An NGO, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has commenced training of young women and girls in digital livelihood to acquire information and communication Technology (ICT) knowledge of business in Jamma’are Local Government Area of the state

Mrs Mayryam Haruna, Programme Manager CITAD while speakinge at the orientation for the Digital Livelihood Programme for Young Women and Girls in Jamma’are on Monday

Mrs. Haruna said with the world becoming a global village in the face of modern technological innovations, the young women were expected to play a vital role in the quest for embracing digital innovations.

“Many women who have acquired skills in the initial phase of this program have excelled in their businesses. Some of them are even giving the same training to other women and girls so they can also succeed,” she said.

According to her, the objective of the training is to produce more young women entrepreneurs in northern Nigerian, as well as a beginning of eradicating poverty in northern young women and girls.

Mrs Haruna said “We also encourage the beneficiaries to register their businesses with Corporate Affairs Commission.

“For those who have no businesses, they can also form a business name so that they can start up a small scale enterprise so that they can be self reliant. Because of the opportunities for loan schemes can reach them,” she said.

The programme manager said the young women and girls would be trained on the programmes that include, graphics design, where they would learn posters, stickers, banners, invitation cards and so on. Film and video editing and photography, infographic among others.

She said women and girls need to be empowered especially through the utilization of digital knowledge so that they can achieve self reliance in different business areas such as food production, decoration, photography, and film and video editing.

She called on young women to make good use of the 3 weeks training and rise to the challenge of entrepreneurial development in order to attain the skills of digital livelihood, for them to become self-reliant and gainfully employed.

In his remarks, . Malam Sunusi Ibrahim , Director Planning. Ministry of Budget and Planning urged the participants to have passion for the training because it’s really a stepping stone for them to prosper.

“You should be a vocational trainer, if possible, for the young women in their neighborhood,” he said

Responding on behalf of the participants, Miss Habiba Usman and Hauwa Yakubu commended the effort of CITAD for bringing ICT training to their doorstep.

They pledged to give their maximum attention during the training and also make good use of the training to become self-reliant and employers of others in the state not only the community.

The center for information technology and development CITAD, has organized student creativity competition among Junior and Senior secondary school in Jama’are local government.
Malam Ahmad Yakasai of CITAD while speaking at the one day competition with a title Marai on the Marble in Jammare recently,” He said this is part of CITAD effort of promoting educational development and revival of reading culture in the state.
According to him, Several junior and senior secondary schools took part in the competition that shows that the number of participating schools has increased over the last year’s event.
He said the competition was categories into four which comprises, Debate,Quiz Poem/ poetry and Story telling.
“Seven schools participated in all of the events and won different prizes.
“The participating schools Government Arabic College includes,Government Day Secondary School Jama’are, Hassan Muhammad Senior secondary school jama’are, Wabi Academy,M C Abubakar Junior secondary school Jamaare, Ahmad Mohammad Wabi Junior Secondary School Jama’ar and Jibwis Science,” he said
Yakasai however commended the schools, teachers and the students for their devotion and commitment during competition, urged the schools to keep the tempo of commeptition as it will go a long way in promoting creativity among students.
In his remark, the chairman of the competition who is also the education secretary of Jama’are Local Education Authority Mal. Zakariyya Jibril stated that CITAD has always engaged in promoting and reviving of educational development in jama’are through creating extracurricular activities in Jamaare.
Jibril applauded CITAD for the wonderful and remarkable effort of promoting educational development in jama’are.
The Education Secretary urged other NGOs and Philanthropist to emulate CITAD in development of educational and creativity among students.
Our correspondent reports that at the end of competition of Seven schools that participated Jibwis Science Emerged 1st and Wabi academy 2nd GDSS Hassan Muhammad occupied the 3rd position.
The winners left with consulation gift Television, Bycles, handsets, jam forms as well as radio sets.

Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has expressed concern over the possibility of violent crisis due to the ban on mining activities in Kebbi state by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

Addressing a news conference in Kano on Tuesday, Executive Director of CITAD, Dr. Yunusa Zakari Ya’u explained that the total closure of mining sites in the state deprived means of livelihood to tens of thousands of miners.

He added that a research conducted by CITAD shows that the 24 mining sites in the state provides livelihood to at least 156,000 residents, apart from others who also earn from the trade such as transporters, food vendors and traders.

“We studied three mining sites namely Mararrabar Yauri, Makeri both in Ngaski local government and Tungan Zakara in Shamga local government of the state. In these three sites, there are about 20,000 people making a living directly on mining. These are just three sites. If we take a crude estimate that a site has on average 6,500 people, and that each of the local governments where mining takes place has on average two sites, this will mean looking at 24 mining sites in the state, giving employment to about 156,000 people,” he said.

“This means that a substantial number of people of the state are employed in mining and earn their means of livelihood through it. It can in fact be said that mining is the single biggest employer of labour in the state,” he added.

Dr. Ya’u noted that it was wrong for the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu to unilaterally ban all mining activities in Kebbi state without consultation with stakeholders.

“Since the ban of mining in Kebbi state, at least 17 miners have been detained and are facing charge of illegal mining before a Kebbi court. by a stroke of the pen and with no consultation with stakeholders, no thought about alternative means of livelihood for those affected and without any iota of justification, the police deprived these thousands of people their means of livelihood and make them unemployed overnight,” he said.

According to him, communities in Kebbi state have already begun to witness a rise in petty theft, which he said could soon spiral into armed robbery and banditry because people are being pushed into poverty and deprivation.

“This has serious security implication. Illegal mining is said to be a contributing factor to the conflict in Zamfara state. If this is not quickly addressed, the possibility of illegal mining turning into violent confrontation especially between illegal miners and the police and security agencies is high.

