YOUTH PERSPECTIVE ON CRIME FIGHTING USING ICT
By Uduak Nta

Poverty remains the greatest challenge in the Nigerian state and off course Africa as a whole .This has affected the economic state of Nigeria and as such has contributed to the ever increasing rate of crime. The advent of technology has increased the rate of crime and at the same time can facilitate crime fighting.
It therefore means that crime cannot be fought in isolation from poverty .this is to the extent that a critical look at our society today points particularly on poverty.
ICT(Information Communication Technology) therefore presents a veritable tool for poverty eradication and in extension crime.
Crime in Nigeria is another interesting part of the polity in the sense that everyone is doing something about it including all of us. What differs is what exactly each person does. It is either we are partaking in committing the crime or we are fighting against it. Some young people when asked how they see crime in Nigeria they say “it is our national identity any where in the world” others say it “it is a way of life of an average Nigerian”.
Well thank God EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) launched by this present administration sometime ago primarily is to address crime issues. Knowing that crime is an offence against an individual or government which is punishable by law, For the purpose of this paper I shall dwell more on areas of ICT proven to have been effective in crime fighting. it is however pathetic that we seem to play catch up in every area of human existence even in the simplest form of modern day crime interventions. Crime fighting has evolved throughout the world that it now makes great sense to work towards prevention.

THE SITUATION ON GROUND
• In Nigeria today, our security operatives battle day to day to fight criminals whose methods of operation they do not even comprehend for example 4 1 9, Bank Fraud, Fraud in petroleum sector, Oil pipeline vandalization, Money Laundering, Cyber crime, computer hacking.It is interesting to know that one of the increasingly common forms of crime now is CYBER CRIME.
• Our roads have become a heaven for anyone who knows how to break the law to showcase it’s talents in breaking traffic regulations.
• Looting of Government properties and pipeline vandalization has been making top headlines in most of our Nigerian Dailies.
• Also the banks have become some sort of mecca or rendezvous for armed robbers like in recent times. Our security operatives seemed to be bereft of ideas as on how to fight the malaise of money laundering.
• Some of our government functionaries parade certificate or qualifications that can be traced to no institution any where in the world as seen in recent times.
• Election irregularities like rigging ,hijacking of ballot boxes seem to trail all our electoral processes.
• Cyber criminal are light years ahead of the police and some other security operatives whom because they failed to update their knowledge to be abraised with modern day trend in crime fighting have become professional dinosaurs awaiting extinction. The growth in the number of cyber crime and the immense attraction the hold for Nigerians are giving rise to unintended consequences says Jerry Amah.
According to THE SUN NEWSPAPER, 26TH JULY, 2004 – cyber cafes (where most cyber crime occur) have been described as a place where people of diverse cultures and characters meet. it has equally been likened to a virtual market where all manners of business transactions are carried out ,some genuine and some clandestine in nature . Also any operators of cyber cafes are into the business as a source of employment, while others with sinister intentions use to perpetuate fraud related activities.

Anyway in recent times especially from the inception of this administration, it will be so unfair if I fail to commend the effort of the present administration on the bold steps it has taken towards fighting this malady .To mention but a few, Nigerian cyber crime working group (NCWG), Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission(ICPC) ,The media, Law Enforcement Agencies ,Individuals ,NGO’s etc. has demonstrated appreciable commitments .All their efforts have proven effective but more needs to be done to fight crime using ICT.

RECOMMENDATIONS
• In civilized nations of the world, traffic monitoring cameras installed at strategic position and monitored from a central monitoring point and to a great extent assisted law enforcement agency in those countries to checkmate traffic defaulters with their car numbers, colour etc recorded for tracking purposes.
• Satellite communication installed can be used to monitor pipe line vandals and the act of looting Government properties.
• Monitoring cameras can be installed in the banks and linked to a central recording point where a trained personnel on ICT usage keeps track of day to day activities in the bank are recorded and tapes filed, this may help to track armed robbers before, during or after their operations.
• Also cash systems should be designed properly to checkmate major opportunities for laundering as poorly designed systems could crate a major opportunities for money launders.
• E - voting processes could be adopted where elections are conducted with the help of a well computerized systems to check hijacking of ballot boxes and rigging.
• Interconnected database system with pool of information on suspected transactions and individuals could be setup for the nation’s security forces to tap into. This may enhance the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies in tackling new age crime like 419 scam email , money laundering ,cyber crime, computer hacking , identity theft among others.
• Setting up the interconnected data base may not function effectively as this is dependent on the personnel that will work on it. so training and re training of our security outfit (the police) to understand the tools in ICT and to be able to use them will help make this system more effective as crimes committed.
• most especially cyber crimes do not need gun-arrest but intellectual arrest..Cyber crime which has been on the increase since the advent of technology could also be tackled by ‘not only arresting and administering punitive measures but also reform this great asset that is identified in them positively ’……says Mr Emmanuel Ekanem.
• Employing these intellectual criminals to use their skills and trace their colleagues because they know how they work and it will because be so easy identifying them is another means of solving the problem as this is seen in some developing countries.
• The corruption calculator that has just been launched by WANGONET is Internet based and is a form of ICT promises to be a wonderful tool in fighting corruption. This can be very effective for our lying ministries because it may serve as a deterant to our public officer/servants.i am sure they wouldn’t want to be calculated.
• Also internet systems in Government offices can help to reduce crime especially where one has to make some payment or get information from their desk. it will cut down on ‘having to sort” for a fast attention. This will also facilitate e-governance.
• Educational system should adopt internet based form of registration. This will cut down on what is called ‘back yard runs’.
These are my few suggestions and hopefully it may facilitate crime fighting thus reducing the rate of crime in our dear country.
Thank you.

