GENERATING CONDITIONS FOR SELF-SUPPORTING CIVIC EDUCATION PROGRAMMES USING LOCAL RESOURCES

CENTRE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT


PROJECT PLANNING MEETING ON PROMOTING A CULTURE OF SUSTAINED CIVIC EDUCATION USING LOCAL RESOURCES


GENERATING CONDITIONS FOR SELF-SUPPORTING CIVIC EDUCATION PROGRAMMES USING LOCAL RESOURCES



By


M.M. Yusif
Department of Political Science
Bayero University
Kano




Being a paper presented to Project Planning Meeting of CITAD on Civic Education Mambayya House
September 3, 2005

Introduction

In the current era of globalisation and democratization when National States have lost their sovereignty and when individuals and groups in respective nations are powerless, because of the increasing strength of global society it seems that a meeting and discussion on promoting a culture of sustainable civic education using local resources is apt.

These global changes are on the background of debates among academics, policy-makers and activists of the global societies. On the one hand there are those who argued that we have to retreat from the new global calculations and return to our national orientation of development. On the other hand others feel that we cannot reverse the trend of history, therefore we have to go along with these changes. Both positions are found in the works of most reputable radical scholars in the social sciences discipline.

Civic education is a project of creating a political culture which would instill in all citizens the attitude to protect the good values of their society. How this can be done is the problematic. A theme which is going to be explored in this meeting is “Sustainable Civic Education using Local Resources”. But in view of the emergence of “Global Society” which Nigeria is part of, the big question is whether this can be done exclusively by use of local resources. Accordingly, I would like to focus on four aspects of this question.

First we will look at the conception of Civic Education.

Secondly, let’s consider the meaning of ‘local resources’ in today’s era of globalization.

Thirdly, we will talk about the available local resources for sustainable civic education.

Finally we will focus on the role of internet to create and sustain civic education.

The Conception of Civic Education

In order to help us understand what we are going to discuss we need to address briefly the meaning of Civic Education. This is a phrase which is not difficult to define. It is interesting to note that in the current era of globalization the term civic (citizenship) is debatable among scholars, nevertheless Civic Education has not drawn scholarly controversy. Even the best of scholars would approach it as citizen’s awareness and organizational effort to protect the common good of their political community, defend their rights and oppose any threat and or insecurity against the community.

The meaning given here implies that Civic Education is a political culture characterized by most citizens’ acceptance of the authority of the state as well as a general belief in participation in civic duties. This creates a kind of civic culture model. Yet as Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba observed the civic culture model which create a polity in which citizens were informed about political issues, and involved in the political process, could not of itself sustain a stable democratic government.

Perhaps, that is why Madison, one of the founders and theories of American democracy rejects the idea of civic education. It is impossible, he says, to instill in all citizens a common opinion about what is good for the society, and a common passion to achieve it. At least, he says, it is impossible to do this in a free society.

In a democratic society, however, it is expected that every idea – good and bad – would be allowed to flourish and struggle against each other. Here comes the relevance of the spread of higher levels of education through the population to encourage new forms of participation in politics such as social movements, campaigning interest groups, opposition coalitions against what seems as government bad policies and general awareness and capacity to access information on how the citizens are governed.

The Conceptualization of Local Resources

In the Oxford Mini-reference Dictionary the following entries are seen in definition of local: of or affecting a particular place or small area; inhabitants of a particular district; local government administration of a district by representatives elected locally. While under resource these are found: something to which one can turn for help; ingenuity; available assets.

If we take Nigeria as a unit in the global society today, using local resources will imply the tapping of the skills, expertise, knowledge and assets to build Civic Culture without external assistance. This typically, shows the concern of the organizers of the programme on the trend of foreign financing of virtually every political and social activity in the country.

Williams Robinson may have been right when he cautioned that the current process of globalisation is a phase in the historical development of human society, therefore cannot be changed so easily just by some ideas. Indeed, in Nigeria today, both objectively and subjectively, all the class forces have numerous linkages with the global society. Thus, in order to achieve a set goal, it is not futile to blend and external resources.

