A crush once told me that her mother warned her to beware of Nigerian men, before politely qualifying it with more information about how the warning wasn’t different from the warning the woman also gave regarding other men from her own country. Don’t worry, she’s not American, but that hardly changes a fact: there is a perception out there that makes for good comedy, or malice, that whenever there is an international scam involving emails, there is a Nigerian somewhere close to it. This, to be fair, is rooted in some fact. Between 1985 and 1999, Nigeria was ruled by some of the most corrupt, most morally bankrupt, must brutal military dictators who rendered extinct a thriving middle class. Along with their looting of the country’s coffers, they also rendered to waste the hitherto reputable social conscience, and ethics. A nation that thrived on hard work and equal opportunity turned to one of vanity and hopelessness, and a futile chase of wealth by all means at the expense of dignity replaced the ethics that once made the country the hope of the continent.

By the late 90s, majority of young (and at the beginning, mostly educated) citizens embraced the new opportunities that the internet brought, and to put it to the use best suited for the loneliness and hopelessness that the situation provided on the ground in the country: for crime. Thinking about it now, I doubt that crime was the real intention of the first people to take advantage of the powers of internet communication. I imagine someone mistakenly discovering that from his apartment building in Lagos, he can have a real romantic relationship with someone as far away in the world as Chicago, or Adelaide, or Brisbane. And then, another one discovered an idea that e-relationship could become a profitable venture. I do not claim to know how this began. I can only guess. I was nineteen years old in 2000 when I entered the University of Ibadan as an undergraduate and I had used email for the first time only one year earlier.

So naive was I of this scamming phenomenon that had, by then, become quite lucrative (that every internet cafe had at least one person using the computers there to send scam mails to unsuspecting people around the world) that when I first came into contact with a sender, I thought that my life was at risk. I worked for a few months between January and September of that year in an internet cafe where emails were still first written on paper, then typed onto the computer, and then sent massively. It was like fax, or telegrams. Only a few people had personal email addresses, and those who did still had to have their emails typed out on the computer in the cafe before they logged on to the internet to send them. My job was to get those typing done, and help customers trying to reach their loved ones. One of the customers we had however was a hairy man of around 33, well built, tall and spoke Hausa, English, and pidgin English. All the emails he had me type always began with “I am the nephew of the late General Sani Abacha, the recently demised Nigerian Head of State”. It went on to say how many millions the late General had stashed somewhere and pleaded to the reader of the email to contact him so that they could transfer the money together to some other account, and share it.

For those familiar with Advance Fee Fraud, this is usually the catch. There is a bogus amount of money somewhere, usually very large and tantalizing. All the reader had to do is to show interest in being an accomplice so that the sender can share some of the loot with them. It usually never works out like that in the end, of course. The unsuspecting responder would be asked to send his/her account number, and then some advance fee to “process” the withdrawal of the loot, and then the criminals go for the kill. By the time the responder discovers that there was no loot in the first place, he/she has already committed a large amount of his/her personal funds and will not be getting it back. There are other variants, of course. A man pretends to be in love with a woman he meets in a chat room. He makes her fall in love with him and then he feigns poverty and the woman starts sending money and gifts to him until he decides that he’s had enough. Sometimes he gets her to loan him a large sum of money, and then disappears. The woman then shows up in Nigeria and makes the front page of a newspaper. She’s looking for so-and-so person who she fell in love with. In many cases, the man had used a fake name as well…

Back to the story. At the moment of typing the said emails, the only thing in my mind was that I had finally met my nemesis. Relatives and family members of Sani Abacha were known to be brutal. People had disappeared and many had been shot for opposing his reign as a military dictator. So here I was talking with his nephew and helping him send emails that detail a series of large financial transactions with foreign correspondents. I was knowing too much and my life was about to change for the worse. I would not know until very much later that my fears were unjustified, and that there was no need for me to have immediately started avoiding the man for fear that he would soon want me dead for knowing his secrets. He was most likely not related to anyone relating to Abacha. All he was doing was trying to swindle whoever was stupid (and greedy) enough to respond to the email.

