1
REACHING THE GOALS OF WORLD SUMMIT ON
INFORMATION SOCIETY (WSIS) THROUGH EFFECTIVE
LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES PROVISION IN
NIGERIA
BY
ABDULWAHAB OLANREWAJU ISSA (CLN)
(DLSc., BLSc., MLSc., Ph.D)
issabdulwahab@yahoo.com
Principal Lecturer,
Department of Library and Information Science,
The Federal Polytechnic, Offa,
Kwara State
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ABSTRACT
The primacy of information needs by all segments of human societies, regardless of
social, economic, educational, cultural, political and religious variations has been firmly
established especially by the inauguration of the two World Summits on Information
Society (WSIS). The Inclusive Information Society goal of world leaders in pursuit to the
Summits remains the ultimate in the world's struggle for an equitable, well-informed and
participatory citizenry across all the nations and peoples of the world. While recognising
the high potency of the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
in the realization of these goals, this paper establishes that effective library services
provision is the panacea for reaching the goals of WSIS in the 21st Century Nigeria.
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Introduction
It is no longer news that the world has moved from the ‘Industrial Age’ into the
‘Information Age’. The world now boasts of a knowledge-based and an informationdriven economy. The present order is being ruled, strictly by the power of information;
rather than by that of money. There is now a full realization of the fact that information
remains ‘the prime commodity of the present age’ (Issa, 2002). The advanced economies
understand and appreciate this fact more than the developing ones. Hence, the symbiotic
relationship between a nation’s material prosperity and that of her information-wealth,
and vice-versa. The availability and free flow of information bring about knowledge- a
basic requirement for the emergence of quality and comprehensive participation by the
citizenry. Experience and new knowledge combine to bring about information, which is a
vital commodity for the healthy development of individuals and society.
Information and knowledge are key resources sought after by all-for a variety of
needs which include problem-solving, decision-making or both by young, old, educated
and uneducated and regardless of their occupations and locations. Acquiring information
is critical for individual job performance and as a means of influencing decision-making
positively for the good of all. Nations possessing the capacity to gather and process
information (thereby monopolizing it) have an over-bearing socio-economic and political
influence over others that do not; which partly explains why information availability and
access usually serve as economic weapons used by the information-superior nations
against the less-superior ones; by disallowing the latter, access to information databases
in their control. Hence, a greater awareness and appreciation of the power of information
as a key resource for development in developing countries today more than it was the
situation some decades ago (Aliyu and Issa, 2003).
With the advances in science and technology, which brought about Information
and Communication Technology (ICT), new trends/dimensions facilitated information
availability, access and utilization by all and at an unimaginable rate and level. Even
then, there exists a wide disparity in the availability, access and utilization of information
between the developed and developing nations on the one hand, and between cities and
the countryside of developing countries on the other. This gave rise to the concept,
Digital Divide; a divide between the developed and developing nations and between the
rural and urban settlements in a country like Nigeria.
The immediate challenges before the Nigerian libraries arose from the current
situation where majority of libraries in Africa are incapable of playing effective roles in
the information society. This is due to the “great African library decline” of the early
1980s, characterized by gross poor funding; total lack of, or inadequate application of
information technology. Others are unavailability of, or unreliable access to the Internet;
rusty professional skills and outlook due to inadequate resources for training and
development; demoralized management; dusty shelves with old and irrelevant books; and
inadequate or lack of physical development and near absence of library activism and
advocacy (ECA, 2003). The fact that majority of Nigerian libraries are in this category
explains why all library-related issues thrown up at WSIS are of direct relevance to
Nigeria.
As a result, majority of Nigerians lack access to public libraries, since many
communities have none. Library traces are almost non-existent in Nigerian primary and
post primary institutions, denying youths the needed opportunity to develop good reading
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habits early in life. Where they scantily exist, they fail in meeting set goals to their
clienteles due to lack of, or inadequate resources and services; leaving them with many
unmet information needs, thus lacking in the right knowledge of the basic nature of their
immediate environment. Furthermore, there is hardly any Nigerian community with free
access to Internet workstations in its public libraries.
