The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has called on the Federal Government to introduce internet safety and security in the nation’s computer studies curriculum.

Hajiya Maryam Ado-Haruna, the CITAD Programme Assistant, Gender and Internet Advocacy, made the call on Thursday while briefing newsmen in Kano on the outcome of its research on Gender-Based Violence Online. She also called for the introduction of privacy and personal data protection law in the country. The official further canvassed for effective implementation of the “Do Not Disturb” policy of the Nigerian Communication Commission which requires service providers to stop sending unsolicited messages by third parties. On the research, she said: “Gender Based Violence Online (GBVO) is an act of cyber crime carried out against a woman because she is a woman; the crime is primarily carried out to injure her feelings, damage her reputation or tarnish her image.” According to her, from the data generated, it was clear that gender based violence online is one of the cross-cutting issues affecting women’s full use of the internet. “The results of the studies have shown that women in northern Nigeria are being subjected to various forms of online violence such as harassment, intimidation and threat which tends to discourage them from using internet. “In our campaign over the radio and other medium of mass communication, we advised women about decency and moral conduct online in order not to directly invite GBVO themselves.” Ado-Haruna urged women to understand and mitigate the risks they might face in the course of accessing the internet. She said women must know and understand the privacy and personal applications to secure their online addresses and protect themselves from online harassment.

A Kano-based Non Governmental Organization, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has called on government to sensitise politicians on the dangers associated with hate speeches. The CITAD Senior Programme Officer, Mr Isah Garba gave the advice while briefing newsmen in Kano on Wednesday. He said the call was necessary in order to promote peaceful coexistence in the country as the politicians prepare for the upcoming general elections in 2019.

“As preparation for 2019 general elections is around the corner, government should make it duty to caution and sensitise politicians on dangers of hate speeches. “This should be done either during campaigns or in any other intra or inter party political statements,” Garba said. He also advised the Federal Government to establish a mechanism of sensitising the public on effects of hate speech, its dangers to the peaceful coexistence in the country.

“The government should also come up with effective ways of neutralising the impacts of hate speech among both its audience and victims. “I want to call on editors of Newspapers and other media practitioners to always maintain the professional ethics and ensure that hate speakers are not promoted in the media,”Garba said. He called on members of the public to imbibe the spirit of tolerance and ensure whatever message they received on any platform of the social media, was verified to ensure its authenticity.

“In the month of August our monitoring team monitored and reported a total of 816 hate speeches out of which 324 are on ethnic, 166 on religion and 67 on Biafra issues. Others he said, are election issues eight. Access to resources, five while farmers/herders had three.

…identify root causes of hate speech

By Emmanuel Elebeke.

