Garuruwan da suka iya wargaza shirin Boko Haram

Wata Æ™ungiya mai taken Cibiyar bunÆ™asa fasahar sadarwa da ci gaban Æ™asa (CITAD) ta wallafa wani bincike kan yadda wasu al’ummomi a Najeriya suka yi nasarar wargaza aniyar Boko Haram na mamaye musu yankuna.

Binciken wanda aka shafe tsawon shekara biyu ana gudanarwa, ya gano cewa sai bango ya tsage Æ™adangare ke samun wurin shiga. Ya ce haÉ—in kai a tsakanin irin waÉ—annan al’ummomi ya zama babban makami na tunkarar Æ™ungiyar Boko Haram har ma da yin nasara a kanta.

Manufar binciken a cewar daraktan cibiyar, Yunusa Zakari Ya’u, ita ce kyautata haÉ—in kai tsakanin jama`a ta yadda za su guje wa faÉ—awa irin masifar da rikicin Boko Haram ya haddasa.

“Mun yi la’akari da cewa mutane ko kuma al’umma su ne ginshiÆ™in tsare kansu.”

Ya zayyana Æ™oÆ™arin al’ummomin garuruwa irinsu Biu da Gombi da Azare da unguwar Gwammaja a jihar Kano a matsayin abin misali ta fuskar wannan haÉ—in kai.

Civilian JTFHakkin mallakar hotoAP
Image captionGaruruwa da dama a yankin arewa maso gabas sun kafa Æ™ungiyoyin matasa ‘yan sintiri don kare yankunansu

Ya ce: “Idan ka É—auki waÉ—annan wajaje, wajaje ne da ko dai sun hana ‘yan Boko Haram su shigo su yi É“arnarsu, ko kuma lokacin da suka shigo an fatattake su, an kore su.”

A cewarsa sun kuma ga yankunan da ba su yi irin wannan jajircewa ba, lamarin da ya kai ga cin galaba a kansu.

“In ka É—auki su Mubi da Gwoza da Bama da Yadi Buni, waÉ—annan wajaje ‘yan Boko Haram sun shiga, wasu wajajen har sarakunansu ma suka gudu ba ma mutanen ba.”

Ya ce a duk lokacin da ka samu al’umma kanta ba haÉ—e yake ba, to ba za ta iya tunkarar masifa irinta Boko Haram ba.

Yunusa Ya’u ya ce a wasu wuraren, sun tarar cewa rashin haÉ—in kai tsakanin jami’an tsaro da al’umma ya haddasa ta’adi mafi muni daga Æ™ungiyar.

A cewarsa har yanzu, mutane ba su karÉ“i saÆ™on nan da ke cewa ‘É—an sanda abokin kowa’ ba. Hakan ta sa lokacin da Boko Haram ta fara kai hari kan jami’an tsaro wasu mutane a wasu wurare har murna suke yi.

Ya ce hakan ya sage gwiwar jami’an tsaron ta yadda a lokacin da Boko Haram ta auka wa mutanen gari, su ma jami’an tsaro “suka riÆ™a noÆ™ewa.”

“Idan ka É—auki Gwoza a jihar Borno, shi ne rabuwar kai kan bambancin addini wato tsakanin farko kowannensu yana ga idan Boko Haram ta auka wa wancan, ba shi akai wa ba, ba zai kawo gudunmawa ba. Daga baya dukkansu kuma wutar ta ci su.”

Haka kuma “A Bama, bambancin tsakanin É—ariÆ™oÆ™i ne, in ji Yunusa Ya’u.”

Don haka ya buÆ™aci gwamnati da al’umma su kyautata jajircewa don gudun kada masifa irinta Boko Haram ta zo ta shafe su.

CITAD Launches Book on Community Resilience Against Insurgency.

BY Hamza Ibrahim Chinade.

The Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has between the year 2015 and 2016 conducted a research on community resilience in especially the Boko Haram insurgency ravaged region of North-East. The research which United States of Institute of Peace (USIP) supported aimed to investigate the factors that make communities more resilient to violent action and atrocities perpetrated by insurgents in the North-Eastern part of the country and draw lessons on how to deepen resilience and enhance community capacity to bounce back from devastation. The study was also conducted within the context of a larger learning from peace theme whose goal was to find effective strategies to prevent mass violence in society.

Having undergone validation at different levels, the research has now been published as a book titled “Understanding Community Resilience in the Context of Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria”. To make it public and serve as a document that provides lessons to strong, weak and non affected communities elsewhere, CITAD presents the book to the public before heavy media presence at the Aminu Kano Center for Democratic Research and Training (Mambayya House, Kano). Similar public presentations of the book are due to take place in Maiduguri, Dutse and Abuja respectively.