Though the two World Summits on Information Society (WSIS) were direct
responses to the challenges thrown up by the digital divide, no significant achievements
have been recorded, years after, in bridging the information gap between most of the
developing and developed nations. The prevalent paucity of library and information
services in Nigeria calls for a re-visit of the ideals of WSIS with a view to incorporating
effective public library services as a veritable instrument and indeed, the panacea for
reaching the goals of WSIS; namely an Inclusive Information Society.
Information and Globalisation
It is common today talking about the “global village” where the derivative word
‘globe’ refers to the entire world while ‘village’ points to the spectacular shrink, which
the world has reduced to through the globalised network. Today, happenings in the
remotest part of the world are immediately known in other parts. Just as it is the case with
the term ‘information’, the concept ‘globalisation’, has a variety of definitions-each
tendering towards the perception, orientation and inclination of the person defining it.
Abifarin (2005) provides a comprehensive brief on this by giving the views of different
authorities, researchers and academics from various backgrounds. Ajekigbe (2005) sees
globalization as ‘a borderless world facilitated by the convergence of computing,
information and communication technologies’ pointing at the increasing interdependence
among the world’s different regions, nations, governments, businesses and institutions.
Through the globalisation process, there was a change in the nature of human
interaction across a wide range of spheres such as economic, political, social, technology
and environment; a process of integrating the world community into a common system;
economic or social. It is the phenomenon whereby peoples, countries, businesses and
other groups around the globe relate without difficulty…it is multi-dimensional with
social, political and economic implications. The economic dimension, however, receives
the most attention as it tends more to drive and set the pace for the whole process
(Nnamani, 2003).
Globalisation
can be considered as the evolution in Information and
Communication Technology (ICT), trade liberalization, formation of regional
organizations such as EU, AU, and ECOWAS…high mobility of capital and labour. It
seeks to bring together all the countries of the world as one economic unit; a process,
which engenders free flow of ideas, peoples, services and capital, thereby fostering
integration of economies and societies. It integrates world economies, culture, technology
and governance with its religious, environmental and social dimensions. Kehinde (2007)
conceives of ICT as a “technology that embraces all forms of digital communication
infrastructures”; stressing that “the digital pathways, data access, speed, format,
information coding and decoding, …”
Similarly, Aguolu (1989) points at both ‘semantic and conceptual difficulties’
involved in defining ‘information’ due to the variety of approaches and dimensions
associated with it. Burch and Grundnitiski (1989) consider information as ‘data that have
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been put into meaningful and useful context and communicated to a recipient who uses it
to make decision’. A broader approach to information can see it as knowledge used in its
generic sense irrespective of the sources, format, mode or transfer medium. It is
knowledge obtained by search, study and can be categorized as ranging ‘from articles in
technical publications to verbal reports of informal meetings and from news items in
daily or trade newspapers to patent specifications’ (Pinniston, 1980).
Information and knowledge have great potentials to provide impetus for the sociocultural, spiritual, political, economic, scientific and technological advancements of a
nation. They play a critical and central role in human life, hence a basic human need,
with over-riding and all-permeating significance to all. Thus, the communication of
knowledge is being referred to as ‘information ‘where the term ‘knowledge’ is the ‘state
of knowing about a particular fact or situation’. The survival of man in society depends
on information availability, accessibility and utilization for problem solving, planning,
decision-making and control (Popoola, 2005). Information has thus become a vital
societal resource in the productive process; such that terms like ‘infopreneurs’, and
‘infomercials’ are fast-becoming popular among investment experts (Allen, 2004).
The Information and Knowledge Society in Relation to WSIS and MDGs
There has been a greater realization of the significant revolution in ICTs as
veritable tools for shaping the present and future worlds. This has implications for the
realization of the development goals outlined in the Millennium Development Goals’
Declaration, which prompted world leaders to embark on a global vision and dialogue
needed to build the framework of an all-inclusive and equitable Information Society. The
increasing priority accorded information through technological development and
deployment evolved into an Information Society (Omekwu, 2005); one in which
information becomes a tradeable commodity; bought and sold in the information market
place for a given price; a commodity so indispensable for national development.