“Comparing the dynamics in Zamfara state and the closure of the mines in Kebbi state, it is clear that criminality and violence are not due to the nature of mining but by the way in which government manufacture illegal mining. There are two ways in which illegal mining is produced: The first is when conditions for registration for artisanal miners are made difficult to access and acquire licenses. The second is when government closes mines and make mining activities illegal without consultation and not provide for alternative means of livelihood for those dependent on mining…then use police to repress any effort by miners to disregard arbitrary decision…,” he said.

Dr. Ya’u also observed that while other communities in the state like Mararrabar Yauri and and Makerin could fall back on farming activities as an alternative, there is no such alternative in another community like Tungan Zakara.

“As it is now, without any alternative means of livelihood, when miners out of desperation in Kebbi began to ignore the ban order, they will be met with police violence. This has already happened when the police razed to the ground all shelters/houses, stores, shops, facilities and equipment of miners in Tungan Zakara,” he said.

The CITAD boss therefore called on the federal government to immediately lift the ban on mining activities in Kebbi state in order to restore employment to the mining communities in the state.

“Police are not responsible for issuing or revoking mining licenses in the state. This is the duty of the ministry of mines and steel. We call on government to commit to implementation of the provisions of the Mining Act of 2017 as well as the Minerals and Metals Policy of the same year,” he said.

He further recommended among others the following steps that should be taken to improve mining activities in Nigeria:

1. The government should order the immediate re-opening of the mines in Kebbi and that no such closure should be done in future without consultation with miners and plan to provide an alternative means of livelihood to them.
2. Clarify within policy instruments  the terms artisanal mining and illegal mining, which are often used interchangeably even by researchers.
3. Establishing less cumbersome processes and procedures for licensing artisanal miners including ceding this to state level agency such as mineral resources and environmental committee so as to bring the process closer to the miner.
4. There is need for regular and comprehensive assessment of quality of environment and water sources of mining communities to ensure early detection of possible contamination so as to take measures to prevent disaster.

INTRODUCTION

For over many decades, corruption has become the most destructive phenomenon which wearies away the economic growth and development of the entire Nigerian state. Corruption has penetrated to all levels of starting from the wards in local government areas and up to the federal level of government. Similarly, Nigeria is a state that is blessed with all forms   of resources including land, human and natural resources that could place the state in the top countries of the world and compete with first world countries. Unfortunately, the persistent political corruption and lack accountability in Nigeria have kept Nigeria backward with excessive embezzlement of public fund by political officers, election rigging, bribery etc in all sectors including health, security and education.

Fighting corruption and promoting accountability therefore is collective and a task for all. To discharge their responsibilities in line with this postulations, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), with support from MacArthur Foundation started implementing a project titled “Anti-corruption and Accountability,” where CITAD is working with 26 social influencers who use the influence especially on social media and other media outlet to influence citizens in Nigeria to stand against corruption and advocate for accountability at all level of government.

On January 15, 2018, the Social Influencers Cluster on Deepening Anti-Corruption and Spreading Accountability led by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) and supported by MacArthur Foundation held it First quarter meeting. The participants were sub grantees working on anti-corruption and accountability project. Over 20 Social Influencers took turns at the meeting to speak on their experience on the project on anti-corruption and accountability. The meeting which held at Newton Park, Abuja allowed members of the cluster to review their work and reflect on the uptake of accountability and anti-corruption issues in the current campaigns by political parties for the 2019 General Election.

While giving an opening remarks at the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Tunde Misbahu Akanni who chaired the meeting, harped on the need for members of the cluster to adhere to the deadlines for the submission of quarterly reports, as such delays hamper the prompt release of subsequent tranches of funds.

This point was further adumbrated by Dayo Olaide, the representative of MacArthur Foundation, Dayo Olaide during general discussion who stressed on the importance of prompt filling of reports. He also emphasized the need for sub-grantees to avoid the issue of conflict of interests in the course of their work particularly as we approach the general election.

ACTIVITIES DURING THE MEETING

The Meeting was divided into three segments.

1^ST SEGMENT:

The first segment consisted of presentations; one on “Understanding the Human Cost of Conflict and Corruption in Nigeria,” by Chris Kwaja of Centre for Peace and Security Studies, Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola, Adamawa State. In his presentation, Chris Kwaja explained that despite the victimhood associated with their experiences with conflicts, many Nigerians lack the power to exercise their civic rights in relations to the demand for accountability and transparency as it relates to conflict related responses by state and non-state actors. He lamented that Corruption has become a dominant features of responses by these actors – monies appropriated, distributed and used under the guise of conflict related interventions are mis-applied, mis-used or stolen through official and unofficial means.

In his presentation, Kwaja also explained how corruption has killed Nigeria to a bottom line. He stated that corruption erodes public trust on the state and its institutions, thereby perpetuating a regime of impunity. Similarly, citizens are cut off from knowledge of what happens to the monies meant to address their problems, leading to social tension (Boko Haram emerged because the state is ‘corrupt’). In the eyes of the citizens, the state is also perceived as corrupt in way it allocates and uses resources to fight Boko Haram).

At the end of his presentation, he opined that empowering communities to demand social accountability through the availability of information as well as the right communication tools and channel for combating corruption is imperative and a collective responsibility. Another important point he made was to train key community actors on the monitoring and tracking of the distribution of budgeted funds and relief materials

The second presentation was on “Creativity in the Fight against Corruption” by one of the subgrantees, Diego Odoh Okenyedo (Splendors of Dawn), who uses creativity in poetry to deepen anti-corruption and spread accountability. Diego explained that creativity such as in Drama and poetry could be used to send messages on anticorruption and accountability in an entertaining manner. Citizens including young people as well as political officers could be connected with anticorruption and the need for accountability and transparency through poetry, pop culture, stage drama etc. This could be done by using imagination of original ideas to create messages on anticorruption and accountability. He explained that key elements in doing that involved associating by drawing connections between questions, problems or ideas from unrelated field; question by  posing queries that challenge common wisdoms, observing by identifying new ways of doing things, networking by meeting people wth different ideas and perspectives and lastly; experimenting by constructing interactive experiences and provoking responses to see new insights.

