By Adetunji Ayobrown
Nigeria has compelling economic stories which should be seen to be more than highlight talks, it is rather suggested that every Nigerians must pay more and better attention to the economy if we must survive.
Analysis of economic notes about our country is scary. Except Nigerians are the last to get the memo; poor nations have officially been picked and our nation’s status is ranked among the worst. Nigeria, a nation blessed with abundant human and natural resources but the poverty index of its citizens outweighed the abundance of resources.
Trade is a noble jewel as every trade starts with stake into it. It costs Nigeria’s economy N102.77million ($250,600) every hour to ban Twitter. According to the records, Nigeria businesses had lost about $366.88million over N150.46billion since the Federal Government’s ban. And within the ambits of all known economic resources, such volume would have negative effects.
Capitalism is about forever profiting and living by the excess, that is the standard, the American way. Social media are more than public places, but economic corridors, it is all about what FG does with the options. Nigeria has about 33 million active social media users, with about 26 per cent on Twitter. Let’s create values from the obvious, in order to accumulate, our nation too must speculate. Nigeria has to be in it to win it.
Value comes from demands; let’s figure out such an amount in basic maths. Economic prosperity is more than games of chances because it is a true game of skills.
Online money is nothing but volt energy travelling through wireless and wired networks of massive fibre optic cables. But on June 4, FG announced the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria, the telecommunication companies were ordered to block access to Twitter on June 5, after the directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission.
Money making is a bit like sport. The more practice the better we become and that is why the rich nations are getting richer, except we want to sound a little richer than we are.
Using indicators from the World Bank, International Telecommunication Union, Eurostat and U.S. Census such loss is too huge to be ignored.
Love or loathe it, Nigeria belongs to all, our nation is our headache to be managed. Though, we don’t have to be mad or crazy about what is happening these days. But it helps if we can be more attentive by channelling the strength in our madness against all the causes as it must be tampered with tranquillity.
Prosperity makes a nation, but leadership has a big role including creating avenues for such. But as for the FG’s cliché, this doesn’t matter much. Though FG cited the persistent use of the platform for activities capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence as the reason for the suspension. Following this ban, many groups including the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project dragged the Federal Government to court.
And in a twist, FG told a Federal High Court in Lagos that it had not stopped Nigerians from using Twitter, adding that many Nigerians still used it daily. This was in a counter-affidavit the government deposed to in response to an originating motion filed by human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong.
The affidavit said, “The applicant (Effiong) and the class he seeks to represent can still operate those Twitter accounts from anywhere in the world and even from Nigeria. Because Nigerians are still tweeting, even at this moment as the ban on Twitter is not aimed at intimidating Nigerians or an infringement on the rights of Nigerians to express their opinion.
By changing the location of devices being run, some Nigerians had migrated to the use of Virtual Private Networks. But many small and medium-sized enterprises are groaning under the ban because it has not been good for their businesses.
Twitter suspension is a threat to Nigerians’ human rights, many countries including US, UK, EU condemned the action. Why our government hates twitter was questioned by many.
National prosperity is done privately, stealthy, surreptitiously. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) doesn’t pay debt but revenue does, economic pundits analysis warned the nation over allowing its emotions over its economic judgements. FG ought to have managed better diplomatically.
This may look small, but good things are attached with such a huge amount as income. With every right to checkmate its abuse, FG has the opportunity to let this be the beginning of better and appropriate regulations against social media misuse in the future.
Inside the cages of the economic ribs; this country is empty, records had shown glaringly. With an aggravate over-tensed economy about to be drowned by shackles of debt, a millstone round the debtor’s neck which affects not only our national health but also its wealth.
Except for false narratives, can such loss be considered an economic success where such national economic loss can be appropriately managed, checkmated and such used to fight our economic woes.
There is no other word for it, it is an economic retrogression. Except our economic knowledge is wrong and this should be properly harnessed. Our country is dying, many of its citizens starving desperately for better opportunities and hopes, but the latter cannot be eaten by the famished populace.
Many frauds with overdramatic scenarios. Surprisingly, demands for accountabilities were turned theatrical by many government officials who were alleged to be neck-deep in financial misappropriations.
Don’t fight economic progress or our nation may end up on the wrong side of history. If our nation must survive economically, its success probabilities must always be greater than the risk incurred which twitter’s suspension negates.
*Ayobrown is Snr System Analyst, he can be reached via e-Mail:[email protected]
