On a rainy August morning, Abubakar AbdulKhadiri completed his computer science lesson for primary four pupils at LEA Primary School in Gurfata, a rural community in Nigeria’s federal capital territory. The teacher is dissatisfied with his job. While computer science teachers in many parts of the world use computers to teach their students, Mr AbdulKhadri relies on images in books to explain the basics of the subject to the 420 pupils in the school.
“We use images in books as instructional material to teach our pupils computer science,” Mr AbdulKhadri said. Even worse than not having a computer, Mr AbdulKhadri’s community is not connected to electricity or mobile network service, which are essential infrastructures for teaching his pupils the basics of computing. He has lived in the community for 30 years since his birth.
Just a few metres from the school is Hajara Seriki, a farmer who is also struggling with the consequences of the village not having mobile network coverage. For her, this means being financially excluded. To overcome this issue, she has to travel to either the area council headquarters in Gwagwalada or Lambata in Niger State in order to access banking services.
