Date: 18-20 th July, 2023
Venue: Rockview Hotel, Abuja

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) as part of its commitment to promote
digital rights in Nigeria and ensure the individual users of the internet rights are being safeguarded and
protected, and being that human rights online, are recognized as components of our fundamental human
rights that must be respected by all and be protected by the government from the 18 th -20 th of July, 2023
conducted a capacity enhancement workshop for key staff of the National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) in Abuja with 18 participants in attendance. The objectives of the workshop were to:
i. Deepen the understanding of the NHRC staff of the concept of digital rights and its dimensions;
ii. Share lessons and learning from across the globe on how digital rights enforcement is
mainstreamed into the enforcement of fundamental human rights;
iii. And enhance the capacity of the commission’s staff to strategize on how they can incorporate
digital rights enforcement in the work of the Commission.

Giving his welcome remarks at the workshop, the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights
Commission, Chief Anthony Ojukwu (SAN) started by expressing the Commission’s gratitude to
management and Staff of CITAD for identifying and desiring to expand the frontiers of discuss on digital
rights through awareness creation and capacity building for institutions with the mandate to defend
human rights in the country. Speaking on the importance of protecting Digital Rights of the citizens, the
Executive Secretary said Digital Rights are basically human rights online, and they need to be protected.
He went further to state that digital rights are aspects of fundamental human rights that must be
recognized, respected and protected by all. The National Human Rights Commission was established for
the protection, promotion and enforcement of human rights in the country, which disposes the
Commission to every aspect of activities that impact on human rights, the Executive Secretary added.
Speaking farther on the aspect of Digital rights, Mr. Ojukwu mentioned that digital rights are emerging
discourse on impact of digital technology on every aspect of human endeavor, and the tremendous
potentials for improving human lives and ability to develop.

Lamenting on how the digital rights of the citizens are being abused, the Executive Secretary said
technologies present challenges with negative impacts such as censorship, inversion of privacy, illegal
surveillance and harassment of women and children. However, he emphasized that the Commission’s is in
a position to facilitate the protection of these rights through sensitization, monitoring and enforcement.
At the end he enjoined the participants to make the best out of the opportunity graciously offered the
Commission by CITAD.
Also, giving his welcome address at the workshop, the Executive Director of CITAD, Y.Z Ya’u said the need
for the knowledge of the application of the digital rights abuses by the commission cannot be over
emphasized, as the commission is the one saddle with responsibility to defend the human rights of the
citizens in the country, and digital rights are the extension of those rights into the digital space. The
Executive Director stated that the objective of organizing the workshop is to deepen the understanding of
the NHRC staff of the concept of digital rights and its dimensions; share lessons and learning from across
the globe on how digital rights enforcement is mainstreamed into the enforcement of fundamental
human rights; and enhance the capacity of the commission’s staff to strategize on how they can
incorporate digital rights enforcement in the work of the Commission. Speaking on how the privacy of
citizens are being interfered with in the country, the Executive Director said massive surveillance being
used by the security agencies and others to monitor the activities of the citizens in the country are threat
to the existence of the democratic process in the country.
Moreover, Mr. Ya’u also mentioned that part of the aim of the program and other follow up engagements
is to show how the aspect of digital rights will be mainstreamed into the work of the commission.
Emphasizing on the importance of the digital rights, Mr. Ya’u said digital rights have now become critical
part of the citizens human rights due to the fact that almost all the activities of citizens conducted have
now migrated to digital platforms, and for this the commission need to join other actors to continue
championing the cause for ensuring the passage of the digital rights and freedoms bill in the country.
Offering a goodwill message at the workshop, the Africa Director of the MacArthur Foundation, Dr. Kole
Ahmed Shettima thanked the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) for organizing
the workshop and described it as timely. According to him, MacArthur Foundation, as an organization,
one of its key areas of concern is how to use technology for public interest, in a way that it promotes
human dignity, protect human rights, protect the most vulnerable and of course ensure that the rights of
citizens are always protected. “Our privacy, our lives, our sources of livelihood and our intellects are also
protected and hence the programme at MacArthur Foundation tagged “Technology for Public Interest”.
He added.
He further stated that it is a well-known fact that some people use technology in a way that is inimical to
rights of individuals. It is also a well-known fact that there are cases of deployment of surveillance
systems by the state governments especially in the Niger Delta without constrains and unfortunately
citizens (and CSOs) have not been really paying required attention to this unfortunate development. This

is because as we are all aware some technologies are being used to track down individuals unwillingly and
many people have lost their lives especially journalists in many parts of the world. It is also worrying to
note that these technologies are in Nigeria and many states are using them and citizens don’t know for
what purpose these surveillance gadgets are being used, he averred.
Dr. Shettima also raised concern on the ways different institutions in Nigeria collect different sort of
biometrics data of citizens which citizens don’t know what they do with it, where they are taking it to and
who they are sharing it with. The Africa Director also noted that there are many laws and regulations that
relate to either cybercrime or anti-terrorism which citizens are not paying much attention to on how
technologies are being used in those laws in order to track down people and violet their rights.
Speaking about Artificial Intelligence (AI), Dr. Shettima said in Nigeria people have not started seriously
talking and thinking about it, but the reality is that many governments (in the world) are really working
hard to make sure that their citizens are protected. This is because it has been used to stereotype people
and harm them, but unfortunately up to now we are far away from engaging in such conversation let
alone of having a regulatory framework on how to use such technologies (AI) to make our lives more
advance and better.
At end, he expressed happiness that the conversation is happening with the NHRC.
On her part, the Executive Director of Association for Progressive Communications (APC) who was
represented by Peace Oliver, the African Regional Coordination of the organization, while giving her
welcome remarks at the training said she was very happy that this training was taking place at this time
when the issue of digital rights abuse of the citizens was increasing everyday and most of the time the
perpetrators are going freely leaving the victims at the mercy of their own self. She added that what she
is particularly happy about the training was the fact that the beneficiary of the training were those who
are responsible of protecting the rights of the citizens in the country. Speaking about how they take the
issue of digital rights, the ED said at APC, digital rights is one of areas the organization holds dear in its
work, and it is what they are advocating for over years.
Speaking on the importance and need for the digital rights, the Executive Director stated that respecting
and protecting the digital rights of the citizens was now a must and responsibility of everyone involve in
this works as the lives of the citizens is migrating to online platforms faster than we imagined. She went
further to said that almost all the activities citizens conducted especially journalists, activists and human
rights defenders are now migrated to internet, hence, the need to ensure the platforms are safe, secure
and friendly to use by all.

TRAINING:
Day One:

On the first day of the training, the participants were taken through the Foundational Basis for Digital
Rights by YZ Ya’u, Executive Director of the Centre for Information Technology and Development. Mr. Ya’u
started his presentation by taking the participants through the Changing Nature of Society and how the
internet has change the way we live. He also discussed The Industrial Trajectory, where he discussed 1 st
Industrial, 2 nd Industrial and 3 rd Industrial revolutions. Key Drivers of Earlier Industrial Revolution were also
discussed by Mr. Ya’u. Another topics touched by Mr. Ya’u while discussing the Foundational Basis for
Digital Rights were: Enters the Information Society; The Origins of the Discourse on Digital Rights; What
are Digital Rights; Why Digital Rights Matters; State of Digital Rights in Nigeria; Who are the People
Excluded including Availability of infrastructure, Affordability of digital goods and services, Capacity to use
digital devices. He also went further to discussed Estimating the Digital Excluded in the Country; Major
Challenges to Digital Rights; Some examples of How Digital Rights are abused or derogated in the country
and Status of Digital Rights in Nigeria

After the first presentation by Mr. Ya’u, participants were asked to identify the current Technology Use in
the Work of the Commission. Technology tools such as: Call Center, Internet-Based Complaint Platform,
ICT Unit, E-Library, and Platform for Lodging Complain were mentioned by the staff of the commission
present at the training.
Participants also agreed that the workshop was only the beginning of the engagement with digital rights.
While discussing current uses of technology in the work of the Commission, participants resolved as
followes:

