#EastAfrica #Africa @jumuiya @_AfricanUnion @AuReforms:
#Education & #ICT.
East Africans countries must cancel their Internet/Social Media Tax & never attempt such policy again. Internet isn’t luxury or about activism. Internet is an unmatched educational & learning tool. 1/12

Google, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook & etc are all educational & learning tools first & foremost. We can’t be pushing for #OpenAccess & #OpenScience to increase African global knowledge connectivity, accessibility to scientific knowledge & closing the huge knowledge gap - 2/12

- that exists b/w Africans & the rest of the world; for some African countries to make a policy built upon limiting the access of their citizens esp. the youth to internet. By doing so countries aren’t just limiting political activities as they are targeting - 3/12

which is a violation of citizens rights; but they are adversely affecting the most driven & talented among us to never reach their full potential, affecting Africa development & global competition further negatively. To add salt to the wound, pushing toward such policies - 4/12

- during COVID19 pandemic when almost all of the learning & global connection have been moved online. This is abysmal & an act of violence towards citizens. In the past 3 weeks, I received messages of gratitude, for being an open science advocate, from 4 young Africans - 5/12

- who are pursuing different scientific endeavors. Because for the first time ever, there is an increase in the number of scientific articles either as open access or with open abstract which allow them to form better research idea/content to pursue their educational goals. 6/12

Now, imagine how many more are out there. We can’t be pushing forward for advancement of the people in the continent to find our biggest antagonists are African governments. African governments don’t directly or indirectly support scientific & technological - 7/12

- advancement by funding, performing researches & increasing educational opportunities & global connection/collaboration, etc. Africans with scientific drives are left alone to fend for themselves in a very hostile domestic & global environment. African governments have no - 8/12

- benefit increasing these ordeals further. That is akin shooting oneself in the foot. For despite Africa’s huge & diverse natural resources, Africa can’t fully benefit from them because of Africa extremely limited investment in building her human & social capital. 9/12

Africa has a very small base of educated people compared to high income countries. While increasing the educated population in Africa is already a slow business which seems to will take a couple of generations or more. That in itself further hinders educational - 10/12

- advancement because each educated generation provides the base for increasing the educational success of the generation that follows. All of the above mandate that African governments, for their present & future benefit, must make the best use of the already limited - 11/12

- scientific manpower that is available now. Hence, Africans governments should help Africans advance or at least don’t hinder them with adverse policies. Which makes any form of Internet/Social Media obstruction to have no place in Africa. Cancel Internet/Social Media Tax. 12/12