CITAD Sues Digital Empowerment Against Insurgency

The Centre for InformationTechnology and Development (CITAD), an NGO, has harped on the need for digital empowerment in North Eastern rural communities to curb insurgency and promote peace building.
The Executive Director CITAD, Mr. Yenusa Ya’u,  made this known  in Abuja recently at a press briefing themed: “Addressing Boko Haram insurgency using a non kinetic approach”.
Ya’u noted the need for digital empowerment of youths  in communities of North East States that had been affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“We believe that one of the contributors to the ongoing insurgencies over the years is hunger. While the military will continue recording success in neutralising them, there is no guarantee that lasting peace would be established through their actions alone”, he said.
He said there was hunger in the country,  and people can go as far as joining insurgents both willingly and unwillingly for tea and bread.
“So, there is a pressing need to equip these people with the knowledge of technology and how to use it because the majority did not go to school and were not digitally trained”, he said.
He stated further that in order to make digital entrepreneurs, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) need to  reach out to the rural communities and create a system in which data would be captured.
He also added that the centre would soon launch a programme named “Digital and Innovative Venture for Young Girls”.
“Through this programme, we aim at engaging more women in this digital empowerment, because they constitute the largest victims of the insurgency.
“This will keep them busy and reduce traumatic experiences they must have had from losing their family members and it will also afford them a second chance in life to start all over again”, he said.
The centre also called on all citizens and stakeholders to be actively involved in restoration of peace and providing assistance for digital empowerment services.
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