ABUJA- Federal government has been advised to reconsider its stands to pass a new law for hate speech in the country. This was the view of some participants at the inaugural Peace and Security Network Quarterly confab series held in Abuja on Monday. They argued that the country has enough laws to take care of any form of hate speech that may arise before, during and after the 2019 general elections as contained in the constitution, broadcasting code, Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria Act and the Press Council Code of ethics. They however, warned federal government against pushing for laws that would gag the press and free speech under the guise of 2019 general elections, insisting that the move to pass the new hate speech bill by through the National Assembly was unnecessary. Speaking at the event, the President, Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, Mr. Dotun Oladipo, who accused the government of having a plan to gaga the press, warned government to stop playing around by bringing in new law but should apply the existing laws to check the menace of hate speech. ‘‘Let us not play around because election is coming. We have laws already that can take care of hate speech. Bringing in new laws will not be necessary. This government is out to gag the media. It is difficult to draw the line between hate speech and free speech.’’ On how to address the trend, Oladipo called on the national Orientation Agency (NOA) and the Federal Ministry of Information to contend with the promoters of hate speech on the social media rather than encourage formulation of new laws. He also accused the police of not doing its jobs of tracing drivers of hate speech on social through their social media accounts but rather resort to arresting people who will give them money. He further accused some media practitioners of not leveraging the advantage of social media in seeking for credible stories instead promote unverifiable stories. The director of Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Yunus Zakari Yahu, identified lack of transparency in governance; perception of marginalization; poverty and inability of government to address previous conflicts and bring them to closure as some of the root causes of hate speech. He noted that hate speech is not something that happened out of context, but has to be triggered by an action. ‘‘Over the last couple of months, we have seen increase in the volume of hate speech, particularly in the social media and electronic media as well. We think that the prevalence of hate speech can lead to violence as it has led to violence in other countries. As it has capacity to lead to violence. ‘‘If people act to prevent it, it can be prevented. The reason we are here is to get all stakeholders to understand the dangers hate speech portends for the country, especially as we move closer to the 2019 elections so that those who can work in peace can do so to reduce the volume of hate speech. We are also here to help sensitise the public on the danger of hate speech.’’ On what CITAD is doing to check hate speech, he said: ‘‘We have a couple of initiatives to inform citizens to demand accountability from government. Government on its side should make information free to the people, enforcement of FOI Act; fight poverty, government has to be impartial in addressing issues in the country. ‘‘We also recognise that there are existing media regulations which can be used to address hate speech, the Advertisers Practitioners Act, National Broadcasting code, the Press Council code of ethics. With, these, regulators should be able to sanction all media houses that violate the codes.’’ Earlier in his address, the PSN Manager, Adeolu Adewumi said the the forum was organised to for stakeholders to brainstorm on the correlation between free speech and hate speech and proffer solution to hate speech. ‘‘The essence of having these confab series is to ensure that we engage with hate speech and its implications, hate speech and its implications for elections and electoral security and hate speech and religious tolerance, so that whatever the government and international community with say will be a common narrative towards addressing hate speech. ‘‘We have come to understand that there is a tin line between hate speech and free speech, where hate speech ends, free speech begins vice versa. ‘‘We have to interrogate that properly. We begin to engage the collaboration of government with international partners to have a common narrative towards the 2019 elections. That is why we are starting very early, because we know the election is one year away and we believe that starting early and remaining proactive would add value to the electoral process, and ensuring that the right speeches are made by the political actors, individuals.’’ In his keynote speech entitled: Towards 2019 Elections: Hate Speech and |Implications for Ethnic Relations, the guest speaker and former United nations Under-Secretary for Political Affairs and former mediator in Rwanda and Myanmar crisis, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari said 2019 general elections are threatened because the media space had been hijacked by the drivers of hate speech, saying that concerted action must be taken by government and CSOs to adopt a national law which will check the excesses of hate speech. He charged the media to demonstrate absolute patriotism in the discharge of their duties, insisting that the run off to 2019 elections must be handled with extremee care. he also called for a review of media code of ethics to curtail the increase of hate speech on the media. ”We must not allow ethics and selfish interest to collide with the overall interest of Nigeria. What is more threatening is not the traditional media but the social media. There is need for the ministry of interior to step up sensitization on hate speech. CSOs must also double their efforts in advocacy to the grass roots.” On her side, the President, Nigeria Guild of Editors, Funke Egbemode said the media should not be blamed for the increase in hate speech but insisted that government must be prepared to do its bit by being fair to all and providing good governance. She also insisted that security agencies must be prepared to discharge their duties without bias to the citizens. ‘‘We need to do what must be done. You cannot blame everybody sitting next to us for what is happening in the other house. We need to do what needs to be done,’’ she said. On the role of INEC, the chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said the business of INEC is to conduct elections and not to police cyber space. He also stated that INEC is not averse to use of social media to advance and reach out to young people but warned that a line should be drawn between hate speech and free speech, especially in the use of social media. ‘‘We are making use of social media to engage people on the ongoing registration exercise. Social media releasing result is the issue but releasing unofficial results. ‘‘The most important thing is that the government have to be dynamic in the use of social media to be able to guide against gate speech. For us in INEC, social media has helped us to draw people out for registration. The use of social media is quite positive in some ways but can be dangerous in other ways. ‘’There has to be a balance between hate speech and free speech. The recent judgements on hate speech in European should be a guide to us as to the limit free of every speech. We need to critically examine theses and come up with guidelines on how to deal with hate speech,’’ he added.

