Experts decry development information gap

Development information is generally defined as information that helps citizens understand, participate in, monitor or benefit from activities, policies and programmes intended to improve their living conditions and promote social and economic progress.

This covers information about what governments and development organisations are doing, why they are doing it, how resources are being used, who is expected to benefit, and what results have been achieved.

Examples of development information include the field of education. In this category, information is disseminated about plans to build schools, recruit teachers, provide scholarships or introduce new education policies.

Another example is in healthcare. This includes information about free medical programmes, immunisation campaigns, primary healthcare centres and health insurance schemes.

Other examples include infrastructure, which covers the details of road construction, water supply projects, electricity provision and public transport improvements.

Under the category of economic empowerment, information about grants, loans, skills-acquisition programmes, agricultural support and employment opportunities is disseminated.

Other key areas of development information include social welfare, governance and public spending.

On May 17, 1972, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development proposed measures for information dissemination and for the mobilisation of public opinion relative to trade and development problems.

These became known as Resolution 3038, which the UN General Assembly passed on December 19, 1972.

According to the UN, “This resolution called for introducing World Development Information Day to help draw the attention of people worldwide to development problems. A further aim of the event is to explain to the general public why it is necessary to strengthen international cooperation to find ways to solve these problems.

“The assembly also decided that the day should coincide with United Nations Day to stress the central role of development in the UN’s work. World Development Information Day was first held on October 24, 1973, and has been held on this date each year since then.”

Over the years, October 24 has been observed globally as the day to draw the attention of the world to development. This consists of the mobilisation of public opinion in both developing and developed countries in support of set objectives and policies.

Education: An aspect of development

Generally, education is regarded as a core aspect of development because it equips people with the knowledge, skills and critical thinking abilities needed to improve their lives.

In addition to this, it contributes to the economy, enables people to participate meaningfully in society and functions as an essential foundation for human capital development, poverty reduction, innovation and national progress.

In Nigeria, there have been reports made about some improvements made in education, but much of this information is not readily accessible to many youths.

In April, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the administration remains committed to reducing out-of-school children, tackling learning poverty, and strengthening human capital development.

According to him, despite persistent challenges, recent interventions are beginning to reverse negative trends such as 45 million children aged 5–14 unable to read age-appropriate text and 15 million out-of-school children.

In addition to this, between January 2025 and January 2026, the Federal Government released N106 billion in Universal Basic Education Commission matching grants, one of the largest disbursements in recent years.

Additional achievements include the training of 978,000 teachers, renovation of 10,000 classrooms, distribution of 7.8 million textbooks, and N22 billion invested in teacher professional development.

Commenting on some gains in the area of education, the Executive Director of the iRead to Live Initiative, Jacob Sule, told Sunday PUNCH that Nigeria’s higher education system has improved despite the strikes in 2023, which shut public universities.

Sule explained, “In December 2025, the Federal Government signed a renegotiated agreement with ASUU that replaced the 2009 pact and raised academic salaries by 40 per cent. Implementation remains uneven, but the academic calendar is more stable than it has been in years.

“The new student loan scheme, NELFUND, is also commendable, though earlier schemes collapsed because the government failed to recover the loans from borrowers; it appears that NELFUND is now headed in the same direction as previous failed schemes.

“However, civil societies and NGOs have stepped up too. For instance, BudgIT Foundation tracks government budgets, including education spending, while other groups advance access, literacy, skills and, increasingly, AI readiness. At iRead To Live Initiative, we produce independent policy briefs and explainers, and recently convened a policy discussion where experts shared their thoughts about making NELFUND sustainable.”

Sule pointed out that although many Nigerians know little of these gains, it was because policies arrived as press releases, not practical guidance a parent can act on.

“Data on who benefits is published late or not at all, so successes rarely become stories, while failures spread quickly because they confirm what years of broken promises have taught people to expect. Government needs a communication strategy built on plain language, open data and consistent follow-through,” he added.

Disconnect from information

In a report on the WDID, the UN observed that “the standard of living for millions of people in the world is still pitifully low.” In many developing countries, many citizens are “still undernourished, uneducated, unemployed and wanting in many basic amenities.”

One of the crucial areas is the disconnect between many citizens of developing countries like Nigeria and development information due to poor internet access, data cost, low digital literacy and language barriers.

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In addition to this, several youths between the ages of 19 and 25 who live in urban areas and have internet access told Sunday PUNCH that they prefer to visit websites for entertainment, celebrity gists, movies and sports betting.

A 20-year-old undergraduate of a university in the South East, Destiny Onuoha, said he generally avoids news reports because they are usually negative and triggering for him.

“I don’t read the news, whether online or offline anymore, because I want my peace and I don’t want anything giving me sleepless nights. My father still buys the newspapers on weekends, but the reports in them can affect one’s mental health.

“If it’s not about someone kidnapped, it’s about someone who killed his wife, then you read reports about how the world is falling apart and wars everywhere, then they tell you graduates are unemployed. Who wants to be reading such things at the start of a new week when I need something to make me calm and happy?” Onuoha asked.

