said their presence was an indication of the level of scale of importance that they have given to the problem of cattle rustling. Huzaifa explained that in the last two month, CITAD had carried out similar training programmes for herders in Kaduna, Zamfara and Bauchi States and that Katsina was the fourth in the series. He said apart from training the participants on using social media to report rustling, the programme also serves as an opportunity to discuss how to develop collective approach to the problem and to advance advocacy in getting governments and other stakeholders to tackle the problem.

The technical session then stated with a presentation on the Background Document which explained the CITAD CATRIS project (Cattle Rustling Information system) whose aim is to both document, and assist in the process in rescue of rustled cattle through the use of information technology. The presentation explained the various parts of the system and how individuals could fit into trotting providing information, and volunteering to be part of the Network of Volunteers Against cattle rustlingwhose main task is the rescue of stolen cattle and the alert system to security and law enforcement agencies to apprehend cattle rustlers whenever they made attempt on the cattle of herders.

The training started with a presentation on WhatsApp by Shehu Usman Salihu, Programmes Assistant (Technical) who explained what the WhatsApp was and how it can be used to send out alerts. He also explained how people could install the Apps in their hands as well as discussed the types of handsets that could support the Apps. The next session was a practical one on the use of the WhatsApp which started by setting up accounts for the participants who were then taken on how to compose and send messages. He explained that in the platform being developed by CITAD there is provision for people to send messages not just in words by also as codes and graphics. This way, people who were not literate could be able to report when their cattle were stolen. He added that already CITAD was working on a library of codes and symbols for this purpose and that when this finalized it would be made available to the herders, especially through a follow up training like this one.

The third session as interactive one facilitated by Kamilu Isa Ahmed, Programmes Assistant (Peace) which was demonstrated of the online platform and how it works. He took the participants through the process of reporting and how the public could look at the site to see he location with coordinates of where incidence of cattle rustling took place as reported and the features of the surrounding place including coordinates so that that rescuers could have clear understating of the terrain and how to reach the place. He explained that a WhasApp group for this was set up during the training at Zamfara which was MOFTAL FULBE and encouraged the participants to tag up this group than setting up a new one as this way the number of people in the group could expand. Participants asked number questions,seeking clarification or further explanation which the facilitator helped to clarify.

The final session was group that sought the participants to come up with suggestions on what government can stakeholders could do to address cattle rustling in the country. At the end of the session, the following suggestions were made:

  1. That government needs to react more quickly to the plight of herders when it has been doing now
  2. That the police has proved incapable of addressing of the problem due a number of factors including their insufficient number, inadequate facilities and corruption in the police
  3. That there is need to provide more adequate security cover for Fulani settlements which are under attack by cattle rustlers
  4. That there is need to set up a Commission to address issues of cattle rustling
  5. That the National Human Rights Commission should be briefed about the situation and their assistance be sought
  6. That state governments should take steps to recovered grazing fields and paths that have been encroached by farmers which is fueling conflicts that cattle rustlers are exploiting
  7. That vigilante groups should be taken out of the efforts because they have tended to be part of the problem than the solution

The last session was the vote of thanks which was offered by Malama Hansatu and Malam Bello well the Chairman Miyati Allah Katsina State, Alhaji Hassan Kore offered the closing prayer.

CITAD Trains 85 Council Staff Members on IT

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Computers
Segun Awofadeji

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has trained 85 staff in four champion Local Government Areas (CLGAs) of Bauchi, Katagum, Ningi and Dass in the last two months, during which participants acquired knowledge and skills in Microsoft Word, Excel, power point, and the use of Internet.

Speaking during the certificate presentation ceremony to participants of computer training for staff of the Bauchi councils, the Chief of Party, RTI/LEAD International, Mr. Don Seufert, observed that the synergy between his organisation and its partners (CITAD and CLGAs) in Bauchi state was a convergent point for strengthening democratic local governance.
Seufert also observed that the training would motivate them to utilise the knowledge they acquired for effective service and self-growth.

“For LEAD and the partners (CITAD and CLGAs) it will improve local government operations and management system leading to increased transparency in the local governments operation which is of the LEAD programme objective”, he said at the event held in Bauchi.
Seufert, while describing the occasion as important for LEAD, the beneficiaries and CITAD, expressed optimism that the knowledge and skill acquired during the training would, when put to use, improve local government operations and management system.

Mr. Don Seufert explained that the mandate of CITAD is to develop the capacity of local government staff in information technology with the aim of improving LGA documentation, communication & information sharing, as well as retrieval of information.

CITAD Executive Director, Mallam Ya’u Zakariya Ya’u, had earlier in a welcome address noted that it’s only when the graduands use the knowledge acquired effectively that it would bear fruits, and justify the investments their organisations have made into putting the programme in place.
Ya’u described ICT as a dynamic sector and server change, as what CITAD did during the training was the introduction of participants to some ideas and skills, hence the need for them to build interests and update themselves so as to acquire new skills and keep up with the technology.