Yola – Students of tertiary institutions in Adamawa have commenced debate on finding lasting solutions to insurgency and challenges posed by displaced persons in the North East.

The debate involved students of Moddibo Adama University of Technology, Yola; Adamawa State University, Mubi; and Federal Polytechnic, Mubi.

The event is organised by Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) with the support of North East Regional Initiative (NERI), an NGO. Speaking at the maiden debate ceremony on Saturday in Yola, the Executive Director of CITAD, Mr Yunus Zakari, said the debate was organised to provide the youths a platform to discuss and proffer solutions to the insurgency crisis in the region.

“As students in the North East, you have experienced the problem, the hardship and dislocation caused by the insurgents.

“You are closer to the theatre of war, so we feel it’s important you to speak; let’s listen to your conversations.”

Zakari said similar discussion would be organised for students in Borno and Yobe states, adding that there is plan to extend it to students in neigbouring countries of Chad, Cameroon and Niger. He said the presentations and suggestions by the students would be made available to relevant stakeholders, including policy makers. The Adamawa Programme Manager of NERI, Mr Machill Maxwell, said NERI has been supporting various kinds of interventions in areas ravaged by insurgency and such positive mobilisation of the youths was one of such support. “This is one of our soft activities where people are encouraged to sit together and talk; come up with ideas and how solutions can be found for crisis that bedeviled the North East. “We have started now. We have a long way to go and we need your full commitment and presence to be able to get the result that we expect,” Maxwell said.

NAN also reports that topics discussed at the debate included: “What should youths do to contribute to ending insurgency in the North East; “How can young people be won away from getting recruited into insurgency; “The North East of the Future: A vision of the youth; “What should government do to make the counter insurgency more effective; and “How can students of tertiary institutions contribute to addressing the problem of Internally Displaced Persons”. (NAN)

By Sagiru Ado Abubakar.

As a means of providing citizens of democracy with basic information about participating in elections, the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has organized 2-day Voter Education Training for the 18 SCEEP Communities in Kano Sate.  This is coming barely a week after unveiling of the voter education training manual ahead of 2019 general elections for the public scrutiny. The training was conducted from 30^th-31^st March, 2018 at Ni’imah Guest Palace, Kano with support from ActionAid, Nigeria as part of an effort to promote citizens’ engagement in electoral process through SCEEP project. Speaking at the beginning of the training, the Program Coordinator, Malam Isyaku Garba said that the importance of voter’s education to a peaceful, credible and successful electoral process cannot be underestimated or over emphasized. He then added that voters need to be adequately educated for the purpose of mobilizing the populace for Voter’s Registration, Collection of Voters Card, Voting, Constituency Delimitation Exercise, Plebiscite or Referendum etc.

While briefing the participants on how the Voter Education Manual is arranged, Malam Ahmad Abdullahi Yakasai who represented the Executive Director of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Engr. YZ Ya’u at the event said that the manual has been crafted in a way that is easier for the facilitator to understand and for the trainees to comprehend. He also stated that the manual consists of eight modules and some of the modules are further calibrated into different sessions. Each module starts with the overview, learning outcomes, duration, learning materials, delivery methods, facilitators note and session’s objective. He then added that the first module is on Adult Learning Methodology in order to build the capacity of the facilitators on the right facilitation techniques.

In his remarks, Malam Idris Nuhu Congo, a participant from Gaya local government, and who took part at the Master Training in Abuja, clarified why does voter education matters. In his clarification he said that elections cannot be genuinely democratic unless voters understand the differences among the contestants so that they can cast an informed vote.  He stated also that voters must understand how to vote on election day, or risk missing the opportunity, having their ballots disqualified for being improperly marked, or facing another issue that restricts or eliminate their ability to participate. He then concluded that voter education provides potential voters with necessary information to make an informed choice in the voting booth.

Leading a session on qualities of good facilitators, Malama Harira Abdurrahman Wakili of CITAD mentioned that a good facilitator should be audible, articulate, a good listener, friendly and flexible, firm, when necessary, humorous, respectful (to persons & opinions), gender and culturally sensitive, confident, versatile/knowledgeable on the topic of training, moderately and well dressed, have effective body language, and must be neutral.

