Kano govt urges communities to identify challenges for intervention

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

Kano State government has urged communities across the state to follow proper channel to voice out challenges bedeviling them for prompt intervention, saying the call was its commitment to providing even development in the state.

This was stated by the state Deputy Governor and Commissioner for Education, Prof. Hafizu Abubakar, during a launch of Community Development Charter (Village Book) of Dakata, Gawuna and Hotoron- Kudu areas of Nassarawa Local Government Area of the state yesterday.

The books, which contain challenges faced by the aforementioned areas and solutions to the outlined problems, were published to inform the government about the problems for its intervention.

Abubakar, represented by Abdullah Gwarzo, a senior officer in the state’s ministry of education, said the introduction of the books was timely as the government was planning to collaborate with communities across the state to explore their respective challenges in order to provide succour.

He commended members of the communities for coming up with new means of communicating with the government, calling on other communities to follow suit.

He also urged the general public to grab copies of the book as it would be beneficial to them when it comes to approaching the government on problems bedeviling their communities.

Slow Internet Service, Responsible For Mass Failure In JAMB – CITAD

By Bashir Mohammed
Kano

Executive Director, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Malam Yunusa Zakari Yau, has described slow internet service as responsible for the mass failure recorded during the recent JAMB exams.
Speaking to newsmen on the occasion of the launch of the campaign #SwiftandCheapNet in Kano yesterday, Yau said slow speed had many implications one of which was seen during the JAMB examination as candidates were auto-timed to respond to questions.

Yau said Nigerians’ access to internet was not only slow but costly, making it difficult for many people to afford it, adding that internet service providers in the country often hardly keep to any quality of service agreements.
He said the regulator itself was not proactive in the absence of sufficient demand from the public for faster and more affordable internet access in the country.
He, however, said current statistics showed that by February, this year, there were over 214,234052 connected lines in the country, of which 210,202453 were GSM out of which only 148,620359 were active and that 146,288,370 were GSM.

He posited that Data from the International Telecommunication Union also showed that Internet penetration stood at 42.68% meaning that the vast majority of Nigerians do have access to the internet, lamenting that the majority of Nigerians relied on slow speed from GSM.
The CITAD boss maintained that both speed and affordability were shaped by available internet infrastructure and the protectiveness of the regulatory agencies, affirming that government was still yet to demonstrate commitment to ensure that Nigerians have access to high speed internet.
He further revealed that it was the function of the media and other stakeholders to join the crusade of making internet services in the country cheaper and affordable through consistent enlightenment and creation of awareness for service providers to take prompt action.

Source: http://www.blueprint.ng/2016/05/02/slow-internet-service-responsible-for-mass-failure-in-jamb-citad/

IT promoters launch campaign against poor internet service in Nigeria

Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has launched awareness campaign tagged #SwiftandCheapNet against poor internet services in Nigeria.

The campaign was part of an Africa wide campaign named #FASTAfrica, standing for Fast, Affordable, Safe and Transparent internet for all in Africa.

Speaking at a press conference organised ahead of a seven-day awareness campaign on poor internet services in the country held at the CITAD office in Kano yesterday, Executive Director of the organisation, Y. Z. Ya’u lamented that Nigerians access internet that is slow and costly, making it difficult for many people to afford it.

He maintained that, Internet service providers in Nigeria hardly keep to any agreement of quality of service, adding that there has not been demonstrated capacity on the part of the regulatory bodies to ensure enforcement of such agreements.

According to him, data from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) shows that majority of Nigerians do not have access to internet, adding that despite the presence of 3G network rolled out across many places in the country, many of the Internet users rely on slow speed service which discouraged many from using the internet.

He said, “Slow speed has implication in cost of use of internet. As service is slow, your data get exhausted without getting the information you wish to upload or download. In fact, many cannot upload or download video. We intend to during the week long campaign raise public awareness through series of public enlightenment programmes that will mobilize the public to demand for faster and more affordable internet access and to engage providers and the regulatory bodies on the need to initiate processes that will improve the speed of internet access and make it cheaper in the country.”

Ya’u also called on governments to address obstacles for the expansion and deployment of network rings by the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), adding that the government should also review and implement the National Broadband Network.

He also called on the government to improve power supply as the key factor in determining the cost of service by the service providers, urging the government to ensure that all internet-related laws and policies are clear, transparent and in line with principles contained in the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedom.

