Are you a peace campaigner? Here is a chance to win some prizes for your passion. Starting from November, CITAD is starting a monthly social media peace campaign competition for youth.  The competition will offer prizes in four categories namely:

1. The Most Engaged Person  in Twitter
2. The Most Engaged Person in Facebook
3. The most Influential Message (Twitter)
4. The most Influential Message (Facebook)

How to enter?

There is no special entry form. Once you have a twitter or Facebook account, you can join. All you need to do is as follows:

1. Tweet or retweet anti-hate speech campaign messages making sure you use the hashtag #No2HateSpeech
2. Post or share anti-hate speech campaign messages (post to Peace Now! Page and Group)

How to win?

At the end of the winners will be selected as follows:

1. Most engaged person on twitter will be the person who posted the highest number of tweets that speaks to either against hate speech or support peace campaign
2. Most engaged person Facebook is the person who has posted the most on our peace campaign platforms, The messages must speaks to either against hate speech or support peace campaign
3. The most influential message (tweeter) is the single anti-hate speech message that has the higher number of likes and retweets during the month
4. The Most Influential Messages of Facebook is the single anti-hate post with the highest number of likes and share on our platforms

Disqualification

Members of CITAD, Monitors and their relatives are not entitled to participate in the competitions.

The Prizes

1. Each winner will be have  campaign branded t-shirt, campaign branded wall clock and certificate
2. First runner up with a campaign branded t-shirt and certificate
3. Second runner up with campaign-branded wall clock and certificate

Repeated Entry?

As each month is a fresh campaign, previous winners are qualified to continue to enter.

Following the North Central Sensitization on Hate and Dangerous Speech which took place on 15th October in Jos, on Sunday 16th October, 2016 the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) which has been monitoring and countering Hate and Dangerous Speeches has paid an advocacy visit to Jama’atul Nasarul Islam (JNI) at its national secretariat in Jos, the Plateau State capital.

The advocacy visit team led by Isah Garba, (Senior Programmes Officer, Peace and Conflict) was received by Umar Faruk Musa, the Public Relations Officer of JNI, after self introduction and welcome remarks Umar expressed happiness for the advocacy and demanded that Mr. Nelson Ananze who is a contact person of CITAD elaborate on the purpose of the visit.

Mr. Nelson Ananze gave a preface about the visiting organization and purpose of the visit, “CITAD is our guest, they came and conducted a programme on Hate and Dangerous Speech and paid courtesy visits to influential people in our communities such as traditional and religious leaders, all in effort to solicit their support towards achieving a sustainable peace, that is why we are here today”.  

Expatiating, the Hate and Dangerous Speech Project Coordinator of CITAD, Isah Garba said “during the 2015 election we noticed that the percentage of online hate speech went up but after the peace accord by presidential aspirants was signed the level of hate speech came down, but unfortunately after election the online hate speech kept rising again with 97.4% falling within religious domain, and we believed religious leaders and bodies like you have an important role to play by educating people on the danger of violence and significance of peace as well encouraging them to desist from making hate utterances. We particularly want this blessed religious body to also make inputs that will help curb the menace”.

Also commenting, the Vice Chairman of JNI, Alhaji Danjuma Khalil regrets the level hatred being spread on social media which he said is unbecoming, “hate and dangerous speech is a reality and physical thing that circulate on social media or online, that is why I do not register with any social media. The level of abusive language and hatred actually stop me from joining. Jama’atul Nasril Islam will call the attention of all Imams, leaders of all CBOs and their platforms and all preachers to sensitize them on the topic so that they can also preach and sensitize against hate and dangerous speech. We are going to organize seminars for all our members on the topic and if there is need for you to be engaged we will contact you about it”, Danjuma Khalil added.

