PASCAL OPARADA, analyses the impact of Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms in awakening consciousness among Nigerians against perceived government’s actions or inactions
During the January 2012 petroleum subsidy removal saga, social media easily provided platform for ventilating the people’s disapproval of the controversial government action; hence, the #OccupyNigeria movement was born. The medium helped rally citizens to oppose the idea – a development that largely prevailed on the government to rescind its decision on the subsidy removal.
The campaign ended only when President Goodluck Jonathan shifted ground and met Nigerians halfway by restoring the subsidy partially. He also followed it up by deploying troops to the protest grounds, especially the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos, the nexus of the protest.
Unconfirmed reports had insinuated that the president feared that if the protest had been allowed to continue, his government stood the risk of being toppled. What particularly added weight to the apprehension was the regime of the so-called Arab Spring that culminated in dismantling some dictator administrations in the Middle East including Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Muammar Gadhafi of Libya, Ben Ali of Tunisia and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen.
Social media and the use of hashtags formed the fulcrum on which people vented their frustrations.
In apparent guard against the trend occurring within its territory, the Turkish government blocked a video-sharing site, Youtube and Twitter in the country. The case is still in court, as activists accuse the government of gagging the people and putting a lid on press freedom and freedom of expression.
The micro-blogging site, Twitter, first introduced the hashtag handle to its users in 2009. The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. It helped categorise messages. Instead of creating new accounts for various issues, people with existing accounts can contribute to any particular issue using a hashtag that has been created for a specific purpose.
As in the case of the oil subsidy imbroglio, again Nigerians were confronted with another reason to employ the social media and, indeed, hashtag to rally one another, this time for issues of serious proportion.
The hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls, championed by former Vice President of the World Bank, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has gone viral. After various unsuccessful attempts by the government and some individuals to throw mud on the veracity of the abduction of over 200 secondary school students in Chibok, Maiduguri, North East Nigeria, Nigerians have been irrepressible in their demands to rescue the girls. Just by typing #BringBackOurGirls on any social media platform, you are immediately confronted with a deluge of information on the Chibok girls.
The campaign has put Nigeria on a pedestal never before seen. It has exposed the frailty of the Nigerian government and the helplessness of its people. It has taken Nigeria from one that is grappling with insurgency in parts of the country to the inadequacy of its security forces to contend with the problem. It has attracted A-list celebrities who have joined the fray to press on the Nigerian government and the international community to do more to bring back the girls.
From the streets of Abuja to other major cities across the country, protesters carrying placards with the inscription: #BringBackOurGirls, have continued to resonate. T-shirts and other memorabilia have been created using the same hashtag.
By the second week after the abduction, statistics indicated that the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag had generated over 360,000 tweets and re-tweets, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said. Within the same period, it reported that of the 160,000 tweets from users who specified a location, half came from Nigeria, followed by the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (UK), South Africa and other countries.
From the first Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama; to United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, the demand is endless. Just last week, during America’s Billboard Music Video Awards, the red carpet was converted to a protest platform of some sorts when all the celebrities who graced the event carried the sign, #BringBackOurGirls. Penultimate Tuesday, over one million women in South Korea staged the biggest ever protest in the bid to free the girls. They all held the sign, #BringBackOurGirls. It has placed Nigeria on the map in some way.
But more than exposing insecurity, corruption and abductions in Nigeria, the hashtag has thrown open what many, including the U.S. First Lady, regarded as a threat to the girl-child education in parts of the world where extremists view the education of women as abomination. In her address, which was hinged on the Chibok girls, Mrs. Obama asked American children to appreciate the opportunity and freedom they have by “re-committing themselves to education”.
Malala Yousoufzai, who has become the face of girl-child education and was shot by the Taliban, has also lent her voice by carrying the hashtag. In one of her interviews with Christiane Amanpour of Cable News Network (CNN), Malala said what is happening in Nigeria and other parts of the world is what every government should fight against.