2^ND SEGMENT 2:

The Second segments consisted of issues relating to the activities implemented by each sub-grantee. 21 social influencers attended the meeting and shared their experiences on their various activities and their challenges. The activities carried out by the social influencers in the first quarter included poetry, documentary, drama, journals, radio programme, online news updates, daily tweets and researches etc.

Challenges as shared by the social influencers include:

• Getting across to the politicians and political stakeholders.
• People are not willing to engage themselves in matters that concerns their rights.
• People challenge some of the social influencers thinking that they are not neutral and or were being paid by some politicians to carry out the activities.
• Physical threats from people against some staff who went to public areas for shooting.
• Some Sub grantees made known that the project has been yielding positive results.
• In some locations in Nigeria no much is been said on anti-corruption and accountability, citizens in that region talk more on insecurity which is a challenge.
• The issue of feedback from the citizens is a challenge.

In this segment also, the CITAD team discussed on how to properly prepare report and retirement for each quarter. Aliyu Dahiru Aliyu who is the M&E officer, Spoke from the monitoring and evaluation perspectives and stated some guidelines on how to properly meet all its requirement. Maryam Ado Haruna, the programme officer also explained the guidelines needed to be followed while filling the quarterly narrative form. She also stated that there is need for monthly update of each sub-grantees activities, adding that a timetable would be developed and sent to them to know when they need to submit any required document. This was to enable timely submissions on time and avoid unnecessary delays as experienced in the first quarter. Abubakar Yusuf Auyo, the project accountant also stated requirements for the financial report including supporting documents of all transaction made with the project fund.

3^RD SEGMENT:

In the third segment which was the last segment, consisted of general discussion and observation on corruption in Nigeria. The outcomes were:

• The participants discussed that People on the ground who are directly affected by the conflict in the North East can sometimes see the international agencies themselves as beneficiaries of the insurgency and feel that they themselves do not always meet the highest accountability standards.
• Similarly, there is a backlash against those working on accountability issues when it come s to the fight against the insurgency in the North East or the provision of humanitarian aid.
• Again, the issue of production of fake news has aided toward deepening corruption in Nigeria.
• At the end of the meeting, the communique drafted during the meeting was presented and was signed by CITAD and the social influencers.
• It is important to collaborate with other social media influencers working on the anticorruption project, in the print media, the performing art and other socially conscious CSOs.
• Many Nigerians lack the power to exercise their civic rights in relations to the demand for accountability and transparency as it relates to conflict related responses by state and non-state actors.
• The Nigeria’s security sector remains one of the most visible actor in the country’s conflict landscape
• Security funds are outside the budget and financial reporting systems (they don’t account to anyone about how such funds were spent.
• The issue of diversion of relief materials by aid workers, government officials and diversion of humanitarian funds through fraudulent contracts
• There is practice of classified expenditure under the guide of security votes, which end up as slush funds that are spent without any iota of accountability.

By Bashir Mohammed Kano

Executive Director, Centre For Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Dr. Yunusa Zakari Yau, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to treat all pending cases of sharp corrupt practices without prejudice adding that  the Secretary to the Federal Government, Mr. Babachir Lawal, was not a scapegoat in the fight against corruption.
Speaking at a press conference in Kano yesterday, Yau said there were three issues about the secretary to the federal government “first of which was cutting grassing in the face of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons starving to death for lack of food in their possession.”

Yau said the Babachir saga was no less different from the case of the former National Security Advisor who diverted money meant for buying arms to fight the Boko Haram militias, stressing that the Babachir issue was enough for a regime of probity and commitment to show him the way out.
He said the magnitude of the money allegedly diverted by the secretary to the federal government in the name of addressing the needs of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) was a classic case of inflating figures, stressing that the money could have saved the lives of many IDPs wallowing in misery, hunger and deprivation.

He said: “On the strength of these arguments, we had expected the President to have asked Babachir to step down and wait until investigations have cleared him of any wrongdoing.
“Failure to do this has sent a very strong signal that the President anti-corruption fight is politically motivated and not anchored on the spirit of national interest. This would be sad for someone who has made a name as a man of integrity, committed to fighting corruption wherever.”

On the humanitarian crisis rocking the Internally Displaced Persons, the CITAD boss said several credible reports had surfaced in the last couple of weeks detailing the ranging calamitous starvation the IDPs were facing and dying for, pointing out that the country was ill-prepared to handle the disaster.
He called on the President to suspend Mr. Babachir Lawal from office to enable to face thorough investigation, stressing that “by effecting such a decision, the nation can be assured that he truly belongs to all and not to some people and was committed to combating corruption wherever and by whoever.”

http://www.blueprint.ng/babachir-not-scapegoat-in-anti-graft-fight-citad/

Nigeria’s lack of a position on zero rating and which has left some mobile companies to currently improvise is an emerging digital apartheid, Mallam Yunusa Y’au, the Executive Director of the Kano based Centre for Information Technology and Development, (CITAD) has said. He is subsequently drawing the attention to the need for activists to respond to the development. Speaking as a lead facilitator at an Internet Safety and Security workshop at the centre, Mallam Y’au has equally told a set of 55 persons spanning journalists, civil society activists, teachers and leaders of student for peace clubs of CITAD in tertiary institutions of the necessity to raise awareness about internet safety and security as many people were increasingly falling prey to cybercrime through identity and personality theft

Mallam Y Z Y’au, CITAD ED

Over three sessions, three different facilitators took the workshop attendees through several rubrics, beginning with a distinction between the two key concepts of internet safety and internet security.  Facilitator Mallam Y. Z Y’au pointed out how though related and used interchangeably, the two concepts did not mean the same thing. Emphasizing why attendees must be able to navigate that various perils of the now indispensable tool called the internet, the facilitator then took the students through the various points of perils, the consequences of safety and security breach as well as the various dimensions and manifestation of insecurity online. The session also drew attention to privacy issues, including the right to forget, the possible implications of internet of Things to privacy and concluded by looking at emerging issues such as zero rating and net neutrality.