In his remarks, the chairman of the occasion, Malam Ibrahim Mu’azzam of Political Science Department, Bayero University Kano observes that there is no way communities can be secured without the stakeholders and the in the long run the stakeholders are the communities, as such less resilient communities ought to warmly embrace and learn from the lessons drawn from the research. Dr. Moses Aluaigba presented on “Understanding the Concept of Community Resilience” in which he began by defining community resilience as ability or capacity of the community, individual or organization to absorb the shocks arising from crisis or conflict that may come it’s way and come back to normalcy. He further expatiated on the concept citing different instances to paint a clear picture of the term.

To give an idea on what the book entails in a nutshell, Dr. Aminu Aliyu gave a review of the publication with gradual chapter by chapter treatment. The co-lead researcher and Executive Director of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) Y.Z. Ya’u led his audience into the key findings of the research pointing out how social cohesion in some communities has helped avert ambush by the insurgents. He said seventeen communities were studied across the states of the research. Bama and Gwoza towns lacked social cohesion, there was Muslim-Christian divide among residents of Gwoza, while the case of Bama was between Islamic sects (Izala and Tijjaniyya), there was also the issue of settler-indigene struggle, as a result they were badly shaken by the insurgents. But, in Biu and Gombi there was social cohesion, as a result they were able to resist or repel Boko Haram attacks, therefore, social cohesion and inclusion really helped the communities to be more resilient. The research also discovered that communities that have high unemployment rate tend to be weak and easily provide recruitment base for the insurgents. The book has a more comprehensive compilation of the findings and recommendations on community resilience; it was edited by Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, Chom Bagu and Y.Z. Ya’u.

A fitar da rahoton binciken Babachir

A Najeriya, wasu masu fafutukar yaki da cin hanci a kasar sun bukaci mukaddashin shugaban kasa daya gaggauta fitar da rahoton daya bincike Babachir David Lawal, Sakataren gwamnatin da aka dakatar bisa zargin aikata almundahana.

Cibiyar bunkasa fasahar sadarwa da ci gaban al’umma ta CITAD da ke arewa maso gabashin Najeriya na daya daga cikin kungiyoyin da suka fara irin wannan kiraye kiraye.

Shugaban cibiyar Comrade Kabiru Sa’idu Dakata ya ce ‘yan Najeriya sun zura ido suga an fitar da sakamakon binciken inda ya ce Jama’a da dama musamman masu fafutukar yaki da cin hanci a kasar na ganin beken gwamnatin saboda kin mika rahoton.

A cewar su, rashin gabatar da rahoton ka iya sanya shakku a zukatan al’umma game da yaki da cin hanci da rashawa na gwamnatin kasar.

Tun da farko dai an tsara cewa kwamitin zai mika rahoton sa ne ranar 3 Mayu amma kuma aka dage zuwa ranar Litini 8 ga watan Mayu wanda kuma ba’a gabatar ba.

Kwamitin binciken da shugaba Muhammadu Buhari ya kafa dai ya hada da Farfesa Yemi Osinbajo, mataimakin shugaban kasar da mai baiwa shugaban kasa shawara kan harkar tsaro, Majo Janar Babagana Monguno mai ritaya da kuma babban lauyan Najeriya, Abubakar Malami.

Poor teaching of religions responsible for hate speeches-CITAD

Poor teaching of religions responsible for hate speeches-CITAD

From left-right: Dr. Moses Aluagba , Mal. Ibrahim Muazzam and Dr. Aminu Aliyu, during the public presentation of the book in Kano

Poor teaching of Christian and Islamic religions at school levels has been blamed for the proliferation of hate speeches across the adherents of the two dominant religions in the country.

Executive Director Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Y. Z. Ya’u made the observation in Kano while answering questions at  the public presentation of the book titled ‘’Understanding community resilience in the context of Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria’’ by CITAD in collaboration with the United States Institute of Peace.

He said one of the things that weakens ‘’social cohesion’’ being one of the mechanisms for confronting aggressive tendencies at community levels is the element of hate speeches exchanged among the adherents of the two faiths.

He said ‘’labelling adherents of a particular faith as infidels (arna) and those of the other faith as Boko Haram or jihadists needs to be taken serious. We need to think about those terms that set us apart. We should think about communication that eliminates the walls that divide us.

‘’We should also think about the way we even teach our religions. It has been observed that both Christian Religious Knowledge and Islamic Religious Studies are taught by people who do not even understand the religions. Once there is no properly qualified person you say ah! Your name is Aminu come and teach Islamic studies, your name is Joseph come and teach CRK. We have people who do not understand religion training our own children’’ he lamented.

He called for synergy between security agencies and the public through sharing of relevant information to be able to fight insurgency and other similar acts of terrorism in the country to a logical conclusion.

He emphasised that some communities in the North East were able to withstand the insurgents’ attack because they were able to rally round each other on trust irrespective ethno-religious differences.

He urged Nigerians to be security conscious and to always live in peace and harmony with one another irrespective of the etho-religious differences.

