Recent reports that ‘Yar’Adua has joined the battle on cyber space’ should remind Nigerians worldwide of the powerful tool at their disposal to effect a bloodless revolution in their country and reclaim Nigeria from the predators.
It was widely reported by Saharareporters that the Umaru Yar’Adua regime has budgeted $5 million in an elaborate effort to create and sponsor “friendly,” pro-government websites, undermine top foreign-based Nigerian websites and blogs critical of the Nigerian leadership and recruit 700 Nigerians at home and abroad to counter a growing critical blogging culture that is taking the Nigerian nation by storm and thus try to influence the evolution of the cyber space as a powerful political marketing tool.
In my article, the Nigerian politicians and their internet battles, I pointed out that as the 2011 election looms; Nigerians worldwide are warming up for the battle ahead. They are determined to cause a bloodless revolution in their own country and are networking like never before, discussing issues that can move the nation forward on Facebook, Yahoogroups and various websites including the NVS.
So it is no surprise that the Nigerian Politicians are getting in on the game as he does not want to be caught napping.
In Iran already, Blogs and Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter have emerged as vital conduits for Iranians to inform the world about protests and violence that trailed the flawed election in their country. The Web became more essential after the government barred foreign media Tuesday from leaving their offices to report on demonstrations on the streets of Tehran. It is not for nothing that Iran is famed with as a nation with the highest blogger per head in the world.
However, I have a feeling that this latest attempt by President Yar’Adua to influence the evolution of internet journalism in Nigeria would backfire against his government and should be a rather welcome development to Nigerian bloggers.
On the positive side, Saharareporters says “The only good thing about this program is that it has provided a small source of income for many unemployed youths,” But most importantly, the move might popularise the use of the internet as alternative news resource in the country.
In the United States many Americans are turning to their computers and going online to find out what is happening in the world. According to a new study from the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press, for the first time since the stats were recorded, the internet surpassed the newspaper as a source for getting news. While the internet still lags behind the television for a news source, the fact that the internet beat the newspaper speaks to the ever evolving technical world in which we now live (source: Associated content technology).
According to the study, for Americans younger than 30 years old, a staggering 59% get their news from the internet.
The Internet has the potential of doing for Nigerians what the liberalisation of electronic media by the Babangida administration did for Nigeria - a flowering of ideas and the liberating of the ingenuity of Nigerian news media; it became difficult for government to set the news agenda.
The escalation of the battle between the activists and politicians to the cyber space and the looming cyber battles between the government and the ‘internet warriors’ should therefore alert Nigerians abroad of the need to sensitive Nigerians at home as to the potentials of the internet.
However, it is sobering to observe that only 200, 000 people out of 146 million or 6.8% of the population have access to the internet in the ‘giant of Africa’! In Egypt the percentage is 12.9, in Mauritius, 26.7%; in Kenya 7.9%; in South Africa, 9.4%; Morocco, 19.2%; Algeria, 10.4%; Sudan, 8.7%; even Zimbabwe is 11.9%!
In the UK the percentage of internet penetration is 70.9 of the population; US, 74.4; Singapore, 67.4; and Malaysia, 62.8(Source; Internet World Stats)
Of what benefit is this information? The fact is that while the use of the internet is taken for granted by Nigerians abroad, it is still an expensive luxury to Nigerians at home. Although the use of internet café is popular, it still costs 200 Naira per hour to go online.
What to do?
Today, Nigerians in America send their Diaspora doctors to their indigenous towns and villages where they perform wonderfully in health care delivery. They fill the huge void left by the parlous state of our hospitals.
Recently, rising from the first Igbo economic summit in Atlanta, Georgia, United States held from May 29 to 30, 2009, Igbo in Diaspora resolved to set up a Diaspora fund to fight the Igbo cause in addition to floating a spare parts manufacturing factory in Igboland.
The Summit, resolved to organise the Igbo Diaspora, to provide necessary support for quality vocational education across Igboland that will afford the unemployed the opportunity to learn valuable skills for the modern economy. It also resolved”to create a Diaspora Fund built on contributions of $300.00 by all working Igbo man and woman in the Diaspora immediately.