“We do not think that what we have given you is what you will remain stagnant wit, we believe that you continue to periodically update  up-grade, improve, and always be with the current ideas and knowledge in the field so that they can drive maximum benefit in it”, he  said.
He explained that technology offers to the people a lot of potential to improve governance, citizen participation, access to information, as well as improving documentation system which means that information is readily available.

The director revealed that CITAD has signed a partnership agreement with Keystone Bank for the purchase of computers to be loaned to the local government ICT trained staff to be paid instrumentally.

CITAD Create Platforms for Peace Promotion in North-east

Bauchi Information Commissioner, Salihu Ibrahim Halilu

By Segun Awofadeji

Bauchi Information Commissioner, Salihu Ibrahim Halilu has observed that social media has the potential to facilitate dialogue, exchange of information and ideas, and to organise and galvanise for collective action.
He also noted that social media networks are very active in defending social, environmental and political rights, freedom of the press, as well as denouncing human rights abuses.

In the same vein, Halilu said social media and mobile communication plays significant role in transforming virtual ideas into public action, as it also allows access to information not intended in corporate media in the preparation of peace in the society.

While declaring open a recent training workshop on the use of social media for peace campaign in Bauchi, he explained that social media sites and tools could be effectively and positively used for public mobilisation and campaign for peace and community integration, as well as for harmony and social cohesiveness.

He told the workshop participants drawn from civil society organisations (CSOs) and the media in the North-east that youth have the potential to build cross cultural links with other religious, ethnicities and backgrounds through the use of social media and popular means of interaction.

The commissioner also noted that social media has created spaces for more people than at any time past in history to become engaged with important issues of the present time.

“They have made a significant and enduring difference to the way people organise for social and political activism, create economic opportunities, facilitate disaster response, link networks across national divides, and share previously inaccessible information and knowledge”, he added.

Bauchi State coordinator of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), organisers of the workshop, Mallam Isa Garba, said his organisation looked at the insecurity challenge in the North-east and sought that social media can play important role in advocating for peace.
Describing technology as a double-edged tool, Garba said CITAD decided to train CSOs on how to use the social media for peace advocacy rather than allow people to use it in the negative aspect.

He said the workshop was designed to create a platform with the CSOs in trying to advocate designed policies with the government where peace can be created, maintained and promoted in the North-east sub-region.
Altogether, 32 participants from CSOs and the media across five states in the North-east, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba are attending the two-day CITAD training workshop.

Bauchi Internal Revenue on the Rise

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Governor Isa Yuguda

Segun Awofadeji 
in Bauchi


The Bauchi State Government yesterday said despite the security challenges being faced in the state, the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) had skyrocketed to a bearable level, when compared with how much the state was generating in the past.

Also, the state government revealed that it had perfected its financial status in conformity with world financial reporting system standard in order to boost the state’s financial status amongst the comity of other states.

Fielding question from journalists in Bauchi, the Chairman of the state Board of Internal Revenue, Alhaji Mu’azu Usman, said the state internal revenue had been increasing yearly due to the favourable economic policies formulated by the state government.

He enumerated the new policies to include reform in the tax laws and administration, automation of tax system, logistics, capacity building and motivation of tax administrators, saying they have gone along way in boosting the state internal revenue with satisfiable percentage.

“Since the implementation of these policies, our internal revenue in the state has continued to rise and by 2013, we are optimistic that it will go up with high percentage because we are always working on how to revitalise our economy in the state,” he said.

Usman, who explained that the internal revenues of the state come mainly from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) such as the Ministry of Land and Housing, Ministry of Justice, the state Water Board, judiciary, Yankari Games Reserve, amongst others, added that the state government had diversified its sources in order to generate more incomes to the state that can be used for developmental projects.

He said apart from that the economic activity of the people had also developed as a result of the numerous human empowerment programmes the present administration introduced in the state, which concomitantly increased the number of tax payers.

This is just as he stated that the Board has embarked on tax enlightenment programme to encourage people to be paying their taxes as at when due.

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Liman Bello, while fielding questions on the state government’s financial status, “In fact, particularly the Executive Governor of Bauchi State, Mallam Isa Yuguda, is doing things the right way. We have to go by the normal World standard, the world is moving and we have to move with it otherwise we will be left behind.”

Bello, who was speaking when the Centre of for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), paid an advocacy visit to the ministry yesterday, said the state government was among the first states in the federation that enacted the Public Procurement and Fiscal Responsibility Laws in conformity with the directive of the Federal Government.

“As much as possible the Bauchi State Government try to go by the rules, the Due Process Office has been up and doing and things are done according to laws,” Bello told CITAD, a non-governmental organisation that ensures transparency and accountability in the management of public finance.

He recalled that Bauchi introduction of e-payment which had at initial stage characterised by technical problems but which, he argued, the civil servants have for the past few months been witnessing as the most effective and efficient system.