He however urged the regulatory agencies to ensure that all ISPs operate within the law and acceptable limited quality of service agreement, adding that the agencies should engage governments with a view to addressing obstacles to network expansion and rolling out of additional networks by service providers.

He also called on the general public to join the campaign with a view to enjoying fast and affordable internet service in the country.

 

Source: http://www.peoplesdailyng.com/it-promoters-launch-campaign-against-poor-internet-service-in-nigeria/

JAMB CBT: NGO blames mass students’ failure on poor Internet service

An NGO in Kano, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has attributed mass failure of students in the recent JAMB examination to poor Internet service in the country.

The Executive Director of the organisation, Alhaji Yunusa Ya’u, said this while flagging off campaign on effective Internet service delivery in Kano on Sunday.

“Slow speed has many implications, one of which was recently seen during this year’s JAMB CBT examination.

“As candidates are auto-timed to respond to questions, a slow Internet means that even before student was able to load question, his or her time was off and therefore scored zero for that question,” he said.

He said: “Swift and CheapNet” is part of the Africa-wide campaign code named “FastAfrica” which stands for Fast, Affordable, Safe and Transparent Internet for all in Africa.’’

According to him, it is a campaign initiated by the World Wide Web Foundation’s Web we want and Alliance for affordable Internet (A4AI) involving over 30 groups across Africa.

Ya’u said the campaign was aimed at highlighting the need to work with stakeholders to ensure that the speed of Internet was improved, cost was reduced and the level of affordability was enhanced.

He said during the week-long campaign, the organisation intended to raise public awareness through series of public enlightenment programmes that would mobilise the public to demand faster and affordable Internet access in the country.

“We shall also engage providers and the regulatory on the need to initiate processes that will improve the speed of Internet access and make it cheaper in the country,” he added.

 

Source: https://www.today.ng/news/national/114908/jamb-cbt-ngo-blames-mass-students-failure-poor-internet-service

Coalition urges northern governors to accord Northeast priority attention

By Adam Alqali,

As the governors of the 19 northern states converge for their next meeting, a coalition of CSOs working in the northeast, the Northeast Education and Social Accountability Cluster, has urged the Northern Governors Forum to make the reconstruction of the Northeast, and more specifically its education sector, a key-point in its agenda of the meeting scheduled for the 29th April of 2016, in Kaduna.

This was contained in a statement made available to journalists in Kano on Thursday by the group.

“Although we are yet to see commeasure impact of their past meetings, because the decisions of the meetings were hardly implemented, we remain optimistic that the future ones will be different and that the Governors would come up with mechanisms that would ensure follow ups and implementation of these decisions,” said the statement.

“It is now clear that northern Nigeria is faced with multiple issues that need urgent attention, and that might be the reason why the Northern Governors Forum schedules to meet in Kaduna. The forum has been meeting in recent times, all in their efforts of making the North a better and stronger region.”

The statement said the civil society and other stakeholders were this time more committed to advocate for the implementation of progressive decisions taken by the Governors’ Forum as well as to continuously monitor and track the implementation of these decisions.

“It is our belief that without addressing the educational sector, not much would be achieved in the other sectors. We therefore wish to see the governors take a dispassionate look at the sector and come up with bold initiative that will readily result in concrete outcomes in revamping the education in the region,” said the statement.

The coalition which commended the commitment of the individual state governors in the Northeast towards improving the quality of education in their respective states added that they hoped other states in the region would emulate Bauchi state, by declaring state of emergency in the education sector.

“As they meet, we extend our solidarity and hands of fellowship to them and hope, that they will respond positively by providing hope to ordinary people who queued in the sun and gave them their votes in the believe that they  (the Governors) will address the existential conditions of the people,” concluded the statement.

Making Our Schools Safe, Secure

By Hamza Ibrahim Chinade

Going to school is one thing life is happy with because in the long run the knowledge acquired will be its ingredient. It is therefore a necessity that we go to school. But going to school in the last five years has become a big challenge to students and parents or guardians for fear of the unknown especially in the northeast. This is brought by the insecurity situation in the country, or rather activities of the insurgents in the area. Northeast is where much of the panic stays, because the region has suffered from school kidnappings and attacks. That led to the closure of many schools that became vulnerable.

