Once You Make an Effort, There Will Always Come a Reward-DG, Progressive Governors Forum.

By Hamza Ibrahim Chinade.

The Inspiring Leadership Reflection Interactive Series (ILERIS), a monthly youths mentorship and inspiration lecture usually organize by Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) is an experience sharing ground between successful people of different backgrounds and professions and staff, volunteers, interns of CITAD, peace club members of secondary schools, Students for Peace of Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, and members of Kano civil society and is meant to serve as a symposium that shapes the lives of the participants through learning from success, failure, challenge and obstacles of the invited guest speakers so that they succeed by imitating or developing style of handling failure, challenge or obstacle while exploring the secrets of success in their different endeavors. Every month, the organization invites a prolific guest to have an interaction with the participants, this month CITAD hosts Malam Salihu Lukman, the Director General of Progressive Governors Forum as the guest speaker.

Giving an opening remark, the Executive Director of the organization Dr. Yunusa Zakari Ya’u thanked the guest for gracing the event and advised the participants to listen to the guest with interest and attention in order to gain from his wealth of experience emphasizing that the objective of the interactive session is for the participants to directly learn one or two lessons that will inspire them to think about their dreams, think about aspiring to become successful people and to think about the strategies to adopt in order to also succeed.

In his presentation, the guest, Malam Salihu Lukman toured the participants into his vast profile beginning with his student days to unionism, activism, advocacy for social justice, human rights, and labour struggles while at the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and how he landed into politics, in all these endeavors Lukman highlighted problems, challenges as well as opportunities that he hinted sacrifice and commitment are the bedrock of excelling in everything one does. Lamenting on the unemployment issue, Lukman said “I have come to realize through my community work even the search for job many people don’t know how to approach it, it’s about packaging yourself through your CV, but what I found out is that many graduates don’t know how to write their CVs”, recalling his Textile Union days and pointing out the significance of sacrifice and commitment, the guest speaker noted “once you make an effort there will always be a reward and the reward can come from unfamiliar quarters”. Malam Salihu Lukman challenged the participants to explore their potentials saying potentials are noticed in people who wake up and make efforts. The lecture ended with a presentation of some publications of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) to the guest by Senior Programmes Officer, Kabiru Sa’idu Dakata.

CITAD Marks Girls in ICT Day, World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.

By Hamza Ibrahim Chinade.

The Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), an ICT focused organization that uses ICT to empower citizens on good governance, sustainable and balanced development has celebrated this year’s Girls in ICT Day and World Telecommunication and Information Society Day respectively, the 2017 Girls in ICT Day was earlier celebrated on 27th April but CITAD could not hold the event on that day and therefore decided to observe the day with a capacity building workshop for ladies on 17th May when World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is also commemorated globally.

International Girls in ICT Day is an opportunity for girls and young women to see and experience technology in a whole new light. The initiative, backed by all ITU Member States, aims to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

There is an estimated shortfall of over two million skilled ICT professionals worldwide. Despite the obvious benefits, many girls never even consider a career in ICTs. At the same time, many companies are looking to increase the number of women in the sector. The ICT sector is a growing sector for employment in both developed and developing countries. This means that highly qualified women in technical fields around the world have significant opportunities available to them.

As for the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, it’s theme for 2017 is “Big Data for Big Impact,” and focuses on the power of Big Data for development and aims to explore how to turn imperfect, complex, often unstructured data into actionable information in a development context. The insight brought on by advanced analysis can strongly complement the evidence-based nature of decision-making that can be leveraged at national, regional and international levels to drive success towards attaining all 17 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030.

Earlier in his opening remarks, Training Coordinator of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) Malam Ibrahim Nuhu laments how access to ICTs remain a big challenge to women especially in developing countries and advised them not relent in their efforts to understand and utilize ICTs in their businesses and other purposes for societal development. Three presentations were taken apart from interactive session and comments and questions. Background on Girls in ICT/International Information Society Day by Harira Wakili, Role of ICT in Girls and Women Development by Kamal Umar Karaye as well as Digital Inclusion of Girls in ICT by Hajiya Amina Hanga, the Executive Director, Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative. The event ended with a group picture of the facilitators and the participants.