The permanent secretary explained that it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance to work with partners that are interested in ensuring prudence, transparency and accountability of public finance, stressing that it’s not business as usual as far as budget formats and processes are concerned.

Bello assured that public finance management in Bauchi is being done in the best interest of government and the people of the state, expressing confidence that such initiatives of CITAD and alike will energise and sensitise government to live up to its responsibilities in public finance management.

Earlier, CITAD Senior Programme Officer, Kabiru Sa’idu Dakata, had told Usman that the visit was to brief the ministry on the activities of the Bauchi Coalition for Improvement of Public Expenditure Management (BACIPEM).

He said it is also make suggestions on how to improve implementation of the Public Procurement and Fiscal Responsibility Laws, and present copies of the coalition Community Development Charter which contain recommendations on what communities in the state would like to see in 2013 budget with respect to health sector.

Dakata explained that BACIPEM was established last year when CBOs that shared the goal of promoting transparency and accountability in public expenditure management system in the state deliberated on how to enhance public expenditure transparency and accountability in the state.

He enumerated the objectives of BACIPEM as to promote the culture of transparency and accountability in the management of public resources in the state, and support government efforts at implementing the Public procurement and Fiscal responsibility laws of the state.

Other objectives, he said, are to advocate for the implementation of the two laws, facilitate the involvement of citizens and communities in budget processes, as well as monitor the implementation of budget in the state.

Dakata expressed optimism that BACIPEM observations and suggestions would propel the state further towards a more transparent and accountable public expenditure management system that would result in value for money and make it easier for citizens to enjoy the dividends of democracy.

Stop Reckless, Inflammatory Statements, CSOs Warn Politicians

By Abimbola Akosile

A group of 22 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country have warned the various members of the political class to stop issuing reckless and inflammatory statements that are capable of over-heating the polity, ahead of the February general elections.

In a statement issued in Abuja, the coalition applauded the peace accord recently signed by the top presidential candidates, and called on all politicians and indeed all citizens to remain law-abiding and have faith in rule of law and due process; urging all politicians to address their grievances and misgivings through legally established channels.

Signatories to the statement include Y. Z. Ya’u of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD); Uche Wilson Dureke of Centre for Peace across Borders; Dr. Hussaini Abdu of ActionAid Nigeria; Dr. Abiola Akiode-Afolabi of Women Advocates’ Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC); Saudatu Mahdi of Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative, (WRAPA); Isah Garba of BACIPEM, Bauchi; and Saludeen Hashim of the West Africa Civil Society Forum (WACSOF-Nigeria).

Others include Anya Okeke of State of African Union (SOTU); Auwal Musa Rafsanjani of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC); Ezenwa Nwagwu of Partners on Electoral Reform; Jaye Gaskiya of Protest to Power Movement; Idayat Hassan of Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD); Lukman Adekunle of Zero Corruption Coalition (ZCC); Dr. Godwin Ojo of Environmental Rights Action (ERA); General Ishola Williams of Pan-African Strategic and Policy Research Centre (PANAFSTRAC)

The remaining signatories are ZIK Ibrahim of Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civil Education (CHRICED); Bilkisu Yusuf of Advocacy Nigeria; John Odah of Abuja Collectives, Abuja; Ezenwa Nwagwu of Say No Campaign; Emma Ezeazu of the Alliance for Credible Elections (ACE); and Chido Onumah of the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy.

In the statement released by Miss Uche Madueke of WACSOF, the CSOs noted that “We applaud the signing of an accord by leading candidates in the elections to keep to the code of conduct already signed by all registered political parties in the country and be civil and courteous during the campaign. The value of such an accord is however not in the signing but in keeping to the letters and words.

APC’s new member, CITAD, in the words of a founder

07 August 2015 (APCNews)

Participants in a CITAD workshop. Source: CITAD.org

Participants in a CITAD workshop. Source:CITAD.org

Each member provides the APC network its unique perspective and experience, thus participating in the construction of a rich and diverse global community. Nigeria’s Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) comes with an enlightening vision: “A knowledge-based democratic society free of hunger.” As CITAD joins APC, read its story in the words of one of its founders, Yanusa Ya’u.

How was the the centre founded?

In the early 1980s when I was lecturing at Bayero University, Kano, we introduced a course unit called Information Technology (IT) for final year students. At that time IT was only a concept. I taught the course for about three years and the students liked it, but it was not generally understood as something useful by the education administration, so in 1987 following a national harmonisation of curriculum of universities in the country, the course unit was phased out.

As I was convinced that we could not run away from IT, I sought for an alternative platform to continue to teach information technology knowledge to people who were interested. This was what led to my teaming with some colleagues to establish the Computer Literacy Project (CLP), an informal platform devoted to providing computer training to students and others.

Gradually the demand expanded and this was when we then decided to introduce the Learn and Teach Others (LATO) principle, requiring all those who benefited from our training to also agree to become volunteer trainers.