Given the significance of information and knowledge, the need, desire and
commitment of world leaders turned towards building a people-centred, all-inclusive and
development-oriented Information Society, where every one can create, access, utilize
and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to
achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving
their quality of life (UN/ITU, 2005). The WSIS, at the centre of the efforts aimed at
facilitating these objectives, is an initiative of the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU), a United Nations specialized agency. Organized in two phases, the first was
hosted in Geneva, Switzerland (10th-12th December, 2003) and the second in Tunis (16th 18th November, 2005). Eleven key issues were raised as points its agenda, which include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The role of governments and all stakeholders
The provision of information and communication infrastructure and services
Access to information and knowledge
Capacity building
Building confidence and security in the use of ICT
An enabling environment
ICT applications benefits in all aspects of life
Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content
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9. Media
10. Ethical dimensions of the information society
11. International and regional cooperation.
WSIS principles and action plans are designed to ensure coherence with the major
global development strategies, principal of which is the Millennium Declaration made by
world leaders in September 2000 (United Nations, 2000). The Declaration provides a
framework for the vision, activities and goals of the UN system to 2015 and beyond and
was aimed at promoting "a comprehensive approach and a coordinated strategy, for
tackling many global problems simultaneously across a broad front”. Its eight goalagenda whose specific targets geared towards poverty reduction as the blueprint for
development activities by governments and the leading development institutions:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty.
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education.
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women.
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality.
Goal 5: Improve maternal health.
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability.
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
The Place of ICT in the Millennium Development Goals’ Attainment
Recognizing that “access to information and knowledge” enhances individual and
group capacity to make positive changes, the global community deplored the widespread
application of ICT to harness information, knowledge and communication as an essential
element in its strategy for accelerating the achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals. Azubuike (2006) posits that the achievement of MDGs must necessarily precede
the arrival of the Information Society in every country, as the citizens of a country
wallowing in poverty and unsustainable development model cannot enjoy the high
connectedness and access envisaged in the Information Society.
That modern society depends on electrical energy, transport and communications
infrastructure for exchange of information and trade on goods and services makes this set
of infrastructure the backbone of the Information Society. This is why bridging the gaps
between countries, institutions and groups in the access to infrastructure is a core issue in
this regard. Thus, in the context of national e-strategies, the Summits recommends the
provision and improvement of ICT connectivity for all schools, universities, health
institutions, libraries, post offices, community centres, museums and other institutions
accessible to the public, in line with the indicative targets” which are to:
a) Connect villages with ICTs and establish community access points.
b) Connect universities, colleges, secondary schools and primary schools with ICTs.
c) Connect scientific and research centres with ICTs.
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d) Connect public libraries, cultural centres, museums, post offices and archives with
ICTs.
e) Connect health centres and hospitals with ICTs.
f) Connect all local and central government departments and establish websites and
e-mail addresses.
g) Adapt all primary and secondary school curricula to meet the challenges of the
Information Society, taking into account national circumstances.
h) Ensure that all of the world's populations have access to television and radio
services.
i) Encourage the development of content and to put in place technical conditions in
order to facilitate the presence and use of all world languages on the Internet.
j) Ensure that more than half the world’s inhabitants have access to ICTs within
their reach.
It is in line with this that WSIS-03/GENEVA/DOC/5-E (2005) provides the goals and
general ICT direction for WSIS as: building an inclusive Information Society; putting the
potential of knowledge and ICTs at the service of development; promoting the use of information
and knowledge for the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including those
contained in the Millennium Declaration; and addressing new challenges of the Information
Society, at the national, regional and international levels.