Leo Stan Eke, leading Nigerian digital businessman, to the rescue?

Abdulganiyyu Rufai and Malam Ahmad A. Yakasai, CITAD’s Programmes Associate and training coordinator respectively, addressed common threats such as viruses, spyware and their consequences; different types of attacks on networks and their countermeasures in relation to confidence, authenticity, integrity and system availability. They implored participants to implement seven regular cyber safety procedures that would protect them, their computers and other persons from many such common threats as regular update of software, running anti-virus always, taking precaution to avoid identity theft and turning on personal firewall protection systems. Engineer Kamal Umar, Technical Officer in CITAD closed the session with demonstrating tips on how to surf the internet safely via a presentation “General online Safety Tips”. Participants called on CITAD to commence a process of mainstream internet safety and security in Nigeria after doing so across its own activities.

Intervention observes that Internet Safety and Security is gradually forming part of the curriculum for professional journalism training in Nigeria. Still commoner outside the formal academic system, the frequency as well as the number of those who have benefited has been rising. The latest of such is the Internet Safety and Security workshop at CITAD.

CITAD Fears Digital Apartheid in Nigeria

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

As part of efforts to enable unemployed university and polytechnics graduates acquire skills that will make them employable and competitive in a changing world, an NGO, Center for Information and Technology Development (CITAD) has organized a career development and entrepreneurship opportunities training for unemployed graduates.
Speaking, during a one day workshop on techniques and employment/entrepreneurship opportunities at CITAD conference hall, Bauchi, the Research Assistant with CITAD Alhaji Hamza Ibrahim Chinade, said that the purpose of setting up Job Placement Information Services Unit (JOPIS) was for the unemployed graduates to acquire employable skills, stressing that the unit has demonstrated high prospects to unemployed graduates for job acquiring skills from Foundations, NGOs ,Government and wealthy individual.
Ibrahim Chinade disclosed that about 30 graduates were targeted to benefited from the training but over 40 turn up, graduates from ATBU Bauchi, Fedpoly Bauchi and University of Maiduguri whom we develop sound business ideas of securing jobs and skils of becoming self reliance”
“As long as number of graduates still remains unemployed, we will continue to improve the capacity of training more unemployed graduates to become employers of labour,” he said.
Chinade called on the unemployed graduates to work hard and create job for the next generation, adding that the attitude of waiting to be employed by government might result to the next generation not having any job.

NGO trains 40 unemployed graduates on entrepreneurship

As part of efforts to enable unemployed university and polytechnic graduates acquire skills that will make them employable and competitive in a changing world, Center for Information and Technology Development (CITAD), a non-governmental organization(NGO)organized a career development and entrepreneurship training for unemployed graduates.

The Research Assistant with CITAD, Alhaji Hamza Ibrahim Chinade,stated this at a one day workshop on techniques and employment/entrepreneurship opportunities at CITAD Conference Hall, Bauchi, last weekend.
Chinande said the purpose of setting up Job placement information services Unit (JOPIS) was for the unemployed graduates to acquire employable skills, stressing that the unit has demonstrated high prospects to unemployed graduates for job acquiring skills from Foundations, NGOs ,Government and wealthy individuals.

He disclosed that about 30 graduates were targeted to benefit from the training but over 40 turned up.
“Graduates from ATBU Bauchi, Fedpoly Bauchi and University of Maiduguri all turned up for capacity building exercise with sound business ideas of securing jobs and skills of becoming self-reliant ”

“As long as a number of graduates still remain unemployed, we will continue to improve the capacity of training more unemployed graduates to become employers of labour”, he said.

Chinade called on the unemployed graduates to work hard and create jobs for the next generation, adding that the attitude of waiting to be employed by government might result in the next generation not having any job.

He also noted that the main challenge in the country is that most Nigerian graduates lack the necessary skills that will enable them secure employment.

NGO Trains 40 Unemployed Graduates on Entrepreneurship Opportunities

Coming from Africa, and especially Nigeria, where access to the internet is characterised by different layers of exclusions and where development challenges are also layered with various deprivations, I had specific expectations on how the processes of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) could help deepen access to and democratisation of the decision-making processes with respect to how the internet is evolving as a global process in which Africa is still a marginal space in terms of use and voice. I was particularly interested in how the internet could help in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) given the rather dismal performance of many African countries with respect to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In a way, therefore, this background structured the choices of the panels, forums and initiatives that I attended at the IGF. The pre-IGF Disco-tech session held on 5 December, during which short presentations were made on community networking initiatives, extended my interest to include community networks as a possible solution to issues of connectivity and access in developing countries likes Nigeria.

The 11th IGF, held from 5 to 9 December at PALCCO (Palacio de la Cultura y la Communicacion), Guadalajara, Mexico, took place at a time that global attention was riveted to the initial steps of promoting the attainability of the SDGs. Thus it was not surprising that the tsars at the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) and the Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA) conspired to make us link the IGF to the SDGs. Not a bad conspiracy, if you take my word.

