Twitter Haram
For better or for worse, I am one of the teeming masses of Nigerians who are eternally believing in a brighter future and are eternally betrayed and sabotaged by criminal leaders. In the words of the great Nigerian musician and social activist Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti¹, we’re the ones who are always “suffering and smiling”².
You may have heard about the dispute between the Nigerian government and Twitter. I like to call it “Twitter Haram”, in recognition of the Islamic terrorists in Northern Nigeria who call themselves Boko Haram. “Boko” is an Hausa language corruption of the word “book”, symbolising education. “Haram” is an Arabic word meaning “forbidden”. Twitter recently suspended the Nigerian president’s account for posting inflammatory tweets, so Twitter is now forbidden by the government in Nigeria.
The president of Nigeria is retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari. He led a successful coup and served as military head of state from 1983–1985. His reign was characterised by widespread human rights abuses. He also served as an officer in the Nigerian Civil War, which lasted from 1967 to 1970. In that conflict, an estimated 2 million Biafran civilians died of starvation. In response to widespread social unrest that arose out of the Nigerian government’s inability or unwillingness to secure the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians from terrorists, the president recently tweeted “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Biafra war. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.” Some interpreted this to mean that he was threatening to use Nigerian state resources to visit Biafran style atrocities on dissenters. As a result, his post was deleted, and he was suspended from Twitter for 2 hours. In response, the Nigerian government banned Twitter indefinitely, and ordered the arrest and prosecution of anyone found using Twitter within the country.
I believe that social media platforms can do a much better job of moderating content posted by users. Improved regulations will need to be issued to guide them to strike the right balance between free expression and ham-fisted censorship. Their penchant for arbitrarily muzzling heads of state will need to be constrained. Nevertheless, I think the response of the Nigerian government was incompetent, premature and disproportionate.
Nigeria has about 24 million active social media users³. Of these, about 3 million are Twitter users⁴. Social media is heavily used in Nigeria for marketing, communication and information sharing. It has also proven to be a powerful tool for mobilising social activist groups, and for sharing the true picture of government lapses and abuses with the rest of the world.
Through decades of corrupt, autocratic and criminally irresponsible government (both military and civilian), 3 important social elements have been deliberately destroyed in Nigeria: academia, the judiciary and the press.
Nigerian university students used to be educated and enlightened and were always at the forefront of protests to demand government accountability. In a country with an adult literacy rate of just about 60%⁵, students were the ones who understood the issues best. Since the mid-1980s, the Nigerian government started disrupting university schedules by implementing extended ad hoc closures of campuses and suspension of studies. That practice continues today. Now most Nigerian schools are incubators of astounding mediocrity and corruption. The deliberate destruction of our educational system suits the government’s purposes to ensure that coherent discussions about political and economic issues cannot hold, or that when root causes are identified, most of the population cannot understand the significance or implications.
Though it is impossible to find a perfect judiciary anywhere in the world, the Nigerian system is notoriously slow and inefficient. A typical clear-cut civil case can easily extend for 20 years due to adjournments and legal manipulations. Accused criminals are held for years awaiting trial. Therefore, it is not an attractive option for the populace to seek justice in the courts. This is also a deliberate government construct. Efficient, unbiased and transparent courts would not only threaten the illegal activities of many public servants, but the perception of equality under the law would make people feel empowered enough to assert their rights and demand fair representation by elected officials.
Nigerian newspapers, TV stations and radio stations are muzzled. They are just a propaganda arm of whatever government is in power. They fail to serve their purpose of keeping the public informed and public servants accountable. While social media independently highlights issues that need to be addressed, the mainstream media either remains silent or declares the official government position without any hearing in a public forum for challenge and debate. A properly functioning mainstream media would curb the political and economic power of the government by introducing transparency and demanding accountability. Therefore, it is not in the interests of the government to allow one to exist. Now they are clamping down on social media.
While all this may give the government the illusion that they are in control, it really suggests increasing helplessness that is showing up as increasing intolerance. The banning of Twitter is just the latest of many signs of desperation. The Nigerian government has a limited and predictable toolbox to address any form of dissent: first they threaten the offenders with arrest or prosecution. If that doesn’t work, they attempt to bribe the offenders. Many former Niger Delta “freedom fighters” suddenly retired and become millionaires overnight. Where that fails, they attempt assassination. This is why the Nigerian government has never been able to find a solution to opponents who are driven by ideology. None of these things work if the only thing that will satisfy you is to establish an Islamic State, or to secede from Nigeria and form your own separate nation. In such cases they are helpless, and their glaring incompetence is on full display for the world to see.
So where do we go from here? A recent article in the Foreign Policy journal characterised Nigeria as a failed state⁶. They may be right. This is just one step away from a collapsed state (like Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen). I do not think Nigeria will ever become a collapsed state, but the persistent lack of government accountability, muzzling of opposition and crackdown on dissent will certainly lead to increasing unrest. The absence of social media outlets will just build up the internal pressure, while keeping discontent and abuse hidden and underestimated. This will in turn continue to erode central government authority within the country, while small groups of regional power holders will continue to grow in strength. These groups originally derived their power and influence from the central government and will therefore be equally self-serving and corrupt. The need to maintain basic cohesion to continue internal exploitation will prevent war and outright collapse, but I anticipate permanent instability, underdevelopment and vulnerability to every form of foreign exploitation.
An important question that no one is asking is, who stands to gain the most from this kind of condition? Noone is going to do anything about the answer, but it would be good to know for an accurate historical context while Nigeria deteriorates before our eyes.
