On the 3rd of June, the Nigerian government via a series of tweets, passed messages that could only be translated as genocidal. That day, a vast majority of Nigerians took to their social media platforms to express displeasure, grief, and ultimately, fear for their lives and loved ones. This fear prompted them to report the tweets, pointing out the number of ways it could spike (tribal) hate, which could progress to war if not checked immediately.
In response to the report, Twitter brought down the tweet of the current Nigerian president, noting that there was a violation in its Terms and Conditions. In a bid to bite back at the well carried decision, the Nigerian government took to their official twitter accounts to announce the ban of the platform in the country, even without going through the legal, constitutional processes. This wouldn’t be the first time a threat to passing a social media ban has been made. During the #ENDSARS protest, Nigerian government expressed its displeasure by moving the motion to passing a social media bill, when young Nigerian protesters took to social media platforms to field displeasure and discomfort. Matching actions with words, Twitter was officially banned in Nigeria, and it became illegal to use.
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Nigeria is known to possess a teaming population of over 200million people, amongst whom are made of young creatives – designers, photographers, developers, stylists, models, retail shop owners, merchandisers, thrift importers, etc. Like every other industry, social media, Twitter especially, has been a place very keen to the growth of businesses. Fashion creatives have over time, harnessed its power, and built brands that are highly respectable on both local and international levels. For photographers like Samuel*, not having twitter means not having a very instrumental creative hub. Although there are places for fashion occupants like Pinterest and Instagram to get on your creative juices, each of these platforms have their uniquenesses. “Not having twitter is like rooting out my foundation. The platform is one of the places I first found my roots. It gave me a sense of belonging, and it’s just really sad that something I’ve held onto for so long is being taken away from without my consent,” Samuel* says.
With over 186million daily active users, the possibilities of amassing a reasonable number of customer base on the platform is endless. Going by such populace and activity, the possibility of wealth creation in a country that’s never necessarily supported your venture is heightened, with you, getting a real shot at a life of enjoyment. Imagine all of that, briskly taken away from you by a government trying to keep up with their legacy of dictatorship and tyranny, even after putting all that work to amass a den of loyal customers. This was the plight of Onome*, a Calabar, Nigeria based designer. “It took me years to build that account. 12k of my loyal customers would have gone into smoke, thank God for how our tech brothers and sisters found a way,” she said.
“I was having a conversation with a friend sometime last week on this issue of sustainability in the Nigerian fashion industry, and how it was important if we came in from the angle of production, using technology especially because no one was doing it yet. We even planned to reach out to a few foreign investors. Who’ll be interested now? Sola*, one of my friends narrates. “Take a look at the rate foreign investors are withdrawing their stakes in Nigeria,” he goes on to say, drawing attention to a piece he saw online. Besides how the ban has had a negative effect on the emotional working of those in the fashion industry, it has had a lot of negative impacts on the nations’ financial gains. Foreign investors now doubt the successes of their ventures, and those with plans of investing, are retracting, watching from the sidelines how the whole situation progresses or regresses.
Fashion platforms like Lagos Fashion Week, Arise Fashion Week, GTBANK Fashion Week, and a host of others, are relying on these mainstream media platforms to promote their shows, which will double as a means of revenue creation. No well exhausted means of show promotions, means no attendants. No attendants, means no sales. No sales, means no revenue generation, and that in turn affects those who work (for pay) to keep it moving forward – photographers, designers, models, PR agencies, Marketers, show promoters, event managers, decorators, music artists, etc. An evident lack in the fashion industry means an obvious state of financial regression. The Nigerian government can do so much better in filling this dent. Everyone and everything is relying on it.
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