Also making input during the advocacy visit, Deputy Secretary Youth Group of JNI, Alhaji Garzali said Jos has suffered a lot from conflict which has stagnated development and displaced people, therefore any effort to boost peace of whatever kind will be warmly embraced by JNI, and social media now attracts mostly young people who need to be couched on how they can maintain lasting peace, therefore this course will have the maximum cooperation of all.  Garzali further added that the point on social media followers is funny, most of them are not after what is posted but who posted it, if you follow the comments you will notice that there is clear division into two categories, that is supporting and opposing, both categories are made based on tribe, religion, ethnicity or political party of the person who made the post.  He asked a question: if you come across hate speech, what are you supposed to do?

Isah Garba responded with relevant example of categories of hate speeches and urged the inquirer to counter by politely advising the speech maker to stop it. As part of their support to curb hate speeches, Garba urged all the imams and preachers to create accounts on social media so that they get to know what is happening and will be able to make vital inputs that will eventually reduce the quantity of hate speeches circulated online because of the wisdom and knowledge they have. He cited a reference to Amir of Kazaure who is now functional and even has a Facebook group.

The advocacy team of CITAD included Isah Garba, Abubakar Yusuf Auyo, Ibrahim Nuhu, Mr. Nelson Ananze, Zahra Yunusa Yau and Shazali Sunusi Sulaiman.

On 15th October, 2016 Monitoring and Countering of Hate and Dangerous Speech team of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), paid an advocacy visit to the emir of Bukuru in Plateau State.

After opening prayer, Leader of the advocacy delegation who is the Hate and Dangerous Speech Coordinator, Isah Garba briefed the emirate on the purpose of the visit and solicited the support of the emirate saying “traditional leaders are important in any activity that deals with people, and especially this that has to do with campaign against hate speech, hate speeches have been the sources of so many unfortunate incidences which do nothing but always break the bond of mutual coexistence among people, as such people need to be highly sensitized on the dangers of hate speeches, in place of it they can be sharing peace messages among themselves which will enhance respect for one another and unity”.    

Representative of the emir, Alh Ali S. Muhammed welcomed the advocacy team and said the emir is away and has asked him to convey his esteem regards to the team and pledge his support for the timely and vital project, social media is now everybody’s business, almost every category of people use it but unfortunately not as expected, instead of harvesting its true potentials some people misuse it for misguided reasons, but it is commendable that a project called “Monitoring and Countering Hate Speech” is initiated to check dangerous speeches online because if you look at what is going on online you will understand that something needs to be done to make people know the consequences of what they do and educate them on it so that they stop, otherwise the speeches may be posing danger to our peace, I assure you of our continued support to this project. We will subsequently sensitize our community leaders, youth groups and religious leaders on this, said Muhammed.

Alh Ali S. Muhammed requests that when next CITAD is visiting the palace it should please notify the palace at least one week before the visit so that they can invite relevant leaders and youth groups to also be present so that the advocacy becomes more interactive. CITAD advocacy team included Isah A. Garba, Abubakar Yusuf Auyo, Ibrahim Nuhu, Abdullahi Balarabe Yakubu Dotsa, Zahra Y. Z Ya’u and Ashshaza Sunusi Shazali Sulaiman

On 15th October, 2016 the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) organized a one day Public Sensitization Workshop on Monitoring and Countering of Hate and Dangerous Speech in Country Home Hotel, Jos, Plateau State.  The event started at 9:00am with registration of the participants, self introduction and then pretest session aimed at assessing the knowledge level of the participants about the concept of Hate and Dangerous Speech as well as Countering segment of it.  

As scheduled on the agenda,  Understanding Hate and Dangerous Speech session took the stage with Isah Garba, the Project Coordinator as facilitator who began by displaying images of what happed in Rwanda and gave a detailed background of the conflict to make audience understand the concept and danger of hate speech in order to clearly draw lessons that can be learned by the participants especially in a state that has experienced conflict between people of different tribal and religious backgrounds who lived for years in peace and harmony. Isah Garba said there is no single definition of hate speech which is accepted globally by all scholars but, any speech that fall under one of these baselines: discriminate, loot, riot, beat, forcefully evict or kill or put people to action against a particular group of people or person because of their tribe, religion, ethnicity, region, political party, gender, disability or resources, that can be regarded as hate speech.