The SWIS Action Plan encourages the creation of an enabling environment
through the development of a framework for securing documents and other electronic
records of information. This is because ICT applications can support sustainable
development in the fields of public administration, business, education and training,
health, employment, environment, agriculture and science within the framework of
national e-strategies. These include actions in sectors such as e-government, e-business,
e-learning, e-health, e-employment, e-environment, e-agriculture, and e-science.
Digital Divide and the Imperative of ICT Provision in Nigeria
The Nigerian Communication Commission provided authoritative information on
the status of ICT infrastructure in Nigeria at the WSIS, the summary of which is
contained in the table 1:
Table 1: Status of ICT Infrastructure in Nigeria
ICT facility
Dec.’00
Dec.’02
No of connected fixed lines
450,000
702,000
No of connected Digital mobile
lines
None
1.6m
No of national carriers
1
2
No of operating ISPs
No of Active Licensed fixed line
operators
No of licensed Mobile operators
Source: Ndukwe (2005)
June’03
724,790
Dec.’03
850,000
Mar.’04
888,854
2.05m
2
3.1m
2
3.8m
2
18
30
30
35
35
9
1
16
4
19
4
30
4
30
4
8
The growth of ICT facilities in Nigeria during the period 2000 and 2004 was
phenomenal, situating the mobile communication at the centre as depicted by the table; a
trend that had continued unabatedly.
Table 2 reveals the ICTs deficiencies when compared with the population statistics
Table 2: ICT Status in Nigeria in Terms of User Population
Population (millions)
132.8
Literacy rate
66.8
Gross national income per capita
290
TVs per 1000 people
68
Radios per 1000 people
200
Telephone mainlines per 1000 people
5
Mobile phones per 1000 people
4
Personal computers per 1000 people
6.8
Internet users (thousands)
115
Source: The Africa ICT Policy Monitor (An initiative of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
The table above provides a clear picture of the ICT status in Nigeria with glaring deficiency in the
such areas as literacy rate, personal computers, telephone mainlines, internet users/1000 as few
examples.
Table 3 World Picture of Internet Usage and Population Statistics
TABLE 2: WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS
World Regions
Africa
Asia
Population
( 2004 Est.)
Population
% of World
Usage
Internet Usage,
Penetration
Growth
Latest Data
(% Population )
2000-2004
893,197,200
14.0 %
12,937,100
186.6 %
World
Users %
1.4 %
1.6 %
3,607,499,800
56.5 %
257,898,314
125.6 %
7.1 %
31.7 %
Europe
730,894,078
11.4 %
230,886,424
124.0 %
31.6 %
28.4 %
Middle East
258,993,600
4.1 %
17,325,900
227.8 %
6.7 %
2.1 %
North America
325,246,100
5.1 %
222,165,659
105.5 %
68.3 %
27.3 %
Latin
America/Caribbean
541,775,800
8.5 %
55,930,974
209.5 %
10.3 %
6.9 %
Oceania / Australia
32,540,909
0.5 %
15,787,221
107.2 %
48.5 %
1.9 %
WORLD TOTAL
6,390,147,487
100.0 %
812,931,592
125.2 %
12.7 %
100.0 %
Source: www.internetworldstats.com.
The implication of the above is that 98.4% of the entire global Internet users are
outside Africa. North African countries have 40.6% of the entire Internet usage in Africa.
The 20% for Egypt represents more than 50% of the entire Internet users in North Africa.
In the West African Sub-region, Nigeria has the largest number of Internet users. The
upsurge in Nigeria’s Internet usage statistic can be attributed to the 1998 liberalization
when the Nigerian Communication Commission licensed over 50 Internet Service
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Providers (ISP) to market the services. Even then, this figure remains un-satisfying
against the backdrop that Nigeria represents 20% of the entire Sub-Saharan Africa.