Why Boko Haram succeeded in over running communities – Research

Research has shown that Boko Haram succeeded in running over several communities in the North East mostly because of the absence of functional surveillance and monitoring mechanism.

This was disclosed, on Wednesday, in Gombe, during a public policy dialogue on community resilience organized by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), with members of the Presidential Committee on North East Initiative (PCNI) in attendance.

Executive director of the centre, Y.Z Ya’u further disclosed that the research, which was part of efforts to find solution to the conflict as well as to prevent future occurrence of similar conflicts, was conducted in over 16 communities across four states namely; Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno and Yobe.

He explained that the research was conducted specifically to understand what makes communities to withstand and repel attacks by the insurgents, as well as why such communities succumb by giving the insurgents space to operate.

“This policy brief is the distillation of the key findings around the key factors that constitute community resilience and what can be done to activate them or to otherwise enhance them,” Ya’u said.

The lead researcher, Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim identified the absence of a functional surveillance and monitoring mechanism in communities where the Boko Haram was able to over run.

He pointed out that while some communities were completely overtaken and subdued by the insurgents, “some were able to bounce back after the shock to reestablish some normality.”

Prof. Ibrahim explained that community resilience, which entails the capacity of communities to adapt when faced with hazards, constitutes a major factor in protecting communities against insurgency.

While noting that with the already bad situation in the region worsened by the Boko Haram insurgency, he pointed out that, “there’s meaninglessness to bounce back to the status of the poorest country in the world.”

He explained further that addressing the issues affecting the region goes beyond stopping the insurgency and rehabilitating the people but “understanding the evolving dynamics of social cohesion which has broken down in the region.”

Prof. Ibrahim recommended recognized roles for traditional rulers who he described as instruments for higher resilience in communities.

Earlier, co-chairman of the PCNI, Alhaji Tijjani Musa Tumsa, commended CITAD for conducting the research, adding that the outcome of the exercise would provide his organization with new input towards curbing insurgency in the North East.

CITAD To Youths: Close Ranks To Prove Relevance In Politics, Governance

By Bashir Mohammed
Kano

Senior Programme Officer, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Malam Kabiru Saidu Dakata, has called on youths in the country to close rank and fight a common course to proof relevance in the nation’s political lexicon.
Speaking yesterday at a one-day sensitisation workshop organised by the Centre in Kano, Dakata said Nigeria as a developing country, was in the past ruled by youths, who at their tender ages had performed wonders to the satisfaction of everyone.

Citing the example of Gowon, Maitama Sule, Shagari, Tafawa Balewa,  Mbu and others to buttress his point, the CITAD Programme Officer maintained that both men had achieved greatness by proving their mettle,  while on their teens and wondered why the youths of today could not persevere to achieve a similar feat.

He pointed out that nothing was “impossible in the current drive to achieve the goal of an all encompassing inclusion in the business of politics and governance by youths taking the gauntlet, if they widely agreed to close rank in achieving a common goal”, adding that the spirit of patriotism and nationalism was what had inspired youths of the yesteryears to make considerable headway.
He said the issue of godfatherism and certain legal impediments had been the major albatross in the struggle by youths to prove their relevance and indispensability in the business   of politics and governance.
Dakata said this was pushing them to the lower rung of the ladder in the nation’s scheme of things, stressing that the youths themselves had lacked the self-confidence  and unity to face the challenge squarely.

He, however, stated that in countries like France, United States, South Africa and other notable African countries,  youths had considerably enjoyed the legal leverage to participate in politics and be voted into prominence positions.
Speaking earlier, a Programme Coordinator, Centre for Information Technology and Development, Malam Isiyaku Garba, said the one-day sensitisation workshop, was conceived to expose youths and notable political actors to the nitty-gritty of changing the status quo in the quest to make the business of politics and governance dominated by youths.

CITAD Organises Capacity Building For Peace Clubs In Kano

By Bashir Mohammed
Kano

Centre For Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has organised a one-day capacity building workshop for members of Peace Clubs in Kano drawn from some selected secondary and colleges with the aim of brainstorming on ways of sending messages to contain hate messages.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the workshop which was held at the Conference Hall of Conference of CITAD in Kano yesterday, CITAD’s Executive Director, Dr. Yunusa Zakari Yau, said the workshop had become imperative in view of the disturbing cases of hate speeches posing a threat to the corporate existence of the nation.

He said the one-day capacity building workshop, was the first of its kind organised by CITAD considering the pressing need for having a platform that “can be used in enhancing students’ writing skills and creativity on literary work in form of composing a poem that would send clear messages on how to live in peace and harmony with one another.”
He said CITAD had expanded the scope and areas to be covered by the capacity building workshop, adding that the workshop was holding in Yobe, Jigawa, Bauchi, Katsina and other states considered to be catchment areas, stressing that the  alarming spate of hate was what had prompted CIITAD to swing into action.

