WHOSE E-GOVERNANCE?: A CRITIQUE OF ONLINE CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT IN AFRICA

Year 2009, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 27 - 40, 01.06.2009

İsaac Olawale Albert

Abstract

This paper took a critical look at the state of e-governance in Africa from the supply and demand points of view. The supply side refers to the readiness of African states to practice e-governance while the demand segment refers to the capacity and motivation of citizens to force e-governance on their representatives in government. The paper reviewed the state of e-readiness in the continent and concluded that the continent is far behind the global standards. This problem is blamed in extant literature on the pervasiveness of poverty in the continent which makes the necessary infrastructure of e-goverrnance to be lacking. The paper moved the debate forward by arguing that lack of infrastructure is not as weighty in the explanation of the problem as corruption and lack of the political will for e-democracy. The paper cited some examples to back up this argument. Citizens of African states are equally not able to boost the state of e-governance in their societies largely because many of them are still bugged down with how to ensure daily survival in the harsh social, economic, and political environments under which they live. Efforts made by nongovernmental organizations to open websites to promote deliberative democracy have led to different types of problems. To solve all these problems, the paper made three important recommendations: the dismantling of the secret State, the democratization of the concept of national security, and the integration of the e-democracy processes within broader constitutional structures and debates of African states

Keywords

e-governance, e-democracy

References

• Albert, I.O. and D. Marco (2007), Animus and Apologia: Campaign advertorials and the gamble for power in the 2003 and 2007 elections in Nigeria, Abuja: IDASA.
• Albert, I.O. [2008], “Whose deliberative democracy: A critique of online public discourses in Africa”,
• Paper presented at the 12th General Assembly of CODESRIA, Yaounde, Cameroun, 7-11 November. Castells, M (1999), The information age: Economy, society and culture, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
• Caston, A and D. Tapscott (1992), The paradigm shift, New York: McGraw-Hill
• Clift, S. (2002), “The future of e-democracy”, Democracy Online Newswire, http://www/e- democracy.org
• Docktor, R. (2001), “Accelerating e-government..E-readiness at work”, Paper presented at the Regional workshop on building e-government in Africa http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/CAFRAD/UNPAN006617.pdf
• Economic Intelligence Unit (2007), The 2007 e-readiness rankings, The Economist.
• Economic Intelligence Unit (2007), The 2008 e-readiness rankings, The Economist.
• Gyimah-Boadi, E. (2004), Democratic reform in Africa: The quality of progress, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
• Heeks, R. (2001), “Understanding e-governance for development”, i-Government working paper series, Paper no. 11, Manchester: Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of
• Manchester, http://www.man/ac.uk/idpmidpm_dp.htm. Holmes, D. (2001), E-gov: E-business strategies for government, London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
• Ifinedo, P. (2005), “E-government initiative in a developing country: Strategies and implementation in Nigeria”, in M. Head (ed.), Proceedings of the 26th McMaster world congress on electronic business, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, January 19-21 pp.1-11.
• Ifinedo, P (2005b), “Measuring Africa’s e-readiness in the global networked economy: A nine- country data analysis”, International Journal of Education and Development using Informaion and Community Technology (IJEDICT), Volume 1 Number 1, pp53-71.
• Miller, J. (1999), “Entering the information age: Setting priorities in South Africa”, Paper presented at the 2nd International Al Shaam conference on information technology, Damascu, Syria, 26-29 April,
• Molla, A. (2000), “Downloading or uploading? The information economy and Africa current status”,
• Information for Development, Volume 9 pp.205-221. Neff, D. (1998), The knowledge economy, Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Norris P. (2001), Digital divide? Civic engagement, information poverty and the internet worldwide,
• Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Odedra, M et al (1993), “Sub-Saharan Africa: A technological desert”, Communication of the ACM, Volume 36 Number 2 pp.25-29.
• Odinkalu, C.A. (2008), “Freedom of information in Nigeria: Perspectives, problems and prospects”,
• The Nation, November 18 p. A4. Okot-Uma, Rogers W.O (2000), Electronic governance: Re-inventing good governance, London:
• Commonwealth Secretariat. Okpaku, J. [ed.] [2003], Information and communication technologies for African development: An assessment of progress and challenges ahead, ICT Task Force Series 2.New York: United Nations ICT Task Force.
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2003), Promise and problems of e- democracy: Challenges of online citizen engagement, Paris: OECD, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/11/35176328.pdf
• Tankoano, J. (2001), “E-readiness in Africa: ICT infrastructures for e-governance”, Paper presented at the Regional workshop on building e-government in Africa http://egov.sonasi.com/repository/e-readiness-in-africa-ict-infrastructures-for-e- governance/download.
• Turner, C. (2001), The information E-economy:Business strategies for competing in the global age,
• London: Kogan Page Limited. Woherem, E.E. (1996), “Strategy for indigenization of information technology in Africa”, in Odedra
• Straub, M. (ed.), Global information technology and socio-economic development, New Hampshire: Ivy League Publishing, pp.70-80
• World Economic Forum (2002), “The networked readiness index rankings 2003, http://www.weforum.org, accessed November 2, 2008.
• WSIS (2004), The World Summit on the Information Society, http://www.itu.int/wsis/ (accessed November 2 2008).