Parents then were left with no option than to have their children stay at home while their colleagues elsewhere attend classes. School children began a new life of having to be at home during school hours. The classes became dust-gathering rooms without their occupiers. This is a setback to the lives of our tomorrow’s generation and the government must do all it could to ensure that our schools are safe and secure, that is by putting efficient security apparatus to safeguard the students and their teachers from any attack or kidnapping, here the society must also be supportive and cooperative to the measures put in place.

Commendably, there has been a remarkable improvement in the security situation of the dilapidated northeast region especially when one considers the panic and frequency of recurring unfortunate incidences a year ago, it now takes a while before we hear of bomb blast, and many schools have reopened. But, while we appreciate the commitment of governments at all levels in ensuring school children go back schools, we equally want the governments to be more focused in terms exploiting sound initiatives that will further solidify the safety of the schools.

There are a number of considerations why the government should make our schools safe and secure. One, it is a responsibility of the government to provide security for its citizens and their properties, that is why we have the army, police and other paramilitary all around to ensure that we are safe wherever we go, as such the constitutional right of the citizenry should not be tampered with. Therefore security must be extended to our schools in order to place priority on education.
I wonder why security personnel are sent to guard banks and other places regarded as important but our schools rely on hired guards to be watchful of certain happenings-but that is even for private schools where only those that can afford send their children to, as for public schools no one cares to provide them with even the ‘’weaponless guards’’, all the government does is to get an old man who uses walking stick as ‘Maigadi’ and his job is to make sure nobody burgles into the premises. Public schools have been like that for quite a long time and the culture needs to change with the emerging trend of insurgency.

Two, our children need to be educated. Since it is generally agreed that education is the most tangible gift we can give our children as parents or guardians, no matter what, we must be supported towards achieving that objective, here the support I am referring to is removing obstacles and fear on their way, i.e  the government does that by making sure they are safe at schools. While in school, they should be made to freely undertake activities ranging from going to the library, classes, sport arenas, dining halls and hostels for boarding schools, they should be free from being attacked or kidnapped like the ‘’Chibok Girls’’ that still remain captives; we pray for their safe release soon!
We may decide not give our children other things and they will not be affected by it, but denying them education will never be an option.
Many parents struggle hard enough to send their children to school because they regard it as necessary and it will be the greatest disappointment if after doing their part the government cannot secure their children.

Campaigns of encouragement are everywhere that parents should send their children to schools but some may ask; can we send them without being guaranteed their safety? Government must as matter of importance make our schools safe and secure.
Three, regulating security is the sole function of the government. It must therefore perform its task because if it fails no one else could. Utilizing the security system in schools in order to make them safe shows how concerned the government is about education, while neglecting the schools in terms of security also portrays what is known as ‘I don’t care attitude’ from the government side. Some people have lost confidence on the schools due to number of attacks they suffered. Government can only restore their hope by ensuring safety of their children.
Four, safeguarding the schools will provide a better or conducive learning environment. Teachers will conduct their activities with full capacity, unlike when the absence of security makes them to either stay away from the schools or having to feel like risking their lives coming to schools. Government should completely erase that kind of impression by ensuring safety of the schools to teachers and students.

Five, the government should understand that the education sector as a whole is being weakened if schools are not safe and secure. When those in the profession begin to think their lives are at risk, it will eventually lead to some of them quitting which may cause loss of manpower to the sector. And those aspiring to build career in the sector are being challenged by the obvious lack of security. However, the government must realize that putting the lives of students in danger is a setback to national development, because these same students we risk are the future generation and leaders.

Chinade is with Strengthening Advocacy and Civic Engagement (SACE) project at Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD,) Kano.

Kano Dep Gov Urges NGOs To Develop Critical Sectors

Deputy Governor of Kano state, Prof. Hafiz Abubakar, has called on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and notable development partners to join hands in developing critical sectors of the government for better result.

Speaking at a quiz competition organised by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) in collaboration with the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) held in Kano yesterday, Abubakar said  what was needed most in an ideal democratic setting was service to humanity and the ability to live above board.
The deputy governor, who was represented by the Special Assistant on Special Duties, Alhaji Idriss Hamisu Rogo, said the Ganduje administration had accorded top priority to education for the young school children to know their worth  in shaping the destiny of the nation.
On her part, the Programme officer , Centre for Democratic Development, Mrs. Abibatu Barry, stressed the need for creating awareness among school children for them to under the nitty-gritty of democratic leadership, adding that the quiz was conceived to ginger the resolve of the children academic pursuit in that regard.