Local Resources for Sustainable civic Education

We currently observe, hear and read many expressions of attitudes of Nigerians with regard to politics and politicians. All these reveal growing public discontent with policies for development. The most worrying experience of the people with the polity is pervasive corruption and absence of democratic dividends to the vast majority of all classes of people.

This discontent reveals itself most saliently in increasing insecurity, showing the decline of state to govern, also increasing poverty as well as hopelessness, especially among the youth. Subsequently, as many reports by the civic society have shown, there was decline of voter participation, increased electoral violence and massive rigging in the 2003 General Elections. Political parties have become cartel organizations therefore are dissented by patriotic Nigerians and followed only by those who want sell their resources to get money.

Do these and similar manifestations mean that Nigerians do not so much confront their governments to correct all these as they back away in disillusion, disillusion with politics, policies and politicians.

But, after all, is this problem a result of lack of civic culture? Is Civic Education going to be a solution to these problems in the polity? This is a very difficult question to answer. Because, even in United States of America as well as in countries in Western Europe where civic culture seems to be rooted there used to be chain of scandals on corruption, electoral malpractices, political parties illegally financed by big corporations, etc.

However, let us assume that Civic Education can minimize this problem. What local resources could be mastered to create the conditions for civic culture to do that when it failed to do so in most developed democracies in the world? The basic question is: how would the society or the polity re-orient the people to feel patriotic, responsible and identify, first with the nation and secondly with the polity. America used the Educational System to lay a foundation of citizens Political Education. Why not Nigeria? As in the America, from Nursery level through primary, secondary and tertiary education, curricular could be designed respectively to educate Nigerians on the need of the love of the country and other issues on political education for enduring democracy. Secondly, in view of the experience that Nigerias parties are firmly rooted in ethnic and religious cleavages, how would the polity develop and sustain parties, able to present visions, leadership and responsibility for the stability of the parties and prospering of the nation. I think the answer to this question can be searched and may be found in process of making Nigeria constitution, which is to be made together with all the people involved.

Nowadays, the media seems to be a very important instrument to reach the people faster. Scholars who are impressed with the role of media observed that politicians, statemen and Non-Governmental Organizations who are concerned with problems of leadership must shift their attention to the citizenry, through the media to create public opinion on the problems. According to Y.Z. Ya’u, the media played a vital role in the escalation and resolution of the 1993 political crisis in Nigeria. Bert Hoffman recognizes the limits of media in developing countries as news and other information are filtered to the people through the elites and the educated elements in the society. The remedy of this problem would be to encourage many community media outfit such as newspapers, magazines, more radio and television users as well as public libraries and cinemas.

In a marketized economy and polity public libraries is not a big deal. That is why I have reservation with usage of the phrase “using local resources” in this planning meeting. I know that in Europe and United States of America there are associations for promotion of Reading Culture which assists in promoting the same thing world wide. It is a business and they are doing it and reaping profit. Why don’t you explore this angle?

Another idea that is highly controversial which deserves to be examined is the role of social movements in civic education. The main tendency behind this idea is that in a democracy the civic society has a decisive contribution to make in process of democratization, one of which is in creating a vibrant civic culture. I have no reasons to disagree with many scholars who published volumes of books showing that the existing democratic culture in European countries and America is the result of the work of the civil society.

For lack of adequate information before me on the impact of civil society’s numerous publications, workshops and seminars on Nigeria, I am hesitating to comment on what the civil society has achieved so far in educating the citizens of Nigeria about their polity. The dilemma of the civil society in Nigeria is that it is largely funded by foreign financiers. If the foreign sponsorship stops it is most likely that very few would be able to sustain their activities. The challenge of this meeting is to brainstorm on how to save the civil society – especially the new social movements in it – from relying on foreign support to carry out their activities. Once the New Social Movements are liberated the benefits will trickle to the old ones – i.e. Old Social Movements.