A few years later we asked ourselves a key question: what was the purpose of the computer literacy we were training people for? Certainly it was not just for its fun, and the conclusion crystallised in the idea of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), meaning that we thought of a platform to push for ICTs as tools for development. CITAD became a space not only for ICT geeks but for activists committed to democracy, who saw ICTs as tools for democratisation.

Our goal since then has been to provide guidelines informed by both research and practice on how ICTs could be properly deployed in the efforts to promote sustainable development and good governance.

What’s unique about CITAD?

The uniqueness of CITAD is shaped by the circumstance of its founding that made it from the beginning to be driven by the spirit of volunteerism which finds anchorage in our flagship marker that is LATO. Using this approach, each alumnus of CITAD (for whatever programme) becomes a volunteer to give back to the organisation what he or she was given freely. This has enabled us to have limitless volunteers who are ready to offer time, resources, social networks and other services. This has made the centre not so much a centre in the conventional sense of a physical space but a centre of mass movement of people committed to the use of ICT to promote good governance and sustainable development.

What are you most proud of?

We feel greatly proud of our work using ICT to promote peace in the country. Over the last three years we have engaged in social media peace campaigns, mobilising citizens, government, community leaders and other organisations to realise that peace making is a collective responsibility. We have set up a hate speech observatory, monitoring and countering hate speech, especially in the context of the last general elections.

Why did you decide to join APC?

We feel that given our experience, networks and social placing, we can contribute in the furtherance of the objectives of APC while at the same time gaining from the experience, expertise and knowledge of the APC network to enhance the work we do.

We see also in APC a platform that can help us speak out to the global community on local issues. CITAD’s history as an organisation that provides services and does campaigns and policy advocacy means that it has a blend of experience that other organisations in APC could learn from. We think that given our social positioning, we could also leverage civil society voices to be a grassroots rooting for APC’s voice.

TEXT OF PRESS  CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY THE NORTHEAST EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY CLUSTER ON 3RD AUGUST, 2015 AT TAHIR GUEST HOUSE, KANO ON THE NEED FOR PRUDENT AND TRANSPARENT USAGE OF THE VICTIMS SUPPORT FUNDS

Dear members of the press. We welcome you to this press conference. We have chosen to address you to today on the effort to address the plight of victims of Boko Haram insurgency and other violent activities in the country. Since the last five years, millions of Nigerians have come under different attacks from the activities of insurgents such as bombings, gun attacks and other similar acts of terror. While many have died, thousand have been rendered disabled from various injuries. Similarly thousands of children have been orphaned and rendered homeless. Many are living in camps for internally displaced persons who no parents to care for them, these people are needing urgent care from the society to help them be rehabilitated.

It is in this connection that we welcome the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari`s to the Head of Service of the Federation, Mr. Danladi Kifasi to immediately facilitate the release of Five Billion Naira to the Victims Support Fund (VSF). The directive has further demonstrated the commitment of his administration to not only defeat terrorism in the country but also restore the meaningful life of the victims of the insurgency. About 2 million Nigerians have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the insurgent activities in Northeast, and majority of them are living in the formal and informal IDPs camps around the country.

While reiterating our confidence on the members of VSF under the chairmanship of Gen. T.Y. Danjuma, we call on the Federal Government to put in place more mechanisms for the prudent and accountable usage of the fund. This will no doubt ensure transparency and proper management of the fund, and also allow for its independent tracking.

It will be recalled that, in July, 2014 the Nigerian Government has constituted a Committee on Victims Support Fund to mobilize resources and administer appropriate support to victims of insurgency and Boko Haram terror activities all over the country. In executing its mandate, the committee organized a fundraising dinner in the month of August, 2015. It was at that dinner the Federal government, then under Goodluck Jonathan pledged the sum of 5 billion naira to the committee but failed to honour the pledge before leaving office on 29 May, 2015.

Finally, we call on the wealthy Nigerians, private organizations and international organizations to support the cause of the VSF committee as it became obvious that such victims are seriously in need of the humanitarian support.

On our party as civil society, we are committed to the tracking of the use of the fund not only to ensure accountability but also to make sure that it gets to those it should reach as well as produce the desired result and impact in the society.