He said the political class must be accountable to the electorate since they were given the constitutional mandate to lead people for everyone to enjoy the much pronounced dividends of good governance, stressing that the NGOs were indispensable partners in progress.
Also speaking, CITAD Programme officer, Malam Kabiru Dakata, said  the issue of election was not the end in itself, but concentrating on the required indices of development which  the political class must strive to uphold.
He pointed out that the quiz was an eye-opener to students willing to excel in their chosen field, affirming that non-government organisations, like CITAD, would be up and doing in creating easy avenues for young school children to forge ahead.

 

Source: http://www.blueprint.ng/2016/03/16/kano-dep-gov-urges-ngos-to-develop-critical-sectors/

CSOs Express Worry Over Delay In Northeast’s Reconstruction

A group of civil society oganisations under the auspices of the North East Education and Social Accountability Cluster, being anchored by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has expressed worry over the failure of the federal government to commence the reconstruction of the war-ravaged Northeast region over 7 months into the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Cluster which was established with the special goal of mobilizing all stakeholders towards rebuilding and reconstruction of the North-east and with a particular focus on ensuring social
accountability in the education sector was dismayed over the failure of the region’s reconstruction to commence despite the President’s promise.

In a press statement made available to newsmen in Bauchi on Wednesday, amongst others, the Cluster demanded that the federal government “establish the necessary agency or structure that will implement government intervention programmes for the rebuilding and
reconstruction of the Northeast.”

It further demanded that the FG “facilitate(s) through the General T. Y Danjuma-led PCNI the immediate convening of the Stakeholders Conference On the Reconstruction and Rebuilding of the Northeast to help the government come up with a blueprint for that purpose as well
as give its support for the speedy passage and accent of the Northeast Development Commission that will eventually take over from the adhoc agency that government could establish as a stop gap.”
They also called on the Danjuma committee to become more proactive and engage all stakeholders in the search for ideas and resources for the rebuilding and reconstruction of the Northeast as well as reiterated their commitment towards working with all stakeholders to ensure that all resources meant for the rebuilding and reconstruction of the region were optimally, transparently and accountably utilised for the purposes they were meant.

 

Boko Haram: CITAD urges FG to tackle unemployment

The centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has urged the federal government to address the issue of youth unemployment as they continued to provide the recruitment base for Boko Haram insurgents and urban violent gangs.

The programme manager of CITAD, Abdulganiyu Rufa’i stated this during a policy brief titled Beyond Winning the Minds: Youth, Peace Building and Entrepreneurship, held at Murtala Muhammad Library in Kano State yestyerday.

According to him, tackling the problem of unemployment among youth would prevent them from being recruited into joining extremists group or engaging in violent activities in the society, noting that engaging the youth would make them productive and legitimate economic actors in the society.

He said, “government should introduce mainstream entrepreneurship programme as part of winning away youth from extremists ideas. The government should also leverage the vast potentials of outsourcing an IT-based business to create jobs for teeming unemployed youths in the country.” He advised

He noted that the state governments need to review their youth policies in line with the modern democratic era.

Rufa’i also called on the civil society groups to advocate and monitor the implementation of the provisions of various youth related policies, adding that the NGOs should engage out of school youth in peace building and entrepreneurship.

PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE CENTER FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT (CITAD ) AGAINST THE ATTITUDES OF SOME TELECOM OPERATORS OF BOTHERING SUBSCRIBERS WITH   UNSOLICITED TEXT MESSAGES ON 2ND OF FEBRUARY,2016

Gentle men of the press, civil society members and ladies and gentle
men here present we welcome you all to this memorable occasion. It is
a common knowledge that Nigerians have for long been making outcries
against the unethical attitudes of Some telecom Service Providers who
engage in unsolicited telemarketing by incessantly sending messages
and making network calls to their subscribers on daily basis .This do
not only constitute nuisance and encroachment  upon the privacy of the
telecommunications subscribers and cause different sorts of
inconveniences to them but  conflict with the spirit of the Consumer
Code of Practice Regulations (2007). Despite numerous calls by
Nigerian subscribers, civil societies and the national Assembly
against that. This attitude keep growing day by day. CITAD an
organization that is  an advocate of internet freedom and digital
inclusiveness ,we do hereby in the strongest terms condemn these
attitude and call for immediate seizure of these kind of services.
In our efforts to add our voice to the popular movement against these
exploitative tendencies, we have already Serve Reactions Notice to the
Nigerian Communication Commission in pursuant to Section 142 of the
NCC Act, CAP N97,Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2010).NCC
have already responded to our notice, the commission has already
brought to our notice that it is in the process of issuing a direction
to all networks operators requesting that a “Do Not Disturb” option be
available to on their networks to enable subscribers to opt out at any
time in respect of unsolicited text messages and calls. While
commending the welcome development from NCC ,we call for speedy
implementation of this directives .