Of course, in the intervening years, I have also realized the very fine line between romantic scams and real love that transcends distance. I met and dated for a few years someone that I met online who has remained my friend and colleague ever since. I have also discovered the very many scams that dot the internet landscape, including ones that trick you into signing up for “free trial” products only to charge you a month later, or ones that tell you that you’re their “50,000th visitor” and try to get you to sign up for offers that you don’t need and that might either cost you, or clog your email bandwidth. There are thousands. Telemarketers call you with polite requests that you provide your address and then sign you up for magazines you didn’t want who send you the check in the mail a few weeks later. Credit card companies put hidden fees in fine prints and surprise customers across the country every day (with a sustained backing by the conservative political right who insist that banking regulations that look out for consumers are “job killing”.). In short, access to the internet and its many possibilities brought about as many negatives as positives.

Today, as it has been even before the internet came, fraud, by very many political names, have taken over the world – from a criminally-minded Nigerian (and non-Nigerian) youths aiming to swindle greedy western businessmen, or thieving marketing gimmicks aimed at the unsuspecting internet user. The “Nigerian Prince” variety however takes the cake, of course, because everyone at one point or the other has received such a mail claiming to be the relative of a recently dead corrupt politician, be it Saddam Hussein or a recently removed one, like Hosni Mubarak. Not all of those emails are Nigerian nowadays, of course. I know for a fact that regulatory efforts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has made it hard to commit internet fraud in the country and go free. The “product” has been exported to other parts of Africa and the world. That doesn’t mean that the jokes will go away, but that Nigerians will – and should – begin to laugh with it as it goes on. According to Jon Stewart, they now also have Sarah Palin on their side.

First published on KTravula.com

It is 50 years and Nigeria, like every other country craving for a change in its affairs, has witnessed series of civil demonstrations in all its known forms: sit-ins, arm-in-arm protests, sloganeering placards, angry words from exiled citizens etc. etc. Civil demonstration is often the lot of autonomous territories. Thanks to technology, civil demonstrations have evolved into less physical, less bloody, and generally safer modes. With it, the world is moveable from a wheelchair.

In 2009, a horde of Iranian citizens each armed with nothing more than letters of the alphabets and internet emoticons trod the cyberspace to register their resentments against the irregularities and inhuman activities that characterized the country’s last election. That act, now famously dubbed – “Iranian Twitter Revolution”, has become a case study in the rather new field of digital activism. The enemy was both Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – Iranian incumbent president (later re-(s)elected), and his machinery of state which he launched at will to counter any perceived citizen affront against his supremacy over the governing of that Middle Eastern state.

The impact of that cyber protestation, at least in its degree of commanding international attention & sympathy, is a proof of how social networking platforms are veritable routes of demonstrating civil discontentment. However, citing the Iranian example, or its Moldovan counterpart, as a success may be a tricky conclusion since the scale of both protests did not achieve their campaign goal which, in the Iranian situation, was to overturn an allegedly fraudulent election installed by Mahmoud. The Moldovan incident was an exercise in bringing people together to protest against the country’s Communist government.

Nigeria, so far, has had citable contributions to digital activism. Two examples come to mind – The “Enough is Enough” and “Light Up Nigeria” initiatives. The two campaigns later took terrestrial extensions in the form of demonstration to government front gates and pop culture integration (The “2010” song by Sound Sultan (Feat. MI) and the song “One Day” by ElDee. One question that nudges the mind at this point is whether both campaigns achieved, or is gearing towards achieving, their aim. Certainly, neither of them can be placed alongside their foreign counterparts in the degree of impact.

So what’s with all the ramblings? This writer was impressed with the momentum gathered when the two initiatives took wing. Twitter timelines streamed with #enoughisenough and with support from Facebook Groups, and a few blogs, the Nigerian cyberspace was electrified with a cause that promised to voice (and did) the frustrations of a people, and to install on the Nigerian space the new form of civil demonstrations. As mentioned earlier, the demonstrators reached government gates. How stunning! Online to offline. Hashtags to Iron gates.