The sessions were as interesting as they were relevant to the theme of the Forum, which was “Inclusive and Sustainable Growth”. Overall the deliberations were optimistic about the prospects of using ICTs in general and internet in particular as tools to realise the SDGs. This optimism was, however, tampered by three key issues.

One was the hard reality that in spite of the tremendous progress made in the last couple of years, billions of people, mostly in the developing world, remained unconnected. Not surprisingly, therefore, the need to address this problem found expression in what is now almost a working slogan, Connecting the Next Billions, and in the many sessions organised around this sub-theme. Even more on the practical side were the numerous community network initiatives that were showcased as possible alternatives and/or complementary to the dominant market-based internet connectivity models.

The second was a docket of problems that are associated with existing lived practices on the net. These include cybersecurity, gender violence online, child exploitation and pornography, the particular problems of people living with different disabilities, and misuse of the internet such as in the spread of hate speech as well as its use by insurgents and terrorist groups. This last is important for us in Nigeria where the Boko Haram insurgency has resulted in the death of thousands of people and the displacement of millions others who are rendered either as internally displaced persons within the country or as refugees in neighbouring countries, including those risking their life to cross the Mediterranean through Libya. CITAD has in the last two years been running a hate speech monitoring and countering project, including paying attention to the use of social media to recruit young people into violent activities by insurgent groups. It was an opportunity for us to reflect on our work in this area and to learn from what others are doing.

Third was what can be considered as a futuristic look at the evolution of the internet in the years to come. The challenges highlighted by Vint Cerf, a founding father of the internet, reflected this. He drew attention to a number of issues that need to be considered and addressed as we think about the internet of the future. These include:

• Mechanisms of interoperability in many years to come and preservation of digital content.
• The spectre of contesting for space between information and misinformation.
• The challenge of connecting all of the unconnected billions.
• The need to speed up the update of IPv6, given that currently it is still at 15% penetration.

Misinformation might easily be related to the election in the USA, where Vint Cerf comes from, but it is a daily feature of the social media in developing countries. In Nigeria, this has become a major issue that is pushing many people out from using Facebook. In a project being implemented by CITAD, we include fake news or rumours as part of the range of hate speech that is capable of inciting violence. Of course not all shades of rumour can qualify for this, but it is necessary that young people are not made to believe that whatever they see or read on the internet is true. That will require, as Cerf has hinted, developing a training programme that will help people to differentiate between information and misinformation. This of course is difficult to implement but it is a challenge that all those who have faith in the internet as a development tool have to confront.

In this category also were the discussions and deliberations around the Internet of Things (IoT) and especially with respect to children in the session on the Internet of Toys. There is no doubt that IoT has great potential to contribute in the attainment of the SDGs but concerns about security, privacy, and loss of control of our lives to codes have to be addressed. It would seem that there is much yet to be understood both technically and socially in relation to issues of human rights and privacy as we embrace IoT.

The undertones in the discussion about cybersecurity seem to be largely from the perspectives of both the state and private sector. While the private sector thinks about protecting investment, states are concerned about regime stability, peace and state effectiveness. In this there is the unwitting predilection to deploy cybersecurity solutions that could infringe on the rights of citizens, as human security or, more appropriately, citizens’ security seems to missing in the discussion.

Under this should also fall the session on the Internet and the Future of Work. In a session that was full of technology entrepreneurs and businesspeople, there was too much glorification of the internet as creating jobs for people it is displacing. Issues like the cost of the new jobs to displaced people, the impact of the changing nature of work on the relationship between employer and employee and the fact that new forms of employment resulting from the appropriation of internet are derogating the right to collective bargaining were glossed over. Unfortunately, this session showed a deficit in the current form of the multistakeholder model of the IGF. Labour movements are a significant component of civil society. They are also directly affected by technology, which both displaces their members as well as in some instances makes it difficult to assert the right to unionisation and collective bargaining. Yet, the voice of labour was consciously absent at the IGF.

In addition to these, there were also issues of a mundane nature, stocktaking and parade of opportunities. Two of the stocktaking sessions that I found useful were the national IGFs (NIGFs) session and the Dynamic Coalition (DC) on Accessibility. With respect to the NIGFs, the session showed the uneven development of NIGF initiatives. There were only about 50 national forums along with one thematic forum and a sub-national IGF (run by CITAD, an APC member) which were acknowledged. The session provided an opportunity for the national IGFs to raise their problems and priorities. I say “raised”, because I cannot remember that solutions were offered to these, which unfortunately meant that many of the NIGFs would have to go back home and think for themselves. My other reflection was that the IGF process must expand beyond the horizontal dimension of the multistakeholder mechanism (bringing government, private sector, academia, media, civil society, etc. together) further down to the grassroots (engaging different layers of these stakeholders), thus paying more attention to sub-national IGF initiatives that would provide a platform for grassroots voices.

Of particular importance to me also was the session about the DC on Accessibility. While participants generally agreed that the hosts made a considerable effort at accommodating people with disabilities and made the deliberations of the IGF accessible to them, two major shortcomings, not relating to the hosts, were observed. One was at the online registration level. The registration website and the registration process were not friendly to people who are visually impaired. The second was that while the passion of the IGF is about inclusivity, having to hold a different session for people living with disability means that inclusivity is still far from being substantively addressed in practice.

Equally important in testing the inclusive drive in the discussions over the internet in general was the submission by a panellist that discussions in the IANA transition process were in English. Multilingualism as a major tool for inclusion was thus yet to be mainstreamed. It would appear of course that with the IGF 2016, English was the ultimate working language, as transcriptions were in English even where the speakers were speaking in either French or Spanish or Portuguese. The same panellist also commented on the uneven representation and participation in ICANN among the different regions of the world, a salient marker of the digital divide.

