By Hamza Ibrahim.

In line with it’s quest for efficiency towards realizing the set objectives of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), the governing board under the leadership of Malam Yakubu Aliyu has met and deliberated on numerous issues. The meeting which took place in Abuja is part of the policy and principles of the organization which demands the governing board members to periodically meet and deliberate in order to re-strategize and offer concrete inputs on the overall activities of the ICT-focused nongovernmental organization.

The meeting which lasted for hours has among other things discussed the state of programmes and projects the organization run, new initiatives as well as the sustainability plans. With headquarters in Kano, CITAD has other five offices in Abuja, Dutse, Jigawa state, Bauch, Jama’are and Azare in Bauchi state. CITAD sees technology as a tool to promote sustainable development, good governance and peaceful coexistence. It uses ICT to empower youth and women through access to information, skills and online mentoring opportunities. Present at the meeting were: Malam Yakubu Aliyu, Dr. Y.Z. Ya’u, Malam Ahmad Abdullahi Yakasai, Ms. Ene Obi, Prof. Amina Kaidal, Dr. Asabe Sadiya Mohammed, Malam Isyaku Garba and Engr. Kamal Umar who are on the board of the organization.

Poor awareness on the pastoral system fit for the multiplicity of the Nigerian society is said to be at the core of the lingering conflicts between farmers and herders in the country.

This is largely due to widespread compromise in the nation’s news media, said experts at a workshop on fake news and insecurity in Nigeria, held at Starview hotel, Abuja.

A former Research Scientist at the International Livestock Centre for Africa and one-time Chairman, Veterinary Council of Nigeria (VCN), Dr. Junaidu Maina said different livestock models exist but remain unknown or widely misunderstood.

This, according to the Chief Executive Officer, JM Global Associates Ltd, Abuja has caused governments to make arbitrary choices, often confusing one model for the other, thus prolonging the crisis.

He particularly faulted the Nigerian government’s concept of ranching, saying Nigeria lacks the land and technological resources to drive it.

He highlighted other causes of conflict between farmers and herders in the country to include scarcity of land resulting from population growth, encroachment of existing grazing reserves and among others, climate change.

Dr. Maina however tasked journalists to always scrutinize government legislations against pastoralism to set the pace for positive change in the agricultural sector.
Journalists in Nigeria equally have the task of changing existing narratives on the farmer/herder conflict to focus on the real issues underlying the conflict for a more thorough solution, said Dr. Saleh Momaleh of the Kaduna Peace Commission.

Creating ‘appropriate’ awareness, building confidence and community relations as well as minimise fear, Dr. Momaleh said is one task journalists in Nigeria must pursue.

In doing this, the Publisher of Premium Times, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi said journalists must be accountable, independent, transparent, community-based reporters and minimize harm in their practice.

The workshop tagged, “Understanding and Responding to Fake News Exacerbating Fears and Insecurity in the Country,” organized by Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) from 13th to 14th July, 2018 centered on the dangers of fake news and hate speech on national growth, security and development in Nigeria.

Poor information on the pastoral system fit for the multiplicity of the Nigerian society is said to be at the core of the lingering conflicts between farmers and herders in the country.

This is largely due to widespread compromise in the nation’s news media, said experts at a workshop on fake news and insecurity in Nigeria, held at Starview hotel, Abuja.

A former Research Scientist at the International Livestock Centre for Africa and one-time Chairman, Veterinary Council of Nigeria (VCN), Dr. Junaidu Maina said different livestock models exist but remain unknown or widely misunderstood.

This, according to the Chief Executive Officer, JM Global Associates Ltd, Abuja has caused governments to make arbitrary choices, often confusing one model for the other, thus prolonging the crisis.

He particularly faulted the Nigerian government’s concept of ranching, saying Nigeria lacks the land and technological resources to drive it.

He highlighted other causes of conflict between farmers and herders in the country to include scarcity of land resulting from population growth, encroachment of existing grazing reserves and among others, climate change.

Dr. Maina however tasked journalists to always scrutinize government legislations against pastoralism to set the pace for positive change in the agricultural sector.

Journalists in Nigeria equally have the task of changing existing narratives on the farmer/herder conflict to focus on the real issues underlying the conflict for a more thorough solution, said Dr. Saleh Momaleh of the Kaduna Peace Commission.

Creating ‘appropriate’ awareness, building confidence and community relations as well as minimise fear, Dr. Momaleh said is one task journalists in Nigeria must pursue.

In doing this, the Publisher of Premium Times, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi said journalists must be accountable, independent, transparent, community-based reporters and minimize harm in their practice.