During the presentation Garba called on all the participants to nurture and fully consider their historical and traditional methodology of maintaining peace by cracking jokes among themselves, such jokes that exist between FULANI and BAREBARI, KANAWA and ZAZZAGAWA, KATSINAWA and GOBIRAWA/HADEJAWA or among occupations like BUTCHERS and CATTLE REARERS etc, that will further strengthen understanding and promote cohesion. After his presentation, the Project Coordinator entertained questions and the need for clarification on various points raised as can be seen below:

• A participant Umar Farouq Musa asked: is it possible to have intra-religion hate speech?

Yes there are, hate speech within the Christian communities just because of different perspectives as far as Christianity is concerned with other groups. For example, it happened to me, a friend of mine who is a Christian invited me to an occasion, when we arrived there he saw another man who was also a Christian but he sent him away, and I told him that the man was a Christian also but he said he doesn’t regard him as a Christian at all, and the reason is because of their difference in perspective. So also among the Muslims, we have seen what happened recently with Shiites, they have been discriminated, injured, and even killed because of their difference with other Islamic sects. That is why in the definition we said a group and group can be inter or intra. So, there is no limitation in as much as segment of the people have been discriminated, degraded, subjugated, and considered as subject of humiliation, any speech against them can be considered as hate speech, I hope that is understood, Isah Garba emphasized.

• How can you relate the earlier mentioned words with hate speech, Pem Stepen asked. When the speaker uses one of these words: discriminate, loot, riot, beat, forcefully evict, kill or call to action against a particular group of people because of their  membership of a particular tribe, religion, ethnicity, region, political party, gender, disability or resources, that is a hate speech, said Isah Garba.
• Is criticizing government policy or programs, also a hate speech? Jirituwa Goyit asked. Let us be clear about criticism, criticism does not mean call to action but if the speaker uses a phrase or words that call people to action on other groups that is regarded as hate speech, Isah Garba responded.  
• The politicians use the slogan of vote, wait, guard and escort to the collation centre till final announcement of result (a kasa, a tsare, a raka, a jira), can that be part of hate speech? Epraim  Emah asked.
• Samuel Doris asked, is there any law that provide punishment against hate speech?

The next session focused on Countering Hate Speech and was facilitated by Ibrahim Nuhu, it mainly elaborated on countering mechanism and how countering can help douse the frequency of hate speech. Countering is differing from peace campaign but they have the same goal, vision and mission, i.e promoting and maintaining peace and harmony. We should also be careful using ambiguous phrases, statements or words. We believed in destiny  and we are Nigerians, so we don’t have any place better to live than Nigerian as such we have to respect our traditions, tribes, ethnicity and gender no matter what.

The event ended at 3:30pm. The Public Sensitization on Hate and Dangerous Speech team included Isah Garba, the Senior Program Officer and Project coordinator Hate and Dangerous Speech, Ibrahim Nuhu, Shazali Sunusi, Abubakar Yusuf Auyo Zahra Yunusa and Balarabe Yakubu.

On Tuesday 11th October, 2016, the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) organized a one day Public Sensitization Lecture on Hate and Dangerous Speech  in NANNM Secretariat Damaturu, Yobe State,Nigeria.  

The event started with registration of participants at 9:00am and participants self-introduction which was the next item on the agenda. . Thereafter, Isah Garba being the Project Coordinator and Senior Programmes Officer gave a welcome remarks on behalf of MacArthur Foundation and Center for Information Technology  andDevelopment (CITAD) who are the conveners of the event. Welcoming all participants to the event,  he  briefed them  on what  CITAD does  as an organization in general and specifically in this project which include monitoring of hate and dangerous speech online and a lot of peace promotion activities and campaigns. He further appealed to the participants to make the occasion participatory by  making their contributions and not only  listening to the speakers.

