EwaJesu Asala: TOPIC: Promoting Cross Cultural understanding and enhancing Youth-Adult Partnership using IT: The Nigerian Experience

Young people are generally the oil that influences the growth and stability of a nation. They are the tomorrow of today; hence they play a vital role in enhancing the development of a multicultural and multi religious country like Nigeria.

Nigeria is a country of more than 140 million people with over 250 ethnic groups and many religions.

This difference has caused a lot of misunderstanding and a selfish protection

of interest by various groups even at the expense of other groups.

Nigeria is also faced with the challenge of effectively deploying Information Technology (IT) tools that will cut across all the stakeholders in different regions of the country. Hence a lot of IT initiatives `die at birth’ due to the environmental weeds of social hazards.

In effectively reaching all stakeholders in a country, two things are obvious, a technique which works for a region will not work for another.

More so, reaching young people is a sure way of accomplishing the unity, sense of understanding and effective dialogue required to drive the vision of development in a country.

In 2000, Digital Peers International (DPI) started DIGITEST, an IT-based camp for young people aged between 8 and18, aimed at teaching young people basic IT skills, including web designs and animation..

The camp between 2000 and 2003 was held in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria (Abuja) and later moved to other states covering the North, West and Southern parts of the country.

My experience as a volunteer for digital Peers international in the last four years has shown the following.

1. Policy makers find it easier to listen to children when they communicate using IT tools that the adults find fascinating and interesting.

2. Young people in Nigeria know little or nothing about the condition and living standard of other young people in other parts of the country, such that when they come face to face with children from other ethnic groups, share experience with them and build a team spirit through the competition, they find it easy to understand the meaning of developing policies that favor all.

3. IT can change the perception of people to other ethnic groups. In 2006 when DIGITEST was in Cross Rivers State of Nigeria, Cross Rivers is known for tourism as it plays host to the Obudu Cattle Ranch and the Tinapa Free Trade Zone, the web design competition was fashioned to meet with the realities of the host state. However, the children who were at the Jigawa camp in 2005(a northern State) determined the theme of the year. Though these children were from different states they were able to sit in a hall and decide on what to do. Because each participant also belonged to a team of four, they learnt the values and meaning of team spirit and democratic leadership. The result is the obvious, respect for culture, individual intelligence and religions between participants.

Interesting the camp is running currently as l write in the federal capital territory with about 620 participants in attendance and for the first time policy makers are listening with aim of implementing, the suggestions of the participants. Top officials in the government circle have been part of the program. The program has also been training an average of 400 children per year on the use of IT and quite a number are moving into this field to build the ever depleting work force of the country affected by brain drain.

From a university community, the experience becomes slightly different. In 2003 l was part of a team of young people that organized the first IT (Information Technology) seminar in the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), for four years we pushed the idea of a driven university through various seminar and interactive workshop and this year the school started working on an IT policy of making LAUTECH the home of IT inventions in Nigeria.

So far so good the school has procured computers for Computer Aid international to set up an ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Centre in the school. Registrations of the school are carried out online. The school has a home grown portal.

Recently we organized a policy forum between the school and the management of the university to showcase the 100dollar laptop and to bring to fore issues and challenges faced by young people in the university. The meeting was centered on the maximization of the school’s facilities and how the facilities could be improved upon.

The meeting fostered a dialogue between the school management and the student and the school agreed to review the 100 dollar laptop in order to come up with ways on how to improve on it. The school management also agreed to build partnership with other higher institutions abroad to develop a partnership that would facilitate a study exchange.

The first time we organized the first IT seminar in LAUTECH Ogbomosho. The whole community and the university of over five hundred thousand had only a cyber café. Today, the community in four years has about 12cyber cafes and the university campus is wifi-enabled.

IT fosters dialogue for development in a direct and indirect manner that would enable effective communication between all stake holders, the effect of such a dialogue can be seen in the development of a web portal by Ogun State government in Nigeria after hosting DIGITEST 2004 or the adoption of an IT policy by LAUTECH management after four years of advocacy.

The effect of soldering relationships, religion and culture in Nigeria cannot be achieved in one day but the gradual process is seen when participants of DIGITEST from 36 states of the federation live together in a camp for 2 week that the distance seen in the current generation can be bridged using IT tools.

More urgently is the participation of young people in decision making processes that affect their lives and though our culture in Africa does not permit a young person to be part of the decision table when adults are sitted but this has been demystified by the interactions of LAUTECH school management and the students in making the school the home of IT inventions in Nigeria.

Thank You

EwaJesu Asala