1. That there is need for more training, especially for staff of the organization at zonal offices
2. There is need to improve on access to technology across the offices of the Commission
3. That the online human rights abuse platform of the commission should incorpate use of local
   languages in addition to English
4. A meeting of all relevant agencies as well as private providers should be convened to discusss
   the issues of digital rights and identify the individual and collective role the stakeholders should
   play in promoting digital rights in the country/
   The second presentation of the day was on Planning for the Monitoring of Digital Rights Compliance in
   Nigeria by Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukhu, Country Director, Lawyers Without Borders, Nigeria. Mrs. Uzoma
   started by defining what digital rights is all about. Then she discussed about Digital Rights in Nigeria –
   Current Reality. Other issues she covered include: Monitoring Digital Rights such as: Freedom of
   Expression; Digital Rights Education; Access to Information & Services; Rights to Privacy; Legal
   Framework. And lastly she touched the Monitoring Index like Patterns, Key Actors, and Legislations in the
   country

The last presentation of the day was on Legal Perspectives on Digital Rights by Barrister Hussain Hussain
of the Eastward Legal Services. Barrister Hussain started by discussing on the Fundamental Rights of the
Citizens. Other issues discussed by Barrister Hussain were: Case Study of Political View on Provision of
Access to the Internet for all; Internet Regularability and Digital Rights; Cyber libertarians; Cyber
paternalists; Network Communitarianism; What School of Thought is Prevalent in Nigeria; How can Digital
Rights be Safeguarded. Incorporated Trustees of Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative & Ors v. NIMC (2021)
LPELR-55623(CA). Limitation to Digital Rights in Nigeria and how to Break the Barrier and Avoid Liability.

Day Two:
On the second day of the training, a recap of what had been discussed on the first day was done, during
which the participants were asked to mention one or two things they learnt in the previous day. After the
recap, Barrister Emmanuel Edet, Director, Legal Services, National Information Technology Development
Agency (NITDA) took the participants through the Protecting Children Online and the Current Policy in the
Country. Mr. Edet started by exploring the origin and need for children to have specific rights; the rights
of a child; Enforcement Measures. He also highlighted the steps taken by relevant stakeholders to enforce
the rights of a child in the country. After that he discussed on Parental Advisory to ensuring the rights of
children are being safeguarded, and continued to highlight what can be done to improve child protection
in digital environment. Other issues discussed by Mr. Edet were: Child Rights as Subset of Human
Rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors; History of
Child Rights; Global Outlook on the Rights of a Child; Convention on the Rights of the Child; The African
Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child Rights Act. Moreover, Mr. Edet also touched on the
responsibilities of different stakeholders on the child rights; Mechanisms for Compliance; Parental
Advisory; Child Online Safety Index (COSI). At the end of his presentation he gave some recommendations
on how to ensure every child’s rights is being protect. Some of the recommendations he offered were:
Strengthening of Legal Frameworks and Institutions, Creating sustainable programmes with measurable
objectives, and collaboration i.e. engaging everyone in the process.
The second presentation of the day was on African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms by YZ
Ya’u. On this presentation, Mr. Ya’u focused on the 13 principles of the African Declaration on Internet
Rights and Freedoms such as: Openness, Internet Access and Affordability, Freedom of Expression, Right
to Information, Freedom of Assembly and Association and the Internet, Cultural and Linguistic Diversity,
Right to Development and Access to Knowledge, Privacy and Personal Data Protection, Security, Stability
and Resilience of the Internet, Marginalised Groups and Groups at Risk, Right to Due Process, Democratic
Multistakeholder Internet Governance and Gender Equality. On this presentation, Mr. Ya’u explained to
the participants the importance of each of the principle, how it could be achieved and the contribution
National Human Rights Commission can play to ensure the realization and respect of each of the
principle.

The third presentation was on Gender Violence Online as Digital Rights Abuse by Barrister Mojirayo
Ogunlana-Nkanga, Executive Director and Founder of Digicivic Initiative. Mrs. Ogunlana-Nkanga dwelled her
presentation on Online Gender Based Violence (OGBV), violence against women and how technology is being
used to abused individuals on the basis of either their religion, gender or race. The legal expert also discussed on
the True Nature of Online Violence in the Digital Age and how it is impacted of the lives of the OGBV victims.
Some of the impact according to her are; self-censorship, mental health, reputational damage and insecurity
After Mrs. Ogunlana-Nkanga presentation, it was followed by the Professor Nsongurua J. Udombana, LLD,
FCArb presentation on Enforcing Digital Rights in Nigeria: Opportunities and Challenges. Professor
Nsongurua focused his presentation on how the commission can use the existing laws in the country to
enforce the compliance of the digital rights in the country. He also discussed on the opportunities that
exist in the country which the commission can capitalize on to defend the victims of the digital rights.
However, the University don pointed out some of the challenges that can hinder the enforcement of the
digital rights in the country. The challenges according him are lack of substantive laws in the country,
overzealous of the security agencies, abuse of the court orders and lack of proper awareness among the
citizens.
The last presentation on the second was on the Draft Digital Rights Bill in Nigeria by Boye Adeboye, Senior
Manager, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN). Mr. Adegoke took the participants through the history of the
draft Digital Rights and Freedom Bill in Nigeria; how it was started, the actors involved, and how it was
rejected by the president in 2018.
Day Three:
On the day three of the training which was the last day of the training, participants were taken through
Digital Rights and Civic Space by Patrick Allam, Legal Officer, Spaces for Change. Mr. Allan started by taking
the participants through the Nigeria’s Digital Landscape; the State of Civic Space in West Africa; The State of Civic
Space in Nigeria; General Limitation of Civil Space; Regulation of Digital Spaces in Nigeria; Key Findings of the
Report on Civic Space Violation, and Modes of Online Attacks. He also discussed Roadmap for Change to Civic
Space violation such as: Regulation, Legislation and Sanction, Import and Export Controls, Increased
commitment to sensitization, capacity building and awareness-creation, lead reforms for accountability
and access, and Pushing for legislative and judicial reviews of repressive laws.
The second presentation on the third was on Digital Identify as a Right: A Look at the State of the NIMC
Registration by Jamila Ahmad, Assistant Director, Office of the Director General, National Identity
Management Commission (NIMC). Mrs. Ahmad focused her presentation on how NIMC is ensuring every
citizen has a digital identity which the commission consider as a right to every citizen. Some of the specific
topics she discussed were: Digital Identity as a Human Right; The Digital Identity?; The Importance of
Digital Identity; Nigeria’s Socio-economic Challenges; Nigeria’s Cyberspace Security Issues; The Role of
NIMC in Bridging Socio-economic and Security Challenges; Digital Identity Vs. Data Protection; Navigating
the Digital Landscape

Moreover, the final presentation at the training was on Data and Privacy Protection in the Context of the
National Data Protection Regulations. This particular presentation was conducted by Hauwa Ibrahim
Hadejia, Legal Enforcement and Regulation Officer at the commission. Miss. Ibrahim dwelled on the roles
and responsibilities of the NPDC in protecting the digital data of the citizens and the newly signed
Nigerian Data Protection Act. Some of the specific areas the presentation paid attention to were:
Individual’s Privacy Online?; Privacy Issues in the Digital Age; Protecting One selves from Privacy Issues;
The Roles of Companies and Governments in Data Protection? Foundations to Data Protection, Risk and
Challenges in Privacy Protection; Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023; The Role of the Nigeria Data
Protection Commission (NDPC), and Expectations of the NDPC.