Sign

Abdulganiyu Rufai Y

For Directo

PRESS STATEMENT NORTHERN GOVERNORS FORUM AND IDB: THE WHOLE NORTH IS IN NEED BUT NORTHEAST IS IN CRITICAL NEED

We, the undersigned members of the Northeast Education and Social Accountability Cluster have welcomed the recent move by the Northern Governors Forum in partnering with the Islamic Development Bank to address the turbulent developmental challenges facing the Northern part of Nigeria.   The move is a clear indication of the forum`s effort in searching for all possible ways to transform the region amid the critical economic situation of the country.

While we are aware that the aim of the partnership is for the development of the whole Northern Nigeria, we wish to appeal to the forum on the need to concentrate more on the Northeastern Nigeria because of its peculiar developmental needs caused by the Boko Haram insurgency. Even in the Northeast it is obvious that the sector that requires immediate attention is education. Schools have been destroyed as a result of which many children are out of school. Therefore, it will be good if rebuilding schools features top in the agenda of the forum. Also recruitment, training, retraining and motivation of teachers need to be given consideration.  

In view of the above demand, we call on the Governors of the States in the Northeast to provide a reliable documentation of the destroyed schools. This should include name and location of the   schools, the extent of destruction, etc so that non-state actors can track the channeling of the funds meant for the schools reconstruction effort.

We also wish to point out that while money is needed, it is important that Governors are transparently prudent in the use and management of state funds. We urge them to be consultative in making their decisions on the reconstruction agenda by engaging communities and other stakeholders as well work with civil society organizations to allow for transparent tracking of the use of these funds.

Meanwhile, we call on the National Assembly to ensure a speedy passage of the Northeast Development Commission Bill that is before it, as it will serve as an instrument for coordinating all different interventions aimed at transforming the Northeastern Nigeria.

 

Signed:

  1. Kabiru Sa`idu Dakata, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Kano. 08064891110
  2. Mohammed G. Wuyo, Borno Coalition for Democracy and Progress (BOCODEP), Borno. 08063309633
  3. Enoch Raymond, Centre for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), Taraba. 07065550217
  4. Rebecca Hassan, Association of People Living with Disability, Gombe. 08036582745
  5. Aishatu Margima, Women and Youth Empowerment for Advancement and Health Initiative (WYEAHI), Adamawa. 08025225194
  6. Isah Garba, Bauchi Coalition for Improvement of Public Expenditure Management (BACIPEM), Bauchi. 08064867312
  7. Halimatu Laminu, Network of Civil Society Organizations, Yobe. 08025561637
  8. Dauda Mohammad, Northeast Youth Initiative Forum(NEYIF),  Yobe. 08035548664
  9. Asma`u Joda, Centre for Women and Adolescent Empowerment, Adamawa. 08032917070
  10. Ibrahim Yusuf, Society and the Future, Gombe. 08061153231

Education in Northeast comatose – CITAD

The state of education in the northeast is in comatose, the executive director, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD),  has said.
Briefing Daily Trust yesterday during the presentation of the survey report on the state of education in the Northeast in Abuja, he said the research conducted revealed that the educational development generally in the Northeast is presently less than other parts of the country.

“We know that there are problems, so we want to bring all the stakeholders, legislative, executive, civil societies and community representatives to discuss this problems so as to come up with collective agreement on how we can work together to reshape the state of education in the Northeast,” he said.
House of Representatives committee member on basic education, House of Representatives, Muhammad Usman lamented that the structure of education in the Northeast has collapsed completely.
He pointed out that out of the 10.5 million children out of school in Nigeria, 8.7million are from the North, adding that the Northeast states have the highest number.
He said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) law that stipulates that 26 percent of the national budget must be allocated to education is not implemented in the Northeast as 12 percent is the highest been allocated.