His sentiment was not that different from that of 23-year-old Emmanuel Adeiza, who combines part-time schooling with work.

“I am content with posting my dance videos on TikTok and sometimes on Instagram. I don’t like to read the news at all unless maybe a celeb has died, and there has been lots of that in recent times. I prefer to get information through videos instead of reading.

“I don’t have the time to read books, not to talk of news. If there is information out there on something, I either get it from Google or I follow gist blogs. I prefer to watch movies and use Spotify for music. The millennials can bother themselves with what is developing,” Adeiza said.

A 19-year-old who works as a cleaner, Somtochukwu Eke, said he primarily sources information on a wide variety of themes from social media instead of news channels.

“I have a movie channel on WhatsApp, and there I share videos. So, if trending information is not in the form of a video, I might not know about it immediately. I’m also more active on TikTok than elsewhere, because that’s where young people connect with themselves more,” Eke noted.

According to recent data from Semrush’s Traffic Analytics tool, Nigerians visited pornographic, betting and artificial intelligence websites in large numbers in July.

Semrush published its ranking of the most visited websites in Nigeria for July 2026, which showed that Google topped the list with 318.45 million visits, followed by YouTube with 46.42 million visits.

A well-known adult website ranked third with 37.64 million visits, while SportyBet ranked fourth with 36.28 million visits.

The artificial intelligence platform, ChatGPT, ranked fifth with 35.32 million visits, representing a 9.81 per cent increase from the previous month and a 33.43 per cent increase year-on-year.

These trends indicate that many youths have been disconnected from information regarding development in education, agriculture, healthcare and other indices of development.

Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, a TV showrunner and founder of Paladin Creative Studios, Rogba Arimoro explained that much of the Nigerian media has confused making information public with making it accessible.

“If a scholarship is announced online, but the student who needs it cannot afford the data, understand the requirements or distinguish the official portal from a scam, what exactly have we achieved? The Nigerian media must go beyond announcing opportunities to helping people act on them.

“Entertainment is one of our most underused tools. Imagine a television drama about a young farmer struggling to save her family’s farm. She discovers an agricultural support programme, only to encounter a fraudulent middleman demanding payment to process her application. As she learns to verify the programme and apply without paying a middleman, viewers learn alongside her.  They came for the drama but leave with knowledge they can actually use.

“This doesn’t mean turning Nollywood into government advertising. Good storytelling begins with a human problem, not a policy announcement. I would like to see more collaboration between journalists, broadcasters, filmmakers and credible development organisations: newsrooms verify the facts, storytellers build authentic narratives, and radio, television and local-language channels connect audiences to simple, trustworthy next steps,” Arimoro explained.

He also urged media stakeholders to rethink how they measure media impact beyond the regular metrics.

“Beyond ratings, clicks and impressions, did people understand the opportunity? Could they recognise fraud? Did they know what to do next? Ultimately, the true information divide isn’t simply between those who receive information and those who don’t. It’s between those who hear about opportunities and those empowered to use them,” Arimoro added.

Also speaking with Sunday PUNCH, a lecturer at the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Dr Ekene Okafor, noted that the media may serve as a powerful tool in promoting development through their coverage and related programmes.

Citing examples, the lecturer said development programmes can be aired more frequently on community radio stations through interviews, calls from members of the community, and expert advice regarding health, agriculture, education, sanitation, and infrastructure in the rural community.

“Town criers, chiefs, local village assemblies, age grades, market unions and churches can assist in spreading information that is verified concerning public utilities, vaccination, agricultural activities, vocational training and community development.

“Newspapers and broadcast media can help highlight any innovations in these areas as well as public projects. Different social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube are also digital media platforms that can be used to supplement traditional media by airing short videos, public service announcements, and news of various community development projects.

“In Anambra State, for instance, community radio, town criers, and WhatsApp groups may collaborate in informing rural farmers of the extension services available to them while highlighting the problems faced in obtaining farm inputs, markets, and support from the government. Even at NAU, the campus radio can be used to reach out to students and neighbouring communities with information regarding various developmental issues,” Okafor explained.

The media expert also advised media organisations to engage in development-oriented journalism and not propaganda-based journalism.

Okafor further stated that the media should highlight the problems truthfully, bring out the opportunities that exist, highlight the voices of the communities, find out the shortcomings of the institutions, and see whether the interventions made by those institutions actually bring about results.

“It is important for development journalism to be independent and truthful; it runs the risk of turning into a public relations exercise. The media’s role is to help the citizens realise the development environment around them and use the information to come up with solutions. These do not imply or connote the intention to hide bad news or even create good news which never happened.

“For instance, when a journalist writes or talks about bad health services, bad roads, insecurity, unemployment, or agricultural challenges, the reality of development in the area is what should be brought to the attention of the public.

“What journalists can also do is to analyse the reasons for these challenges, the impact of them, possible solutions to these challenges and how relevant stakeholders should take appropriate action,” Okafor added.