Twitter Ban: Mass pushback is long overdue

During a recent TV interview on the subject of General Buhari’s ongoing national internet tantrum, the presenter asked me the question: “How can we use these platforms responsibly so as to make sure that we do not end up in this situation again?” My response came out sounding unexpectedly snappy, but given the circumstances, I think it was justified.

I asked, “Is Buhari our school principal, boarding house father or parish pastor to have some sort of implied moral dominion over us? Is he an emperor holding a whip in his hand to flog us all into whatever line he pleases, or is he merely an elected representative who exists and occupies an office at the pleasure of the electorate? Since when do Nigerians have to prostrate before a scaly dictator from the age of black and white television, and beg him for our constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression? What kind of question is that?”

“Oppose the devil and he will flee from you”

One of my favourite biblical verses from my time in a Christian fundamentalist cult was the above subhead. While this verse was regularly cited to justify turning everything and everyone into an enemy so as to solidify the organisation’s grip over the lives of faithfuls, it had a different significance to me. Growing up the way I did where I was exposed to bullying and unrepentant bullies for many years, something I came to understand very clearly was that nobody was coming to help me. Help was not on the way and my life was what I would make of it.

I learned very early on that folding myself down to make myself smaller and appease the bully would only work in the short term, only to inevitably worsen it in the long term. Every bit of deference yielded to the bully would become a point of reference in future for the bully to return to, like a saved point in a videogame. Every time I did not push back, express displeasure or defend myself, the bully was only encouraged to do it again, and again, and again – slightly worse each time.

By the time I was 14, I had figured out a universal truth about bullies – they are in fact, just inverted cowards. It didn’t necessarily matter whether I successfully defended myself or fought back – all that mattered was that I did make the physical and psychological effort to do so. Once the bully saw that I was unwilling to be an obliging victim and they would have an annoying fight on their hands each time they came after me, they lost interest.

The aforementioned verse was one of the few statements written by Bible writer Paul, which came across to me are universally true. The simple act of resistance – futile as it often seemed – contained a lot more power than most people were aware of. This was the beginning of my lifelong determination to never shrink, fold myself down and become smaller to appease bullies of all types – up to and including retired military dictators who still think the year is 1978.

ECOWAS court lawsuit is long overdue

This week, I was one of four journalists and five civil society organisations to jointly file a lawsuit against the federal government in the ECOWAS court over its illegal decision to ban access to Twitter in Nigeria. While the suit has had some preliminary success, it does not seem likely that a Buhari government will do something as nonviolent and sensible as obeying a court order. This after all, is a government that only responds to violence and thunder. So why are we doing this? Why even bother? Especially given that many of us are no longer even physically located in Nigeria anymore?

The reason is simple – Nigerians have not made it a habit to oppose the devil. Despite living in what is putatively an electoral democracy, Nigerians like the TV presenter mentioned at the outset have a damaging tendency to view their elected leaders and supreme emperors and god-kings who are accountable to no one but God. For this reason, they are only too happy to shrink themselves down and become smaller whenever anything faintly resembling power speaks up.

I have repeatedly complained over the past two years that Buhari’s regime is constantly able to get away with so much simply because no one ever really bothers to push back sufficiently. Social media bill? A whimper. CAMA bill? A few whispers. Police Act 2020? Not much of a muchness. NBC Code amendment? Silence. Lekki Massacre? Nothing happened. Every single time something emerges into the public domain that should put the General’s political head on a pike, everyone just kind of shrugs and lets the moment go past.

No more. This time, a line in the sand must be drawn. Muhammadu Buhari has railroaded his way through 6 years, getting his way all the time and there are many crimes we can list in all those years. Now for the first time, a coalition of anti-dictatorship Nigerians may be starting to emerge. I am very proud to be counted among their number.

I hope many more of us will yet emerge.