The issue of gender violence online was the subject of several sessions, but from the perspective of solution seeking, it seems to me the session that was more productive was “An ‘Internet of Women’ by 2020: WSIS Vision into Reality (WS15)”. Here in addition to researched presentations, a number of organisations featured what they were doing to address both unequal access to the internet by women and gender violence online (including child molestation online). The organisations that made presentations included Microsoft, Google and Verizon as well as the ITU, showcasing the various initiatives they have for which they would like to partner with other stakeholders. The Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization (CTO) also presented on the various initiatives that it was involved in and invited interested bodies to link up with it in a different session.

The stocktaking season around the IANA transition also raised a number of significant issues. One was, how could the multistakeholder model be taken over to other arenas? The celebration of the multistakeholder model, however, did not allow for a critical interrogation of its democratic content. This is not say that it is entirely non-democratic, but that it can be made much more democratic than it is now. There was also a reflection that civil society representation in the process was not very effective in the sense that civil society, as a non-homogenous entity, tends to be divided, with different perceptions and interests, unlike the private sector or even government.

Given the high cost of attending the IGF, remote participation had been thought of as a way to get many people to engage with the process without having to travel. This challenge to travel seems to affect Africa in greater measure if attendance at the 2016 IGF was to go by. Yet the three challenges identified at the session on How to Make Remote Participation Sustainable – that is, access, capacity and language – seem to critically apply to Africa and other developing regions. Access is so extremely poor that Ms. Mary Uduma, the coordinator of the West African IGF, reports that the sub-regional forum could not have remote participation at its forum in Niamey, Niger Republic because of access-related problems. To deepen participation, APC may consider building the capacity of its members in setting up and running remote participation hubs. CITAD did run a remote participation hub in 2015 but only for just two days, and even for those two days, only for a selection of sessions and with the frustrating situation of an inability to make contributions to the IGF in session.

Some other sessions were geared towards improving some specific stakeholders’ participation. For example, the session on the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance (YCIG) focused on both the challenges that young people face in attending the IGF and how to increase their participation in future rounds. The forum claimed to have brought people under 30 together, and I was wondering how the gatekeepers of the session identified the age of the participants. As I was over 30, I peeped and left but I was sure there were others like me, who were more than 30 years old, that took part in the session!

One aspect of capacity building that was absent from discussion is the possibility of developing countries transiting from mere ICT consumers to simultaneous producers and consumers. The fact that internet and more generally ICTs are critical to the realisation of the SDGs would mean that bridging the digital divide is not just about access, important as that is. But of course, this was not surprising given that, first, this was an internet governance forum and not ICT governance (yet of course the internet is not all conduits but also the means of accessing the conduit as well as the content that goes into the conduits). Second, of course, there was the conspicuous absence of governments from developing countries, meaning that they were not expected to have a voice to raise their cause.

One of the innovations this year was the lightning sessions. This is a more or less informal session in an open place that takes about 30 minutes or so. This allows participants to commune in an informal setting on issues that might either have not found space in the main programme or that have arisen from the formal sessions. They can help develop a community of interest, allow for greater networking and more thorough interrogation of issues, and help push issues that missed the deadline to find some space, but they also extend the frontiers of the informality of the IGF to a higher level. They also, if not controlled in some way, can become contesting sessions with formal sessions. In a way they can become the alternative IGF.

Is this a conversation with no politics? The promoters of the IGF clearly do not want issues to be clouded by political consideration. In a way this allows for a wide range of shades of actors, opinions and political tendencies to engage in the deliberation. Yet, it is clear that many of the issues are not just technical or even socioeconomic and cultural issues. They are political issues which politics has to deal with. The weathering away of political superstructure from the IGF can be seen at the level of the composition of participants at the IGF 2016. Civil society, which lacks political power, dominated with over 45.2%. This was followed by the technical community with 28%. Government participation came second only from the bottom.

Does this have implications? Yes, it does, at least for developing countries like mine. In the first instance, our governments do not take the IGF very seriously. It is in fact instructive to note that the presence of governments from Africa and Asia was the lowest at IGF 2016. Nigeria, whose Ministry of Communication, the highest policy coordination and implementation organ of the government, did not care to attend the IGF, is one of those governments that do not accord the IGF the importance it deserves. Being absent in this forum means that they are not adequately informed about many issues raised and debated. With the private sector keenly present and actively participating, our governments would find it difficult to engage the private sector on terms that would be in the overall collective interest of citizens of these countries, not just of investors. It also affects the capacity of civil society to win concessions at national level on issues that are deliberated upon at the IGF. It additionally weakens the multistakeholder mechanism at national level. But even more important, it unwittingly confers a substantive perception, if not a marker for the IGF, as a mere discussion table, leaving serious decision making to intergovernmental fora in which civil society has no space.

Did I miss anything at IGF 2016? Yes, several things. I wished I had the time to attend a number of sessions that I had interest in but which clashed with other equally important sessions. For example, given my work back in Kano, Nigeria, I would have loved to have attended the session on “Social Media and Youth Radicalization in the Digital Age”, which I missed. I also would have attended “The Role of Judiciary Systems and Internet Governance” and several others. What this means is that there is a need to put more thought into the way in which IGF sessions are structured and timed. No doubt given the multiplicity of actors and the diversity of interests, this is a big challenge, but if clear sub-themes run through several days and non-overlapping sub-themes run parallel, things may be better.