Such efforts are appreciated, and I believe other Nigerians ethnic groups have similar programmes. However, I submit that of far more danger to Nigerians is the fact that the nation has been sold to looters, crooks and dangerous criminals masquerading as politicians. It is therefore very urgent to reclaim the country from these shenanigans.
Nigerians abroad should put serious efforts into digitalising their home states. For example, Nigerians abroad: Igbo, Yoruba, Edo, Ijaw, Hausa, Anambra state or Ekiti States wherever they are should make it their goal to establish well equipped internet centres in every university, secondary, primary and even Nursery Schools in their home states and towns complete with generating sets.
Nigerians worldwide should be ready to use 21st century tools - the sudden explosion of a new breed of phones – Blackberry, iPhone, Google’s G1 – with increasingly sophisticated software and internet capability means that those who do have mobile phones are relying on them for an ever-broadening array of functions.
Today, text messaging is something of a treasure trove for marketeers. Though compared to emails, text message marketing has the disadvantage of costing a few Naira whereas emails are free.
Barack Obama’s success with the internet should teach Nigerians that those that want change can bring change only if they plan well for it. The energy of our internet warriors are waiting to be harnessed.
Twitter, the US-based micro-blogging site has provided a key source of communication in this century. Protesters and activists in Iran received a boost in their struggle against censorship and state control of the media when the social networking site Twitter postponed a planned period of maintenance at the request of the US State Department. Twitter's co-founder Biz Stone told users that the maintenance had been cancelled because of "the role Twitter is currently playing". "We highlighted to them that this was an important form of communication," a State Department official told Reuters. Mr Stone said that they had "noticed people creating accounts during the riots" in Iran.
The state media in Iran is heavily regulated and urban dissidents have turned to the internet to communicate. The government has tried to block access to social-networking sites, but some Iranians have managed to find methods to circumvent these restrictions. Users had been playing a game of "cat and mouse" with the authorities. "Unlike other forms of technology, Twitter is a moving target”.
In any case, Yar’ Adua’s endeavours to target unfavourable websites or to use stooges online is nothing new, Nigerian “forumites” are already familiar with the antics of sponsored guns – hirelings of the Andy Ubas, the Gbenga Daniels, Dimeji Bankoles, Peter Obis, etc - trying to obfuscate issues on different Yahoogroups, the Nigeria Village Square and other fora.
Those who are paid and have tried to influence online discussions should tell their sponsors the truth about how they fared. The Nigerian online community knows how to handle such ones, they are not fools.
Developing a credible web site that would draw a devoted followership and meet the yearnings of its readers takes more than $5 million bribery. I give kudos to the smart Alec that sold this ‘brilliant idea’ to the Federal Government.
Sometimes you wonder whether there is something in politics that fills the skull of our politicians with Cement instead of gray and white matter or whether their brain neurons have been debilitated by multiple sclerosis, or other metabolic and inflammatory disorders that resulted in deficient or abnormal thinking.
The way trod by the then Daily Times and the NTA should be enough lesson to any government that simply being a propaganda medium for government does not good journalism make. The intelligent cyber community can easily detect a 419 scheme when they see one, and following an internet site takes more than simply flipping on your radio or television.
News from Nigeria further indicates that “The State Security Service (SSS) keeps a list of so-called “internet warriors” who are supposed to be arrested and summarily detained whenever they are seen at any Nigerian airport or other point of entry into the country”.
That sounds like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who said through the state news service that its investigators have taken action against "deviant news sites". They promised to forcefully take "Legal action that will be very strong against such internet materials."
Nigerians have a history of coming out strong against any government that did not tolerate the voice of the opposition or try to stifle dissent. And for a regime that dangles the rule of law mantra, such high-handedness would be a shame.
Per my friend Ephraim Adinlofu: “Cyber journalism is critical and uncompromised journalism at its best. It emerged as a result of the sharp but very crucial contradictions being thrown up every day by the Nigerian brand and practice of primitive capitalism. A brand that projects high profile corruptions among the few but promotes hunger, misery and indigence among the many. So the Nigerian stealing politicians will soon try to counter this new brand of critical journalism”.
Yar’Adua should concentrate on delivering good governance to Nigerians rather than chasing the so-called ‘internet warriors’ around. Good governance is the most effective propaganda and political marketing tool.
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