The workshop tagged, “Understanding and Responding to Fake News Exacerbating Fears and Insecurity in the Country,” organized by Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) from 13th to 14th July, 2018 centered on the dangers of fake news and hate speech on national growth, security and development in Nigeria.

By Jerry Emmanson.

Towards identifying issues underlying the growing conflicts in Nigeria, particularly the farmer-herders conflict, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) over the weekend organised a 2days workshop in Abuja tagged: “Understanding and Responding to Fake News Exacerbating Fears and Insecurity in the Country,” to assess the dangers of fake news and hate speech on national growth, security and development in Nigeria.

Participants at the workshop were youths from across the country, media, academia and civil society amongst others, which featured paper presentations from highly revered professionals and authorities from different spheres of life. In a communiqué jointly signed by Hamza Ibrahim (CITAD), Ibrahim Sulaiman (ALCIDA), Uza Doshima, Food Technology and Research, Yadoma Bukar Mandara and Usman Masara Kim, said fake news does not exist in a vacuum, it rather thrives in a gullible environment where human populations are less enlightened to access quality, objective, balanced and fair information.

“People who propagate hate speech have platforms they tend to use to manipulate public opinion and emotions for the purpose of mischief and/or selfish economic or political gains. The workshop in part of its resolution said: “Lack of transparency and sincerity on the part of government, which reflects in the operations of public/state owned media organizations, has greatly reduced public confidence in official sources of information.

Therefore, citizens are compelled to explore alternative sources of information, thereby falling victims of fake news media and agents. On the area of farmers-herders conflicts it stated that: “Existing legislations affecting pastoralism especially anti-open grazing laws have not holistically addressed the issue of farmer-herder clashes as they seldom reflect the sociocultural and environmental diversities of Nigeria.” It advised the government to consider the multiplicity of the sociocultural, geographical and other related landscape of the country, and design agric-related programmes to favour such.

“Communities should be allowed to explore specific livestock production options suitable to their sociocultural and/or environmental peculiarities rather than ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches that have over the years proved a failure in addressing the lingering crisis between farmers and herders.” Also in a presentation by Dr. Junaidu A. Maina on “Understanding the Crisis of Pastoralism in Nigeria,” he listed the major drivers of conflict between farmers and herders to be population growth, Livestock feed resource base, Encroachment of grazing reserves and Stock routes, Cattle Rustling, Breakdown of traditional conflict resolution mechanisms, weak criminal justice system allowed and one sided report by media etc. He maintained that adaptation of intensive/enclosed production system will create a structured modern cattle production system with a national spread.

“This will for sometime co-exist with pastoralism which will persist in some states. Just like the modern commercial poultry which co-exists with larger rural poultry,” he said. Mr Dapo Olorunyomi, online publisher of PremiumTimes in his address on “Fake news and the challenge of security in Nigeria,” said that there is a fundamental crisis in global journalism today and while a vigorous debate is currently apace we pretend that is not the case in Nigeria.

“Digital transition has complicated the whole crises and one of the challenge of news at the current moment is the fact that at no other time in history do we have such a deluge, such a tsunami of information to contend with. “Because of the speed and volumes through which information and news reaches us, the capacity to blur the boundaries of journalism and non-journalism has narrowed, and the capacity to disinform and misinform has also grown out of bounds.” He however, advised journalists to maintain balance and fairness in their reports as the twin concepts which are central to journalistic ethics.

Text of the Communiqu issued at the end of two-day Stakeholders

Workshop on Hate Speech and Media in Nigeria held at Grand Pela Hotel and Suites, Abuja, July 10-11, 2018.
Preamble

For two days, academics, journalists, broadcasters and civil society activists with diverse backgrounds met to discuss issues relating to hate speech and assorted media genres and professionals.

Four papers were presented in addition to two different panels as well as a robust general house discussion on issues that arose as the workshop progressed.

The workshop observed as follows:

1) Hate speech could emanate readily from the various divides in the society ranging from ethnic, religious, social to economic differences of individuals and groups. This could even deepen with subdivisions into smaller units implying that it is difficult to predict its end.

2) Hate speech can provoke negative reactions almost instantaneously as it fuels ethnic, religious and some other conflicts in the society and this could degenerate to violence.

3) Media related challenges that fuel conflict range from media’s disregard for diversity, undue commercialization, poor knowledge of relevant laws, history and culture as well as current affairs, ownership influence to provincialisation of education of relevant academics.

4) Paucity of logistics and undue internal pressure constitute another set of problems to good performance of the media.