It did enough and certainly wasn’t a fruitless mission. Besides being a disclaiming proof to what might be claims by some digital watchers that digital activity may never reap offline dividend, it is already an evidence that, with a more strategic preparation, the Nigerian youth can voice, and perhaps- cause a shiver in the spine of bad leadership. But here is a caveat – a campaign aimed at expressing the frustration of the entire citizenry against the affairs of the state will require more than a demonstration fronted only by internet-savvy individuals being led by pop celebrities. The coordination should have involved grassroots participation.

THAT was missing.

The grassroots housed the loudest decibels of frustrations. It should be left to imagination what that campaign would have achieved if market women and artisans who, without access to the internet, were reached through some guerrilla forms of communication.

If the reports are right, more than 50% of the Nigerian population is already armed with mobile phones, most of them data-enabled, which emphasises the point that the challenge of reaching the populace won’t be about access but the creative use of existing digital resource.

Shall we digress? That march, assuming the conveners thought in this direction, could have provided a template for more prospective digital campaign, and perhaps, for citizens’ voicing, say, in the next election.

So if we must tweet the desired change, at least on a grand scale, the strategy must be right. It must be an all-involving, well-coordinated one that brings together everyone, both online and offline, in a manner that registers our interests as one voice.

Stop. This is more than 140 characters.

Happy Tweeting. Happy Blogging. Happy New National Year.

www.aloofaa.blogspot.com

Apparently, the President had zeroed in on a comment and arranged for his aides to contact some “visionary” who appeared to have a sort of solution to the power problem.

Power is a tough nut
Whilst some comments on Google Buzz were less than charitable about this crowd-sourcing approach to problem resolution, I felt for the first time we had a leader who was seeking advice, ready to listen and responding positively to suggestions.

More importantly, the power infrastructure problem is really a difficult one for too many reasons to recount here as I threw the idea that if it were easy to solve the least competent leader would have done it and the most political leader would have built on it – The fact is radical ideas are needed on that matter and it would do well that we restrain our criticism and cynicism for an opportunity to listen first and keep our peace for a while.

A new leadership approach
Meanwhile, Goodluck Jonathan as he has plainly identified himself on Facebook has the profession of a politician rather than a zoologist, I suppose, that is what he had become now has 100,335 people who like him since he joined just 11 days ago on the 28th of June 2010.

His first status post was – Today, in fulfillment of the promise I made at the 26th convocation of the University of Port Harcourt on Saturday, 15 May 2010, I have created a facebook fan page to interact with Nigerians. As I said on that day, there is an unchallengeable power of good in the Nigerian nation and her youth and through this medium I want Nigerians to give me the privilege of relating with them without the trappings of office. GEJ

This is a laudable goal, in the main that he first kept the promise and in recognising that the trappings of office might prevent him from getting a feel of the people he leads.

More humility than hubris
For his profile, he writes – My life has always been about service. I am focused on serving my Creator, family and my country to the best of my ability and with your help I aim to be better at doing that.

This probably is something Nigerians can relate to as a very religious country; it does appear to say a lot in terms of his priorities which puts his faith and immediate responsibilities first and then the country for the greater good.

He recognises that his abilities are not omnipotent or omniscient as many African leaders tend to demonstrate by never allowing others in power thinking they only have the wherewithal to rule like emperors whilst failing to mentor suitable successors to their “thrones”, with our help, President Jonathan hopes to improve on what he is doing – for once, a sense of humility rather than hubris is expressed by leadership.

A voice in the wilderness
I cannot help but think after reading many of the postings by the president than they all sound quite professorial almost to the extent that it is impossible to identity the substance of his statements. The voice is too collective sometimes relayed in platitudes that border on the rhetorical, where the 1st person is used there is almost a conflict between the assertive and the acquiescent – it makes you wonder if you are being lead or you are half-persuaded to follow.