To conclude the event, the participants discussed on how to promote the passage of the Digital Rights
and Freedom Bill in the country. Some of the points raised were:
i. Advocacy to the concerned agencies like NITDA, NPDC, NCC
ii. Advocacy to the National Assembly’s relevant committees i.e. House Committee on Human Rights
for their buy-in.
iii. Advocacy to Ministry of Justice
iv. Awareness creation among the citizens especially social influencers to help in pushing for the
passage of the bill
v. Engagement with social influencers to help in amplifying the message
vi. Robust engagements with media house
Observations:
 That national security has always been the basis for the violation of citizens’ digital rights
 That technology giants are the ones governing and censoring the digital space not the
government
 That children are one of the categories of individuals that are vulnerable online

Recommendations:
 There is a need for more sensitization on data protection on digital rights in Nigeria
 Complaints channeling platforms should be provided with the automated language
translation package
 There is a need for more training for staff of National Human Rights Commission on the
newly emerging digital rights
 There should be a fora that will bring together critical stakeholders on board to discuss
and come up with a well formulated and well-thought-out policy frame that can be
translated into law or at least policy direction framework

 The staff of the commission should be trained on how to handle online complaint
platform effectively
 NHRC should collaborate with relevant sister agencies such as NDPC in the area of
training and signing of MoU that will facilitate the protection of digital rights of
Nigerians
 There is a need for more concerted effort on the part of the relevant stakeholders in the
area of legislative buy-in and lobbying

By

Sagiru Ado Abubakar

With zeal and keen interest to reignite commitment to education in Shara Community and to
accelerate progress of the Shara Community School, the Centre for Information Technology and
Development (CITAD) has on 31st July, 2023 organized a High-Level meeting on Promoting
Access to Education for Rural Citizens in Shara village of Sumaila local government. CITAD
perceived that there is an urgent need to recover learning losses and motivate political actors
and other stakeholders in education towards realizing access to basic education to the
unserved community of Shara. The purpose of the high-level meeting was to prioritize and
improve education access for rural citizens in the Shara community and also aimed to mobilize
action, ambition, solidarity, and solutions to transform education in similar places in the state
and help rural citizens get better access to education.
In 2017, CITAD found that Shara community with population of over 3000 people including
about 600 school age children had no school and their children were not attending school
because the only school near them (at Matigwai) has to be reached by crossing a river which is
not possible during the raining season. Following a series of community consultations, the
community with help from CITAD, set up a community school under a tree in 2017. Much later,
in April, 2022 the state government approved the construction of a block of classrooms for the
Shara community. On 8 th September, 2022 following the completion of the construction of the
classrooms and noting that, the state government did not post any teacher after the
construction project, CITAD voluntarily recruited a teacher in the person of Malam Aminu Yusuf
Adam Sitti to help manage the activities of the activities of Shara community school.
The high-level meeting took place at Shara Community School premises and Alh. Sa’id Saleh
Yakubu, village head of Sitti made the welcome remark. He welcomed the royal fathers,
representative of the Distinguished Senator, Abdurrahman Kawu Sumaila, representative of the

member House of Representative, Barr. Rabi’u Yusuf, members from CITAD and other
participants. He then told that they have since prepared, eager to host this meeting and wished
everybody fruitful deliberations. Alh. Anas Kabiru, village head of Matigwai represented the
district head of Sumaila at the evet. He said that, the emir of Rano, His Royal Highness, Alh.
Kabiru Muhd Inuwa assigned the district head of Sumaila to represent him at the high-level
meeting. Due to some reason, the district head ordered him to represent them both at the
meeting. He told that, the messages of the emir and that of the district head are similar. They
both urged the people of Shara who stayed longer living without having a single person with
primary school certificate to utilized this opportunity by sending their wards to school regularly.
He warned that the emirate will deal with anyone whoever withheld his ward from the school
as it is the policy of the state government.
Malam Sa’id Saleh, chairman Sitti Forum shared the journey so far. Since from the time CITAD
came across the Shara village during a project ‘improving Access to Education through
Community Mobilization’ been conducted by CITAD in 2016. Sagiru Ado Abubakar led the
delegation from CITAD to the event and he represented the CITAD Executive Director Malam
Yunusa Ya’u at the event. Sagir informed the participants that the executive director wished to
be with us in person but couldn’t because of the reason that he had a plight schedule by 2pm.
He reiterated the commitment of the centre toward achieving educational development of the
Shara community.
Alh. Yakubu Abdullahi was sent by the office of the Distinguished Senator Alh. Abdurrahman
Kawu Sumaila (OFR) to represent them at the event. He read a letter as follows from the office
of the distinguished senator. On behalf of the distinguished senator Abdurrahman Kawu
Sumaila, (OFR) I thanked Almighty Allah who helped us to represent the people of this region in
the senate chamber of the federation. Our office sincerely celebrates with Shara community for
this development. I assured you that the office of the Distinguished Senator is available and
open for you always. I will advise that you should prepare the demands of the community
school in written and forward to the office of the Distinguished Senator. I assured you that the
senator will do everything possible in response to your demands about not only Shara but the
entire communities under his jurisdiction. Our office will look forward to solve the problems of

inadequate teachers, additional blocks and teaching and learning materials within short period
of time in this school. He finally, thanked CITAD for this move and described the organization as
partners in progress. At the other hand, the representative of the Member House of
Representatives, Taka/Sumaila constituency, Alh. Usman Maikano Yusuf commended CITAD for
identifying Shara village and amplifying its challenges to the world. He then promised to brief
his boss on what he witnessed himself.
Honorable Nura Iro Ma’aji, a political figure, and a player of the Kwankwasiyya movement from
Sumaila local government, described the event as world education celebration day for Shara
people. He questioned why do we tell children leaders of tomorrow? He said for him children
are not leaders of tomorrow but leaders of today. He said that without education you cannot
lead your future. He urged the community to utilized the opportunity and be the best they can
be. He informed the gathering that in 2003 he was a student at CITAD, where he undergone
series of computer programs at the centre and since then he was proud of the organization. He
finally made two promises. He asked to know the number of the active students of the
community school and promised to provide teaching and learning materials of that figure
before the resumption day. Also, promised to assign Sitti community forum whom identify
Shara village in 2016 without a primary to be part of the beneficiary of a capacity building
program giving to Community Based Organizations in his hometown Sumaila local government.
Malam Adamu Bawa, Head of Department Normadic Education, represented the State
Universal Basic Education Board. In his response to the need of additional teachers he said that
SUBEB, Kano will look into it and send additional teachers to the community school. Malam
Musa Garba was the representative of Sumaila Local Education Authority (LEA). He testified
that they have similar places in the local government without adequate teachers, teaching and
learning materials. He appealed to the personalities that made promises and other
stakeholders to come for their aid. Malam Said Saleh Sitti, Chairman Sitti Forum, emphasized
the demands of the community school. He said that due to the growing number of students the
issue of additional staff is never be over emphasized. The school need shelter to accommodate
Early Childhood Care and Education section to accommodate younger ones. They want the
school to be enrolled in the school feeding program of the state as it boosts school attendance.

The also need instructional materials, teaching and learning materials, first aid box as well as
school expansion with playground for the pupils in the school. He finally used the opportunity
and extend another request of the community members to the offices of the Distinguished
Senator, Abdurrahman Kawu Sumaila, Senator Kano South and that of the Member House of
Representative Takai/Sumaila federal constituency. They forwarded a letter of request of
construction and reconstruction of roads in the community. The letter read that due to the
damage of the road from Burum-Burum to Sitti and from Rawun to the Dabar Baga. We have
written and request for construction and reconstruction for these roads for easy
transportation.