Civil Society and the Coming Internet Code of Practice in Nigeria, (2)

Mallam YZ Y’au

The assumption here is that the reader must have read the first part of this report on how the ‘Civil Society Consultative Forum on Internet Code of Practice for Nigeria’ went on June 8th, 2017 in Abuja and this second part is simply rolling on. In what ways are women discriminated against in terms of utilisation of the internet? This was actually the first question posed to Prof Dada and it was by a young woman journalist. It is only coming at this stage of the report, preceded by the themes of rural internet and the internet-security nexus because Prof Dada pushed the question to CITAD Executive Director whose response came way down. In doing so, it is either that Prof Dada did not want to entangle himself in wider gender politics or did so out of awareness that the CITAD boss was among the big masquerades beating the ideological drums to which the defunct Women in Nigeria, (WIN) was gyrating until a strange consciousness seized the organization mid 1990s, problematising male membership. Whichever of the two plausible reasons apply, Y’au told the audience when he took the floor that a study by CITAD had shown less women online when compared to men and that there are many reasons for that.

The most obvious explanation, according to him, is cultural. That is the cultural imagination of the woman as a strange presence in the public sphere. He illustrated this reality with the example of women who have been divorced because they have been seen on facebook.

Two, every technology comes with its skills requirement. For the internet, the skills requirement is the gamut of digital literacy but which men have more chances of acquiring than women because of the spatial division of labour that underline gender inequality. Three, men are also better placed in terms of affordability which is a function of life chances broadly. He recalls the slogan about poverty having a woman face because more women are poor. Fourth explanation has to do with how the internet is used – men are not subjected to sexual harassment online as much as women are, for example, by blackmailers loading a woman’s picture onto the facebook or the net. To avoid such situations especially in our kind of society, some women avoid the internet entirely. Finally, women are over burdened. They are caregivers to children and husband, many of them combine that with working life, they handle domestic chores and manage the kitchen which is at the heart of the conventional family. The combined effect of these leave them with little or no time left to engage with technology, especially the internet.

His conclusion is that women are thus a special class of the marginalised in relation to accessing the internet. This is not only in Nigeria but Africa wide and global because, except the Scandinavian countries – Sweden, Norway and Denmark, very few other countries have overcome the women question. As such, dealing with Internet Code of Practice in Nigeria requires ensuring digital literacy for women and guaranteeing a privacy regime for women.

Mrs Mary Iduma, a former NCC Director and now the Chairperson of the Nigeria as well as West African Internet Governance Forum took her turn to present the second background paper. Hers was on the Internet Governance Forum as a layer in the governance ensemble around the internet. It is a policy dialogue platform for stakeholders, she said, meaning that they do not deal with treaties. Instead of dabbling into hard or soft legalisation, they jaw-jaw around thematic areas of trade and every other economic activities that define the internet economy; the management of critical internet resources; inclusiveness – dealing with women, disabled, the aged and new language such as digital natives, digital migrants, etc; diversity; enhancing multi-stakeholder communities – from academics to business to civil society; cyber – security; internet eco-system and, lastly, emerging issues such as big data.

What may be regarded as the second segment of her presentation was where she applied this broad framework to Nigeria, generating questions and controversies on issues as varied as what conception of human rights should be acceptable to Nigeria, is Nigeria for Net neutrality; have policy makers accepted Zero rating and how can Africa deal with it? For her, Africa would not accept zero rating because not much is being uploaded from Africa as much as the so much downloading going on. So, accepting zero rating would squeeze Africa’s traffic.

What of net neutrality? Is Nigeria for or against it? Net neutrality means no discrimination against anything on the net. Theoretically, the internet is supposed to be a wonderland where you can fetch or deposit whatever, including pornography and obscenity. How should Nigeria deal with that? What about human rights in relation to the internet?

How does Africa fare in the great power politics around the internet?

Sensing the elastic nature of these category of questions, Yakubu Aliyu, the Chairperson intervened to remind the audience of the topic of a recent engagement: “Rethinking African Culture in the Age of Internet”. For him, if Nigeria/Africa and nobody actually can control the internet, then it is up to us to come from the other side in terms of how much space Africa can occupy. That way, the question is reduced to something more manageable.

It turned out to be a discerning intervention in view of the observable dichotomy gradually building up in the room between the communalists and the liberal divide as always in the politics of human rights in Africa. What was left was to summaries the day.

In doing that, CITAD boss said it had been a great day because a number of crucial ideas had come to the fore, including the unanticipated slogan “.ng is our (Nigeria) currency in the cyberspace”, how good it is to use it, especially that it is cheaper than others. A summary of what emerged as the key issues of concern would be produced and circulated, including to stakeholders who did not attend the session, he said. It is the clean document from that phase that would make its way to the NCC as the civil society’s shopping list as far as internet code of practice in Nigeria is concerned.