Signed:

  1. Kabiru Sa`idu Dakata, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Kano
  2. Mohammed G. Wuyo, Borno Coalition for Democracy and Progress (BOCODEP), Borno
  3. Enoch Raymond, Centre for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), Taraba
  4. Rebecca Hassan, Association of People Living with Disability, Gombe
  5. Aishatu Margima, Women and Youth Empowerment for Advancement and Health Initiative (WYEAHI), Adamawa
  6. Isah Garba, Bauchi Coalition for Improvement of Public Expenditure Management (BACIPEM), Bauchi
  7. Halimatu Laminu, Network of Civil Society Organizations, Yobe
  8. Dauda Mohammad, Northeast Youth Initiative Forum(NEYIF),
  9. Shehu Usman Salihu, North West University Students for Peace (NWS4P)
  10. Abdullganiyu Y Rufai, CITAD4Peace

STAKEHOLDERS MEETING ON THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN THE NORTHEAST

INTRODUCTION:

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) with support from USAID organized a Stakeholders Meeting on the State of Education in the Northeast, the meeting held at the Custodian Hotel, Gombe on 27th July 2015 brought representatives from ministries of Education, Nigeria Union Of Teachers (NUT), Parent and Teachers Association (PTA), SUBEB, School Based Management Committees, CSOs and academics from all the six states of the region. Chaired by Prof Abdullahi L. Tukur, a Chairmen SUBEB Chairman and ex-Secretary top the Adamawa State Government, the meeting had the objective of getting the various stakeholders appreciate the new project that CITAXD is currently implementing in the region to seek their cooperation and support to ensure its success.

 

The meeting started with opening remarks from the chairman, Prof Tukur who observed that the North East Region was educationally backward. He said that while the population of the region could be of good advantage against other regions at the moment this was yet to be harnessed. He noted that all the slogans of the states have turned out hollow and not reflecting the true situations in the states today. He therefore urged that it was time for us to better sit and think on how to change and this can be done by addressing the problems of the education system in the region.

 

He suggested adopting some of the following to serve as our core values in addressing our problems.

 

i. Care and concern: in terms of how we obtain our information not to deviate or fall to deception. And to always have a fallback position since saying the truth, sometimes become a problem.

ii. Cooperation, but compromise: Rigidity may not always be the ultimate, compromise can be driven to good results.

iii. Development work to serve the people than the personal interest of leaders.

iv. Commitment: To patience, perseverance and sincerity of intensions.

v. The education system in the North East has the ability to serve 9.2 million people.

vi. Consistency: In our instrument of measurement to reflect ways of conducting how things should be appropriated by the best (merit) and defy from faith, etc.

This was followed by a presentation on the project, entitle Engaging Stakeholders For Enhanced Educational Governance in the North East Region by Y. Z. YA’U of CITAD. The presentation explained what the project was all about, its objectives, framework, components and expected outcomes. He started by saying that this was a journey from a crisis period to take us out of the crisis into a post-crisis era that required a post-crisis agenda. He said the crisis period is characterized by the current insurgency in the region which is the result of a combination of factors including low educational attainment, poverty, unemployment, poor governance and weak civil society. He said the overall goal was to galvanize all stakeholders toward a comment engagement to revamp the education sector as a key to addressing the myriad of development challenges of the region. He argued that Education was central in addressing the issue of insurgents in the region. He said that given the enormity of the problem, we need all stakeholders to come together, discuss the problem identify solutions; assign roles and responsibilities and together work to ensure that the solutions are implemented. The project hopes to see an increase in access to education, improvement in quality of education, gender parity in educational achievement, mainstreaming of disability issues in the education architecture of the region and addressing the education needs of internally by displaced people. He listed the key components of the project as including baseline survey on the state of education in the region (which had already commenced with an earlier methodology workshop held for the researchers), Public engagements, developing ICT Tools for Expenditure Tracking,, advocacy and regular public engagements. This would be done with the key stakeholders including PTAs, Ministries of Education, SUBEB, SBMCS, ANCOPS, NUT and the legislatures.

  • He said that the survey component for which we solicit the support and cooperation of all the stakeholders was to enable us fully understand the problems of the sector in empirical way with data and information to substantiate it. We expect the outcome of the survey to give us a better knowledge of the funding profile in education sector, education dynamics in the states and education outcomes.

 

As public engagement driven project, there would be robust public Awareness programme using various means including radio programs, drama, radio jingles, use of social media and public meetings such as this to discuss, share information and to keep the problem on the door step of every individual.

 

Following the presentation, a question and answer opportunity was provided for participants to either seek further clarification or make more input to the project. Among the key observations were:

 

Prof. Tukur, the chairman of the meeting raised the following observations. To re-incorporate our commitment to the survey could be a bit rough, taking in to consideration of each state to be an island of its own. In addition governance, peace and security as the key point of the survey, however as a tourist destination, if networks of roads can be crisscrossed, Mambila alone can save the whole of Africa with beverages.

 

He stated also that, we need government to strategize to stop insurgency otherwise, development cannot take place.

 

Proportion of students ration in the North East in comparison with its counterpart regions of the south-south and south west for example is too higher and that if half percent commitment given to private schools is committed to public schools, there would be improvement. Observing also that, outcome of the survey should go beyond the government but to involve everybody, adding that the state own schools are not making it at the tertiary institutions.

 

Ayo Oladini, made his own observation that series of projects have been funded by USAID, America, Japanese but the question here is; Do we share?