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) had on 18 th April, 2023
organised a one-day capacity building for 15 teachers of LEA Primary school Kilankwa II,
Kwali Area Council, FCT. The training came after the school management requested for their
skills to be enhanced, as the Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) donated 8 sets of
computer systems to the school and no other teacher could type except a beneficiary of the
digital skills training held at Leleyi Gwari ICT centre Mr. Ishaya Micah who is also a staff of
the school has been the only person who types all school work. The objective of the training
is to equip the teachers with the basic knowledge of MS Word and Excel.
Giving an opening remark, CITAD sponsorship officer Mubaraq Ekute gave a brief about
CITAD as a Non-Governmental organization, that builds the capacity in areas of research,
advocacy and promotes good governance while leveraging on technology. He stated that the
aim of the training is to equip staff of the school on how to use Microsoft Word and Excel,
this is necessary as it aids the school management activities such as typing of question papers
and computing school result records as it provides an accurate and reliable results irrespective
of number of students.
Mrs. Yesmin Salako CITAD programme officer who facilitated the training enjoined all staff
to give their maximum cooperation and ensure to step down the knowledge learnt to other
staff of the school. Topics such as introduction to MS word, the steps on how to lunch MS
word, overview and working environment of MS word. The teachers were also shown how to
type, edit, format the MS word document and save a document using MS word applications
on their smartphones. There was a 15 minutes break for the staff to eat and pray.
After the break Mrs. Yesmin Salako continued the session on MS Excel. Topics such as
overview of MS Excel, formatting tools, workbook, sheets and also basic result computation.
In his closing remarks while thanking CITAD Mr chindo bitrus ndanson the Head Master of
LEA primary school Kilankwa II stated that it is a government policy that all civil servant
must be computer literate and was very grateful that the 15 teachers who participated in the
training can now compute students results and hopes by the end of the term each staff woud
be able to compile a comprehensive, accurate and reliable result. However, the school
requested for more trainings like such to continue to enhance their skills and make them
better.
The training was successful as most of the teachers were able to download the WPS
application on their smartphones so they could continue to practice what they have learnt.

The Executive Director, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Engr. Y. Z Ya’u, has urged the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to adequately safeguard Nigerian data.

He also urged the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to set the pace in ensuring data privacy and protection in the country.

Engr. Y. Z Ya’u, who stated this during a working visit to the corporate headquarters of NIMC, noted that this responsibility falls on NIMC due to its position as the leading data controller in the country.

“The commission, which is the highest data controller in Nigeria, should be a model for other data controllers since data are the foundation of everything in the country’s digital economy.”

According to him, “there is nothing you would want to do in the digital economy without proper identity, and you can’t achieve that without adequate privacy and protection of data.”

On his part, the NIMC Director General, Engr. Abdulaziz Abubakar, said the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in Nigeria has been established to protect the personal data of Nigerian citizens, and is responsible for the creation, management, and administration of a national identity database that will contain the personal information on all Nigerian citizens and legal residents.

He added that NIMC is committed to protecting the personal data of Nigerian citizens and legal residents and has implemented several measures to ensure that this data is secure. And assured the CITAD of the Commission’s support in ensuring data privacy and protection in line with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation.

Engr. Abubakar also assures the public that NIMC will continue to uphold the highest ethical standards in data security on behalf of the Federal Government and ensure compliance with data protection and privacy regulations.

On Saturday, 25 th March, 2023 Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in
collaboration with All Poets Network International has in celebration of this year’s World Poetry
Day organized a one-day Hausa Poetry Writing Workshop for 30 selected people with special
needs in Kano. The workshop took place at CITAD Annex, Women Development Centre, Court
Road, Kano with participants drawn from the association of people with vision impairment,
people with hearing impairment and speech difficulties and physically challenged people. Every
year UNESCO celebrates World Poetry Day. Adopted in 1999, the occasion honors poets and
pays tribute to expanding linguistic variety and sharing oral traditions through poetic forms.
Sagiru Ado Abubakar who coordinates the activities of people with special needs at CITAD. in
his welcome remarks, said that CITAD has been supporting associations of people living with
disabilities to project their voice in order to demand for accountability and inclusion as well as
help them to sustain that voice. In view of this, CITAD believed that there is need to engage and
support People with Disabilities (PWDs) to amplify their voice through poetic expression.
According to him, the aim of the workshop was to expose PWDs to the rudiments of writing
Hausa poetry in order to catalyze a voice for the demand of inclusion and accountability so that
they can send their messages to the appropriate quarters for consideration.
On his part, the Curator and Founder of All Poets Network International, Khalid Imam explained
that Poetry is believed to have originated thousands of years ago and has been kept alive
through oral and written forms. He said that the theme of this year’s World Poetry Day was
“Empowering People with Special Needs”. The objective was to increase the opportunities for
endangered languages to be heard, support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and

encourages PWDs to understand the importance of poetic devices. He added that with poetry
as a driving force of communication, the participants at the end of the day were expected to
utilize the knowledge they derived from the training towards pressing homes their demands
with poetry from the appropriate quarters until they are met.
Dr. Murtala Uba Muhammad gave a brief history of poetry. He said that unlike other literary
forms that we can date to precise texts and time periods, it’s a challenge to pinpoint the
earliest work of poetry. In one form or another, poetry has been around for thousands of years.
However, we might think of the epic poem as the first instance of poetry, appearing as early as
the 20th century B.C. Jumping hundreds of years ahead, we might turn, then, to the sonnet
form and its early appearance in the 13th century. Before moving into more modern poetic
forms, it’s important to consider Restoration poetry of the 17th century and the satirical verses
of John Dryden and Alexander Pope. He then explored three poetry learning techniques as
follows reading aloud, paraphrasing, and drawing the theme.
At the end of the day, to show that the workshop yielded positive results, some of the
participants composed songs on different topics. Nasir Garko, a participant from the association
of people with vision impairment (Nigerian Association of the Blind) sang the following song:

The poem we can make it.
Dedicated to persons with disability in Nigeria.
In the morning I begin with brush, after hustling to the home I rush, surprised I’m oh! gosh!, let
not bit around the bush, disability isn’t nightmare, if we are given much care, by uplifting our
welfare, treat disabled and nondisabled with fair.
Special need has capacious memory memorizing pages with no sorcery, easily messages bump
our sensory, to have no doubt google special need’s history.
Have you ever seen the deaf carpenter? the cripple who does welder? the blind who teaches in
blind or nonblind center? special needs are unique in spite of one’s gender, excelling in
academia and businesses we Render.
Now society embrace us as your colleagues, don’t harass or stigmatize us for our physique.
Nasir Garko the poet
Malam Ibrahim Umar Abdulkarim contributed as follows
A POEM ABOUT HABLE ONE
What a friend I have in you my Hable,
That will always make me able,
To write on a desk or on a table,
And fly so high to touch the gable,
Wishing that my name was Abel.

Smartly dressed in my singlet,
I can use you to control my smartphone and tablet,
Thus making me compose a couplet,
By ensuring that my knowledge in Braille ooze like a droplet,
Keenly listening to your tone dulcet.
You have obliterated the drudgery in me,
Of a monotonous grope for one letter after another amiss from me,
From the soft touch keypad,
In a smartphone and a tablet part,
But with your Perkins-style keypad,
I can now type heart and heart.
With you my little Hable,
I know I will one day write my fable,
Uttering no word nor babble,
Not even wanting to go to the Tower of Babel,
So that my work with Hable will remain unerrable.

2023 world poetry workshop is part of CITAD engagement under the ‘SUPPORTING AND AMPLIFYING
THE VOICE OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES TO DEMAND FOR ACCOUNTABILITY’ project to support
associations of people living with disabilities to project their voice and demand for accountability and
inclusion as well as help them to sustain that voice.

Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) with support from Association of
Progressive Communication (APC) organized a 1-Day sensitization for women on digital inclusion and
2-Day training for women on online safety which is part of practice of care under the community
network project. The training aims to provide mental and health safety at Dakwa, Leleyi Gwari,
Pasepa and Tungan Ashere communities of the FCT where CITAD operates. The project emerged
during the COVID-19 period as a measure to ensure that, partner’s lives and health are given
priority.
The sensitization and training took place on 31 st Mar, 1 st and 3 rd April 2023 in the four communities of
the FCT and had in attendance 30 participants in each of the community to make a total of 120
women (15-29yrs = 70, 30+ = 50 PLWD = 2). The facilitators include: Yesmin Salako, Usman Isah,
Mathias Ojoma and Ibrahim Suliaman Jama’are.
The objective of the sensitization and training are to: Understand ICT and how it is transforming
society, problems of gender digital divide, Why ICT are important for women and girls, how to
address the digital divide: the role of community, understanding of internet security and safety &
Gender Violence Online, Digital health and safety clinic, Understand feminist internet principles.
The training was inclusive, participatory and engaging as participants shared experiences on digital
inclusion and how important it is in today’s world. At Pasepa and Leleyi Gwari it was an outdoor
training facilitated under a tree shade while at Dakwa and Tungan Ashere it held in the ICT centre.
The training held for four hours each day with a break of 30 minutes.
The facilitators began the training with an opening remark to which the objective of the activity was
widely explained to the participants, and why CITAD had continued to create awareness and build
women’s expertise especially around digital inclusion. Topics around ICT and how it is transforming
society, problems of gender digital divide, Why ICT are important for women and girls, how to
address the digital divide: the role of community, understanding of internet security and safety &
Gender Violence Online, Digital health and safety clinic, understand feminist internet principles were
discussed during the cause of the training.
COMMENTS, QUESTIONS AND ANSWER
Ummusalma M Sabiu a participant at Tungan Ashere community had commended the efforts of
CITAD to bridge the digital gap, however she raised the concerns of the community members to take
advantage of the internet but the digital devices are too expensive to purchase.
Adama Abubakar also a participant at Leleyi Gwari community is also concerned that despite their
interest to harness the oppurtunities the digital space possess as has been learnt during the training,
they lack the digital skills to operate the devices and also the network is very poor in their
community and as such lack connectivity to the internet.
Safiya Idris a participant from Pasepa community has emphasized that the women trained would put
a lot of effort to ensure their children are digitally literate.
Maryam Isma’il a participant at Dakwa community had inquired about how ICT can help in gaining
good healthcare. Yesmin Salako who facilitated the training at the community expatiated that
through ICT hospitals are exposed to so many modern facilities which would increase and aid the

practices of the health practitioners, also as an individual one could easily assess information about
one’s health from the internet to avoid unnecessary self-medication.
RECOMMENDATION
After the training the women recognized the training as an eye opener and had decided to utilize the
opportunity to enroll themselves at the ICT centre in their community in order to be equipped with
the necessary ICT skills. At Tungan Ashere community Ummusalma Ibrahim and Habiba Muhammad
at Dakwa Community were appointed by the participants to coordinate the women (who had agreed
to contribute N50 each to fuel the generator) to fix a date every week to learn the digital skills. The
community champion Bashir at Tungan Ashere and Ismai’il at Dakwa communities would equip the
women with the necessary skills and also sought for technical assistance from CITAD when the need
arises.
At Dakwa community, the community had decided to transition the ICT centre to a Digital training
centre, where people come to learn digital skills, pay some fees and also receive a certificate after
undergoing some training for a fixed period of time.
EVALUATION
After the training about 75% of the participants were able to understand ICT and how it is
transforming society; Why ICT are important for women and girls; Understand feminist internet
principles. Only 25% were able to understand online gender violence as few of the women are on
the digital space.
At the end of the 3-day activity group photographs were taken.
ACTIVITY COMMUNITY FACILITATOR
Sensitization on digital inclusion and
training on online safety for women

Dakwa Yesmin Salako

Sensitization on digital inclusion and
training on online safety for women

Leleyi Gwari Mathias Ojoma

Sensitization on digital inclusion and
training on online safety for women

Pasepa Usman Isah

Sensitization on digital inclusion and
training on online safety for women

Tungan Ashere Ibrahim Sulaiman
Jama’are

Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) paid an advocacy visit to the Chairman
of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) Hon. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu on Thursday 23 rd
March 2023. The visit was birthed of the abandoned electrification project at Tungan Ashere
community AMAC, FCT which was approved for work by the previous chairman around October
2021, the project began by planting poles in the community but was later abandoned without fixing
the wires and connecting the community to electricity which was the major aim of the project.
The visit had in attendance CITAD programme officer Yesmin Salako, Technical officer Usman Isah,
Tungan Ashere community leader, Youth leader and also women leader for inclusiveness. The
meeting lasted for about thirty (30) minutes at the chairman’s office.
The chairman welcomed the team and requested to know the aim of the visit, Yesmin provided an
overview of CITAD and how it has successfully implemented projects in FCT rural communities one
of which is Tungan Ashere community. The community leader revealed that Tungan Ashere has
never witnessed electricity and were excited when the process started about two years ago,
however it was abandoned just immediately it began. The community members had tried severally
to engage the government but their effort was futile. They hope this visit would reactivate the
process of the electrification project.
Yesmin Salako reiterated that CITAD was glad to have been welcomed by the chairman and hope this
would enhance change and development on power supply in the community.
The chairman said it is sad to note that some areas in the FCT are still living in darkness and
promised that before May 2023 light would be restored in Tungan Ashere.
The meeting ended with a presentation of souvenir on CITAD’s publication and then a group
photograph was taken.

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) with support from MacArthur Foundation organized a two-day conference on 16^th and 17^th February in Abuja. The conference which took place at K-Class Hotel Abuja was attended by Commissioners of Health from Sokoto, Taraba, Bauchi, Adamawa and Katsina states, Executive Secretaries of Primary Health Care Development Agencies of 19 northern states, representative of Minister of Health and project partners from the six focal states.

The Executive Director (ED) CITAD, Dr. YZ Ya’u began his opening remarks by welcoming the participants to conference and expressed gratitude for honoring our invitation to be at the conference to share their ideas and experience in the field as critical stakeholders in the field in addressing the COVID 19 challenge. 

Dr. YZ Ya’u noted that the project started a year ago and the main objective then was to work with different stakeholders and partners to support effort to get more people or everybody to be vaccinated and to sensitize people about the importance of the vaccinations, to dispel rumors and misinformation about the vaccine itself and ensure citizens that the vaccine is safe, efficacious and can be used by all.

Over the year, this project has been implemented, and of course the COVID 19 is over and a lot of people have done some work, hence it is important to seat down and reflect on what has been done. So in essence according to Dr. YZ the workshop was primarily aimed at understanding the lessons that all of us particularly those of us at the frontline had gathered, what lessons have you learnt or are you learning in terms of addressing the public challenge that can be used in the future to address other challenges in the health sector that may come and what lessons we learnt that we can carry forward in terms of transforming the health sector in general. What can we do collectively, discuss and find solution to them. 

It is hoped that the conference will harvest lessons, ideas and progress that have been made and specific subventions that can be reflected and apply in other similar situation in the health sector. These ideas and experiences will later be distill and possibly produce a policy brief document out of them and shared with stakeholders in the sector. In the last few months we have had some cases of emergencies and outbreaks. So learning from the way we have confronted COVID 19 how are we prepared to deal with those emergencies that may be found in the future. He further noted that we know you have done quite a lot work; you have also experienced a lot of challenges, you have developed innovative ideas. It is our hope that you will share with us those ideas, lessons and innovations that you have implemented in your respective states and in doing so you will be benefited from each other. However, documenting these experiences and ideas will help in transmitting the experiences for posterity.     

He concluded his opening remarks by appreciating the participants for honoring CITAD’s invitation, for good work that participants have done and of course for agreeing to share their ideas and experiences on the COVID 19 vaccine intervention as critical stakeholders. He wished the participants very productive and engaging workshop that will be useful to all.         

Goodwill Messages from Commissioners of Health of Sokoto, Bauchi, Taraba, Adamawa, Katsina

Sokoto State Commissioner of Health

In his goodwill message the Sokoto State Commissioner of Health Alhaji Lema Abubakar thanked CITAD for organizing the conference. According him COVID 19 was a pandemic that shocked the whole world for this it is important to reflect on its history. At beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic there was as fear that everybody is going to die this was based on the historical experiences that humanity had of notorious pandemic that in some cases decimate some societies in the past. For this reasons this conference to share our experiences on how COVID 19 was overcome and nipped in the bud within a very short period of time with the help of technology so that posterity will have their resilience to face this type calamities that periodically replete the world. He finally commended the organizers of the conference and wished the participants a successful deliberation. 