Youths Dialogue Blames Political Parties, INEC, Triggers More Youths Participation in Politics.

By Hamza Ibrahim Chinade.

After holding Content Charter for People Living with Disability (PWDs) and Communities Experience Sharing Workshops, the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) which implements a Department for International Development (DIFD) supported project “Strengthening Civic Engagement with the Electoral Process SCEEP through ActionAid Nigeria, the organization convenes another engagement titled “Inter-Party Youths Dialogue” with a view to exploring youths participation in politics in Nigeria, their challenges as well as opportunities.

Stating the objectives of the programme, Malam Isah Garba maintained that the composition of the dialogue is mainly drawn in order to ensure fair play among the participants and deliberate important concerns around youths participation in politics in Nigeria and eventually set a pace for youths, women and people with special needs inclusion in politics as that will not only promote good governance but also end discrimination and marginalization of certain groups in the society.

In his presentation titled “CITAD/AAN Experience in 2015 General elections in Nigeria and Youths: Key Findings”, coordinator of SCEEP project, Malam Isyaku Garba treated many concepts and highlighted activities in the recent election, significance of such activities and how they can serve as case studies to salvaging the future of especially youths in Nigerian politics.

Also presenting on “Youths and Politics in Nigeria”, Kabiru Sa’idu Dakata emphasized on political participation, definition of youths by age, variation of youths definition in different countries, youths percentage in terms of voting, population of youths in federal and state cabinets, legislatures and constitutional provision for youths participation in Nigerian polity. Kabiru observed that reviews need to be made regarding age limit for contesting for electoral offices and the youths themselves ought to be responsible enough to accept what is right and reject what is not lawfully, he added that the ere of giving youths money to vote certain candidates or youths carrying weapons during campaigns must stop if they want to really reshape their status in the country.

In their separate goodwill messages, Director of Kano state Directorate for Youths Development, representative of Commissioner, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Director, National Orientation Agency (NOA) all appealed to youths to be patriotic, committed and determined especially in politics saying that will help strengthen the polity in general. Some of the challenges noted at the dialogue included: lack of resources or financial constraints, god fatherism, lack of political mentorship from the past leaders or prominent society elites, constitutional restriction, cultural and parental restrictions, social stereotype, lack of adherence to party regulations, partiality of security agents during elections, poor leadership in political parties, neglect of youths in party affairs, lack of integrity and foresight by the youths, lack of leadership capacity and skills by the youths etc.

Recommendations were specifically made to INEC, political parties and the youths. Some of the recommendations to made to INEC were the need to review age limit law to allow more youths participation in election, allow and encourage independent candidates system, and scrap payment for expression of interest which the participants agreed stops youths candidates with little or no resources to run for political offices. Participants also recommended that political parties should eliminate delegate system and replace with option A4 i.e majority carry the votes, abolish god fatherism practice and let competency champion the cause nominating candidates and support and encourage women and people living with disability (PWDs) candidacy. On youths, the participants urged them and well meaning individuals to patriotically join politics and salvage their future, they also should identify political parties with real values and join them and the constitution needs to be amended to allow for more youths participation in politics

A communiqué was jointly issued by the participants at the end of the dialogue. The Inter-Party Youths Dialogue was attended by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Orientation Agency (NOA), Kano state Directorate of Youths Development, different political parties, civil society organizations (CSOs), students of tertiary institutions, SCEEP communities, people with special needs, women groups, the media etc.

Civil Society and the Coming Internet Code of Practice in Nigeria (1)

The internet intrigues everyone. So much so that, in 2014, two Western think tanks, Chatham House in London and the Ontario, Canada based Centre for International Governance Innovation, (CIGI) set up the Global Commission on Internet Governance. The task was to explore how to preserve a single worldwide web, (romantically renamed worldwide wonderland). The two went on to put Prof Joseph Nye to the task. You can call people such as Professor Nye, John Ikenberry, Robert Keohane and all other members of that club conservative scholars but they are some of the most established political scientists in the Western world and most influential on a global scale. Obviously finding the concept of Hegemony too radical or smelling of Socialism, for example, Prof Nye, a special student of power, has basically created the concept of ‘soft power’ to replace it. Today, even the radicals are using soft power without much suspicion. It has become naturalised as a term by which we think of power as built up consent rather than coercion. But ‘soft power’ is not less ‘dangerous’ than Hegemony. It says much about how scholars in that circle set the standards.

However, when Nye went to work, he came out with a neither here nor there kind of position as far as the hard headed realist he has been. Instead of an analysis corresponding to that theoretical standpoint, Nye’s report was speaking in theoretical tongues, relying on scholarly dexterity to argue what he called a ‘Regime Complex’ – “loosely coupled norms and institutions that ranks somewhere between integrated institutions that imposes regulation through hierarchical rule and highly fragmented practices and institutions with no identifiable core and non- existent linkages”. It was a classic evidence of the incomprehensibility of the phenomenon called the internet to even some of the most regarded contemporary thinkers.