 

Adamu Baba: Also raised the observations that:

1. The pride in being a Teacher is in the product the quality of the instructional delivery is the most important. That there is the need to sit with NUT, and ask the question whether the products are theirs and how so that we can ask them what they want so that if provided we tasks them to achieve quality.

2. Resources: That the North East has resources, according to him, little resources advanced to development partners achieve a lot therefore, the need to harness local partners to achieve result.

3. Political Will: That there is no political will by the six North Eastern States Governments to demonstrate with partners. Though, Gombe State Governor, in order to address the youth confrontation of the “Kalare”, travelled to Lagos, to borrow a leaf of how the youth OPC of Lagos was addressed They were rehabilitated and employed as security personnel, while others trained on various skills acquisition.

Also government does not want to listen, while civil societies have keen interest.

 

Adamu Muhammad: From North East Youth Initiative Forum (Yobe State), observed that, Nigerians are good planners, infrastructure wise, Teachers, learning-teaching environment, but without improving the standard of teachers welfare. Incentives to teachers be considered such as; accommodation, training, promotions, prompt payment of salaries etc. To him, government are to be blame most and not teachers.

 

Suleiman Darazo, the team leader for USAID commended on the strategies employed by Y. Z. Ya’u, the Executive Director CITAD, in his presentation to move the state of education in the North East forward. But however, pointed out that, there is no stated clear level of education that the project intends to focus on. And that there is also the need for linkages on how problems will make meaning on the whole issues.

 

Adamu Muhammad: According to him, proper monitoring and evaluation is what differentiate between the quality of performance in public and private schools. And that passion and commitment is lost out of the teaching profession. Observing also that, prior to the insurgency, North East educational background was on the retrogression.  Though, the situation worsening at present and has hindered on development.

 

That schools being used as IPD’s camp, deprive learning of incumbent students and a double lost. Parents and students morale have drastically reduced to attending schools in Yobe State, considering high level of insecurity in the State.

 

Juju Mamman from Maiduguri: Raised the observation that, politics and our youths have played a lot in the educational backwardness in the North East. Researches upon the fact that, an educated youth, when does not participate in politics, could hardly live the affluent life style of the illiterate or half educated youth in politics resulting in a demoralized spirit for learning.

 

And cannot ascertain what actually is wrong with our teachers. Is it that our children cannot deliver? She also made the observation of what is happening in the teaching profession nowadays to be the same with what is obtainable in our hospitals. The profession has turned out a “call in”. Interest, preferential treatment in the posting of teachers rather than need by schools have over shadowed the systems.

 

Next time was the keynote address on the topic Education as key to the Development of the North East by Dr. Shu’aibu Musa,, Rector Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi and former Commissioner of Education, Bauchi State. He started by reviewing the concept of education in three perspectives, ie : General Education: This is critical to economic growth and poverty reduction and requires getting children enrolled in schools in turns need the actions of CSOs, functioning of democratic and governance institutions. Second is Girl Child Education for healthier children, justice and equity, improved family life and better society. Thirdly, Technical and vocational education that should imparts skills and competences, aids production of goods and services and provides massive employment.

 

He reviewed the state of education in the North Eastern States as characterized by

1. Training: The region is generally trailing other regions in the positive indicators; but also leading in negative indicators.

2. Situation worsening due to insurgency.

3. Drew a table of enrolment where a national demographic survey figures revealed 8.8% university enrolment of North East to 24% of the South-south.

 

He suggested as strategies and priorities the following:

1. strengthening of ministries and state UBEs:

- Project identification and contract administration.

- Provision of infrastructural materials.

- Enhance PTA and community participation and completion.

2. Repair/rehabilitation and provision of additional schools.

3. Up scaling of Almajiri and nomadic schools.

4. Teacher education and training workshops.

5. Strengthening of inspectorate departments.

6. Special attention to technical and vocational education.

- regularize appropriate system.

- Establish technical and vocational centres.

- Special scholarships for students in technical and vocational education.

 

Observations:

Adamu Baba Audu: observed that there was problem in 2006 with Federal Government Teachers Scheme and also how to justify the fake results being issued with genuine signature of provost or registrar of schools? Could this be attributed to the institution or new technology? That students themselves have no commitment to learning but instead bribe their ways to get through system.

 

Muhammad Magaji: PTA Chairman Gombe stated that politics has completely been messed the education sector. To him, there is improper funding of schools, inflating credits in examinations, wonders if this could be attributed to teachers, government or who? Insurgency also serving a key factor, truth needs to be told, segregation in terms of education, teachers’ welfare neglected. All these combined to set a drawback to education in the North East.

 

Rebecca Hassan: reported on incident of a Federal Poly student who lost her eye sight and pleaded for an avenue to continue her education, drawing attention to the problems of people with disability in the education sector in the region.