Commissioner of Taraba State Ministry of Health 

The commissioner was represented by Dr. Abey Agbu appreciated CITAD for organizing the conference. He observed that initially when people heard about the pandemic everybody was shivering and thinking that it was the end for Africa and Nigeria and that was informed by the way people see how devastating the pandemic was even on developed countries. But for the interventions by Federal Ministry of Health and other partners like CITAD we are able to defeat COVID. He observed that it will be good indeed to be here to discuss our efforts at various corners that culminated to our victory against COVID 19. He further noted that other virus such as monkey fox had been discovered in our neighboring countries so we need to know what we have done very well so that we will be able to face what comes away in the future. For all these reasons conference was important, he challenged participants to put their best to make we understand each other and take all positive that will help us protect ourselves and our country against any disease that will be coming. He concluded his remarks by appreciating both the participants and the organizers of the conference as an opportunity to share knowledge.

Commissioner of Adamawa State Ministry of Health

The commissioner was ably represented by Dr. Bulus K.Z. Dr. Bulus thanked the organizers of the conference saying that it is timely though that was his first time of attending any of the CITAD’s engagement in this project. He noted that the conference would a learning avenue for participants will hear from the work experiences of each other from the field.   

 Commissioner of Katsina State Ministry of Health

The commissioner of Health Katsina State was represented by Dr. Mu’awiya Aliyu, the Director of Public Health at the ministry. In his remarks, Dr. Mu’awiya started by drawing the attention of the participants to the fact that it is all about the COVID 19 is over, but to the fact that there a large number people that are unvaccinated and this population really draw us back. According to him, this attitude by people who refused to take the vaccines was probably informed by the rumors and misinformation that went viral during the initial outbreak of the virus. He observed that this conference will give opportunity to participants to share their experiences especially the states that were able to vaccinate their targeted population. Katsina has been quite unfortunate in meeting its target in this for the state target was 3 million people out which they were able to vaccinate 2.3 million with first dose, but they could not get such number to take the second dose and eventually take booster dose, he related. This conference will give opportunity for participants to know how those states that were able to reached their target populations vaccinated. On finally note he thanked CITAD for organizing the conference and wished the participants fruitful deliberations. 

Commissioner of Bauchi State Ministry of Health

The commissioner of Health Bauchi State was represented by the Executive Chairman of Bauchi State PHDA Dr. Rilwanu Muhammed who started by noting the fact that when COVID 19 came the first known victim of the virus was in the country was Bauchi state governor, then his chief of staff. Other victims were the deputy governor, secretary to the state government and the chief of judge of Bauchi state. He related how rumor about the vaccine was trending that when you take the vaccine you are going to die in the next few years. Of course there are some concern about the vaccine in some countries, but in Nigeria there is no evidence that shows a single case of a person fully vaccinated and get infected of the virus, he declared. He further noted that Bauchi state was able to only achieved 40% coverage of the target. So for this a lot has to be done, more effort has to be put in place and a lot of stakeholders such as the traditional rulers have to be contacted. He concluded by commending CITAD on what it is doing in this regards.  

COVID19 Vaccination Intervention: The Experience of Borno  State by Dr. Mala Abdulhamid, DD PHC, PM SERICC/SEMCHIC, BOSPHCDA

Dr. Mala’s presentation began by highlighting that Borno state has 27 LGAs some are accessible and some not accessible a situation conditioned by the state peculiarities in terms of geography and of course the security situation. According to Dr. Mala Primary Health Care (PHC) is one of the indicators of SDGs that aims to achieve the Universal Health Coverage (UHC), it is the entry point and the lowest level of health care service delivery. In Borno state, the service delivery is implemented across 3 categories of settlements on the basis of accessibility; the fully accessible, the partially accessible and inaccessible settlements. Accessible settlements are those that can be reached without any security support. These settlements can be utilized as fixed sessions or outreach sessions depending on the distance from the health facility. For the accessible settlements the following approaches were used by Borno PHCDA during the interventions; mobile sessions comprising teams going to hard-to-reach areas deliver immunizations, integrated PHC service delivery, integrated campaigns and RI intensification activities. 

On the partially accessible settlements Dr. Mala noted that these places are reached with least of CJTF and little military support. Two approaches were used in this regards; mobile RI/Hit and run strategy and integrated fixed post strategy. In case of inaccessible settlements such places are reached with full security personnel and in some case military personnel were trained on how to administer vaccines and conduct basic AFP surveillance activities in inaccessible settlements. However, generally various lessons were learnt during vaccine administration strategies; high cost of implementing RIC/RES strategy, knowledge gap for data and services rendered during RIC implementation, duplication of services for RI intensification and PHC outreaches and lack of direct oversight on the RIC implementation activities due to inaccessibility for civilians due to the security compromised setting.

The following challenges that hindered vaccines uptake in Borno state thus; limited financial resources, dynamic security situation within the region, lack of human resource for health, inadequate infrastructure, for services non-compliance and difficulties in vaccine and cold chain management. On the final note, the paper recommended that to achieve more success in vaccines general and in COVID 19 particularly there is a need for increased political will on PHC services support across all levels, intensify demand generation activities, addressing human perennial human gaps across all levels. In addition to the above mentioned recommendations regular capacity building of managerial and services providers and intensification supportive and mentoring supervisions are very critical.  

COVID19 Vaccination Interventions: The Experience of Yobe State by Dr. Babagana Kundi Machina, FWACP

The presentation began by highlighting how critical traditional and religious leaders’ engagements were for the Yobe State PHCDA (YOPHCDA) through the instrumentality of the Yobe Emirate Councils Committee on Health (YECCOH) in helping the agency in overcoming hesitancy especially in the case of COVID 19 across the 14 emirates in the 17 LGAs. Other market unions, Keke operators and NURTW etc were engaged. Below table shows the trend of COVID 19 vaccine in Yobe State from January to July, 2022. It shows a level of increase in the number of vaccinated people in the state.   

One critical approach employed by the state which recorded quite a huge success was the integration COVID 19 vaccine with other primary health care services. Other critical issues were engagement of additional COVID 19 vaccination teams and of course intensification of the state team members. The presentation also highlights on some best practices that probably informed the little success made in the state. Dr. Machina noted that bi-weekly review meetings, these meetings provided avenue for close monitoring, feedback and recommendation. During such meetings action points are generated and tracked. However, the agency employed a live radio call-in programmes, performance-based incentives in which scorecard was developed and LGAs and wards were ranked. All this was in addition to the active mobilization by the relevant stakeholders among the religious and traditional leaders as noted earlier. In terms of accessibility all the LGAs of Yobe state are accessible only 17 communities in 8 wards that are partially inaccessible. It is also noteworthy that as at December, 2022 there was not single IDP camp in the state. In dealing with the case of mobile population such as the nomadic Fulani who are always on move their movement was strategically tied down to vaccine certificate presentation to officials and that helped a lot improving coverage. 

The paper concludes by making the following recommendation that there is need ensure timely payment of vaccination team members and of course proper coordination of all COVID-19 vaccination activities of all organizations to improve efficiency, reduce duplications or wastages, and ensure equity.  

COVID19 Vaccination Interventions: The Experience of Plateau State by Dr. Miakwap  Livinus, Executive Secretary, Plateau State Primary Health Care Development Agency

In his presentation Dr. Livinus noted that at the beginning Plateau state recorded a very low performance. By March 2022 only 13,380 people were vaccinated through the state-wide Covid 19 mass vaccination campaign. However, following the scale 2.0 national strategy the number of the vaccinated people in the state reached 44,283 as at April, 2022. In fact up to this time there was not quite much success that has been recorded and that might have been due to some challenges among other; 90 % of COVID 19 personnel in the state are ad-hoc staff, payment of personnel only for work done on weekends, most health facility selected as vaccination site are far for clients, nonpayment of transport logistics to teams to cover settlement not close to the HF, suboptimal supervision by supervisors, poor social mobilization activities and some team members not been paid due to account number issue.