During group work session, three groups were formed and given 15 minutes time to come and dramatize the conduct of the Election Day activities.

Lastly, the participants were urged to take what they have acquired during the workshop to their respective communities.

By Sagiru Ado.

In continuous efforts to strengthen citizens’ engagement with relevant stakeholders on budgetary processes and improve service delivery in the state, the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in collaboration with Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) has on Thursday 29^th March, 2018 organized the fifth round of the quarterly Budget Forum. The forum was organized to discuss the roles of citizens’ in monitoring and tracking the implementation of budgetary provisions as it affects their communities. The meeting was part of the Strengthening Community Engagement in Electoral Process (SCEEP) project CITAD has been implementing with support from DFID through ActionAid Nigeria.  The meeting took place at Chilla luxury Suites, Kano and attended by members of different Civil Society Organizations and SCEEP communities from six local government areas of Kano state.

Stating the objectives of the meeting, the Program Coordinator of CITAD, Malam Isyaku Garba said that the budget forum was about enhancing transparency and accountability and fostering people’s participation in governance by demystifying government budgets as increasingly, people across the country are keen to understand and participate meaningfully in discussion on government budgets. He added that the forum was another way of improving governance through budget transparency, as we all know that democracy is about participation. In first stage citizens are allowed to participate in the election processes, they select or elect a candidate of their choice to represent them. Since it is a representation there is need for consultation on issues affecting them, he said.

In his presentation titled ‘The Role of Citizens in Budget Implementation Stage’ the Deputy Director Budget, Ministry of Planning and Budget, Kano Sate, Alh. Yakubu A Sabi’u said that Citizens and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) play an important role in public budgeting. They can help improve budget policies by providing information on public needs and priorities through their engagement with citizens groups, communities and sectors CSOs together with legislators, the media and the broader public. They also play serious role in holding they executive accountable for how they use public resources. Finally, he assured the participants that engagement with CSOs/Media and public contribute immensely toward achieving success in the Public Financial Management Reform. He then feared that limited access to budget information or opportunities to engage in budget processes, opens a door for the politicians to choose unpopular or inappropriate programs that will waste public resources and funds.

After brief highlights on the previous budget forums by Malam Ibrahim B. Garba of Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) the six SCEEP local governments were given chance to state the approved projects identified in Kano State 2018 budget in their communities. As next line of action the meeting agreed as follows:

• The SCEEP local governments should expand what they learned during their engagement with CITAD to other neighboring local governments.
• Efforts should be made to guarantee the freedom of information at the local government level in order to know what is happening especially release of funds
• The capacity of local councils (Councilors and Chairmen) should be built on budget formulation
• The local government autonomy bill is now pending at the state house of assembly, we must ensure that the bill is passed and assigned in order to strengthen the democracy at the grassroots level
• Ministries lack the capacity to make request and prepare memo, CSOs should develop their capacity in order to know how to make request.

In his closing remarks, Malam Ibrahim B. Garba of Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) said that the development partners are not here forever, we have to institutionalize and take the ownership of those development projects including the budget tracking. He said that PERL is ready to give little support if the need arises and urged the participants to quickly establish relationship with new local government councils in the state.

Speaking at a public lecture on leadership, organised by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in Kano, yesterday, Hassan said the country is highly endowed with untapped resources which if adequately exploited would create employment opportunities for the unemployed.
According to her, entrepreneurship has been the catalyst for promoting speedy economic growth that would ensure the survival of every nation, affirming that the country is abundantly blessed with people who have the talent to contribute their widow’s mite to its economic prosperity.
Hassan, who is also the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Outsource Company Abuja further stated that, what is needed in executing business is knowledge of computer and ability to speak good English, pointing out that the quest for modern entrepreneurship could only be feasible for those who are computer literate.
While thanking the management of CITAD for spearheading the public lecture, the computer magnate maintained that she is ever ready to answer the call of CITAD at a time when her contribution is needed.

By Tijjani Ibrahim.

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has unveiled a new voter education training manual for public scrutiny ahead of 2019 general elections.

