Information and Communication Technology and the African Youth
by It is important that we all realize that our eventual success or failure is not solely dependent on environment factors ( Africa ), we are the architects of our own future
Most of the views of people towards Africa’s problem have shunned the root as one deserving of concern. The root here connotes the totality of the young ones whose future is Africa herself. The youths of yester years are now today’s big heads. As we now blame our present predicament on African leaders, then there must have been a bleak past, such that the then youths have been badly managed. But now that Africa is beset by socio-economic problem with new changes in all facets of life, the next few years are determined by today’s deliberate attempt at maximizing the opportunities around us. It is in the light of this seemingly formidable statement that I consider ICT a beneficial thing that the African youths could utilize to better her lots and to swing momentum with the rest of the world.
It always dishearten me whenever I look at the graduates churned out of from the Nigerian universities who still views ICT as just something deserving of no concern. This is not only peculiar to Nigeria alone but other African countries Africa is one of the continents with poor utilization of ICT. What is ICT?
Femi Omotoso defines Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as “Computers, ancillary equipment software, hardware, services and resources interconnected together to form networks that is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, managements, movements control, display, switching, interchange, transmission or reception of data or information:. This definition is not only too technical but capable of blurring our understanding. So I narrow the definition down to Internet and its opportunities. How does the African youths enter the picture?
The African Youths are those young African citizens who are bedeviled by the circumstances of their origin in areas of socio-economic, educational sectors. These sectors have not only produced an underfed youth but have left them depleted through conscious and unconscious attempts by the African system. But then I digress.
In one of my articles entitled Beyond University Degrees Published in a national daily, I recount an experience of my undergraduate days. At 200level, we had to fulfill the university’s demand to go through two computer courses. The motif behind it was “Information and Communication Technology ICT and Computer Application is designed with a view to make the students have deep knowledge of ICT and Computer application”. We went through these courses, theoretically sound but practically dull. We did not see these computer machines face to face. I know some of us could not distinguish the mouse from the monitor yet a great percentage of us passed these courses.
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