 

Shu’aibu  Adamu, delivered a message by North East coordinator sign language interpreters associatio that disabled people should be included in the normal schools and a sign language for the deaf be improved upon in our schools. Parents of the disabled be enlightened on how to relate with their children who have such problems. Also the North East states should have special education centers included in their tertiary institutions.

Mrs. Loise: representative of Ministry of Education, Bauchi, observed two (2) factors responsible to the state of education in the North East.

1. Teachers quality

2. Quality assurance

Changing the nomenclature from inspectorate to quality assurance to her did not yield result. Inspectorate she said was feared most to the name quality assurance.

 

Finanga Yakubu Amtassa, MAUTech, Yola Observed,

1. Quality of Teachers:

Most teachers pick up teaching as a last resort. This point has turned out to be a national issue. With the situation worsening in the North Eastern states, the same scenario affects every sector. The number of schools drop outs is on the high rate. He stated that only education sector and doctors are in real work force. That even responsible literate parents, bribe in respect of their children to pass examinations.

 

Alh. Baba Lawal of NUT, Maiduguri observed that in view of all other submissions, education is the responsibility of all. No one section is to blame.

Most of the teachers attended a crash program at the NCE. Unlike in those days that from on set of NCE, you are assigned a pupil class to manage, government should look inward to revisit teachers training, employment, and its conditions.

 

Most a times there are no interest to teaching profession. Posting conditions too is out of place. Posting is on the basis of interest and not need by schools. Incentives are not provided.

 

Sale Mabudi, Director Inspectorate, Gombe commended the presentation to be an excellent presentation to have touched basics and even post basics, citing example with the problems in the health sector in the North East.

 

Believing also that education is key to development. Increase funding in to education would improve upon the system. Politics have played a vital role, Ministry of Education, SUBEB are constrained by political influence in areas as posting, recruitment, etc. Politicians should be sensitized not to interfere into education sector. Commended the present Gombe State administration in terms of schools construction in areas that are hardy accessible. Teachers’ recruitment has increased, but the organization is still faced with problems of resignations of teachers on weekly basis. In order to retain them, incentives have to be enhanced in relation to posting to rural areas in particular and other welfare. This is addition to the high number of people seeking admissions into schools as a result of the insurgent activities as they share boundaries with highly affected areas. Advocacy should be paid to parents to enroll their children in schools to overcome the outrageous number of school age children at home.

 

Samson Ada, Director Inspectorate Division, Taraba State, admitting to all other points stated by other stakeholders, stressed emphasis on training and strengthening inspectorate division and providing adequate fund. He also observed that the chief executives of the State needed be reminded to fulfill their campaign promises because at times you budget, but funds not really released.

 

Lawall El-Rufa’i,  commended the presenter, but also admit that even those with the NCE and B.Ed, pick up the appointment as a last resort and as such cannot make a quality teachers. Passion and commitment have to be inculcated hence, the need to call for Grade II teachers. Most often also the NCE students are school dropouts, who hardly could cope with academic stress, and are encouraged to pick NCE course at tertiary institution.

 

Political interventions have also contributed in distorting the system. Appointment into education offices should be considered on education experience and qualification and not political inclined partners.

 

Halimatu Laminu, observed also that, teachers employed without teaching qualifications should be re-oriented on teaching methods, to be able have effective teaching-learning class control and to also deliver.

 

Kawu Munguno, University of Maiduguri, stressed the emphasis on the following points

1. Quality of leadership. Criteria for leadership most be ear-marked. To him, all his local government chairmen must have a minimum degree qualification.

He added by given an example of a campaign statement of a contestant that, “If you vote for me, I will not force your children to come to school.” And asked could be said about such a person to improving education in the sector.

 

2. Attitudinal Change of everybody is essential. Sentiments overrides procedures and competency, that even at the university level, people bring in their wives to become lecturers even when they cannot deliver. Wonders if such could happen at the university level, it could extend to all other sectors.

 

3. Integration: Schools are homogenous in nature and a reflection of the whole country, contrary to what is happening at present.

 

He added that, there is beauty in diversity which boils down to our manner. We should allow other people different from our communities to be part of our educational system. He solicited as a researcher for support and cooperation to provide them with necessary information to help put on record to get the education institution right.

 

Responses to key points in observations raised by respective stakeholders by Dr. Shu’aibu, Rector Federal Polytechnic:

1. That it is interesting that people are taking about Teachers, funding, inspectorate as parameters.

2. Funding: Judicious utilization of what is being funded should be advocated.

3. Counterpart funding: Money is budgeted, but is not met. Therefore we need attitudinal change.

4. Teacher Education: Agreed that there is a missing link when the Federal Government decided to abolish the teachers colleges, he rejected the decision as commissioner for education, but all his could not see the light of the day. Teacher training must be taken seriously he said. Instructional materials without instructor, is nowhere he said.

5. Politics: Education is politicized in terms of structuring of schools, recruitment, posting etc. and must be stopped.

6. Monitoring and Evaluation (Inspection): Facilities and transportations should be provided. In addition to recommendation made during inspection be executed.

