Social Media and Africa's Youth

Just over a few years ago, the term "digital divide" was ubiquitous diagnosis for growth and development in poor countries--fast forward to 2011 and one would wonder whatever happened to all the hypes about digital divide?

It must be acknowledged that some progress have been made over the years. People in Africa are using social network such as Facebook, LinkeIn, Twitter and Skype to connect to the rest of the world like never before-- it is indeed refreshing for those of us living miles away from the continent to get such instant access thanks the power of the internet.

I strongly agree with people who think that the dotcom revolution is the best thing to happen to developing countries. Imagine students, workers and leaders from Africa sharing knowledge and information with the rest of the world in real time--I bet my college days would have been less stressful if I had such access to information.

Arab Spring has shown us that the internet has a leg of its own and that no one can stop it. Empowering citizens from poor countries (often saddled with authoritarian regimes) with such vital tool will clearly cut everyone's job out for them. The internet business in Africa and other developing countries must transition for its present awareness stage to critical mass stage. It is up to the world to make this happen.

You know what we say in Africa, when you walk alone, you walk fast but when you walk together, you walk far--lets share this revolution togther.

Leadership Africa Needs: Lagos Governor Example

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos has raised the bar for African leadership and in doing so succeeded to offer new hope for strategic thinking and carefully calibrated public agenda in Africa.

Lagos as we know it (actually used to)was a microcosm of whatever can go wrong in major African cities: saddled with high population density, filth, organized and petty crimes, and so on.

When Governor Babatunde took office in 2007, he decided to spend his political capital to change Lagos for the better. He started by fixing the broken window of the house by way of clamping down on illegal activities such as ad hoc markets that used to block streets and cause endless gridlock, setting up bus routes, forcing "kamikaze" motorcycle-taxi riders to wear helmets.

To mitigate the impact of his hash actions, he decided to harness the newly displaced youth by employing them as street sweepers and traffic cops--he did so to ensure his program sustains.

One may be quick to ask what is so special about all these, but mind you, none of these actions required big budget to implement--all what was needed was common sense and political will to push through unpopular agenda.

Governor Babatunde's example serves as blueprint for how African leaders should look ahead. No wonder he was rewarded by over 81% votes for his reelection. Congratulations Governor.