Link: http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/education-in-northeast-comatose-citad/124760.html

2016 Budget: CSOs Implore Buhari To Leverage On Non-Oil Sector

By Adam Alqali

President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to leverage on the non-oil sectors of agriculture and solid minerals in order  to actualize the objectives of the 2016 budget tagged “Budget of Change” as  presented to the joint session of the National Assembly  last December.

This call was made by Mr YZ Yau, a leading Nigerian civic activist and executive director of the Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD, at a one-day policy dialogue on public finance
management organized by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, in Kano on Thursday.

The policy dialogue,  organized  with the support of the Australian Government was attended by civil society organizations, faith-based organizations, government representatives and members of the press.

Mr Yau, who delivered a paper titled: “Treasury Single Account, Zero Budget and Sectorial Analysis of the 2016 Proposed Budget: A SWOT Analysis,” said as the price of oil continued to fall in the global market and the future appeared to be even more uncertain, the Buhari administration must, to a large extent, leverage on the non-oil sector to be able to effectively finance the 2016 budget.

“The non-oil sector is to provide twice the revenue expected from the oil sector, which is the first time that is happening in Nigeria’s history, and for the first-time in many years, the capital share of the budget is around 30%, which gives us some hope that the budget might possibly have positive impact on the lives of the citizens,” said Mr Yau

He added that the Buhari administration which came into power amidst high expectations from Nigerians and at a time when oil prices have crashed,  with  little money available to the government, must come up with mechanisms to ensure prudent utilization of resources towards effective implementation of the 2016 budget.

Ya’u, who said Buhari’s zero system of budgeting, was about fiscal discipline in terms of spending as well as about ensuring revenue-making agencies appropriately remit revenues to the government, decried the fact that although there was huge increase in capital expenditure, the allocations to social services sectors of health and education have declined.

Also speaking at the event, Abdulakadir Abdulsalam, the representative of the chairman of Kano State Board of Internal Revenue, KBIR, at the policy dialogue said Kano state’s 2016 budget would heavily rely on internally generated revenue, IGR, adding that for budgets to be successful they must to be properly planned and must also explain how the revenue aspects of the recurrent and capital expenditures would be financed.

He stated that whereas the recently introduced Treasury Single Account, TSA, would help in blocking leakages of the government’s revenue as well as aid the Buhari administration’s anti-graft war, the government needed to also look into the issue of compliance by ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, as well as the negative effects the initiative could have on social services sectors like health.
While speaking on the role of the civil society in promoting economic justice in Nigeria, Kolawale Banwo, a senior program officer at CISLAC said civil society organizations, CSOs, must be involved in the
formulation of laws adding that citizens have the right to know how ministries, departments and agencies, are spending their monies and also the right to be given the opportunity to complain about the government’s policies including taxes.
“CSOs should demand openness, transparency and accountability in governance, they should educate citizens on their rights and obligations; they should carry out research on public finance management so as to arm themselves with the requisite knowledge to be able to effectively engage with the government. CSOs have a responsibility to ensure the government’s polices benefits all,” said Banwo

Participants at the one-day policy dialogue believe the ability of the Buhari administration to look beyond oil will definitely see to the successful financing of the budget for the 2016 fiscal year.

Source: http://newsdiaryonline.com/2016-budget-csos-implore-buhari-to-leverage-on-non-oil-sector/

Cattle Rustling Could Be More Dangerous Than Boko Haram – Ya’u

YZ_YA'U_pic

YZ Ya’u is the Executive Director,  Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) which is implementing project aimed at using technology to fight the cattle rustling phenomenon in the northern Nigeria. In this interview with ADAM ALQALI, he speaks on how CITAD hopes to use technology to help tackle the challenge and the lackadaisical attitude of governments.

The Centre for Information Technology and Development is implementing a project against the cattle rustling phenomenon in Nigeria. Let’s know more about it?
The cattle rustling project is an off-shoot of the peace project CITAD is carrying out in northern Nigeria with the support of Mac Arthur Foundation. And  its objective is to mobilize all stakeholders when there is conflict to seek its resolution, particularly, to get stakeholders understand that peace building is a collective responsibility so they don’t wait for third parties to come and help them resolve it.

So, in the process, we realized cattle rustling is a major conflict in northern Nigeria, particularly in the North West and North Central zones of Nigeria. We realized that except for few newspaper publications which are not in-depth, there has not been much attention to it in the media. Within government circles, there are no efforts at developing strategies to deal with the problem. We realized that it was a big problem which if not carefully addressed, will end up being much bigger than Boko Haram, in terms of its area of operation.