Some final words: as we discussed, with the ambience of tequila in the air (for some in the throat!) and the expressive tunes of mariachi music, the promise for a free, neutral, safe, open, resilient and decentralised internet was alluring. Yet, the reality is that we all return back to our respective countries, and those like us, who see obscene exclusion on the net that counters all these adjectives, have their tasks cut out for them!

Observations

• The fact that civil society constituted close to 50% of the participants at the IGF is attributable to the importance that organisations like APC have placed on the IGF. Yet, it must be noted that this number does not qualitatively translate to a commensurate update of civil society voices at either national level or even in other international fora where internet issues are decided.
• It did not appear to me that APC made a deliberate effort to make effective use of the presence of its members to cover as many important sessions at the IGF as possible. This is probably due to the need to respect individuals’ and member organisations’ choices to keep to what they consider important or relevant to their work. The net result of that is that often we crowd up at some sessions, and are missing at some others that are equally important. In a way, this crowding at certain session reflects our communality of interest, which is good, but we may gain something by also spreading out in a strategic way.
• Labour is a major component of civil society. Its members are also directly impacted by technology, especially the internet. Yet at the IGF the voice of labour is absent.
• With all its promises, the IGF is a discussion table, not a decision-making table. Other platforms, where civil society presence or voice is often either minimal or absent, are where the important decisions are made.
• It would seem that the focus of APC engagement at the IGF this year gave much weight to community networks. This was understandable given that connectivity remains a major issue across the world.
• Government participation, especially from Africa, was low.
• Participants from developing countries, such as those in Africa, were few.
• With over 47% of the participants being female, IGF 2016 must rank as one of the most gender-balanced of global forums.
• While community networks present an important mechanism for bridging the digital divide, a broader discussion on bridging the digital divide did not occur at the IGF.
• APC constituted the largest segment of the civil society participation at the IGF.

Suggestions

• There is a need for APC members to claim the civil society space in their respective countries to ensure that civil society voices are visible and listened to at national IGFs, and as well taken up and implemented by relevant stakeholders
• There is a need to finds ways for civil society to reach some consensus on key issues that are taken to decision-making tables such as the UN agencies
• A number of private sector organisations such as Google, Microsoft and Verizon have programmes that APC should leverage to drive digital inclusion across the different countries where exclusions are the norm.
• Given the wide array of sessions, programmes and initiatives at the IGF, there is a need for APC to be more strategic in terms of both assessing which sessions to focus more attention on and how to spread its membership across these sessions, without necessarily making individual members sacrifice their individual/organisational interest or focus.
• APC should find ways of moving the multistakeholder model to other critical platforms where decisions are taken.
• It would be good for APC (and its members) to engage labour organisations with a view to getting them on board at IGF 2017.
• Issues of gender and disability are not only signifiers of exclusion but also of specific problems faced by women and people with disabilities as they negotiate the use of the internet. It would be good if APC could devote more attention to campaigns to make the internet safe for women and friendlier to people living with disabilities. In connection with this, APC and its member organisations can partner with such organisations as the ITU, Google, Microsoft, Verizon and others that have resources to deploy in this direction.
• APC, especially in Africa and Asia, should work with regional political groups such as the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to get governments in these regions to begin to afford participation at the IGF greater priority.
• It could be good for APC to pool the different possibilities of partnerships, initiatives and opportunities and share them with all members.
• There is a need for APC member organisations in Africa in particular to work with other civil society organisations to sensitise stakeholders to participate more actively in the IGF processes, even if through remote hubs.
• APC needs to deepen the capacity of its member on strategies for responding to internet shutdowns.
• Having made a significant impact at the global level of the IGF, APC should lead the process of extending the IGF processes to the grassroots through actively pushing for and organising sub-national-level IGF processes. This also includes capacity building for remote hub hosting and participation.

By Mustapha Usman, Kano

The Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, pending the completion of investigation on the allegations of corruption against him.

The SGF came under fire for allegedly awarding contract to his own company, RholaVision Engineering LTD, to clear ‘invasive plant species’.

Addressing journalists at the CITAD’s office in Kano on Monday, the Executive Secretary of CITAD, Yunusa Ya’u, alleged that the funds believed to have been diverted by the SGF were meant for the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs.

According to Mr Ya’u, the ‘grass-cutting’ contract was awarded by the SGF at the expense of the IDPs who were dying on daily basis due to starvation.

He labelled the contract as a misplacement of priority and a clear case of misappropriation of funds.

A group, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has urged the Presidency to suspend the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Lawal Babachir, over alleged diversion of funds meant for the rebuilding of the North-East.

Executive Director of CITAD, Yunusa Zakari Ya’u, at a press briefing in Kano yesterday, said that the Presidency was not handling the corruption accusation within its kitchen cabinet with seriousness despite the weighty evidence against the SGF by the Senate.

Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has revealed that 6,258 hate speeches were recorded between June and December 2016, stating it is not a good development for the country.

The Senior Programme Officer of CITAD, Isah Garba, while giving the outcome of the 2016 Monitoring and Countering Hate and Dangerous Speech Project Report, noted that rumour was one of the most inflammatory and violence causing mechanisms.

He also noted that non-adherence to journalism ethics, especially on social media and its heterogeneous users, makes proliferation of rumor easy.

Garba observed that government appears to be slow in tackling drivers of hate speech in the society, which he listed to be unemployment, hunger and poverty.