I would think that the president does read many of the comments but he would definitely have to engage a Facebook management team that weeds out the chaff and highlights the wheat.

Yes sir, yes sir, 3 bags full sir
The comments are presaged with unnecessary and flowery obsequiousness each one seeming to try to out-praise the other with all the religious padding that detracts from getting straight to the point – verbosity is our undoing in many cases being succinct, concise or precise is too good for our expression.

With an average of over 1,500 comments per status, this a Facebook page I neither want to like or leave a comment on, for this one page the responsible thing would be to switch off all notifications or streamline your settings to take notifications from lists of friends whilst excluding the traffic generated at the President’s page.

There are ways in which this looks like taking suggestions from a crowd at a political rally, the noise, the heckling, the robust supporters who will listen to no one but their patron and much worse – this is for a particular followership and audience that needs to extend their Facebook footprint to include politicians, celebrities and passing fads or trends.

The new talk shop
As a forum for ordinary Nigerians to engage with their president, this a welcome development; as an opportunity to glean new ideas for issues that Nigeria faces, this widens the resource and talent pool beyond the fossils that crowd the political space in Nigeria – it would become the new Nigerian talking shop but for the wise, this is best observed from afar.

You probably need to be a member of Facebook to visit http://www.facebook.com/jonathangoodluck

As the first wired President of Nigeria on a popular social network, all one can say is Goodluck Jonathan – welcome to Facebook.

Simon Adebola: So tell me, what is new in the nebulous world of cells transmitters and neurobiology?

Seye Abimbola: Nebulous world?

Simon Adebola: Just teasing. But wait, let’s see how well you can guard your territory. Imagine I thought it was nebulous and even went a bit further to say that science could be tricky and the analysis dodgy.

Seye Abimbola: …and you’d be perfectly right. That is indeed the true nature of science and the bravado and hubris of science in its more modern history is a loss and the way science has fed public imagination with promises of its powers is also unfortunate… That said, it is still the only way we know by which we can grasp the mysteries of  the natural world, hence the need for constant doubt and skepticism, from the makers and the consumers of science alike.

Simon Adebola: Wait a minute, you remind me of this Oxford Prof Jerome Ravetz. He wrote on post normal science, citing much of what you just stated above. It could be that much of what we call hard facts, especially in modern science is not as factual as we tend to want to make our journal editors, peers and larger public believe.

Seye Abimbola: Journal editors and peers are often conniving partners in the business… and unfortunately, the scientifically illiterate public and newspaper editors just take it in, and spread it… and it backfires some times, with the recent example of Climate Science. Climate science had an agenda and I am suspicious of any science with an agenda and unfortunately that is what much of science is today.

Simon Adebola: Well, all writing, I was taught, has an agenda, and that virtually spoilt films and entertainment for me because I then acquired a magnifying lens and sometimes it descends much lowers to an agenda for money. Science like religion has proven not to sit comfortably with the kind of scrutiny it has gotten. They both would rather prefer to be seen as being infallible and yet no enterprise with humans at the helm should be seen as such.

Seye Abimbola: It is troubling how money and agenda drives a lot of research, including medical research and how unfortunately no one beyond the club is even able to really scrutinize. When I was at the BMJ (British Medical Journal) I had a different impression of how science worked. There was the image of science in its most perfect, ideal sense, and although it showed that there was a lot of crap science and studies going on, it didn’t quite ring home that it was a given in “the holy of holies of intellectual objectivity” (Wole Soyinka).

Simon Adebola: Being a strong believer in objectivity and experimentation (I find it truly fascinating) I wonder what the scientific community can do to regain its credibility.

Seye Abimbola: I don’t think it will happen unless we redefine our index of academic credit and the way science is funded – number of papers in peer reviewed journals is a bad idea and funding according to result – often number of papers or positive result – is killing science. It forces scientists to want to say something, when there isn’t anything to say, creates publication bias, unnecessary data analysis et cetera.