Thus, both Summits represent a conscientisation of the global community on the
need to address the digital disparity between the developed and developing countries,
emphasizing the need to evolve an inclusive Information Society driven on ICTs
platforms. This is against the unimpressive ICT conditions and Internet connectivity
especially in Africa and especially Nigeria, which are still at low-level phase. The wide
digital divide between the developed and developing countries was the vital motivation
for WSIS, since despite the advances in ICT, a wide digital disparity exists between
developing and developed nations. Annan (2001) underscored the fact that “there are
almost as many hosts in France as in all of Latin America and the Caribbean … more
hosts in Australia, Japan and New Zealand than … in the Asian Pacific Region combined
... in New York than in all of Africa”. This probably informed the assertion by Oruame
(2005) that:
For West African countries and particularly Nigeria, it is still a
long road plugging into the emerging Information Society. Other
countries outside the continent have since the first phase of WSIS
at Geneva … made considerable progress at opening ICT access to
a larger number of their population, particularly the rural areas.
While China and India … have been able to improve on building
both human policy capacities to contend with the challenge of the
new knowledge economy, there appears to be very little in place to
show that African countries are ready for the IS.
Particularly on Nigeria, it had been more of policy statements on the agenda
which only translated into high prevalence of poor understanding of the Information
Society concept and its global implications for the country. This leaves a critical gap of
ignorance in the awareness level of the citizenry in this regard. This is probably due to
the lukewarm attitude on the part of the local agency responsible for its implementation
in Nigeria. Thus, to this extent, Nigerian libraries, especially the public library, have
significant roles to play in overcoming the challenges of the Nigerian rural-urban digital
divide. This becomes quite instructive against the backdrop of the fact that these
represent the challenges of an evolving inclusive Information Society in Nigeria; among
which are: awareness of WSIS and IS; involving the critical stakeholders; legal and
policy framework and indigenous knowledge systems.
Mission and Goals of the IFLA Section of Public Libraries towards Attaining the
Inclusive Information Society
The mission of the International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions (IFLA) Section of Public Libraries is to provide an active international forum
for the development and promotion of public libraries, serving the whole community in
the context of the information society and ensure access to information at the local level.
The goals, objectives and strategies are developed within the context of the principles
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enshrined in the Public Library Manifesto and the IFLA Professional Priorities. Principal
among its goals, according to IFLANET (2004) are the following:
1. Promoting equal access to all by supporting the role of libraries in society; defending
the principle of freedom of information; providing unrestricted access to information and
promoting standards, guidelines and best practices.
2. Raising the quality of services in public libraries by defining standards, developing
guidelines, and documenting and disseminating best practices. These could be achieved
by supporting the role of libraries in society; defending the principle of freedom of
information; promoting resource sharing; developing library professionals and promoting
standards, guidelines and best practices.
3. Promoting the importance of training and professional development for librarians
through supporting the role of libraries in society; promoting resource sharing;
developing library professionals; promoting standards, guidelines and best practices; and
supporting the infrastructure of library associations.
4. Defending the role of the public library in democratizing access to and the use of
information technology by supporting the role of libraries in society; defending the
principle of freedom of information; promoting literacy, reading and lifelong learning;
providing unrestricted access to information; promoting standards, guidelines and best
practices and representing libraries in the technological marketplace.
5. Promoting literacy, reading development and lifelong learning projects by supporting
the role of libraries in society; defending the principle of freedom of information;
promoting literacy, reading and lifelong learning; providing unrestricted access to
information and promoting resource sharing.
6. Promoting networking and cooperation between libraries and other agencies by
supporting the role of libraries in society; promoting resource sharing and preserving our
intellectual heritage.
7. Promoting the role of libraries in society through supporting the role of libraries in
society.
8. Marketing the Public Libraries Section more aggressively.
Library and Information Services Provision for Reaching the Goals of WSIS
Incontrovertible remains the fact that information and communication
technologies are mere tools for development. To achieve a well-rounded social and
economic development in a country like Nigeria, there was the need for meaningful and
sustained involvement of the people who are the final recipient and therefore the most
affected by the developmental changes. It is, therefore, imperative to engage the people
who are the main players in issues bearing directly on their own existence. It is against
this backdrop that the Nigerian libraries are challenged to provide for this important
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missing link. The challenges for the libraries are multitude; especially now that they are
at the crossroad of management imperatives induced by the changing information
environment. It amounts to a charter for libraries and information centres to promote
equality and freedom of information, public information literacy and community
connectedness, which are the bases of citizen participation, local and national democracy,
economic and political freedoms and human rights.