The first paper presented was  on Understanding Hate/Dangerous Speech which was facilitated by  Isah Garba who started  with a question to the participants: Can someone tell us what hate speech is? Yusuf Tijjani Ali gave syntax meaning of both words HATE & SPEECH and also gave example of Fulani word ‘KADO’ which refers to non-fulani tribe as well Kanuri ‘Kirdi’ to him it was insult word to downgrade the value of other tribes.

The facilitator showed the pictograph of what happed in Rwanda and narrated the story in brief to make audience understand the concept and danger of hate speech better and take lesson instead . There is no single definition of hate speech accepted globally by all scholars but any speech that fall under one of these based-lines:

 

• Speech that denigrates people on the basis of their membership in a group, such as an ethnic or religious group.

• Speech can harm directly or indirectly, or both.

• Speech has a reasonable chance of catalyzing or amplifying violence by one group against another, given the circumstances in which it was made or disseminated, it is Dangerous Speech

• A Speech in this context includes any form of expression, including images such as drawings or photographs, films, etc

• Note dangerous speech is a part of hate which is capable of  mobilizing people to action

• So an ordinary trader could say spiteful or inflammatory things to his customer or neighbor but because neither have the capacity to mobilize others into action it does not qualify for dangerous speech

• We shall see that it is this capacity to catalyze people into action that is critical to the specific speech act we refer to as dangerous.

 

He called the attention of all participants to note or consider our historical tradition of jokes that have been in use as a means of resolving conflicts in our societies such as that which exist between Fulani and Kanuri ,   Kanawa and Zazzagawa, or among occupations like butchers and cattle rearers etc.  

He then explained how lack of means of verification and manipulation of source of information can make simple hate speech to escalate violence   citing example of what used to  happen before the  coming of  GSM or Internet Network where people use rumor to take action against other tribes or religion due to the  communication gap or lack of means of verification, but thank to ICTs development for closing that  space where anyone can verify any news by using ICTs such as GSM, Media Stations or Social Media before taking action even though it is also  seen as a medium for disseminating hate and dangerous speech

After  tea break, Strategies for countering hate speech session was facilitated by Ibrahim Nuhu who started by going back to the definition of hate speech  to refresh their mind the more and draw their attention to the fact that   before  you counter any speech you must understand hate and dangerous speech. : Countering is the general strategy to eliminate or reduce the potentials of a dangerous speech to catalyze into violence through counter speech, this may be to: neutralize the message of the dangerous speech item, Get the speaker to retract and possibly apologize and ensure people do not act on the basis of the message of the speech. Counter speech is any speech/act that seeks to neutralize or convert hate speech.

Countering is different from peace campaign, they but share the same goal and purpose. Countering is the general strategy to eliminate or reduce the potentials of a dangerous speech to catalyze into violence through counter speech.

GENERAL DISCUSSION,  COMMENTS QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS SESSION:

During this session, the forum  became very interactive with questions and comments received from participants some of which are noted below:

√ We want to know the procedure of technology-based reporting by using facebook? Monday Dala asked. Ibrahim Nuhu responded by showing the procedure.

√ What about if people perceived your message in wrong way? Asked by Ahmad BRC. Isah Garba responded by calling audience to be straightforward and cautioned against use of ambiguous words. And in the event you did that and got misquoted you need to immediately retract and explain in the most simple and easy manner for your audience to understand.

√ constitutionally there was freedom of information and expression, can CITAD protect me if someone retaliate or attack  me? Ahmad Usman Abdullahi asked.  You have to report him to social media he used or CITAD, if in the market report him to sarkin kasuwa, his union, traditional rulers or police. Isah Garba responded.  

