The Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Ene Obi, has urged the Federal Government to immediately unban Twitter, a microblogging social media platform, and rather ban insecurity and other socio-economic challenges confronting the country.
She made the plea
on Tuesday in Abuja at the Youth Digital Engagement Project closeout and
dissemination meeting.
According to her,
the recent ban of Twitter by the government of Nigeria is not only a step
backwards for the YDE project campaign, but also threatens the civic space in
Nigeria which has continued to shrink in recent years.
She called on the
government to rescind its decision as this has a huge impact on the lives of
emerging young entrepreneurs who depend on social media for their livelihood.
“It is also a
counter-productive move for a nation seeking to create more jobs and reduce
poverty as part of its post-COVID-19 recovery strategy,” Obi said.
She said that the
YDE sought to use technology to support the work of young people in holding
duty bearers to account through funding from the Danish International
Development Agency.
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She said that in
Nigeria, the innovation was pioneered in partnership with Gombe State Youth
Parliament, Gombe State; the African Human Development Centre, Akwa Ibom State
and the Centre for Information Technology and Development in the FCT.
Obi said that young
people were supported and empowered to access information, analyse data,
present evidence, and lead their communities in taking action through the use
of digital engagement tools through the project.
Obi, however, noted
that data shows that awareness is low and the proportion of persons that have
benefitted from the programmes is even lower, compared to expectations and
experiences of Brazil and other countries with a similar policy.
Also, a
representative of the Centre for Information Technology and Development in FCT,
Josephine Adokwu, said that the strategic location of the FCT in the
north-central region of the country and the dominance of farming activities
exposes its inhabitants to variants of shocks.
On his part, the
Gombe State Youth Parliament/JONAPwD, Gombe State represented by Khalid Ahmed,
said that findings showed that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed young persons and
their families to hunger, poverty, insecurity and worsened access to health
services in the state.
“Most respondents,
being farmers, were further exposed to the challenges of climate change as
storage of farm harvest could not last due to market closures and poor
patronage. The findings from Gombe State data shows that three out of 10
persons with disabilities surveyed expressed that their welfare was severely
affected by the COVID – 19 pandemic among others”, he said.
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