To ameliorate the above problems, the state and UNICEF teams came up with the new strategy of intensification of vaccination in 3 LGAs with highest number of unvaccinated clients. Teams were pay regularly and on daily basis throughout the 10 days of the intensification exercise. During this exercise National Orientation Agency (NOA) and interfaith groups were actively engaged and they helped in no small measure in social mobilization. This initiative produced some impressive results of 50,806 (1^st,2^nd and booster) people who were vaccinated by the teams. As a results of this success the strategy was employed too in other 8 LGAs that further jacked up the number of the vaccinated people to 108,158. However following this success, other partners key in to this strategy and the overall impact was the movement of the state Plateau state from 25^th Position at 11^th May, 2022 before the intensification to 8^th position at 18^thAugust, 2022 after intensification in the selected LGAs. 

COVID19 Vaccination Interventions: The Experience of Katsina State by Dr. Muhammed Kaiya Ibrahim 

In his presentation Dr. Muhammed highlighted that one important strategy adopted in the state was order given that each civil servant should be given and accept COVID 19 vaccine. These according to him help improving the number of the vaccinated people in the state. Other issues worthy of note was the level of political commitment on the part of the critical stakeholders; emirs and government. Also other government workers such as the DSS and Custom officers were vaccinated during the mass vaccination exercise. 

In Katsina the agency also employed a sustained media engagement via call-in live radio program. At the beginning of the vaccination exercise there was a growing concern among the young traders who are operating in the southern part of the country that their movement to the southern part of Nigeria might be tie down to the presentation of vaccine certificates, hence acceptance of the COVID 19 by many young traders. 

Hesitancy among the even the health workers was one of the clog that slowed down the success of the COVID 19 vaccine exercise in the state. This is in addition to many other challenges such as; rumor and misinformation peddling on the social media, cases of assault and harassment on vaccine teams, difficulty in payment of vaccinators and of course a problem of vaccine card racketeering.

To handle cases of place with problem of insecurity, the agency identified individuals among health workers that are accepted by the bandits. These individuals were used to deliver the vaccines to these bandits infested areas. 

General Discussion and Blueprint Development by Prof. Nusirat Elelu, Executive Secretary, Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency

This session was anchored by Prof. Nusirat who led the discussion. It has been observed that generally the experiences of individual states cut across majority of the state this is especially in the area of challenges of insecurity. In course of the discussions, several issues were highlighted with the hope that such will serve as a guide for the stakeholders in dealing with similar challenges as the ones posed by COVID 19 thus;

• There is a need to come up with a general strategy for serving the inaccessible areas, this should be accompanied by action plan which can be short or long term 
• Funding problem seems to be a general issue across states which must be addressed if future intervention programs must be successful  
• Stakeholder engagement on how to mobilize funds is very critical for present and future endeavors 
• There should be commissioned researchers that will make an in-depth research into the insecurity challenge and COVID 19 intervention to understand the nature and extent of the impact of the problems and other possible future intervention 
• There should be commissioned researchers that will make an in-depth research into the health workers attitude towards COVID 19 vaccines and why some behave the way they did 
• That COVID 19 helped in improving other vaccination programs through integration
• Generally, at both national and subnational levels COVID 19 led to increase in budgetary allocation. For example, 2020 budget was superb and unprecedentedly high than years before it, but unfortunately that did not continue
• COVID 19 experience brought about intensive use of technology in an exclusively analogue system. The introduction of EMID was particularly spectacular in this regards 
• Virtual meetings or the so-called “zoom revolution” was utilized by practitioners in the fields and was used extensively for tracking and reporting 
• Political will is very critical, stakeholders engagement is key this may include engagement with philanthropists such as BUA Foundation, Dangote Foundation, TY Danjuma Foundation etc
• Partnership is very important and still there is a need to help those state with low coverage to reach the desirable 70% to have a safer national clime 
• The issue of hesitancy among health workers has been underestimated, thus there is a need further engagement of health workers on this. Health workers too need education and training 
• COVID 19 not only exposed the weakness in our health system but rather it made it visible hence easy to be addressed   
• COVID 19 experience exposed the fact that there is discrepancies in what our political do and say 
• That achieving 70% coverage is a responsibility for all of us

Observations: 

• Despite the availability of COVID 19 vaccines there are large number of unvaccinated population in many states
• Rumors, misinformation and fake news about COVID 19 are still thriving and determine the attitude of many people towards COVID 19 vaccine acceptance 
• There is a single known case of a person who infected with COVID 19 after fully vaccinated 
• PHC is an indicator of SDGs that aims to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
• Using health workers that are resident very close to the communities with security challenges has been helping and rewarding in improving penetration 
• Vaccine card racketeering posed very serious challenge to achieving target of reaching out to the unvaccinated population 
• The delay payment of vaccine teams had negatively affected the COVID 19 intervention in many states 
• Rumors on social media platform were more damaging than those on other platforms 
• Engaging students unions in the campaign via the Campus Ambassadors was very effective in some states 
• States that tied down nomadic movement to COVID 19 vaccine certificate were able to track nomadic movement and get many of them vaccinated
• There have been cases of hesitancy among health workers in many states. In some states such as Bauchi threat of stopping salaries and stagnation of promotion of some health workers who refused to be vaccinated had proved effective in getting many vaccinated 
• Giving inceptives helped a lot in achieving some level of progress in many states

Recommendations: 

• A lot of enlightenment and awareness creation should be done to get those large number of unvaccinated persons vaccinated 
• That training the military to administer vaccines is a very serious issue that may cause some problems, that the best way to engage military is the infiltration of the military by the health workers 
• Social media influencers’ engagement to dispel rumor and misinformation on COVID 19 shoud be intensified 
• There is a need to conduct survey/research on behavior or attitude of some health workers rejecting COVID 19 vaccines  
• There should be a sustained advocacy to critical stakeholders (e.g. religious and traditional leaders) to challenge and counter the rumor/misinformation being peddled about the vaccine 
• For the sake of safety of lives of health workers it is not good and indeed unprofessional to continue using the so-called accepted health workers by the bandits in order to reach out to the communities infested by such elements 

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has charged radio stations in Kano state and Nigeria at large to abstain from disseminating fake news, inciting comments and ensuring that only credible and factual information is aired through their mediums.

The Executive Director CITAD, Engr. Yunusa Zakari Ya’u gave the order while speaking with journalists in Kano on the commemoration of 2023 World Radio Day.

Represented by the Centre’s Programs Officer, Buhari Abba said, despite the proliferation of social media and other mass communication platforms, radio remains one of the most trusted and accessible mediums in the world.

Speaking on the theme of the day, “Radio and Peace” the Executive Director urged Journalists in Radio stations to work towards promoting peace among the citizenry while discharging their duties.

Engr. Yunusa Ya’u noted that the theme is apt and timely as the nation moves closer to the 2023 general elections.

He urged all radio broadcasters to leverage the trust listeners have in their mediums to educate and sensitize the citizenry on their roles and responsibilities in electing the right persons to serve at various levels of government.

World Radio Day is an International Day which is celebrated on Feb.13th of every year as decided by member states of UNESCO and adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2012.

The centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) with support from Lenovo Foundation is starting women-focused incubators entitled Digital Creativity and Innovation for Young Women (DICI-YOW). The goal of the initiative is to create jobs for women and girls while the specific objectives are:

1. To provide digital skills training for 200 girls (100 per year)
2. To produce 80 digital entrepreneurs (40 per year)
3. To create 160 new digital jobs for girls (80 per year)

The Programme consists of four phases and will last 10 months as followed:

Phase 1: Basic Digital Skills (one month)

Phase 2: Advanced Digital Skills (1 month)

Phase 3: Business Ideation (2months)

Phase 4: Incubator (6months)

Expected outcome:

As an incubator programme, its beneficiaries will at the end harvest some digital businesses providing goods or services to the public

Target Beneficiaries

1. Beneficiaries must be girls between the ages of 18-30
2. They must have a minimum secondary school education
3. Must be capable of communicating in both written and oral English
4. Must be interested in building and running a business of their own
5. Participants must be based either in Kano, Bauchi or Gombe states. In addition, participants should ordinarily be residents in either Kano or can make arrangements to accommodate themselves in any of these three places for the duration of the programme.