Speaking to journalists, the Acting Executive Director of the centre, Ahmad Abdullahi Yakasai, said the programme, supported by Action Aid International, was organized to let participants make their inputs, suggestions or corrections  to improve the content of the manual before its final production.

He expressed hope that the sensitisation and voter education would be effective so as to record free, fair and credible polls in the next year general elections.

A participant, who represented the state director of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Malama Suwaiba Adamu Salihu, said the participants were invited based on their past experiences in attending previous similar events so as to make their inputs to enrich the quality of the voter education training manual.

Participants were drawn from six (6) local government areas of the state and each local government was represented by three communities.

By Emmanuel Elebeke.

Federal government has been advised to reconsider its stands to pass a new law for hate speech in the country. This was the view of some participants at the inaugural Peace and Security Network Quarterly confab series held in Abuja on Monday. They argued that the country has enough laws to take care of any form of hate speech that may arise before, during and after the 2019 general elections as contained in the constitution, broadcasting code, Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria Act and the Press Council Code of ethics. They however, warned federal government against pushing for laws that would gag the press and free speech under the guise of 2019 general elections, insisting that the move to pass the new hate speech bill by through the National Assembly was unnecessary. Speaking at the event, the President, Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, Mr. Dotun Oladipo, who accused the government of having a plan to gaga the press, warned government to stop playing around by bringing in new law but should apply the existing laws to check the menace of hate speech. ‘‘Let us not play around because election is coming. We have laws already that can take care of hate speech. Bringing in new laws will not be necessary. This government is out to gag the media. It is difficult to draw the line between hate speech and free speech.’’ On how to address the trend, Oladipo called on the national Orientation Agency (NOA) and the Federal Ministry of Information to contend with the promoters of hate speech on the social media rather than encourage formulation of new laws. He also accused the police of not doing its jobs of tracing drivers of hate speech on social through their social media accounts but rather resort to arresting people who will give them money. He further accused some media practitioners of not leveraging the advantage of social media in seeking for credible stories instead promote unverifiable stories. The director of Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Yunus Zakari Yahu, identified lack of transparency in governance; perception of marginalization; poverty and inability of government to address previous conflicts and bring them to closure as some of the root causes of hate speech. He noted that hate speech is not something that happened out of context, but has to be triggered by an action. ‘‘Over the last couple of months, we have seen increase in the volume of hate speech, particularly in the social media and electronic media as well. We think that the prevalence of hate speech can lead to violence as it has led to violence in other countries. As it has capacity to lead to violence. ‘‘If people act to prevent it, it can be prevented. The reason we are here is to get all stakeholders to understand the dangers hate speech portends for the country, especially as we move closer to the 2019 elections so that those who can work in peace can do so to reduce the volume of hate speech. We are also here to help sensitise the public on the danger of hate speech.’’ On what CITAD is doing to check hate speech, he said: ‘‘We have a couple of initiatives to inform citizens to demand accountability from government. Government on its side should make information free to the people, enforcement of FOI Act; fight poverty, government has to be impartial in addressing issues in the country. ‘‘We also recognise that there are existing media regulations which can be used to address hate speech, the Advertisers Practitioners Act, National Broadcasting code, the Press Council code of ethics. With, these, regulators should be able to sanction all media houses that violate the codes.’’ Earlier in his address, the PSN Manager, Adeolu Adewumi said the the forum was organised to for stakeholders to brainstorm on the correlation between free speech and hate speech and proffer solution to hate speech. ‘‘The essence of having these confab series is to ensure that we engage with hate speech and its implications, hate speech and its implications for elections and electoral security and hate speech and religious tolerance, so that whatever the government and international community with say will be a common narrative towards addressing hate speech. ‘‘We have come to understand that there is a tin line between hate speech and free speech, where hate speech ends, free speech begins vice versa. ‘‘We have to interrogate that properly. We begin to engage the collaboration of government with international partners to have a common narrative towards the 2019 elections. That is why we are starting very early, because we know the election is one year away and we believe that starting early and remaining proactive would add value to the electoral process, and ensuring that the right speeches are made by the political actors, individuals.’’ In his keynote speech entitled: Towards 2019 Elections: Hate Speech and |Implications for Ethnic Relations, the guest speaker and former United nations Under-Secretary for Political Affairs and former mediator in Rwanda and Myanmar crisis, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari said 2019 general elections are threatened because the media space had been hijacked by the drivers of hate speech, saying that concerted action must be taken by government and CSOs to adopt a national law which will check the excesses of hate speech. He charged the media to demonstrate absolute patriotism in the discharge of their duties, insisting that the run off to 2019 elections must be handled with extremee care. he also called for a review of media code of ethics to curtail the increase of hate speech on the media. ”We must not allow ethics and selfish interest to collide with the overall interest of Nigeria. What is more threatening is not the traditional media but the social media. There is need for the ministry of interior to step up sensitization on hate speech. CSOs must also double their efforts in advocacy to the grass roots.” On her side, the President, Nigeria Guild of Editors, Funke Egbemode said the media should not be blamed for the increase in hate speech but insisted that government must be prepared to do its bit by being fair to all and providing good governance. She also insisted that security agencies must be prepared to discharge their duties without bias to the citizens. ‘‘We need to do what must be done. You cannot blame everybody sitting next to us for what is happening in the other house. We need to do what needs to be done,’’ she said. On the role of INEC, the chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said the business of INEC is to conduct elections and not to police cyber space. He also stated that INEC is not averse to use of social media to advance and reach out to young people but warned that a line should be drawn between hate speech and free speech, especially in the use of social media. ‘‘We are making use of social media to engage people on the ongoing registration exercise. Social media releasing result is the issue but releasing unofficial results. ‘‘The most important thing is that the government have to be dynamic in the use of social media to be able to guide against gate speech. For us in INEC, social media has helped us to draw people out for registration. The use of social media is quite positive in some ways but can be dangerous in other ways. ‘’There has to be a balance between hate speech and free speech. The recent judgements on hate speech in European should be a guide to us as to the limit free of every speech. We need to critically examine theses and come up with guidelines on how to deal with hate speech,’’ he added.

