Aftershocks of the Twitter ban

Tt’s been a busy week for something that was named after birds. Twitter removed Buhari’s tweet on grounds that it promoted hatred. It is understood Facebook did the same, but only Twitter got the big axe.

With the experience of interacting with Twitter over the years, it is either they avow Buhari’s ‘democratic’ credentials or they believe that the leopard could change its spots. Early in May, this writer discovered that Twitter had removed the reply button from Buhari’s handle. After two days of agitation for its return, Twitter responded saying only those mentioned in Buhari’s tweets are allowed to respond. That is bunkum because Buhari is a public employee who unwittingly mentions people in his tweets.

But, wait a minute; that is like believing that President Buhari actually tweets! The president has a Twitter handle, but to believe he tweets is akin to believing that the sun rises from the North.

President Buhari has no idea how the more complex world of social media operates. It’s the only platform where he is serially queried for his many leadership and governance failures. One does not need to be a sucker for social media anymore than Donald Trump needed to know that swallowing bleach does not cure COVID-19.

The essence of good governance is not to be a know-it-all; it is to know the basic, be eternally curious and willing to learn and have the wisdom to appoint people that are knowledgeable in other things. The expertise of others covers a leader’s errors and compliments their efforts. In President Buhari’s case, he is surrounded by men of dinosauric passion whose knowledge is ossified in the analogue procedures of 1984.

To show their knee-jerk approach to calming a storm in a teacup, they have acted like one sunk in bog thrashing and sinking deeper rather than wait for rescue.

A Twitter ban is not only unnecessary; it exposes the image of a misguided and misanthropic government presenting a democratic facade. The so-called ban has exposed a regime opposed to criticism.

Since its announcement, there has been more bad news coming out of Nigeria now than before the ban; reports ranging from the unheard stories of senseless killings, kidnappings, arson and violent crimes. This regime portrays itself like the old fool decked in cobs of dry corn and wondering why the brood is running after him.

Lai Mohammed announced a ban before reaching out to ISPs. He is obviously ignorant of VPNs. Abubakar Malami compounded the ignorance by vowing to jail Nigerians still using Twitter. These disasters-in-government have rued the idea of blocking social media for long. The regime has made attempts to introduce bills to its rubberstamp legislature to keep Nigeria transfixed in the analogue era.

It is true that Nigeria is a big market for telecommunications, but tapping into that market is mutually beneficial to the government especially one that does not provide the enabling environment for job creation.  A social media ban prevents competitive bidding in a cyber driven economy exacerbated by social media. How do you trade with global entities when you are locked out of the medium they use?

Just when it became apparent that this ‘ban’ is a sick joke from warped minds of a bygone era, the regime announces moves to congest an already choked judicial and prison system with Twitter users. From the ban on foreign rice to other items on the prohibition list, bans have done nothing but made Nigerians hate their local alternatives. As it stands, access to Twitter now becomes a bragging right – are you on twira?

Insane that people might now have to do time for tweeting? Of all the challenges of injustice confronting Nigeria, government might bring in mobile courts. A corrupt and abusive police would have a field day scrutinising phones and making those with twitter apps pay. Despotism is a system where the rights of citizens  are trampled with impunity. Welcome to Gestapo Nation.

While proposing to ban his 40 million citizens from Twitter, Buhari provides no alternative. Perhaps we’re heading back to the era of morse code, morse wireless, telex and fax machines; an era in which the old P&T runs the show and a fellow soldier glibly pronounced that telephones are not for the poor. It is foreseeable that being able to Tweet and avoid jail time would soon become as attractive as scamming people and wantonly displaying the proceeds.

Social media provides the only avenue for angry Nigerians to exhale. Those who are incapable of joining herdsmen, kidnappers and ritual killers sit behind their screens venting their spleen. There are very few incidences where cyberbullies and trolls take the animosity to the streets. When you box a people in suppressing their views, you make violent altercations inevitable. Today’s Nigeria boxes in dissent thereby encouraging contending ethno-religious and other social forces.

Nigeria is not the only country unsubscribed to social media ethos, communist nations, their sympathisers and monarchies are on the list of infamy. There is nothing wrong in being a pariah state as long as you have the wherewithal to sustain it. Nigeria does not have that aptitude. Most humans do not subscribe to the global ethos of a ‘democratic’ unipolar world order. The aftermath of enforcing democracy across the globe has led eternal gangrenes and broken nations from Afghanistan through Libya, Colombia to Yemen and Syria to mention a few.

Communism is not ossified in its dogma; rather, it innovates and joins the rat race. Russia has Telegram, VKontakte (VK) and OdnoKlassniki (OK). China has Weibo, WeChat and many more. These communist behemoths have not left their people blanketed from the rest of the world of social media. YouTube, an American company is most popular in communist Russia. What does Nigeria own? What has it planned as a platform for engaging its burgeoning citizenry?

Nigeria might soon launch a social media app the way it claimed to have satellite in space. If it does – how many Nigerians would use and trust it? We have encounters with NTA, FRCN. We had interaction with the defunct P&T, NNPC and NEPA.

Proposing to send people to jail, shows where the heart of this government is – absolutely against the people. This regime is far from the yearnings of the electorate. Security is top of the wish list of Nigerians, they expect their government to create the enabling environment for job creation and job security; they expect government to lead on national entente instead of nepotism and discordance. It is curious that government actions and ideas do not bend towards these lofty aspirations.

Sending people to jail for tweeting while herdsmen freely unleash carnage, ordering some to be shot at sight while those who hold press conferences defending massacres roam free is not how to build a nation. Masked men shoot and kill in broad daylight. They set fire to police and electoral offices without scruples.

Knowledge of President Buhari’s antecedents and the pronouncements of his co-travellers portend grave danger for cohesion and the future of the nation. Is there a tacit attempt to unleash an order of social insecurity that makes peaceful transition seem impossible?