Beyond connectivity and digital infrastructure, government must recognise the young innovators, independent publishers and digital professionals already contributing to societal development.
The Osun State Government’s partnership with the United Kingdom under the Digital Access Programme is an important development that deserves public attention and scrutiny.
However, beyond connectivity, digital infrastructure, electronic public services and institutional reforms, there is another critical component of the digital economy that deserves deliberate consideration: digital media.
Digital media is not merely a platform for sharing government press releases or amplifying political activities. It is an influential instrument of social engineering, civic education, public accountability, information dissemination and democratic participation.
Online publishers, digital journalists, content creators and independent media organisations are active participants in shaping public consciousness and influencing how citizens understand government policies and societal developments.
Consequently, any comprehensive digital transformation agenda should recognise the media ecosystem as an important stakeholder.
How does the SPRIRET initiative intend to incorporate indigenous digital media organisations into its capacity-development framework?
What provisions exist for strengthening digital journalism, media literacy, information integrity and the sustainability of local online publishing institutions?
Technology can connect communities, but responsible information empowers them.
Osun’s digital transformation conversation must therefore extend beyond connecting people to the internet. It must also recognise those who inform, educate, challenge and influence society through that same digital space.
Beyond policy, there is also a question of youth development and institutional recognition.
Rather than finding fault with a hardworking generation of young, digitally literate and self-developed professionals, government should be creating opportunities for their skills to contribute meaningfully to the state’s development.
A lack of institutional recognition and opportunities for belonging can create frustration among responsible young people who have invested their time, resources and productive years in developing their crafts. When legitimate pathways to recognition and economic participation remain inaccessible, society risks alienating the very people it should be encouraging.
This is how we risk pushing responsible young people towards the same questionable practices we routinely condemn in society.
This is not the kind of youth development philosophy that should accompany an international partnership with the United Kingdom. If the partnership is intended to strengthen institutions and expand opportunities, Osun must also demonstrate a willingness to recognise and support the young people already building within its digital ecosystem.
The recognition extended to the media by the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun State, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola, following the media’s contribution to the last gubernatorial election, offers an important example of how institutional acknowledgement can restore confidence among media practitioners.
Young people who have independently developed their capacities, established digital platforms and dedicated their lives to professional crafts deserve more than occasional acknowledgement. They deserve opportunities, capacity development, fair engagement and an enabling environment.
Government should be interested in empowering productive young people, not leaving them to navigate economic and institutional barriers while political patronage and the empowerment of political foot soldiers dominate public conversations.
Osun State demands better.
Digital transformation must not become another policy conversation in which the people already doing the work are absent from the table.
The future of Osun’s digital economy must include those building it from the ground up.
Abioye Tosin Lawrence
Memorist | Writer | Social Commentator