By Eseohe Ebhota.

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has said it will continue to work with youths especially in areas of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

This remark was made by the head of the Abuja office and programme officer, CITAD Mr. Ahmad Muhammad Danyaro during his courtesy visit to Media Trust’s office in Abuja.

He said “In the next few weeks, CITAD will roll out many projects in Abuja which includes Children mobile digital Literacy workshop and Child message collection, Summer Digital Institute for Girls. This is to promote digital inclusion among women and also the establishment of Peace clubs in secondary schools and Tertiary Institutions in Abuja among others”.

He also urged youth to shun hate speeches and embrace peace-building. He added “As part of CITAD’s long years of peace engagement, we partner with Peace and security Network which is the network for sharing information and networking space for donors, locals and International governmental peace building actors in Nigeria”.

Danyaro also congratulated Media Trust on its 20th anniversary in journalism.

Ibrahim M. Baba -Bauchi, a veteran journalist in Bauchi State, has stressed the need to address problem of early marriage and lack of educational opportunities among girl child in Nigeria.

He stated this at the weekend ay while presenting a paper entitled “Women Participation in Governance and Decision Making Process” during the commemoration of this year International Women’s Day celebration organsed by Department of Mass Communication, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic Bauchi in collaboration with Centre for a Information Technology and Drvelopment (CITAD) for female students of the institution.

Ibrahim Baba, who expressed worry over gender inequality and women participation in governance in Nigeria, said “The old practice of early marriage and lack of educational opportunities for the girl child should be redressed so as to cope with the changing trends in the world today”.

“This problem is better imagined than witnessed in the rural areas where culture and tradition has its own effect on the participation of women in governance. Sometimes, stringent measures that our political parties put in place for a person to qualify to run for elective position also serve as a deterrent. Other issues identified are the traditional institutions and cultural practices that are used to deprive women the opportunity to participate in governing issues right at the community level most of the policies and decisions are made.

Speaking earlier, Ahmad Abubakar the Head of Department of Mass Communication of ATAP, who was represented by a lecturer in the department, Nazif Pali, lamented that women in Nigeria are relegated to the background without given opportunity to prove their potential.