Simon Adebola: Sometimes it is like the case of a serially abused individual. Concurrently ignored and used by those they hoped would care about them – politicians and to a lesser extent industry. Over at Cuba (Forum 2009, Global Forum for Health Research) there was this palpable inferiority complex in the research community, a complex not devoid of pride, seemingly crying to be heard by policy makers. As they say in Yoruba, it is a thief who knows how to trace the footprints of another thief on a rock. Once the politicians/policy people see through the credibility flaws, they just would rather use, rather than trust the research community. What would you recommend to improve the assimilation of science into policy?

Seye Abimbola: There’s a lot that is wrong about how science is presently done and how it feeds into policy. I’ve been thinking a lot about policy these days…Ultimately what we need to do is improve scientific literacy. I wouldn’t mind suggesting a model that has scientists, not necessarily practicing, as policy makers in science/medicine…

Simon Adebola: …building a bridge sort of.

Seye Abimbola: Yes, because it’s so easy for scientists to stand on the other end of the divide and send in dumbed down, over-edited, information that lack the nuances, and the element of doubt that comes with science…I’m not happy about the example of Al Gore who has been the most public face for climate change for a long time…It would be a different scenario entirely if he is re-echoing what scientists in the field are saying to the public. However, scientists in the field are the ones trying to re-echo what he is saying by making their data agree.

Simon Adebola: No one is comfortable with the ‘everything is caused by climate change’ line. It gets rancid after a while, with science making the claim on both sides. Ten years ago, science predicted that due to climate change some parts of the world experience drops in snow, for example I heard they said British children would not know what snow was. Now science is proving to us that due to climate change, there would be fiercer snow storms. That breeds the reaction you get when you discover the movie you are watching does not have a plot you want to turn it off, but again you want to see if its plotlessness, is the ingenuity of the director in display, so you hang on watching, hoping it would eventually make sense, somehow.

Seye Abimbola: Again, this is because scientists are not committed to saying the truth the way it is…

Simon Adebola: …and that is the context in which post normal science explores its stance. “Post-Normal Science is a concept developed by Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome Ravetz, attempting to characterise a methodology of inquiry that is appropriate for cases where “facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent”. It is primarily seen in the context of the debate over global warming and other similar, long-term issues where we possess less information than we would like.” (Wikipedia)

Seye Abimbola: …and again it boils down to scientists feeling a need for that sort of misplaced recognition…

Simon Adebola: …true, opening them up to near destructive abuse. I guess each side just has to make peace with its roles. Oxford would never be Hollywood, or Washington DC, or the Super bowl. Hollywood with its fortune, sports with its fame, and Washington with its power wielding capabilities. The strength of science like you have said would continue to lie in its innovativeness and simplicity once other interests start driving it, that inferiority complex bites in, and self destruction could result. For now we observe the movie, hoping there is a plot. Those profiting off this, increase the hype, the noise, silence the naysayers and hope to bank as much as they can, such that win or lose, at least they have made enough to reward their efforts.

Seye Abimbola: I’m wondering what is there for science in Nigeria… There’s a lot that never happened, despite enormous early promise in Nigeria.

Simon Adebola: There is hope. New minds, fresh minds, need to be trained, we need a reorientation. Science as you know has flourished even when repressed. Galileo, Einstein. It is the commitment that we should hope does not dwindle. The value is in service that would drive a pursuit of excellence, creativity, and better ways of doing things…

Seye Abimbola: In medicine, if we look back to the days of Osuntokun et cetera, they somehow did not, and I suspect due to a lot happening on the political front in Nigeria, manage to build that critical mass that could help sustain scientific productivity. Those guys did and published a lot of great work, good, world class studies and it just didn’t trickle down the generations…and I’m wondering, what can we do?