Recommendations:

• I have spent many years attending seminars and workshops but never  came across with most important one as this because it deals with peace building, saving lives and properties, my concerned here was the implementation of this project because it may solve the problems of Nigeria today. When it comes to religion or ethnicity area of the people use traditional rulers or religion leaders to sensitize their followers because it very sensitive_By Uche
• The representative of Director School services called all participants to make sure they convey   the knowledge they acquire to their respective communities and entire seventeen (17) local government areas of the state. Youths at the  event really indicated interest in supporting the course of peace and staying away from hate and dangerous this workshop is a success_Dauda Hassan Katuzu
• What I have to say was thank you because most of the things I don’t know them and the little I know I don’t even put consideration on them even when I was browsing but now it come to my notice that there are some things you have to notice/considere  every time one goes  on internet. So thank you for this opportunity-Joy Buba student from Federal Poly Damaturo.    

 

Lastly, Isah Garba  discussed with the Secondary School teachers  representing the invited secondary schools on the  establishment of  Peace Clubs in some selected secondary schools as  approved by ministry of education and that is why the teachers of those schools were here with us present. The ideology behind was to change the mindset of youth at adolescent stage to come up with peace ideas  by promoting peace within themselves in schools and to their respective communities at large. He also called the name of all schools suggested and the teachers  selected the patron of that Peace Club who will guide the students and lead them toward achieving desired goals.

When students graduate from secondary schools and gt get admission into tertiary institutions they  will join Student4Peace which  is  an  advance level of secondary school peace club normally found at the tertiary level. The major activities  are to help in peace campaign in their respective schools, communities, state and country at large by using social media, advocacy visit etc. the student 4 peace members have the opportunity to get connection with mentors who will guide him to achieve his target desire within the country and outside.      

The total Participants were forty seven (47) in number; forty seven percent (47%) of which   were female while fifty three percent (53%) were male.

 

On the 11th October, 2016.  The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) Monitoring and Countering of Hate and Dangerous Speech team, paid an advocacy visit to the Chief Imam of  Yobe State University, Damaturo Central Mosque, Yahuza Hamza Abubakar Ph.D.

The objective of the visit was to engage religious and traditional leaders in promoting peace and campaign against hate and dangerous speech on social media platforms.

The team was led by Isa Garba, Senior Programmes Officer who is also the Project Coordinator, Hate and Dangerous Speech.  After general introduction and prayers, Isa thanked the chief Imam for accepting to receive CITAD. Then he briefed the Chief Imam about CITAD project of Monitoring and Countering of Hate and Dangerous speech online. He further traced history of dangerous speech insurgency of Rwanda which led to the death of hundred thousands of people within short period of time as a result of single hate speech.

In the previous project of peace campaign CITAD has successfully generated comments and contributions of religious scholars like him which CITAD published, that is the reason we want to reflect that in our campaign against hate speech. This is more serious than our previous monthly reports, we noticed that 90% of the hate speeches reported were religious/ethnic issues and that is why we focused paying courtesy visits to the religious leaders, as well as knowledgeable prominent influential people like you. We ‘believed that where we are today is a place to get more lessons to learn’ said Isah Garba.

In his response, the Imam expressed his happiness for the visit and for getting people that have concern to address such a vital but neglected issue especially at this moment. “We have lost the most important element of life which was modesty and morals that is why everyone is expressing his view about any religion irrespective of level of his knowledge.  The most shameful thing is to see was to see religious people fighting against each other”.

The Holy Quran warned against insulting idols of infidels so that they cannot in return insult Allah ignorantly. Then why should we insult others because we differ in our perception or understanding. The life of the Prophet is full of such good examples of how relate with the non-Muslims in all areas of life, respecting them and try to get them understand the truth, the Imam said. He called on Ulamas to register with social media because they have important role to play there especially in the areas of sensitizing and enlightening their followers about ambiguous issues but unfortunately maany of Ulamas refused to join the social media due to fear of intimidation, attack on their personality.

Being already on social media, the Imam pledge to join CITAD in the campaign against hate speech.    