He assured that the institution will continue to champion issues that will improve women potential as well as encourage them to participate in governance process.

He thereby charged the female students of the institution to always demonstrate hard work and passion in their study in order to have a brighter future.

Abubakar commended CITAD for partnering with the institution in conducting series of activities for its female students.

By Richard P. Ngbokai, Kano 

Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in partnership with other development partners in Kano state have staged a voter sensitization rally on Friday, urging Nigerians of voting age to obtain their voter’s cards so as to be able to exercise their franchise come 2019 general elections.

The centre had earlier decried voter apathy in the last local government elections across the state, blaming the poor turnout at the voting points partly on inability of some voters to trace their permanent voter’s cards since after the 2015 general elections.

 CITAD and its partners emphasised the need for everybody from 18years and above who has not obtained the card before to visit the nearest INEC office to register and obtain his or her voter’s card before the electoral body closes registration.

Addressing the press shortly after the procession, CITAD’s Research and Communications Officer, Hamza Ibrahim warned against double registration, stressing that the chance provided by the INEC is for those who have just attended the age of 18.

“For those who have relocated from their places of registration, or their voter’s card got missing or damaged INEC has made a provision for an incident form for that person to fill so that another card should be issued to that person. He or she doesn’t necessarily need to go and register again. We don’t encourage people to secure this voters card twice’’ Hamza said, stressing that obtaining more than one voters card is a punishable offence before the law.

The Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission cannot afford to register Nigerians, attributing same to ineffectiveness of the commission’s equipment.

Mohammed Chiroma Hassan, Assistant program officer spoke with DAILY POST shortly after its rally in Bauchi to mobilise people to register and obtain their permanent voters card ahead of 2019 election.

“To be candid, come 2019, people would not come out enmass to vote like before because of government’s failure to perform well in spite of the people’s expectations in bringing in new government,” Said Hassan.

According to Hassan, CITAD was informed to stage the rally to mobilise people to obtain PVC to vote candidates of their choice, come 2019.

He noted that without the PVC, all that Nigerians need to bring any developmental change will not be possible.

By Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) operating in Bauchi state on Saturday embarked on a campaign rally to sensitise the residents of the state on the need to register, votes and protect their votes.

The sensitisation exercise which was organised by One Voice Nigeria in collaboration with Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) was participated in by 15 CSOs, representatives of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Physically Challenged Association in Bauchi state.

The rally which was held in Bauchi metropolis started from Ahmadu Bello way to Kobi street and Wunti roundabout with the CSO’s carrying placards that read, Register, Select, Vote, Protect, My Voice, My Vote, One Voice Nigeria among others.

Speaking with Journalists, Secretary General of Bauchi State Network of Civil Society Organisations (BASNEC), Comrade Sadiq Yusuf, called on the residents to follow due process and register with relevant authorities to enable them cast their votes during the forthcoming general election.

He informed them that it’s their constitutional right to be register and come out enmasse to vote for the candidate of their choice during the election, noting “we have the right to make our choice during the election by voting for people who have integrity to deliver to citizens of Nigeria and we can only do that if we obtain voters card and exercise our franchise during the polls,” he said.

Also speaking, the Senior Programmer Office of CITAD, Isa Garba said the aim of the exercise was to sensitise the public on the need to register, vote on election day, protect their votes as well as how to report their grievances in a positive ways to relevant authorities.

He said, “we want to educate the general public on when and where to register and get voters cars as well as how to resolve problems of loss of voters’ cards and relocation issues.”

In his address, the acting Public Affairs Office of INEC in Bauchi state, Is’haq Hamza said the continuous voters’ registration was in compliance with section (10) of the electoral act 2010 as amended as it becomes imperative to continue with the registration of eligible voters.

According to him “Section 13 of the Electoral Act also provides for transfer of voters registration for those that have relocated to other places from where they register to their present location to enable them exercise their franchise.

Hamza called on any citizen who is yet to register to use the opportunity and register as well as ensure that their OVCs are securely kept to enable them vote during the election.