Welcome to Gitata, a small village in Nassarwara state in northern Nigeria. It is about two hours' drive from the shiny capital Abuja and is not remote in terms of physical accessibilty. But, in many other respects, Gitata is disconnected. It's not connected to the national electricity grid and has no running water or even a single tarred road. The people are mainly traders and farmers. Strolling through the village's small market, I spoke to people - young and old. I asked them whether they knew what the internet was. "I hear it's something people use to talk to each other," one shopkeeper told me. An elderly man described it as "something that young people play with." One woman saw it as something that "connects people with wires." But when I asked people whether they had access to the internet, the answer was almost always no. I later discovered that the nearest internet-connected computer was 35km away in the town of Keffi. My mission in Gitata was to observe and learn. I wanted to find out what impact internet connection would have on the lives of people here. What would they do with it, for example, and would it change people's understanding of themselves and the rest of the world. Enter Nicholas Madaki, a farmer, and Moses Maisauri, a teacher. These two young men were chosen after a meeting of the village elders to represent Gitata in our social experiment. In January, I handed over two internet-enabled mobile phones to them. I returned a few weeks later to find out how they had progressed. The results have been an eye- opener. Both Nicholas and Moses had to overcome the challenge of getting used to the technology: setting up a mobile e-mail account, establishing the basic connections to the service provider etc - challenges that mobile users everywhere experience. But the barriers to information access are higher in Gitata. With no connection to the power grid, Nicholas and Moses had to pay a local barber who owned a generator a small fee to charge the phone. The fully charged phone would work for a day or so until it needed recharging. The next barrier was getting a signal. The connection to the mobile service provider was irregular weak. It was no surprise then that access to the web required hours of patience. Then there was the issue of cost. Our post-paid mobile phone needed regular recharging. The basic daily recharge required was about 500 naira, or just over US$3 a day. But, with patience and determination Moses and Nicholas were online. So what was the browsing experience like? Problems of access Nicholas complained about the frustration of getting access to the internet, but having done that, he said the experience was fascinating. "I am seeing so many things I didn't know about. I have seen pictures from other countries," he said. "I saw the White House internet site and I was able to send an e- mail for the first time. I was even able to read news about things happening in Nigeria and other parts of the world." An enthusiastic Moses told me about visiting a number of health websites and learning about disease prevention. With a smile on his face he said: "In fact I feel like I am part of the rest of the world when I am on the internet." But the joys of the internet age are clearly overshadowed by the problems of access. "How can a poor man like me pay three dollars every day for recharge?" he asked. "I have to buy basic things for my family. Even though I like the internet, the government must find a way to make it affordable for people like me." It's a thought that was echoed by Moses as we listened to the family in South Korea speak of how disconnected they felt when their internet connection was switched off. As part of the SuperPower season, the BBC asked two families in central Seoul to live without the web for one week. "They are very lucky. I feel so sad that we cannot have internet all the time. We want to be part of the world but the gap between us and the rest of the world is very big," he said. The gap Moses speaks of is not just the connection gap - which divides the world into internet haves and have nots - but the economic gaps which raises the barriers in developing countries.

They will never talk about the lunch of main one cable owned by a nigeria nor the glo optical cable. They only see the bad news. Infact, of all the african countries, nigeria is the most negatively reported by the western media, why? Or the better question - why do they hate us so much?

buzor:

They will never talk about the lunch of main one cable owned by a nigeria nor the glo optical cable. They only see the bad news. Infact, of all the african countries, nigeria is the most negatively reported by the western media, why? Or the better question - why do they hate us so much?

Proganda is a very important tool of foreign policy and in the contemporary world,the best way to achieve that is through the media.
There won't be any negative report without interests .trust me

What could be their interest,

@OP

According to this article, the western media may be doing you and your ilk a favor. It is very unfortunate the village of Gitata is nowhere close to power grid. If the Americans did not invent cellular phone to wipe out you shame of not being able to construct a serviceable line phone, both Nicholas and Moses maybe including you would not have touched a phone receiver talk less of communicating with it.

It appears the only time Africans seemed to get grasp of anything is when the so-called western media instigated them to declare their African leaders as despots, start a tribal tinted massacre and stay in never-do-well colonial contraptions called countries hoping their fortunes will turn for good.

If nigeria was as bad as these people are painting it to be. Do you think you would be using 3g network browse, To the last poster think before u post,

I really don't see much bad portrayal of south-africa. Is it not an African nation? The point is that the negatives in this country outways the positives. I guess that explains why we get so many negative news about Nigeria.

buzor:

If nigeria was as bad as these people are painting it to be. Do you think you would be using 3g network browse, To the last poster think before u post,

Some folks are already using 4g network now and Nigeria’s place in the making of 1g, 2g, 3g and 4g networks is hugely irrelevant and in fact none existence. Are you on drugs?

And your point is?

With prevailing situations in the global economy, people should still have access to 3g network in Nigeria even if the country had slid into depthless socio-political abyss.

Using 3g network has less insignificant bearing on Nigeria’s retrogressive conditions.

Cool article. I don't like how they imply that it isn't the gov'ts job to make it cheaper, though Not a fan of socialist, big-govt sort of thinking.