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POVERTY AND SOCIAL DISEMPOWERMENT IN NIGERIA, YOUTH PERSPECTIVE AND IMPLICATION FOR A FLEDGLING DEMOCRACY by Uduak Nta(Youth Health & Development Action Project – YOHEDAP NGO), Calabar- Nigeria.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS.
Is poverty simply about the level of income obtained by households or individuals? Is it about lack of access to social services? Or is it more correctly understood as the inability to participate in society economically, socially, culturally or politically.

UNDERSTANDING POVERTY: DEFINITION (WHAT)
To scholars, experienced personnel’s, cso’s, individuals(at urban and rural areas), public and private sectors etc, poverty may mean differently to each of these groups. There is no general agreed definition of poverty but one thing is clear from the different attempts to define poverty the word ‘lack of’.
In my words I would refer ‘hardship that is unacceptable’ to mean poverty. Also another attempt to define poverty led to the conclusion that poverty is ‘a way of life characterised by low calorie intake, inaccessibility to adequate health facilities, low quality education system, low life expectancy, high infant mortality, low income, unemployment and underemployment and inaccessibility to various housing and societal facilities’. In simply terms poverty denies its victims of most basic needs for survival, which are fundamental human right such as water, food, clothing, shelter.
The definition of poverty may be influenced by a lot of factors eg socialisation etc.

WHY POVERTY (CAUSE)
Cause of poverty has been explained in many ways some of which are pathological explanations and structural
PATHOLOGICAL – individualistic explanations shows that poor people are assumed to be inadequate and known to have made bad choices. Familial explained that poverty is believed to run in families from one generation to another.
STRUCTURAL – agency view poverty as failure of public services. Inequality in structure of society, which leads to denial of opportunity. eg inequality in income, wealth, gender etc.
CAUSES OF CONFLICTS INCLUDES BUT NOT LIMITED TO
Income inequality in Nigeria, social exclusion, unemployment etc

MEASURING POVERTY (HOW)
Because there is no agreed definition of poverty, there can be no agreed measure. Even if definitions were agreed, though poverty would be complex and difficult to quantify, measures of poverty have to be indicators.
· The most commonly used measure is based on income. The world bank uses the arbitrary standard of $31 a month( $1 a day)
· Another is ‘subjective poverty test’ to see whether people identify themselves as poor.
· Another is ‘consensual method’ where opinion polls are set to identify what people see as essential
There are indicators in measurement of poverty. However different models of poverty imply different indicators.
· Money metric models require information on income
· Vulnerability models use indicators of wealth and exposure to risk as well as income
· Models concerned with capability and function present indicators of life expectancy, educational achievements.
However, though poverty is multidimensional, it is advised to accumulate a wide range of data conventional and non-conventional sources.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON POVERTY
One should not endeavour to provide a picture of poverty without reference to global economic circumstances that have compounded the inability of developing countries to haul themselves out of poverty.
· Debt mortgages a large part of export earnings and considerably restricts their already limited economic possibilities
· The decline is government expenditure on social services has served to aggravate the incidence of poverty.
· The removal of subsidies on social services meant that the cost of education and health care were seriously affected.
· The policy of foreign – exchange rate conversion forced an increase in the cost of critical goods and services.

WHAT DO WE HAVE ON GROUND
The MDGs, NEPAD, NEEDS and SEEDS documents, different poverty reduction strategies/ programmes, NAPEP (National Agency for poverty eradication programme), NDE etc are policies, documents and programmes that our government have used to try and eradicate poverty. Whether there is a remarkable difference or not is left for us to judge.

SOCIAL DISEMPOWERMENT
Social disempowerment is when you are not socially empowered. It could also mean when the social and basic amenities of life are not within your reach.
Components of social disempowerment include:
Food Insecurity, lack of access to safe water, good roads, good and affordable health services, power (electricity), housing, clothing, security etc

Basic amenities of life cannot be afforded by a large number of people. Therefore those who have, use their resources to influence those who do not have and thus is the case of election violence thereby reflecting the link between poverty and social disempowerment. Youth participation is also greatly affected by poverty. The following scenarios can back up this point
· Lack of access to quality education may make a youth inadequate in terms of knowledge base and information. This can also affect youth involvement in different Poverty Reduction Strategies/Programmes by Government. Education not only upgrades the general living standard of individuals, it also sensitises them to various socio-economic and political changes
· Lack of “what to eat”. Good food is essential for growth and development of an individual.
· Low income; monetarily affect youth involvement and participation. (Please set instances referring to funding to attend programmes for national dev. If any).
· Lack of access to good health services can also affect youth participation (set instances if any or ask participants).


WAY FORWARD
· Youth entrepreneurship
· Youth based micro economic financing
· Economic empowerment
· Provision of basic social amenities.


SAY IT THE WAY IT IS
What do you want as a young person
What do you want to see differently
What role can we play as youths in poverty eradication

SET THE BALL ROLLING NOW!