ICTs and Human Development in Nigeria: Forging a Nexus

ICTs have successfully changed the social, economic and political spaces globally. Through globalisation, ICTs have reduced the world to a global clan and assumed a cyclopean force driving human civilisation by the scruff. The impact of ICTs has virtually diffused through all sectors, forcing technological changes and creating a culture of dependence on technology. In Nigeria, the presence of ICTs has become ubiquitous and its knowledge has deepened. However, the use of ICTs for human development purposes has remained grossly limited. ICTs have only been co-opted for the creation of web portals, email addresses, B2B, B2C interactions and for inconsequential undertakings. The use of ICTs for educational and manpower development, knowledge transmission, health education, research and development, medical treatment and others for human development purposes is yet embryonic. This may not be unconnected with the byzantine socio-economic crises like spotty power supply, moribund infrastructure, witless political leadership, lack of priority in investments by the state, endemic official corruption and a host of challenges facing the Nigerian state. To assume a pole position in the present knowledge economy, Nigeria needs to find that nexus between ICTs and its human development needs. This study is cast against the backcloth of the Diffusion of Innovations and Human Development Theories which support the diffusion of ICT-enabled human development programmes in Nigeria to realise true development. This paper argues that the political leadership in Nigeria will benefit more at a fragment of the cost when it adopts ICTs in catalysing its human development programmes. In addition, resolving some of the embedded social and ethical problems facing the country will free resources for the government to invest massively in ICTs that could help it leap-frog its human development challenges and improve the lives of its citizens.