At the end of the visit, the team presented some CITAD’s publications to the Chief Imam and had a group picture. The team included Isah Garba, Ibrahim Nuhu, Abubakar Yusuf Auyo,  Shazali Sunusi Sulaiman and Balarabe Yakubu.

A Nigerian NGO, Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD, has taken a formal education to Shara, a rural community in Sumaila local government area of Kano state, northwest Nigeria, donating books and school uniform to pupils learning under a tree.

Prior to CITAD intervention, no child in Shara community has had formal education. Now, children in the community are being taught basic literacy skills by volunteer teachers.

“We are grateful to CITAD helping us get a school and for giving us uniforms, exercise books and learning materials,” Usman Sama’ila, a beneficiary, said.

The community inhabitants were opposed to western education, CITAD, and Sitti Forum, a community-based organization, consultation with the community led to advocacy that made the community accept formal education. Mr. Saidu Saleh Sitti, the chairman of Sitti Forum said.

CITAD works to improve education in the northeast Nigeria. In Kano, the NGO has done enormous work in Dawakin Tofa, Garun Mallam and Sumaila local government areas.

In communities where CITAD works, it introduces a community-driven initiative that enhances education. It says that the reason for the community driven initiative is that the government alone cannot handle education and community contribution is central to education sustainability in the community.

Part of the CITAD core focus is to improve school enrollment and retention. Mr. Sabo Aliyu, the Sumaila local government education secretary confirms, the local government authority will be complementing CITAD by building classrooms for the pupils and accommodation for the volunteer teachers.

Mr. Bakari Hussaini, the Special Adviser to Mr. Abdullahi Ganduje, the Kano state Governor on education, confirmed the state government will implement free and compulsory education policy at all level to ensure inclusive education in the state. This is primarily to sustain the work CITAD does in education.

CITAD, Takes Education To Rural Communities In Northern Nigeria

The monthly leadership inspiring and mentorship initiative of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), better termed as ILERIS (Inspiring Leadership Reflection Series) has featured Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, the Hon. Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture Kano state as the personality for the month of October. Every month CITAD invites a personality who has skills, experiences and achievements that can be emulated by its staff and other youths with a view to shaping their lives and their commitments so that they excel in their numerous endavours. Participants normally listen to the guests make their presentations about their lives experiences, successes, challenges, opportunities and later on interact and deliberate in order to explore for themselves certain strengths, advantages as well take caution against failures and obstacles.

Giving an opening remark, the Executive Director of Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Dr. Yunusa Zakari Ya’u said “the center has over the years been focusing on youths development programs and we thought that one of the ways you can develop young people is to get people who have rich experience to share with young people their successes, problems, principles, the ways in which they tackle problems when they arise, lessons they would have learned as they grow up and so forth, so that young people in particular can be inspired to want to go and even surpass people that they listen to, that is the reason we get someone with credible history and experience to come and talk about himself after which the participants ask questions’’.

In his presentation, Dr Gawuna observed that it is a great honour for him to be invited to directly interact with young people and hopes his biography will inspire the participants. The 49 year old commissioner is a biochemist by profession who has eventually ventured into agricultural activities and politics, being a staunch sports lover he is presently the National President of Youths Sports Federation which was established back in 1965. He said “as a child I hated school but my parents insisted in ensuring that I go to school, today I realized the idea behind that, I can still remember two things my father taught me, one is to be as truthful as possible in whatever I do, and the second is to be as helpful as possible’’. He said the patent medicine store that his father established inspired his brother to become a graduate of pharmacy from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria while he graduated from Usman Danfodio University Sokoto as a Biochemist, which simply became a large family business.

After working with Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, Kano state Hospitals Management Board as Lab technologist at Nasarawa Hospital, Gawuna’s interest in business led him and a friend into establishing a logistics company that deals with cargo and technical assistance on aircraft called Millennium Aviation. He later succumbed to pressure and finally became a politician which made him Nasarawa Local Government chairman for eight years and commissioner of agriculture in the previous administration, the position present administration also appointed him since its inception.

Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna has energized the participants with several inspirational experiences and entertained many questions, he said “faith, believe and the strength of your will always get you to where you want to be, in as much as you try to be as honest as possible”.

The inspiring leadership reflection series ended with a presentation of publications of CITAD to the guest by human resources officer of the organization Malam Ado Shehu Yakasai, and a vote of thanks by training coordinator Malam Ahmad Abdullahi Yakasai who advised the participants to practicalise the lessons they learned from the interactive session. Participants at the event included staff of CITAD, regional manager of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and other staff, Manager Environmental Registration Council of Nigeria, Northwest University, Federal University Dutse, United Action for Democracy, Northwest University Students for Peace, Kurmawa Youth Development Association, Harlem Engineering, Mufarka, Tudun Yola Youth for Peace, KAYCAD and many other young people.

By Bashir Mohammed
Kano

Senior Programme Officer, Centre for Information Technology and Technology and Development (CITAD), Malam Isah Garba, has said that the centre had captured 653 hate speeches in the month of September, majority of which were made by youths via the social media.
Speaking at its monthly press briefing in Kano yesterday, Garba said allowing hate speech to continue online, the greater the danger its poses to the unity and existence of the nation especially when the contents of online hate speeches begun to manifest in physical and societal relations.
He said the continued exchange of hate speech on the social media by people who should be educated was a major source of concern, adding that the greater percentage of hate speeches was done by young people who should be the future mirror of the society.

Garba said hate speeches found fertile ground when social conditions were bad and competition for resources was extreme, stressing that the economic crisis in the country had led to increased impoverishment of the people and the collapse of local businesses.
He pointed out that monitoring without countering was counterproductive and that CITAD had alongside the monitors constantly took actions to counter hate speeches.
He affirmed that the effort was made by using strategies which included inoculation of individuals, public sensitisation, deployment of moral sanction and advocacy to enlist influential voices.
Garba called on religious and ethnic leaders to refrain from using inciting language and caution their followers against using hate speech to voice their grievances and to publicly condemn hate speech where it was made and take the task of enlightening the public against hate and dangerous speeches.

 

http://www.blueprint.ng/2016/10/05/citad-captured-653-hate-speeches-in-sept-official/

By Olga Tsafack-Koloko and Mallory Knodel for APCNews

06 October 2016

Every year since 2004, on the third Saturday in September, hundreds of events are organised in dozens of cities around the world to increase “awareness of Free Software and its virtues” and to encourage use of free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) in a global event called Software Freedom Day (SFD). Free, in this context, refers to free use and not “free of charge” (libre, not gratis, in Spanish, for example).

Since its establishment in 1990, The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has been committed to using and raising awareness aboutFLOSS, most notably as one of seven themes in the APC Internet Rights Charter developed in 2001. We believe that “Working with FLOSS is empowering, it builds skills, is more sustainable and it encourages local innovation.” Out of our network of 50 organisations and 24 individuals, it is safe to say that all APC members use FLOSS and several members focus on FLOSS development and adoption.

One of those members is the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in Lagos, Nigeria. CITAD “sees technology as tool to promote sustainable development, good government and peaceful coexistence. It uses ICT to empower youth and women through access to information, skills and online mentoring opportunities.” And they celebrated Software Freedom Day 2016 with a half-day agenda for 58 attendees. They shared event outcomes with the hashtag #CITADsoftwarefreedomday.

Nigeria is dominated by proprietary software and universities do not provide opportunities for students to learn about FLOSS. However, according to Yanusa Ya’u, co-founder and executive director of CITAD, “of course there are many who use and even market free and open source software.” The Open Source Foundation for Nigeria (OSFON) supports local FLOSS activists and developers. OSFON is a member of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa, a group founded in 1995 to “promote the use of free and open source software in Africa by bringing multi-stakeholder partners together for the development of African societies using open source software.”

