Ahmed Yahaya -Joe
As military of Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari was systematically made unpopular by his soldier colleagues who opportunistically turned the political tide against his government in the public domain through careful manipulation of perceptions.
Is history repeating itself? This pertinent question requires an urgent answer.
The Nigerians with the largest number of followers on Twitter are show business personalities. They include Davido, WizKid, Don Jazzy and Tiwa Savage with 9.1, 8.3, 5.9 and 4.8 million followers respectively.
However as far as public figures are concerned President Buhari tops the list with 4.1 million followers. Buhari has nearly much followers as ChannelsTV and more followers than Punch newspaper and Sahara Reporters that trail behind him with 4 and 3.6 million followers respectively.
So, who wants to rob Mr. President of this impressive reservoir through Social Media emasculation in Nigeria?
That occurrences of rumor mongering, half truths, outright distortions and all sorts of ill-mannered chatter in the unregulated domain would now spike is certain. In sharp contrast, there are 90 million Nigerians on WhatsApp with over 30 million on Facebook that can be fact checked and even tracked down for Fake News and Hate Speech through concerted efforts.
There are currently 17.3 million Twitter users in Nigeria. Out of which 3.6, 3.3, 1.8 and 1.5 million respectively follow Atiku Abubakar, VP Yemi Osinbajo, Bukola Saraki and Governor Nasir el Rufai. Meanwhile, Genevieve Nnaji has 2 million and Basket Mouth 1.8 million followers. So, what are talking about?
Before writing this post, I did a Google Image search on Nnamdi Kanu’s Tweets. As at October 2018 he had 109,300 followers. The image with the highest number my search turned up is 304,000 followers.
“Wise men are able to make fiting use of their enemies.” – Plutarch (46-119 AD) in; De Capienda Ex Inimicis Utililate (How to Profit by One’s Enemies)
The fundamental issue is therefore the abysmal failure of President Buhari’s handlers. Even his supporters on Social Media have woefully failed in effectively generating sustainable counter narratives in support of their political hero. Many are those acting as political termites eating away the timber and calibre of the current chief tenant at the Villa.
Indeed, the best political friends Mr. President currently has are those opposed to him. As Plutarch adds, “Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those that talk badly.”
If General had carefully listened to those far flung that opposed him when he was military Head of State, we would have avoided the traps set by his close colleagues. The same advisory is still valid under the current dispensation.
“The lion is defenceless against traps. Therefore, one must be a a fox in order to recognise traps,” – Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
The Hon. Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed on Friday, June 4, 2021, announced the ban on Twitter operations in Nigeria through his Special Assistant, Segun Adeyemi. The announcement was via the ministry’s official Twitter account at 4.53 p.m.
Shortly after the tweet generated over 7,000 comments, 19,000 retweets and 11,000 likes because Nigerians deployed the use of Virtual Private Network (VPN) to bypass government restriction of Twitter. Interestingly, on the same Twitter banned in Nigeria, hashtag KeepitOn had gained 260,000 tweets by our compatriots less than 24 hours later!
Even government is speaking with a babel of voices. While the official announcement stated “indefinite ban”, Malam Garba Shehu describes it as “temporary ban”
“A risk is a chance you take, if it fails you can recover. A gamble is a chance taken, if it fails recovery is impossible.” – Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (1891-1944)
The ban on Twitter is therefore a reckless gamble. Restricting the use of Social Media would have been a more expedient risk. In 1984, Buhari gambled with Decree 4. He never recovered from the fallout. Why is he repeating the same mistake 37 years later? The historian Max Siollun answers, “Nigerian leaders often demonstrate a fatalistic reluctance to heed overt warnings or correctly interpret danger signals.”
How coordinated is the FG on the ban?
It is no longer news that Abubakar Malami, SAN the Minister of Justice, “has directed the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF) to swing into action and commence in earnest the process of prosecution of violators of the Federal Government De-activation of operations of Twitter in Nigeria to ensure the speedy prosecution of offenders without any further delay.”
Well? After the Friday 4.53 pm announcement certain government officials openly violated the ban among many as follows;
1. “The official Twitter account of the Office of the Speaker, House of Assembly, Femi Gbajabiamila, also announced the speaker’s call for stronger diplomatic ties with Canada in a series of tweets between 5.23 p.m. and 8.27 p.m. The series of tweets were also retweeted by the official account of the National Assembly and the House of Representatives official Twitter account.”
2. “Personal Assistant on New Media to President Muhammadu Buhari, Bashir Ahmad, also made a couple of tweets. At 5:33 PM on Friday, he tweeted a photograph of the president holding a customised Super Eagles jersey alongside the Minister of Youths and Sports, Sunday Dare and Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Amaju Pinnick. The tweet has the caption: “Nigeria’s Number 1. @MBuhari” and the emoji of the Flag of Nigeria.
Ahmad further tweeted using the ban platform to intimate his over almost one million followers of his other social media accounts. He dropped another comment at 8:14 PM and another which has since been deleted.”
3. “The Deputy Senate President and chairman of the Constitution Review Committee, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, also tweeted about the closing of the ninth Senate National Public Hearing on Constitution Review and Amendment at about 6.27 p.m. on Friday.”
4. “National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) also tweeted about its Director General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, meeting with Prof. Abba A. Haladu, at NITDA’s Corporate Headquarters, Abuja. The tweet was posted at 7.21 p.m.”
5. “The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in its usual way since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic took to Twitter to announce the daily COVID-19 infections figures. The agency’s tweet was at 12.02 a.m. on Saturday.”
6. “The Director-General/ CEO of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Bashir Jamoh, via his Twitter handle felicitated Governor Diri Duoye of Bayelsa State on the occasion of his 62nd birthday celebration. The tweet was posted at 11.40 a.m. on Saturday.”
“Never give an order that wouldn’t be obeyed” – 4-star US Army General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)