Simon Adebola: I hope there can be mega research institutes that will represent a focus on excellent research, openness to innovation, and economically sustainable models where research and innovation lead to productivity and development. I also think scholarships and studentships focused on solving the actual needs in the continent are a crucial need – these should come first. It is just that the selfishness can be acute and sometimes crippling, but we can’t deny the need to keep building capacity.

Seye Abimbola: We are presently finishing up the Build AfReCa! (African Research Capacity) paper for the journal Science. Build AfReCa! Is a very young network of young scientists, mostly Africans in the Diaspora, mostly students trying to work towards improving research capacity in Africa…

Simon Adebola: We need more and more of that, aggressively driving knowledge growth.

Seye Abimbola: We put out a survey in the last quarter of last year to assess the needs of young scientists from Africa and why they might not work in Africa and what might make them want to work in Africa, and their general geographical spread. At this stage, it’s essentially advocacy, creating a voice, an image, some advocacy for the need for funding, coordinated funding for young scientists in sub-Saharan Africa, funded to do great work on the ground in Africa

Simon Adebola: I think that is crucial and greater seriousness with African journals. We need the equivalent of The Lancet, BMJ and NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) on the continent…In fact one could talk to some of these journals to help grow stronger journals with greater visibility on the continent.

Seye Abimbola: We will need to work with the model like PLoS (Public Library of Science). It would be nice to have a PLoS Africa…. PLoS is absolutely open access, and online with a good Impact Factor…The tricky bit is that it will be online, but again, internet access in Africa is getting better by the day…so, that can be done.

Simon Adebola: …and daily digests can be sent by email or even SMS gateways alerting of papers of interest…

Seye Abimbola: …the first place to go when looking for good studies from Africa.

Simon Adebola: I am sure we can get funding for that…The Library is online, you register and select your interest. Each time a paper of interest to you appears, based on your selection, you get an SMS with basic info on the paper.

Seye Abimbola: The journal will need an editorial team, a peer reviewer bank, et cereta.

Simon Adebola: This is the kind of aid they should be interested in giving Africa, not more money for corrupt leaders…

Seye Abimbola: Good. Maybe we should put a proposal together…

Simon Adebola: I think we should…once we have the back end defined well, and teams in place… and even though it costs, we can start with donor funding and once we have a critical base of users, we can work on different models to make it work. This would make research awareness go up greatly…

Seye Abimbola:  Thanks. It’s been a great conversation, and I’m tempted to blog excerpts from the conversation on NT.org

Simon Adebola: Thanks. Please feel free to do that. It’s been a huge pleasure on my part.

Yes, we get it. Apple’s soon-to-be-released tablet, iPad, sounds uncomfortably similar to a popular female sanitary product. Jokes over.  Though, Kola Tubosun points out the less obvious difficulty with the iPawd brand.

Shortly after the foiled terrorist plot to blow-up a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day, blogger and regular NigeriansTalk Contributor, Seye Abimbola, described several instances of religious fundamentalism he witnessed while schooling.  Emeka Okafor, in his blog, Africa Unchained, shares a series of links (here and here) on the increasing trend of “religious zealotry” amongst Nigerian university students.

Bloggers Loomnie and Chxta share their arguments for a unified Nigeria.

oreoluwa: I was wondering when the ‘old’ Dora Akunyili would return: http://bit.ly/bZTymB <— Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili joins Nigerian public in urging President Yar’adua to step down and cede power to vice president.

Have an interesting post from a Nigerian blog or memorable Nigeriocentric tweet to share with our readers? Please email us at mail@nigerianstalk.org with the subject line: “Weekly Blog Round-Up.”

The art and science of successful blogging is universal. The only difference is, why people want to be bloggers and how bloggers use the art and science for their own benefits. All better bloggers are better readers, better listeners and better writers. These are the prerequisites you need to become a better blogger as a Nigerian. Also, blogging has come to stay. It is taking the place of internet media. Most websites now have blogs incorporated into them so as to provide a community and means of information service for their clients.