CITAD’s theme for SFD 2016 was “Securing Your Freedom with FLOSS”. Like many SFD events, CITAD focused on practical, hands-on activities. Participants learned how to install Ubuntu, an operating system software that can substitute proprietary software like Windows or MacOS. They also devoted time to a “clinic” where FLOSS users could get help with questions, issues or problems from an expert in their community. Some presentations were geared to newcomers to FLOSS, such as “Understanding the Concept of FLOSS” and “An exploration into Open Source”.

Abdulaziz Yunusa is a final year student of computer science at Federal University Dutse and an intern at CITAD. When asked about FLOSSimproving the lives of Nigerians, he said, “Free software can be customised and can allow young people to develop local solutions for local problems, thus adding value to the software, creating products that are needed, saving cost for the country and the buyers and in the process creating jobs and wealth for the country. In this it will help to address the problem of unemployment and improve national wealth.”

For SFD 2016 there were 127 registered events on the official website, yet it is possible that there were many events like CITAD’s that were not featured on the map. According to another FLOSS expert in the APC community, Arun Madhavan from the India-based organisation the Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment, “The world is richer with free software today than it was two decades back.” It is thanks to efforts like these that free software communities continue to grow.

 

https://www.apc.org/en/news/promoting-use-free-software-nigerian-communities-b

By Yaro Daniel Onyiloyi,

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), the key Nigerian NGO which has been monitoring and tracking the efforts to rehabilitate and resettle internally displaced persons (IDPs) as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency in north-eastern Nigeria has expressed horror against alleged corruption in the management of IDPs and what it called the culpable silence of governments at all levels on that. It alleged callousness in the treatment of IDPs, adding in a statement by its Executive Director, Mallam Yunusa Zakari Y’au in Bauchi that its partners in Maiduguri and in other locations had observed various ways in which food items meant for IDPs had been diverted by officials and taken to either markets for sale or misappropriated by these officials for their personal and private use. Coming on the heels of demonstrations on the streets last Thursday in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, by IDPs, the statement also made reference to stories of extortion in which officials demanded for money from IDPs to register to collect relief materials as well as sexual gratification from IDPs.

“We in the north east are happy that the military has been recording successes in liberating a number of areas formerly controlled by the insurgents but we are now extremely worried and alarmed that our brothers sisters, uncles, grandparents and children are dying of starvation due do callousness of these government officials who government entrusted the welfare and wellbeing of IDPs to”, the statement added.

CITAD argued that this is not the first time that these Nigerians had to complain about the systematic starvation that they have been subjected to by people whose responsibility it is to care for them and that many people, especially children, are already dead from hunger and malnutrition, development which it said had been reported in the media. CITAD further claimed that on several occasions, both state and federal governments have been alerted to this but they have often either dismissed it or simply make some symbolic noises and let the matter to continue unabated. The lack of action from government to take concrete measures to stop this haemorrhage of resources meant for IDPs, it said, is resulting in a situation in which government is, by its own inaction, aiding the mass murder of people who have earlier on been traumatized by the Boko Haram insurgents. As such, surviving Boko Haram tend to become only a stop gap for them to be killed by hunger engineered by relied officials, the statement point out.

Situating diversion of relief materials and corruption in lack of proper instrument, institution or national policy to deal with IDPs as a result of Nigeria not having domesticated the African Convention on the Protection of IDPs, otherwise known as the Kampala Declaration, the NGO insists that the country has been relying on adhoc structures. It, therefore, sees this as the time for an immediate enactment of such instrument by the government.

It called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately launch a serious investigation into the diversion of relief materials meant for various IDP camps across the region while also demanding both state and federal governments to take immediate steps to ensure that relief materials, especially food items, are delivered promptly to those unfortunate to have been victims of Boko Haram insurgency. It said anti-corruption war must transcend mere official declaration to the realm of openness, transparency, asking governments to demand accountability from its officials and agents. This, it pointed out, is the minimum expectation form a government that has made a promise to rid the country of corruption.