The world has found challenging the multiplicity of tasks the internet alone can accomplish, the technological complexity, the horde of actors it invites and accommodates, the security debacle it has invented, the ideological quarrels it has brought about, the problem of dealing with the United States, until recently, the elephant in the internet governance room, the digital divide corresponding to the North-South dichotomy, the gender question in internet access and the internet’s share of the ‘tragedy of the commons’.

It was against this background that the recent invitation to a ‘Civil Society Consultative Forum on Internet Code of Practice for Nigeria’ was received with excitement as well as apprehension in many quarters across Nigeria. Excitement because it gave a critical stakeholder such as the civil society opportunity to generate and make the sort of input that expands its own space in a process involving the consolidation of the internet. Two, it is an entirely Nigerian government initiative through its telecommunications regulator – the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The apprehension was/is how the civil society of even the giant of Africa might penetrate the ocean called the internet in terms of something for everyone. This is in the light of the great power politics around the internet, especially the threat of balkanization and the frightening argument that such states have a fall back in the principle of substitutability, coercion and delegation by which they can always have their way.

June 8th, 2017 came and it was a full house full of surprises. The first surprise came from the way the Centre for Information Technology and Development, (CITAD) coordinating the input making process managed to assemble people versatile in the issues involved. The second surprise was how nearly everyone was keen to push a position, clarify something or offer an alternative, from the beginning to the end of the meeting.  The third surprise is how far gender consciousness has gone in the discourses of internet governance in Nigeria. If that measures the level of gender consciousness across other social arena in Nigeria, then the gender revolution would take place before we know it. The last shocker is how an audience of predominantly Abuja based potential middle class elements could be so insistent on extension of internet facilities to the rural areas.

Called by Alhaji Yakubu Aliyu, the Abuja based Development Policy expert who chaired the occasion to make an opening remark, Mallam Yunusa Y’au, the Executive Director of CITAD, located the essence of the day in NCC’s call for inputs for an internet code of practice for the country. So, the consultative forum differs slightly from the typical civil society engagement. Unlike the governance issues the civil society is more used to, this is about procedures and guidelines on how people could access and use the net.

It may look innocuous but caution is required, he said, pointing out how the internet has become a guarantor of other rights such as right to Freedom of Information, right to education and so on. It is for this reason that there is a gradual move to make internet access a right but the move is constrained by issues of access, affordability, infrastructure, appropriateness of platform and the case of special audiences such as the disabled. The civil society might, therefore, want to think about which guidelines and procedures would guarantee inclusivity, respond to gender violence online and the tendency of national governments to isolate negative impacts of the internet and seek to assert control, among others.

Prof Dada at a previous outing

Professor John Dada was the first of the three resource persons whose intervention were to provide the background to the input process. He turned out a fascinating presenter with great deal of raw data. Surprisingly, he is not based in any jet set urban centre but Kafanchan. He is of the APC but not the party in power in Nigeria. His is the Association of Progressive Communications, (APC) that works through research, advocacy, networking, communication and outreach.

There is a sense in which three of the greatest points he made might be the following. Regulation is running behind the internet itself. Always several steps behind the internet dynamics because of lack of internet governance training rather than wickedness, governments are found reacting out of panic or in ignorance. In his analysis, they need internet governance training. The way he presented it is such that most senators and members of the House of Representatives would flock to internet governance schools because it would help make them resolve their crisis of relevance in their communities by being able to do much more at very little or no cost at all.

Second is his point about the relative lack of awareness of the potentials of the internet in Nigeria, especially when compared to Latin American countries. The third is the emancipatory dimension of his politics of the internet: making it available for everyone is not a big deal.

One question put to Prof Dada and which remained dominant throughout the rest of the day was: who pays for the cost of taking internet to the rural areas. He’s got an answer: it is not a big deal either. One, there is a service provision fund to cushion transnational corporations going to such places considered to be uneconomical in profit terms either because they are sparsely populated or hard to reach. Right now, Nigeria has billions untouched in the said fund. Somebody made a cynical remark that the money must still be there only because Nigeria’s Finance Minister is unaware or it would have been withdrawn and used for something else. It gave an insight to how little is the faith in government in Nigeria.

Dada’s second means for taking internet to the rural areas is the community network. All the government has to do is provide the backbone because the community provides the content and the infrastructure. Dada would add that whatever is considered as problems in taking the internet to the rural areas have been confronted and resolved one way or the other elsewhere such as in India, Argentina, Peru among others.

