No fewer than 73 youths in Bauchi have been trained on the process of logging in and using social media platforms to demand accountability from government officials in the state.
The training was conducted by Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), which will be extended to less than 3,000 young people before the end of 2024 across the state.
The Accountability Project Officer of CITAD, Ali Sabo, stated this in Bauchi on Thursday during the commencement of the two-day training session.
According to him, the essence of the training was to ensure that these young people were equipped with proper social media knowledge to demand accountability and fight corruption constructively and civilly.
He added that the trainees aged between 18 to 35 years would be taught on how to constructively use social media to hold government officials accountable by asking questions about campaign promises and also following up on the issue of constituency projects.
He stressed that, “The project started when we saw that there were chunks of young people who are on social media and many of these people are using social media for different purposes.”
“Some are using it for chatting and some are using it for bad behavior. So, on our part, thought there is a need for us to engage those young people to train them on using social media to demand accountability,” he added.
Ali Sabo also said, “That is why we called the training ‘Social Media for Accountability’. Accountability in the sense that there are a lot of promises government officials especially, the representatives and politicians are making while campaigning.”
Accountability Project Officer added, “And when the elections come and go, everyone will just go and forget about the promises.”
“So, we thought it would be good to have young people to be following and also holding these people accountable by asking constructive questions about these campaign promises and also following up on the issue of constituency projects,” he said.
The Accountability Officer, who explained that each House member has his constituency projects, said that most times, the money for the projects is being diverted and not utilised in a proper way, hence the need for the training.
One of the participants who spoke on behalf of others, Ismail Dauda, lauded the organization for coming up with such eye-opening and educative training.
He promised to make effective use of the training and to also step it down to young people around him in his community.