5) Broadcast media in Nigeria, especially those owned by state governments, often run foul of cautionary measures especially during elections, thus presenting rather bad examples to their counterparts in the private sector.

6) Media genres of the print and broadcast are hardly different again with the inception of the internet as the conventional media ceaselessly seek to extend their operations and influence to the realms of social media.

7) The Cybercrime Advisory Council provided for by the Cybercrime Act of 2015 is rather exclusive particularly of the youths in spite of the reckoning enjoyed by the youths with the UN in relation to Internet issues as manifest in the annual rituals of the Internet Governance Forum, IGF.

The workshop subsequently recommended as follows:

1) Different ethnic groups should seek to tolerate their respective cultural differences to enable all to cohabit peacefully.

2) It is important that civil society groups begin to recognize the need to popularize the knowledge of the concept of hate speech for the benefit of the members of the general public.

3) Professionalism in the mainstream media is important hence the need for training and retraining of media personnel as, for instance, may be initiated by CITAD in conjunction with other stakeholders.

4) It is important to accord proper attention to the welfare of media personnel so that their work could be more factual and evidence based

5) The Nigerian Press Organisation, NPO, and other similar bodies that used to have reasonable influence on media organizations need to liberalise to accommodate emerging players like members of Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP, and Online Publishers of Nigeria, OPAN.

6) Develop a voluntary code of conduct for bloggers and encourage widespread dissemination

7) Government should consider the repealing of the Cybercrime Act of 2015 to reform the Cybercrime Advisory Council to accommodate youths in line with the vision of the UN.

8) Journalism training institutions need to introduce courses on conflict sensitive reporting, and universities and other tertiary institutions offering journalism training should introduce the course right from 100 level.

9) The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) should be made autonomous and independent agency

10) Media organizations and bodies should punish and sanction their staff and members who engage in promoting hate speech.

11) Public awareness need to be enhanced to educate people on getting and sharing information on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhastApp, Instagram, etc.

12) Civil society organizations should monitor hate speech and put pressure on media regulatory agencies to punish media houses that allow hate speech in their contents.

13) Journalists should prioritize write-ups that promote national unity, cohesion and tolerance and must not give room for hate speech

Signed:

i. Hamza Ibrahim-Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD).

ii. Dr. Tunde Musbahu Akanni-Lagos State University (LASU)

iii. Chinedu Christopher Gbulie-Women’s Right Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA)

iv. Onyekachi Eke-Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC)

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES FROM THE WORKSHOP.

By Balarabe Alkassim, Bauchi.

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has lamented the low adult literacy rate in the north east region.

CITAD North East Social Accountability in Education Cluster team made the disclosure ‎when it paid an advocacy visit to Bauchi State House of Assembly committee on Education.

Speaking, the team leader, Isah Garba said the north east region has the least education statistics in the country with Yobe and Borno states having the lowest rates with 31.9 percent and 35.1 percent respectively.

“The corresponding figures for female adult literacy are 14.9 and 18.0 percent respectively for the two states. The performance of the states in both NECO and WAEC has been the lowest of the country.

“A survey showed that percentage of children between 6 and 16 who have never attended school has high prevalence in Borno (72 percent), Yobe (58 percent) and Bauchi (52 percent). Only 20 percent of all school age girls get to attend school,” he said.

In his response, the chairman Bauchi state House of Assembly committee on education Honourable Yusuf Inuwa Dadiye promised that the committee would look at the recommendations for necessary action.

By Richard P. Ngbokai.

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has expressed concern over the proliferation of fake news platforms on the internet, saying that the information purveyed on such platforms are fueling killings across the country.

Addressing a press conference in Kano, the centre’s Project Coordinator on hate speech, Malam Hamza Ibrahim blamed the social unrest characterizing the polity on careless handling of fake news and bogus news releases, as well as images emanating from social media.

“Amidst recurring loss of lives and properties in many parts of Nigeria, another serious danger is brewing with wildfire effect; this danger is the circulation of fake press statements that are widely circulated online.  An example of this is the purported release by a non-existent group ‘Fulani National Movement (FUNAM)’ justifying the recent massacre in Plateau state on the basis of some missing cows.

“We have over the last one year monitored how the use of fake news and fake images especially on the social media impacted on mutual co-existence and respect among people of different religious and tribal backgrounds. It is sad that many people are falling into the traps of these publications whose aim is to divide the country along ethnic and religious lines.

He therefore urged the public to scrutinize any news content accessed online to verify its source credibility before they could form any opinion base on the story.