The rural areas are where the internet must go, he says. His reason is that these are where the real Nigerians are based, with rich oral and visual culture which the internet is the best place to spread them. There is now solar operated computer, making lack of electricity nearly a non-issue. A Yoruba keyboard is already developed and is on the way for other cultural groups. With that, illiteracy as a constraint on taking internet to the rural areas is off. This, he said, is why illiterates in Japan or China didn’t have to become literate before they could get into the world of the internet. What is missing, as far as he is concerned, is a powerful enough advocacy for rural internet provisioning. Once that comes on board, the awareness would be created and the idea would catch on.

What about a sort of a Nigerian thinking on the security debacle that comes along with the very nature of the internet – it can secure just as it can be a conveyor belt for insecurity. Yet, civil society is sensitive to government trying to control it even as we want to be safe from terrorists, cyber criminals and dirty dealers. Two responses greeted this question. First was the argument that government almost always over steps itself in trying to use security as an excuse. The example of the huge amount of money spent on surveillance equipment which was not even installed is cited. This propensity typical of government is something civil society is asked to watch out for, being the ears and eyes of the people. The second answer is the futility of government’s attempt to block or control content. They never make a success of it, it was pointed out. An example was given of the experience of three Nigerians who arrived an East African country where the government had shut down internet access – no face booking, no tweeting, no whataspping.

Unable to bear being cut off from the world, unable to inform families and friends about their safe arrival, the three Nigerians found themselves protesting to the hotel. The outcome was being taken to a hidden corner of the hotel where they found everyone using internet facilities through an alternative mechanism. The logic of the story was to show the difficulty of sustained blocking of access to the internet because people would always get round it. In any case, whatever you do on the internet is there and security can always trace it to you. Civil society does not frown at government doing security but frowns at using people’s indiscretion to blackmail people which is abuse of the intelligence profession. In other words, what is intelligence if government goes to tell your wife what you told your girlfriend? The hall did not explode in laughter but witnessed the kind of chuckling that signposts approval of the argument, especially when the speaker added the point about how many students first encounter the computer on the day they sit for the Computer Based Test in Nigeria even though the National Education Curriculum says Computer Studies is compulsory.

 

Experience Sharing Meeting on Community Development Charter (CDC) Engagement Organized by #SCEEP/CITAD Today at Ni’imah Guest Palace, Kano.

By Sagiru Ado Abubakar.

The Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has on Tuesday 6th June, 2017 organized a one-day Experience Sharing Meeting with 18 SCEEP communities in Kano State with view to share experience and learning with regard to Community Development Charter (CDC) Engagement. The Community Development Charter (CDC) is an empowering document that gives communities an insight into the challenges they face as people. CITAD facilitated the publication of the Community Development Charter under Strengthening Citizen Engagement in the Electoral Process (SCEEP) project that has been implementing since 2014.The objective of the project is to promote election participation and good governance through public participation, mainstream citizens participation in election and good governance, to build the capacity of local CBOs, to mobilize citizens behind an evidence-based advocacy to participant in good governance, to monitor government expenditure, to build the capacity of the local communities to towards involvement of citizens in election and the governance of the local and state government.

In today’s event, the communities shared their valuable experiences and learning’s with fellow communities and stakeholders on the CDC engagement process. Earlier, CITAD/SCEEP had motivated the 18 SCEEP communities to hold meetings at the community level and discuss issues around the Community Development Charters. This helps the communities to generate issues that form discussion during the state level meeting in order to capture and share the communities experience and inspirational practice.

Malam Isyaku Garba made the opening remarks at the beginning of the meeting. He welcomed all and reminds the participants that since inception of this project CITAD/SCEEP carried out different activities ranging from voter education, election monitoring, village book meetings, advocacy trainings, budget literacy training etc all addressing constraints observed. Purpose of today’s meeting was clearly stated by Malam Ahmad Yakasai. Yakasai said that we have all your findings in written, but if CITAD has not invited you to this meeting no way we can learn from one another. This meeting enables us to know what strategies Dan Agundi in Kano Municipal Local Government for example used and achieve particular result so that community of Daura in Karaye Local Government should emulate.

Participants were grouped into six groups with strategy of three communities from each local government should form a group. Each group was asked to address the following questions:

  1. What was the situation before our intervention?
  2. Identify the changes in your community as a result of the CDC engagement
  3. Which methods or tools did you use in getting the changes identified in question 1b.
  4. What did you find most useful (step by step description can help here)
  5. What do you think is the best way to engage our representatives, policy makers, government institutions etc
  6. Mention challenges you face in participating in governance at local government level and state government level
  7. How SCEEP has help you out in term of community organizing and participating in governance
  8. What successes do you achieve and strategies you plan to ensure sustainability

 

  1. What are the most valuable learning of the CDC experience
  2. What initiative do you currently have as a result of SCEEP engagement or intends to carry out?
  3. What kind of investment/ resources did individuals or communities make?
  4. Identified CDC issues projects 2017 budget
  5. Feedback on 321 code

After group presentations, fruitful information was generated from the participants. Finally, Malam Isyaku Garba said during the closing remarks that this information is going to be used to produce a qualitative work that can serve as an advocacy campaign tool that can be used at state level and for the future engagements. The event was attended by 54 participants from 18 #SCEEP communities in Kano State

 

 

PWDs’ Needs Are Neglected During Electoral Process, Participants Lament at a One Day Workshop

The workshop was organized by Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) with support from ActionAid Nigeria to share the experiences in relation to the processes, conduct and participation of People With special Needs (PWDs) in the 2015 general election.

