By Zack Onwe
When Facebook began expanding into rural Nigeria in the early 2010s, many communities were still absent from the digital map. For Ntezi, a community in Ebonyi State, there was little online presence, few visible voices, and no central way to connect.
In 2012, development communicator Zack Onwe noticed this gap and created a Facebook group for indigenes of Ntezi. What began as a virtual meeting place, a way for sons and daughters of the town to connect online, gradually evolved into something larger.
By 2018, as conversations in the group shifted from nostalgia to action, Onwe and other members launched a WhatsApp platform to coordinate community engagement.
A year later, in 2019, the informal online space was formally registered as the Ntezi People’s Forum, a community-based organization with a mission to amplify local needs, support development, and foster sustainability through education.
The Forum’s evolution reflects a broader trend across Africa: young people leveraging digital tools not just for connection but for community transformation.
From Online Chats to Water Access
One of the Forum’s first major initiatives came in response to a long-standing challenge in Ntezi: access to water. For generations, families had endured the strain of waking before dawn to fetch water during the dry season.
“I grew up watching my mother wake us early to walk long distances for water,” Onwe recalls. “It delayed children from getting to school on time. It was a cycle I didn’t want the next generation to repeat.”
That memory would eventually fuel the GoodWaterIsLife campaign in 2020, a digitally driven effort that mobilized attention and resources to drill boreholes in three parts of the community.
While not all outcomes were perfect (one borehole was rendered nonfunctional after drilling), the campaign underscored how collective online organizing could produce tangible development results.
Rebuilding a School, Rekindling Hope
Water was not the only need. In 2019, Forum members turned their attention to education. Their target was Ntezi Central School, a once-proud institution that had fallen into disrepair.
The school also carried symbolic weight; it was where Onwe himself began his primary education.
Through coordinated online campaigns, the Forum spotlighted the school’s dilapidated state, drawing the attention of the Ebonyi State Government. By 2021, the school was rebuilt, offering children a safer and more dignified learning environment.
A Model of Youth-Led Advocacy
For observers, the story of the Ntezi People’s Forum is not just about boreholes or classrooms. It is about how local communities, led by digitally savvy youth, are finding new pathways to development.
By blending personal storytelling with grassroots mobilization, initiatives like the Forum demonstrate how online platforms can complement traditional advocacy, making it harder for rural needs to be ignored.
As more young Africans step into roles as digital organizers, the lessons from Ntezi show both the potential and the challenges of this approach. Success is possible, but sustainability requires continued engagement, accountability, and government partnership.
For Onwe, the work remains ongoing. “Social media gave us a platform,” he says. “But what matters most is what we do with it, how it translates into lasting change for our people.”
Emmanuel Onwuka