The Alexandria Manifesto asserts that libraries and information services are
essential to the sound operation of the inclusive Information Society by their impartial
operation which helps to safeguard universal civil rights. They enable intellectual
freedom by providing access to information, ideas and works of imagination in any
medium and regardless of frontiers. With their unique feature, they respond to the
particular questions and needs of individuals and complement the general transmission of
knowledge by the media and other means. They are vital to the democratic and open
information society in which they facilitate well informed citizenry, transparent
governance and e-government. They build capacity by promoting information literacy
and providing support and training for effective use of digital and other information
resources. Thus, they contribute significantly to addressing the digital divide and the
information inequality that results from it. Because of the centrality of knowledge to
economic progress, libraries are critical to the development agenda required for realising
the Millennium Development Goals, including reduction of poverty.
To enable access to information by all peoples, the International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions is committed to the fundamental human rights to
know, learn and communicate without restriction. IFLA and libraries and information
services share the common vision of an Information Society for all adopted by the World
Summit on the Information Society in Geneva in November 2003. That vision promotes
an inclusive society in which everyone will be able to create, access, use and share
information and knowledge. IFLA, thus, urges national, regional and local governments
as well as international organisations to invest in library and information services as vital
elements of their Information Society strategies.
More than for other library types, the public libraries come most relevant in the
campaign towards the mass mobilization for an inclusive Information Society. Not only
are they the closest to the grassroots where majority of the population reside, they also
have the most ambitious mandate as well as scope of operational coverage. Thus, they
serve as tuitions for “the development of the mind, literacy in developing countries and
cultural repositories” (Omekwu, 2005). It is for this reason also that the library as a major
information institution will remain the most critical link between the society and the
information that are instrumental to societal growth and development.
For libraries to play their rightful roles in reaching the ideals of the inclusive
Information Society, the sector needs an overhaul, anchored on progressive policies,
programmes and leadership. Library issues deserve being regarded as a core component
of national information and communication policies. For once, adequate and sustained
funding of libraries by all tiers of government should receive great attention; viewing
such allocations as a profitable investment in both development and public goods.
Such supports would create enabling environment for libraries to perform their
educational role, including life-long learning, e-literacy while also helping to reduce
poverty for the rapid attainment of development. These ways, they stand to provide
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rights-based access to information, knowledge and ICT as public goods by providing
community access points. Furthermore, they would be able to create digital public
libraries and archival services, digitization and long-term preservation of intellectual and
cultural goods and artefacts. Only then can Nigerian libraries rise above the challenges of
becoming the dynamic engines for the Nigerian knowledge and information society
Conclusions
The wide digital divide between the developed and developing countries was the
vital motivation for WSIS. But in Nigeria, the concentration of ICTs in urban Nigeria has
created a new form of digital divide namely the Urban-Rural Digital Divide (U-RDD).
To connect villages with ICTs and establish community access points are vital issues that
will create “rural inclusive” IS. Inclusive access to ICT and information services is both
political and moral issues. Since knowledge is power, providing everyone and every
section of the society equal opportunity of access is a basic political act of resource
allocation and a moral act of doing the right thing. Whatever the aim, its achievement
should result in aggregate improvement of human and economic development (Azubuike,
2006).
Thus, for as long as information and knowledge are the issues, effective library
and information services remain the veritable instruments for reaching the goals of the
all-inclusive Information Society. To achieve this, existing network of library and
information services should be supported and extended to make available and preserve
knowledge and cultural heritage, to provide information access points which are so
essential to the realization of the Information Society. There are vast areas of possibility
for Nigerian libraries, especially the Public Library, in contributing to the attainment of
an inclusive Information Society in Nigeria.
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