We therefore thought we should make contribution by firstly raising awareness about the issue and secondly documenting the incidences since as far as we know there is no systematic attempt at documenting the incidences, yet. We only hear 100 cattle have been taken away but there haven’t been a real documentation. Thirdly, we want to build a platform for alerting the security agencies and other stakeholders such that whenever cattle are rustled they will be able to receive alert on which they can act to track them.

Finally, we hope to put in place a network of volunteers across the different areas where cattle rustling are taking place so that whenever there is a report, even if the security agencies didn’t act immediately, the volunteers will be able to provide support in terms of rescuing and recovering the cattle. But since it is about building a platform on which people can send messages either text messages or e-mails, that means we also need to train people particularly the herders on how to report if cattle are stolen.
You described the cattle rustling phenomenon as potentially more grievous than the Boko Haram insurgency.

How grievous is the cattle rustling challenge, potentially?
You need to understand the dynamics of cattle rustling, you can identify three categories. First, is the conflict between farmers and cattle herders which doesn’t have to do anything with cattle rustling but because over the years the government has been negligent about monitoring the  grazing lands and ponds. People  have taken over grazing  lands, established farms on them thereby blocking the herders from accessing them. For instance, in Zamfara State, the grazing lands in many of the local government areas have been encroached by 60%.

So, when the herders are blocked from the grazing lands they allow their cattle to graze on the farm lands, the farmers in turn attack the cows by killing and slaughtering them which is generating conflicts all over the place and where such conflicts meet other parameters like in Plateau and Southern Kaduna where the herders are seen as Muslims and the farmers Christians, then you have a potentially very explosive situation which can feed into other dynamics and create other problems in the country.

The second dimension is the intra-Fulani conflict which is also related to the first. A lot of Fulanis have lost a significant number of cattle and for the herders, the cattle are their life; it is their means of livelihood. So, for many of them, this is a traumatic experience for which they need to restock in order to survive. Some Fulanis can’t afford living without the cattle so they engage in cattle rustling to be able to restock, by stealing from fellow Fulanis. This is a less explosive dimension but it still results in conflicts, killings and so on.
There is also the third dimension is the criminal economy around cattle rustling which is even more dangerous. This is about people who are into cattle rustling for economic purposes. The first is about revenge, the second about restocking but this one is about stealing cows and selling them off in the market. Now, this is a huge criminal economy around cattle rustling.

About 40% of beef being sold in the country comes from cattle imported from Cameroon, Niger and Chad. And given the situation of insurgency which has obstructed trade in those zones, meaning cattle import through those axes is no longer taking place. Ordinarily, you will expect a shortage of beef in Nigeria but since there is no such shortage that means it is because of the ongoing illegal cattle rustling. The danger of the criminal rustling is that they have established basis for instance in Kamakuru and Falgore forests where the security agents are afraid to go.

Now, this is how Sambisa started as an enclave of the insurgents and the security agents felt they couldn’t go into the forest and so the insurgents gradually became stronger and controlled it. Right now, you have such hot spots in various forests and if you don’t act, they will become several Sambisas established in different parts of the country, which means if it has taken us five years to dislodge the criminal elements in Sambisa and you will now have to multiply that Sambisa by so many times, only God can save us.

Like you explained, there are so many dimensions to the ongoing cattle rustling activity in northern Nigeria. How complex is the phenomenon?
Cattle rustling are not about 10 or 15 cattle, rather it is about hundreds of cattle yet people steal hundreds of cattle, move them around for days and they don’t get apprehended which means there is a problem with our security system. Secondly, if they can take them to our markets here in Nigeria and sell them off it means there is not only a problem with our intelligence gathering system but also a form of collaboration with the dealers because the major cattle dealers in the markets ought to know if the cows are stolen.

For me, it illustrates that there is a wave of collaborations at various levels of cattle rustling and there is an obvious inability of the police and other security outfits to deal with the problem because firstly they are insufficiently equipped to be able to handle the challenge. Second, there is a form of collaboration between criminal elements and security agents and thirdly there is out right corruption. One thing that illustrates that is, for instance, when Governor El-Rufai joined the patrol team and one the first day they were able to recover hundreds of cattle and so the police knew how to do the job but couldn’t do it for months which means there are a lot of things that are not being interrogated.

