NIGERIA:AFRICAN YOUTHS CAN PLAY BETTER ROLES ON THE INTERNET

The Internet is the world's largest computer network. It is a system in which computer systems are interconnected together, so that they can share information, forming a virtual area called cyberspace. The Internet will make it possible for villagers in remote places in Nigeria and Africa to be informed about happenings worldwide. The Internet will enable them to interact in real time with people in other parts of the world.

The Internet has the potential of bridging the knowledge divide between Africa and the rest of the world. Students in Africa and Nigeria nolonger have the excuse of inadequate materials for asignments or projects.

However, despite the enermous potential of the Internet in principle, one is tempted to ask whether these potentials are really being taken advantage of in Nigeria and Africa. My personal observation of Nigerian youths using the Internet via cyber cafes show that most of them use the Internet for chatting, e-mailing, downloading music and watching pornography. These applications of the Internet are good, but donot expose youths in Nigeria and Africa to the real power of the Internet.

Internet chatting is the most popular application of the Internet among Nigerian youths. A visit to any cyber cafe in Nigeria will reveal a lot of young people chatting. There is nothing wrong with Internet chatting in principle. Internet chatting will enable exchange of ideas between youths in Nigeria and Africa and their counterparts worldwide. Internet chatting will promote better understanding and foster good relationships between Nigerian youths and their couterparts worldwide.














However, a closer look at what they are chatting about will reveal what they are not chatting about. Nigerian youths are not chatting about how to solve the problem of HIV and AIDS in Africa. Nigerian youths are not chatting about how to solve the numerous conflicts in Africa. Nigerian youths are not chatting about how to stop the numerous power hungry leaders in Africa from perpetuating themselves in power. Nigerian youths are not chatting about how to ensure free and fair elections in Nigeria and the whole of Africa. Nigerian youths are not chatting about how to use the power of the Internet to raise the economic fortunes of Africa. Infact there are a lot of important issues that youths in Nigeria and Africa are not chatting about that time and space will not permit me to enumerate all of them.

But what are Nigerian youths chatting about on the Internet? The answer is simple sex, love, relationships, friendships and there likes. Althuogh their is nothing wrong in principle with these, but a glance at the 'oppurtunity cost' will reveal a big problem. While youths in India and China are using the Internet to create new markets for asia, Nigerian youths spend tens of minutes on the Internet chatting away their youthful age.

Recently in a cygercafe in Nigeria I saw a young lady wearing spaghetti blouse focus the webcam on her breast while chating on the internet.This got me thinking. Why will anyone focus the webcam on any part of the body other than the face? The big question is what would such a lady have done with the webcam if she had access to the internet at home. The depressing part is that she is not alone.










Everyday girls and guys in Nigeria and Africa go to chat rooms looking for chatmates from Europe, India, Pakistan and the United States. These young people pretend to have affection for their chatmates. In return they recieve gifts from such often more financilly bouyant chatmates. Most young people wishing to learn about using the internet are more interested in learning applications like internet chatting, managing e-mails and the use of the webcam.

Only very few seem to be interested in improving their internet search skill or how to use the internet to make up for the poor level of education in NIgeria and Africa. Even fewer are interested in understanding the technologies on which the internet is built. Where does this leave Nigeria and Africa?

Presently Nigeria and Africa imports virtually everything from food to millitary hardware. Nigerians and Africans are busy using services and technologies offered by youths of other parts of the world, on the internet. Only very few seem to be thinking about how African contents and technologies will be deployed on the internet. It seems to me that Africa has resigned itself to a dependent economy, a slave of the world and the dumping ground for everything technological.












This reminds of the slave trade era. Althuogh, some people have argued that the slave trade was 'bad' in principle, it can be argued that something good came out of it. The slave trade helped europe and americas to 'fire up' their industralisation process. While Europeans and Americans saw the slave trade as a means of improving their wellbeing, Africans saw it as a means of blackmailing each other and we all know the consequences, poverty and more poverty. So eventhuogh slave trade was bad for Africa, Europe got some good out of it. Is history about to repeat itself?

Like the slave trade the internet can be good or bad for you depending on the role you choose to play.

In 1998 I came across a Siemens advert that reads "In the very near future everyone will be on the internet. The question is what role will you play?". This a question that every youth in Nigeria and Africa must answer. What role will we play in the future development of the internet?

African youths shouldnot spend all their time on the internet chatting, sending friendly e-mails, sending scam mails, downloading music, playing computer games and watching pornography. Instead they should use the internet to create new markets for Africa. Nigerian and African youths should use the internet to promote African technologies and as a platform for research.In addition youths in Nigeria and Africa should use the internet to bridge the digital and knowledge divides and to profer solutions to the numerous problems in Africa

Youths in Nigeria and Africa must choose to play more productive roles on the internet or just like the slave trade the internet will become a disaster in Nigeria and Africa.