After introduction and background of the workshop by Training Coordinator Malam Ahmad Abdullahi Yakasai, the project Coordinator, Isyaku Garba presented the 1st paper tilled “ActionAid experience in 2015 General Election in Nigeria and PWDs: Key Findings. The presentation flashed back to the military regime down to the democratic era in which processes of elections, number of political parties, contestants, role played by INEC, security agents, youths, women, challenges as well as developments in the previous elections were highlighted with particular attention to the PWDs.

The charter development consultant, chairman of the occasion and presenter of the 2nd paper, Mal. Ibrahim Umar Abdulkarim led a 5 cluster groups of people with special needs in accordance to their challenges to answer certain questions in order to understand their real needs and challenges during elections. Some of the challenges identified included: lack of special arrangement for PWDs on election day, needs for voter cards and ballot papers on brail papers to guide the blinds, provision of special stands for albinos and lack of internal democracy in political parties to allow PWDs participation.

 

In his closing remarks, Malam Ahmad Abdullahi Yakasai commended the support receivied from ActionAid International Nigeria. He also appreciated the keen interest shown by the participants and extended CITAD gratitude to the Commissioner of Police, INEC representative, NOA, chairman of the occasion and entire individuals who have contributed to the success of the workshop.

 

CITAD Holds Students Forum on #OpenNass Campaign

The Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has on Thursday 18th May, 2017 organized students forum on #OpenNASS Campaign. #OpenNASS campaign is an advocacy campaign aimed at tackling 3 fundamental issues. Specifically, the campaign aimed at tackling poor understanding of governance and the role of voters, few tools (discussion forums, petitions, town halls etc) available to the average voters and opacity in the use of public funds and policy choices. The campaign has been very active on social media and in the last year, has been amplified via infographs in nothing less than 6 newspapers like Daily Trust, This Day, Punch e.t.c and discussions / sensitization jingles on 8 radio stations across Nigeria. In her opening remarks, the program coordinator, Malama Harira Abdurrahaman Wakili, said that In Nigeria, there is a major disconnect between the elected representatives and the general voting population outside of the electoral process. This has seriously hampered the strength of democracy because officials make decisions and vote on issues with limited information from their constituents, and with little oversight from these same constituents. This problem is borne out of 3 fundamental issues:

  • The average voter does not understand the governance system in Nigeria, and their role in keeping their government accountable.
  • There are very few tools (petitions, open lines, discussion forums, etc.) available to the average voter to share information with elected representatives and hold them accountable.
  • The national government is very opaque on its policy choices and use of public funds

In addressing ways to overcome the above mentioned problems, Hariara said that Nigerians have started writing and signing petitions for an #openNASS. The petition will put more pressure on the National Assembly to open up its activities. In view of this, CITAD observed that there is urgent need to spread the campaign across by organizing such event and in its different activities and network in order to have more hands to join the agitation.

In the paper he presented, Malam Hamza Ibrahim Chinade, CITAD’s Media Officer, said that the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a bicameral legislature established under section 4 of the Nigerian Constitution. It consists of a Senate with 109 members and a 360-member House of Representatives. The body, modeled after the federal Congress of the United States is supposed to guarantee equal representation of the 36 states irrespective of size in the Senate and proportional representation of population in the House of Reps. He then gave the party composition of the senate as APC 60 and PDP 49, while the party composition of the House of Representative is APC 225, PDP 125 and others 10. He finally outlined the following as the major roles of the legislature in a democracy         i. Enactment of laws    ii. Appropriation of funds, and    iii. Oversight on implementation.

Mrs. Salma Muhammad led an interactive discussion on the role of students in promoting #openNASS. During the discussions, Ahmad Tijjani, a Political Science student from Bayero University, Kano encouraged the fellow students to include #openNASS campaign in the SUG activities in tertiary institutions in the state. “We will not allow the politicians to design the people needs in their offices and deny them access to useful information”. Ahmad Said. Idris Nuhu Congo from Gaya Local Governments urged CITAD to take the campaign to secondary schools in the state in order to catch our youth young. Ibrahim Abdullahi a community leader from Hotoron Kudu, requested CITAD to produce #openNASS campaign pamphlets in Hausa Language for easy understanding for their people.

Finally, Malam Isyaku Garba of CITAD shared information of the role of legislative aides of the elected representative and gave their contact phone numbers. The event was attended by about 60 participants.

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.