“Guide our leaders right…help our youths the truth to know”: Nigeria, Buhari and the Twitter Shut down
Worrisome, Comatose, perturbing, unsettling, upsetting, agonizing are no where near the adjectives to qualify the state of Nigerian affairs. Kidnapping, banditry, robbery, killings have now become rife and a normal part of the Nigerian Media biosphere. Nigerians look forward everyday to quantify the gory nature of the news of the day and are not even surprised at the news of kidnappings anymore. It is sad that it has become a part of our normal life and you begin to wonder if Nigerians are really normal species of human beings who in the midst of these chaos can still manage to smile, joke and lead a normal life. How did we manage to still remain sane in such a society are questions we ourselves know are begging for answers and enumerating the failures, non-chalant attitude, and the ineptitude of the present administration at this juncture is like putting the cart in front of the horse. Rather, to bring clarity to the polity, it is best we diagnose what the problem is before proffering the best solution.
1. Bone of contention
This week, the president (or whosoever is in charge of the handle) put out a tweet that some people considered controversial. The content and its analysis is not the aim of this piece, but what is paramount is that it represented the views of the president and commander in chief of the Nigerian armed forces. In a country that also recognizes the freedom of speech as a fundamental human right, and the president of the country for that matter, the tweet was pulled down by Twitter and in response to that, the federal government banned the activities of twitter in the country.
2. Emotions aside, lets give room to Reasoning
Although some might say it is not great to appeal to people’s reasoning when emotions are as high like we have it, yet, I beg to differ that in a time of dissent like this, voices of reasoning are needed to set our perspectives right and weigh what it is we are fighting for. You cannot say twitter is unbiased in its dealings in the same sentence you are lampooning the federal government for taking action. If it is true that twitter truly represent what it professes, everyone is entitled to his/her opinion and that is what freedom of speech is all about. People have made worse comments or clamored for worse actions against the government on same platform and the heavens did not fall. Yes, twitter exercised its powers and yes, the federal government showed its might too. Who lost? We the citizens! Those whose livelihood is on the platform, and those who derive benefits one way or the other from the platform. Twitter 1 FG 1 Citizens 0
3. When there is no control, anarchy is set loose
When the social media bill was raised in the floor of the senate, the loudest oppositions were we the youths and yes, from this same twitter platform. The freedom of speech, human rights concerns were genuine reasons that were given by the opposition as well as the distrust in the present, erstwhile and other administrations to come with regards high handedness when such control is given to them. This is an innate nature of human beings and Nigerians are not immune. Imagine if there were no road safety agencies to secure the roads, police to keep criminals away, the army to watch over our borders, you can imagine how anarchy would have been let loose. Yes, these concerns of the populace as sighted earlier are true and genuine, but the repercussions and ripple effect of not having a volatile and important part of our daily life under control is not just reckless and dangerous but a sign that the government is a joke. However, the joke is still on us. I am not sure those clamoring for the opposition have actually gone through the contents of such bill, but as it is rife on social media, we all love to follow the trend. As long as it is trending, it has to be right.
4. What do we want! Freedom of speech or Freedom (peace) after speech
Social media platforms were used to organized the #endsars protests that almost crippled this country few months back. A serious government, democratic or other wise would never allow such to happen, again. Store houses were looted, shops, properties and businesses worth billions of naira were burnt, scores lost their lives and ordinary citizens had the effrontery to confront law enforcement agents (even though the protest stemmed as a result of the injustice from SARS operatives), thus opening doors for true criminals to thrive and fueling more anarchy. Fake news, aimed to stoke our emotions were shared freely, rallies were held and Twitter for example gradually became a vibrant platform for Biafra agitators and Oduduwa republic protesters after the #Endsars protests died down. Their call was and is simple, War!
These platforms were not shut down despite all these, probably not to fuel the already dilapidating Nigerian structure. But at the point the government saw the path the trend is taking, things might get worse than it already has. This now begs the question, what do Nigerians want?
5. What do Nigerians want?
We like to shout on top of our voices when bad things happen and we love pointing fingers at others for our doom rather than ourselves. We love complaining and hate taking responsibilities for our actions and yet, we always want change. Tribalism and nepotism have eaten so deep into our hearts that we see nothing wrong with what “our own man is doing”. There is no doubt we voted in the present administration not just once but twice. Yet, we would be the first to cry that he is the worst that ever happened to the country. Yes, he truly might be the worst (even though this is subject to debate), but the fact is that it is not the mans fault at all, but we that voted him into power. If truly we want to be democratic and true to our desires, we can start by holding our representatives right from the local level responsible. Buhari is not the only one ruling this country. We have more than 300 house of reps members and more than a 100 senators. We have governors, state house of assembly members, 774 chairmen of local governments more than a dozen more councilors and yet, we always blame Buhari for the poor roads in our area or why the breeze blew our roof away.
Surely something must be wrong with us somewhere. If Buhari is what we can present to lead us, then he surely is a representation of who we truly are. Great nations with great leaders have great citizens who are patriotic and are ready to serve the cause of their country. Buhari and his other comrades didn’t fall from the sky, they are from and within us. If by now you are still blind to see what is wrong, then, I doubt if anything can open you eyes to reality. Keep dreaming!
6. Curse Nigeria or Buhari to your own peril
Either we like it or not, this present government still has two more years to steer the affairs of this country. Like or hate the man, he is our president and every single decision he makes would one way or the other affect your life and livelihood. Whatever or wherever your plan B is, the Nigerian in you would never leave you and it would continue to affect the way you are addressed and approached. So, if all you derive pleasure from is raining barrage of curses on him and his soul, be sure that that curse would lead him to lead you astray. They would keep being clueless and directionless and drive us into penury and ruins. At this point, if truly we Nigerians want to be patriotic to our fatherland, the line of our national anthem “guide our leaders right……” should be what we would keep clamoring for and the part that says “Help our youths the truth to know…” is also sacrosanct for us to see reality and put issues where issues are and not the social media craze for relevance and recognition.
This is my own kobo!
May God bless Nigeria and all of us, Guide our leaders right and help our youths the truth to know.