Downloading Civic Culture? Internet for Advancing Citizens Education

Considering the formations of global society in the current era of globalization my idea about successful citizen’s education is the capacity to blend both local and global resources to attain the expected goal. The Internet, a perceived global resource has enhanced civic education in some countries in Latin America. Why not in Nigeria?

It seems that from the beginning of this millennium, even in developing countries Internet cannot be dismissed for whatever reasons in mobilization of citizens for civic action, for enhancing the work of political and civic society actors, for increased and faster liberalization of the polity, for democratization of the society and as perhaps the most effective instrument of mass communication which could reach the recipients without audience. Hoffman is correct when he noted that the Internet is not a one-to many medium like radio or television, with one sender reading a multitude of recipients with his programmes. Instead, it is many-to-many medium in which hundreds of thousands are both senders and recipients of information.

The Internet is so significant for many educational purposes that although it is inevitably at odds with Cuba’s economic strategy, but the Castro regime had to go Internet connection to achieve some goals. On the other hand, the Arab countries, being the only conservatives region remaining in the world, with all kinds of censorship on information flow to their countries, had to give way for Internet protocol.

It is true, of course, that Africa is still far behind in the developing world in Internet usage. According to a report of ICP Policy Handbook, in 2004, Internet penetration in Africa was only 1.4 percent of the globes Internet users, with the Seychelles (14.1 percent) and Mauritius (11.9 percent) leading the pack, followed by South Africa with 7.4 percent, and the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia (0.1 percent each) and Liberia (0.04 percent) at the bottom. Nigeria is not even counted among the countries noted with Internet users. Indeed, in Africa, there are a number of reasons for this painfully slow progress. This would include that African people are poorest on earth, many live in villages, that Internet connectivity is costly, and many socio-cultural obstacles. In Nigeria, we may add factors like in-cohesive ruling-class, lack of nationalism, a divided middle-class which has no vision of its future political and economic roles in the society, etc.

This is to say that in Nigeria in particular, such discussion forum should be used to bring out the problems and solutions for effective mass communication through Internet protocol.

This project planning meeting is to come up with ideas on how to tap local resources for civic education. Nevertheless, we could also derive some ideas on what happened in other countries. In the developing world, Latin America has impressive performance. The International Telecommunication Union, which is the central institution for the telecommunications sector of the UN system, reported that as of the year 2002 Latin America has 35 million users but has almost more than doubled in two years.

The reason for this widespread usage of Internet is attributed to two basic models: the Internet Cafes, which are small or medium-sized enterprises with commercial goals, and the so-called “telecentres” which are typically non-profit-making and organized as an NGO or as part of communal structures. Both offer similar services, mainly e-mail, the World Wide Web, and the like.

However, the differences between the two are: the Internet cafes, for reasons of commercial profitability are found mainly at urban or semi-urban centres, in tourist destinations and similar places with large attractions of educated and business groups. While the “telecentres” are located both in urban and rural areas and generally put more emphasis on education.

The “telecentres” are very successful in Peru. Started in 1994 by an NGO called Peruvian Science Network, with 20 computers in Liman, today it is a national network of more than 2000 centres in every major village in the country. Scholars show that in Peru today 20 percent of the inhabitants are Internet users. And it is estimated that 70-80 percent of them go online via the telecentres.

The contribution of the “telecentres” for democratization, mobilization of public opinion and generally citizen’s education is striking. They are creating websites beyond Goggle and Yahoo. They are developing software’s in their local languages. It is said that thousands of peasants have e-mail addresses which they receive information from their sons and daughters in the urban centres.

The success of the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas illustrated the potential of Internet in creating a public opinion about their goal. In this sense, the Zapatistas used the Internet as one component within a complex and innovative strategy, such that they are called Internet guerrillas.

Conclusion

In conclusion, let me emphasize the hypothesis that creating condition of using local resources for civic education cannot ignore external factors and resources which may combine with the local to achieve the desired goal of sustainable civic education. The new information and communication technologies are substantial component to be thought out in this meeting for sustainable civic education.