If Nigeria must end cattle rustling, what must stakeholders including the government, security agencies and non-governmental organisations including groups like Miyetti Allah do, collectively?
Well, I think you first of all need to start with the government, the Nigerian government including the state governments do not sufficiently understand the problem of cattle rustling and so what they do is reduce it to a simple crime and leave it for the police to handle. And the police’s style of crime management is to wait until the crime is committed and someone reports before they act. Therefore, by the time cattle have been rustled there is nothing they can do.

Government has to understand that cattle rustling are about conflict over access to resources including water, grazing land and so on. And so you have to address the issue around these resources whether it is about creating grazing lands or creating effective surveillance system of monitoring the issue. The government has not shown the political will to confront the issue because a lot of the people who have encroached on grazing lands are people in high places.

Therefore, until the government confronts this matter head on then we will keep having these conflicts. When government is able to situate the problem within this conflict’s dynamics then you can talk about the role of other stakeholders. For instance, what civil society organizations should be doing, obviously, is get involved in sensitizing people about conflict resolution and security consciousness, the same thing with the community leaders.
Even the herders should be more security conscious, leverage on technology in terms of tracking their cattle. But I also think the government has to find a way of bringing the various stakeholders to the table to discuss the conflict and find resolutions to it. One of the reasons  government’s effort is not effective is that, in most cases, it is dealing with groups which are claiming to be representing the Fulanis but who are actually not true representatives of the herders in their engagements with them.

The Fulanis themselves are suspicious of these groups; in fact they see them as collaborators with the criminals. We have had instances where such groups were implicated in cattle rustling by the herders themselves. So you need to bring on board genuine representatives of herders rather than platforms that are historically and nationally known to be representing herders.

Finally, how effective do you think technology could be in tackling the cattle rustling challenge in Nigeria?
I think technology is just a tool and so its effectiveness depends on the users, what we are trying to do is not something new; globally there are various monitoring platforms for different issues whether it is cattle rustling, election or even hate- speech. It is just a question of getting the information at the right time and sending it to the right person, now whether those persons or institutions are able to act on it will determine the effectiveness of technology but potentially, technology will deliver solutions in terms of availability of information, in terms of its timeliness and accuracy.

The platform we are building is a geospatial meaning once reports come in it gives you the coordinate of the place where the incident happened as well as the terrain. So, as a security agent you will have an idea of the type of vehicles to use, you will also have understanding of the various road networks and foot paths, therefore if cattle are stole at a certain pint you can predict the direction of its movement. So, it gives a very convenient way of managing the problem but how effective it will be is dependent on the people that are supposed to act and that is why we have designed a parallel network, so if we provide information to security agencies, we will also provide the same information to local volunteers who can then activate local contingencies within their communities to try to recover and rescue the cattle that are stolen.

Source: http://www.blueprint.ng/2015/12/14/cattle-rustling-could-be-more-dangerous-than-boko-haram-yau/

Development Without Peace Is Illusory – CITAD Boss

By Bashir Mohammed
Kano

Executive Director, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Malam Zakari Yau Zakari, has said that no sustainable development could ever be feasible without entrenching peace at the lower rung of the ladder
He also identified the issue of social justice and blatant discrimination, as part of the factors, which must be addressed for the prime objective to be achieved.
Speaking at a one-day evaluation meeting on peace organised by CITAD in Kano yesterday, Zakari stated that the notion of social justice must be predicated on the premise of equality before the law, adding that the issue of addressing violent conflict could only be realistic with the citizenry being equal in the eyes of law.

According to him, the spectre of hate speech  and propaganda stunt on social media and other means of communication had taken a heavy toll on the quest to find a lasting solution to intractable conflicts stressing that CITAD was up and doing in creating the much needed awareness for everyone to comprehend.
He said CITAD had also undertaken a pain staking research on myriad cases of human right abuses stemming from the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency affirming that the result, so far, recorded was impressive given the level of response received from those appalled by the alleged wanton violations of their right.

On the problems and challenges CITAD was facing at present Yau said  CITAD was not able to reach out to the legislature at the federal level and the top military brass who were major stakeholders in ending the ongoing insurgency on the issue of advocacy and collaborative synergy
He, however, lamented that there was low awareness and poor understanding of the inner workings of the social media which serves as a veritable launch-pad in disseminating the basic information needed to engender peace saying many people were afraid to indulge in social media communication to appreciably forge ahead.

Link http://www.blueprint.ng/2015/12/24/development-without-peace-is-illusory-citad-boss/