Invitation

Interested girls who meet the criteria above are invited to apply. Applicants should include photocopies of their credentials, an indication of their interest in the application letter. 

The application should be submitted using the link below or via apps@citad.org on or before March 10, 2023.

https://forms.gle/M5vWwEG7o9gvdeeH6

Note:

Progression into the different phases of the programme is based on performance.

https://radionigerianortheast.gov.ng/citad-honour-students-for-reporting-abandoned-uncompleted-projects/

CITAD awards outstanding champions of ‘Report a Project Competition’ 

https://primetimenews.ng/citad-awards-outstanding-champions-of-report-a-project-competition/

CITAD Honour Students For Reporting Abandoned Uncompleted Projects

CITAD Presents Gifts To Winners Of Its ”Report A Project” Competition

Three University Students Get CITAD Prizes For ‘Report A Project Program’ https://arewaagenda.com/three-university-students-get/

 Three University Students Get NGO Prizes For ‘Report A Project Program’ https://nigeriantracker.com/2023/01/13/three-university-students-get-ngo-prizes-for-report-a-project-program/

By Khadija Aliyu

Three students Aliyu Musa from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Hauwa’u Abdullahi Kano state university of science and technology Wudil, and Auwal Ibrahim Adamu, Bayero university kano, have emerged winners of CITAD’S report a project competition.

The Centre said, the winners of the 7th edition of the competition, were honoured to encourage them to continue contributing their quota, for the sustainable growth and development of the country.

Report a Project is a program, supported by MacArthur Foundation, aimed at encouraging students in Nigerian Universities and tertiary institutions to contribute to their bid, to eradicate the scourge of corruption in Nigeria for sustainable development.

In his remarks, the deputy executive director of the center, Malam Ahmed Abdullahi Yakasai explained that, abandonment of projects paved way for backwardness of many societies.

He stressed that, the report a project competition mobilizes youths and encourage them to report,so that the center would use legal procedures to call the attention of stakeholders, on the need to complete the projects.

” CITAD is a non partisan organization that does not segregate”

Malam Ahmed Abdullahi, charged youths to continue strategizing, as the center would not relent in it’s efforts towards the fight against corruption, and ensuring good governance.

In their remarks,winners of the 7th edition of report a project competition, Aliyu Musa, Hauwa’u Abdullahi and Auwal Ibrahim Adamu highlighted that, the handsets and laptop given to them, would go a long way in assisting their research and other academic endeavors.

They advised students to rededicate themselves to their studies, and provide any meaningful information to relevant stakeholders, such as uncompleted abandoned projects to mitigate corruption.

Radio Nigeria reports that, the report a project competition is organized by CITAD with support from MacArthur foundation, which is targeted at encouraging students from tertiary institutions, to report abandoned uncompleted or poorly executed projects in their respective communities.

In its efforts on equipping the students to become digitally-enabled in Jama’are
local government the center for Information technology and development
conducted the first annual ICT quiz competition in the community, the quiz was
conducted on Thursday 15, December, 2022 at WABI Academy, the quiz was
started at 11:00am with opening prayer, The executive director center for
information technology and development represented by Mal. Ahmad Yakasai
made the opening remarks he embarked upon by being grateful to almighty Allah
for given the opportunity to witness the day and the huge impact CITAD produces
in transforming the lives of people and the society at large. He made mention that
CITAD has been organizing this ICT competition for over twenty years in kano.
But by considering the performance of CITAD office Jama’are and her focus on
improving the technology related activities CITAD decided to start up the trail of
this first ICT competition Quiz competition, to instill and broaden the interest of
younger generation to adopt the system and encourage students to priotize
leveraging technology at their early stages of life. He made it clear that whatever
fields a student chooses to study in his/her carrier, information technology is the
ingredient to all field of study.
He lastly listed the prizes to be won in the completion as follows
I C T QUIZ COMPETITION
a. First position : A New brand of Bicycle
b. Second position Y5 Hawie Android Handset
c. Third position A five Yards of Shadda
WEBSITE DESIGN
a. First position : A New brand of Bicycle
b. Second position Y5 Hawie Android Handset
c. Third position A five Yards of Shadda

Eleven secondary schools participated in the competition namely

1. Government Arabic College Jama’are
2. Government Day Secondary school Jamaare
3. Government Day Secondary School Hanafari
4. Hassan Muhammad Senior Secondary school Jama’are
5. Wabi Academy
6. Aliyu Maisango Junior Upper Secondary Basic School Jama’are
7. M C Abubakar Junior upper Basic Secondary School
8. Ahmad Muhammad Wabi Junior Upper Basic Secondary School
9. Future Solution Academy
10. Asasul Islam Junior Secondary School
11. Al-Furqan Academy
    The second speaker at occasion who is Dahiru abubakar the program officer of the
    center stated all the activities CITAD is doing to the community, ranging from
    conducting the Inspiring Leadership Reflection series in first quarter of the year
    with two prominent key figures in the community in the month of January and
    febuary this year, they are Alh isah Hassan Mohd Tafidan Jamaare and Prof.
    Ahmad sale, Dean Faculty of Agric Bauchi State University Gadau, training of
    fifty women across the L G A on Plastic Waste Recycle Management, training of
    fifty women on Recycle Energy, Training of twenty young girls and women in
    the local government under digital Creativity and innovation training founded by
    Lenovo foundation, training of fifteen women on Video Editing and graphic design
    under Digital Livelyhood program, donations of two set of computers to Nigerian
    Correctional service staff and free training of fifteen staff of the Nigerian
    correctional service staff, its Efforts towards Establishing the Community
    Network in Jama’are local Gov’t, admitting five students from the community into
    School of Nigerian community network , conducting the first annual ICT quiz
    competition and he mentioned that CITAD will round off their this year activity
    with a town hall Meeting with various political party candidates on December
    26,2022.
    The education secretary made a clear statement to the public that he is a
    beneficiary of CITAD training and urges the community to value CITAD
    initiatives and honoring their engagement to ensure the continuity of their work.
    One of the traditional title holder in Jama’are Alh sabo Likita, Sarkin Yakin
    Jama’are thanked the entire CITAD staff and especially the Director for his
    concerned towards improving the future of our younger generation, he thank
    CITAD for conducting free Computer base test JAMB training to the entire
    secondary school students of the emirate.
    The chairman of the quiz Mal Yahuza Bello from Jama’are concern citizen Forum
    declared the quiz open by mentioning the guidelines of the quiz. In the first round
    three schools scaled for the second round and in the second round GAC emerged

as the winner and two schools went for the third round then lastly Wabi academy
seized the second position while Alfurqan became Third.
The category of the competition was divided in to two segment ICT quiz and
Website Design.
Government Arabic college Jama’are Emerged as winner in the ICT quiz, Wabi
Academy Second and Alfurqan Academy hold the third position, in another
segment of the competition Website design Al-Furqan Academy Emerged as First
and Future Solution Academy second while Government day secondary School
Hanafari became third place.
LIST OF WINNERS AND THEIR PRIZES
Category of
completion

School Position Prizes

QUIZ Government Arabic College

Jama’are

1 st New brand of

Bicycle

Wabi Academy 2 nd Y 5 Hawei
Android handset
Alfurqan Academy 3 rd Five Yards of

Shadda

WEBSITE
DESIGN

Alfurqan academy 1 st New brand of

Bicycle

Future Solution 2 nd Y 5 Hawei
Android handset

Government Day Secodary
School Hanafari

3rd Five Yards of

Shadda

One of the students Abdulbasid Yahaya thanks and shown his appreciation to the
organizers and CITAD body by their tireless efforts and outstanding commitment.
He reaffirm that CITAD has been his major motivator to nurture his passion to
become technically oriented.
Closing remark was offered by the Principal of Wabi Academy Mal. Shuaibu
Nafada.