7. Constant change in policy: The constant change in different policies, without allowing policies to mature has an adverse effect on educational draw back.

8. Fake Results: The value attached to paper qualification has resulted in such situations. A typical example in Bauchi where three (3) people presents one result for appointment.

 

The attempt to screen teachers in Bauchi and Edo States to ensure quality was rejected by Union leaders. Any agency recruiting should adapt the policy of verification in order to minimize such act.

9. In respect of the student who lost her sight; we should be in be in position to advocate for social inclusion of people living with disabilities in the three levels of education; primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. And that contact would be made to find possible university admission in her favour to accommodate the student at the University of Jos.

10. Social Inclusion: Basic and post basic agitation for inclusion should be taught to attain the same school with other normal children rather than segregation.

JAMB conducted effective and successful UTME examinations this year for people with special needs. Commitment should be involved to achieve such.

 

The last session was a brief presentation on challenges in understanding the state of education in the north east by Dr. Raji Boye of the Yobe State University. He said the objective of his presentation was to raise some key challenges that the baseline survey researchers were likely to face and therefore seek the support of

1. Enrolment, i.e. for the students to still remain in class not being chased to come to school. He also stressed that the gap is still widening.

2. Low Funding: we need to know what funds go into the sector and how it is being used and managed.

3. Qualitative education: what are the key indicators for quality of education in the region and how can these be measured?

4. Functioning schools: how do we capture the state of the schools in terms of facilities, equipment, teachers, etc.

5. Availability and Collection of Data (Statistics). What level we are and what level are we going? i.e. getting accurate and the willingness of the officers to give the data for work,.

 

To get the following data such as number of enrolment, structure, disability, teachers and their qualification, students enrolled and remain in schools, facilities such as electricity, water, etc. he ended by presenting the researchers to the stakeholders.

Fostering democratic governance in Bauchi grassroots

By Patience Ogbodo Correspondent, Bauchi

Democracy which has been described as government of the people, by the people and for the people is of paramount importance to all citizens especially those in rural areas in order to improve their standard of living.

It was in view of this that CITAD, a Bauchi-based non-governmental organisation collaborated with RTI/LEAD, a USAID-sponsored project in training people at the local government level on computer study as part of its effort in strengthening democratic local governance in Bauchi State.

The group in its effort to ensure that the rural populace is computer literate embarked on training of over 168 people in computer studies in four local councils of the state, namely Bauchi, NIngi, Katagum and Dass. Local Government staff, Civil society organisations, teachers from these four local councils received training on Microsoft word, excel, power point and use of Internet.

Speaking to newsmen shortly after the presentation of certificates to 85 council staff that were among those trained in computer study, the CITAD Executive director, Mallam Ya’u Zakariya Ya’u said they were motivated to embark on the training to promote democracy at the council level.

He said: “Democracy encourage people to have access to information and local Government is the closest arm of Government for citizens at the grass root, we realized that the LG have very poor documentation system and If you have poor documentation system, there is no way you can provide information, so we decided to train these people at the local government on computer study so that they will apply this computer skills to the process of documentation and therefore build a quality information system at the local Government level.

“For one to be able to promote transparent and accountability, you need information, if local government do not organize these information, they can not be accountable, and there can not  be transparency ,mso we want to make sure that local government have information readily available that they can give to citizens which can promote democracy.

“We have  also train other CSO’s and teachers on computer becuse we taught there is need promote collaboration and partnership between civil society ad Government. So we thought while we are training the Government officials, we should also train the civil society people so that they can speak the same language, they attained the same programme and they have access to the same skills, apart from that we have also utilize our time during the programme to train teachers in both primary and secondary schools in some of the LG as well as staff of the zonal education department in different LG.

Speaking at the certificate presentation ceremony, Zakariya  Ya’u  advised the graduands to effectively utilise the skills acquired during the training saying “As it has been said knowledge gain is knowledge that you have, however if you do not make effective use of that knowledge, it is not necessarily effective knowledge. It is our hope therefore that you will put into practice the skills that you have acquired, the knowledge you have acquired, and the new ideas that you have come across during these past two months of engagement. Its only when you use them effectively that it will bear fruits, and justify the investments your organizations, like LEAD and CITAD have made into putting the programme in place.

“We will like to point out that ICT is a dynamic sector, saver changing. What we have done is to introduce you to some basic ideas and basic skills. It is important that you build the interest to regularly update yourselves so that you can acquire new skills and keep up with the technology as it keeps on changing. We do not think that what we have given you is that you will remain stagnant with. We believe that you continue to periodically update, upgrade, improve, and therefore be at where always with the current ideas and knowledge in the field so that you can derive the maximum benefit in it.

“Technology offers us a lot of potentials to improve governance, to improve citizens’ participation, to improve access to information. As it has been said, one direct benefit is to improve your documentation system.