CITAD Asks Buhari to Sack SGF Immediately

The fear that President Buhari has made the most mistake by trying to save his aides in relation to their perceived corruption appear to be catching on as a major civil society organisation at the heart of the reconstruction of the North East has asked President Buhari to suspend Babachir Lawal, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, from office forthwith so as to face thorough investigation. It has also called on the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to hand over the file to both the EFCC and ICPC and implore Babachir himself to honorably resign until he has been cleared by competent agencies. The Kano based Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) told a press conference in Kano that President Buhari is acting out of character in the handling of the SGF’s case and called on him to rethink his handling of the particular case. Otherwise, said CITAD, it would be a self-indictment as far as the president’s words at his inauguration that “he belongs to no one” is concerned. “The indication now is that he belongs to some people who, by his action, can be shielded from consequence of their corrupt acts”, said CITAD which is running an observatory on the plight of IDPs and the reconstruction process of the north east.

CITAD is justifying its stand on how misplaced cutting grasses in the face of thousands of IDPs starving to death for lack of food was. Two, it says there is no difference between the misappropriation involved and that of the former NSA who allegedly diverted money meant for buying arms to fight Boko Haram insurgency to buying votes the second term bid of former President Goodluck Jonathan. “We think this alone is enough for a regime of probity and commitment to the reconstruction of the North East to show the SGF the way out”, insisted CITAD at the press conference addressed by Malam Yunusa Y’au, its Executive Director.

Beyond the comparison, the NGO listed the magnitude of money involved when compared to the purported work done and said a case of inflation of figure could be established that makes the SGF to, in its view, be involved in corruption proper. It, therefore, regrets that the president whose name has been associated with probity is shielding the SGF from prosecution, indeed rewarding him by retaining him at the office of the SGF.

Hanging its case on the above points, CITAD said any option other than asking Babachir to step down and wait until investigations cleared him sends a very strong wrong signal that the anti-corruption agenda of the regime is politically motivated rather than on national interests. Though leaving no one in doubt of its firm support for the anti-corruption war, it demands treatment of all corruption cases the same way. Contrasting the treatment of the SGF to the arrest, detention, interrogation and investigation by the EFCC of many people suspected of corrupt acts, it wondered why the President has simply opted not to do allow the same in this case. Arguing that the fact of the contract has been well established by the Senate Adhoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North East, CITAD interrogated the president’s reasons why he could not go along with the Senate, saying that Babachir was not only given fair hearing, the report of the Senate Committee was signed by adequate number of persons. “It is curious that the same presidency that ordered the invasion of the houses of Judges suspected of corruption who were never given any hearing could now deploy the argument of fair hearing to protect Babachir”, it thundered.

In a retrospective insight, CITAD alleged that, for whatever reasons that became known only later, the SGF had stalled the inauguration of Presidential Committee on North East Initiative (PCNE) and instead the office took it upon itself to directly run the humanitarian programmes that PCNE should do, using the money left by the Presidential Initiative on North East (PINE). It further claimed that the Office of the SGF decided to go into a spending spree in order to exhaust the money available when pressure on the need to inaugurate PCNE mounted, saying that was when award of contracts described as frivolous started. “One of these was the over N200 million to clear ‘invasive plant specie’ in Yobe State to company belonging to the SGF, Lawal D. Babachir”, CITAD stated.

Going further, the NGO pointed out how it is now an understatement to say that a major humanitarian crisis has befallen the management of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Locating the assertion in the number of reports it says have surfaced in the last couple of weeks detailing the range of “calamitous starvation thousands of IDPS dying for lack of food”, the organisation traces what it calls avoidable calamity to three related factors: First, the country was ill prepared to handle a disaster of that magnitude, lacking in the necessary institutions and structures to attend to IDPs need. Second is the inhuman diversion of food and other humanitarian needs of IDPs by callow government officials. Third is the mega corruption in the massive stealing of money meant for addressing the needs of IDPs”. It, therefore, thinks that if corruption is not properly addressed, they whole Buhari Plan for the rebuilding of the north east would come to nothing.

Reactions to the clearance of Babachir by Presidential fiat would have shown the president that any perception of coloration of the anti-corruption war by politics or by double standard will ruin both the Buhari Presidency as well as the anti-corruption war. The world watches and waits for the next turn in the dynamics of the echoes of a war foretold

CITAD Asks Buhari to Sack SGF Immediately

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has revealed that 6,258 hate speeches were recorded between June and December 2016, stating it is not a good development for the country.

The Senior Programme Officer of CITAD, Isah Garba, while giving the outcome of the 2016 Monitoring and Countering Hate and Dangerous Speech Project Report, noted that rumour was one of the most inflammatory and violence causing mechanisms.

He also noted that non-adherence to journalism ethics, especially on social media and its heterogeneous users, makes proliferation of rumor easy.

Garba observed that government appears to be slow in tackling drivers of hate speech in the society, which he listed to be unemployment, hunger and poverty.

Report says Nigeria records 6,258 hate speeches in six months

A Kano-based, NGO, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has called on religious and community leaders to desists from making hate and dangerous speeches in the country.

Mr Isah Garba, the CITAD Programme Manager, made the call while briefing newsmen in Kano on Saturday.

He noted that religious and community leaders have important roles to play in the promotion of peace and unity in the country.

“Religious and community leaders are close to the people and they can use their respective positions in the society to influence their actions.

“We appreciate the efforts of some religious and community leaders who have spoken against the culture of hate speeches,”he said.

Garba alleged that most traditional and religious leaders seemed to be quiet about the issue which is dangerous to the corporate existence of the country.

“The complexity of the problem is beyond the management of civil society organisations alone as other stakeholders have to lend their support so that together, we can curb the menace.

He said between June 2016 and December 2016 no fewer than 6,258 hate speeches were reported to CITAD by its trained monitors.

He said the organisation would continue to counter the hate speeches it comes across through public sensitisation, deployment of moral sanction and advocacy to enlist influential voices to the campaign against hate speeches.

Read more at http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/centre-cautions-religious-leaders-on-hate-speeches/181840.html#aWCZV1Jd3h8GiIde.99