Ever since the Dora Akunyili was charged with the task of cleaning up the national image, the nation, including its bloggers, has been even more keenly aware of Nigeria’s face to the world. While some argue that Nigeria is its own worst enemy, others have come to the conclusion that the actions of but a few Nigerians mars the reputation of millions of others. Therefore the need to rebrand Nigeria is needed. We have previously described, here at NigeriansTalk.org, the Nigerian blogosphere’s response to the rebranding project (Good People, Great Nation). Seems like the Nigerian blogosphere has also taken it upon themselves to challenge prevailing negative stereotypes about Nigerians, particularly by Sony. Nigerian bloggers have teamed up with Akunyili (whether advertently or inadvertently) to condemn recent negative depictions of Nigerians propagated by Sony and its subsidiaries.

Earlier this month, I expressed my dismay at the portrayal of Nigerians in what is to be dubbed as Africa’s first major science fiction film, District 9. While this Sony and Tristar Pictures’ film aims to satirize apartheid and tackle xenophobic sentiments that exist in South Africa, it fails to hide the directors’ prejudices against Nigerians living in South Africa. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Neill Blomkamp states that the small population of Nigerians in South Africa is indeed responsible for the majority of crime in his country. In keeping with his bias against Nigerians, District 9 features prominently, a Nigerian criminal gang that engages in dubious business deals and pimps out its women to this largely male alien species. Nigerians are also the center of the films occultic elements, unrelated to Nigerian traditional religion and medicine (despite ill-informed documentaries citing otherwise). In purporting District 9 to be a social commentary against xenophobic hatred and then opening the movie with lurid Nigerian characters, “…contradict[s] himself as soon as he started writing the script,” according to blogger MellowYel of Stuff Nigerians Love/Hate. Nigerian American science fiction author, Nnedi, also vents her frustration with the film on her blog and makes the point that beyond this, black South Africans served as a “mere setting,” for the film. Sugabelly, known for her biting frankness, goes on to suggest that “…if you squinted your eyes just a little bit you might not even notice the movie was set in Africa.” District 9 was hardly a triumph for African film industry and definitely was not worth disparaging Nigerians in South Africa.

Other Nigerians also blogged about their dissatisfaction with the film. Of note is that of SolomonSydelle on the blog NigerianCuriosity. In her post, she relates this film to the recent Sony Playstation 3 ads which makes reference to Nigerian scams. At the time, Akunyili had already demanded an apology from Sony – an apology which can be found on their website. Amongst bloggers and lovers of Nigerian blogs everywhere remained the question, what of District 9, which probably commanded a wider audience than the gaming ads. As of Saturday, we learnt that Akunyili had also demanded an apology from Sony in regards to the District 9 film. Audio of the request by Akunyili can be found here.  Additionally, Akunyili requested a ban against the film in Nigeria. While I applaud her efforts to challenge such stereotypes of Nigerians abroad, I find the latter move, unnecessary. If we continue to censor such images, how can we, as bloggers and as a nation, counter such offensive portrayals. It is largely through our ability to access such information that ordinary Nigerian citizens can assist in Akunyili’s rebranding project. The Nigerian government’s willingness to take on District 9, should also be seen as a victory to the many Nigerian bloggers who took offense to this film. One would hope that Akunyili’s mission is not one of censorship which gives birth to misinformation and impedes upon the progress Nigerians have made and continue to make in the blogosphere. Such would be counter-intuitive to the goals of promoting Good People and creating a Great Nation.

turenchi: Is Yaradua on Twitter? Will he see #lightupnigeria if it trends?

Admittedly, I am usually the last person to latch onto a trend – peep-toe shoes, oversize handbags reminiscent of those used to carry baby paraphernalia, mobile microblogging, the dance craze that was Yahoozee and the like. But I don’t think I am far behind with this one, except that maybe it took me about 72hours to finally understand it…a thousand years for some internet junkies…but I think I deserve at least a pat on the back…

pyoowata: okay, i get it now… #lightupnigeria

The, at best, epileptic provision of electricity first by NEPA and now PHCN, remains a thorn in the flesh of our nation. Our inability to power our homes, hospitals, businesses and universities cripples our progress and in fact, pushes us backwards. Energy, in these times, is the lifeblood of any independent state. Our collective failure to harness our own resources for the development of Nigeria leaves all of us hopelessly anemic.

abiolaalabi: reuben abati came to test us, we showed our detest, now we gasto protest this NO-LIGHT situation #lightupnigeria

Disparaged by the likes of Abati and other members of generations past who can’t understand our hip-hop and national terms of endearment, Naija youth, (oh, yes, I said it…NAIJA, baby), have decided to press forward to shape a future of their own choosing. Lightupnigeria is a grassroots attempt by our youth to make use of Web 2.0 technologies as a force of change. “Enough is enough,” is the cry of our generation towards a power-less situation we have learned to accept as the Nigerian brand. Through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and the blogosphere, many are hoping to shed light on our debilitating energy famine. A simple Google search will display the scores of bloggers that have written about Lightupnigeria. Lightupnigeria has also been taken to the streets and as of what I heard from the grapevine, eLDee, yes the Big Boy, himself, is making an appearance on Galaxy TV Entertainment News to say a bit about it. Also, according to the Facebook group leader, a meeting of like minds is scheduled for Friday, July 17 at the Silverbird Galleria in V.I.

GFADA: Abeg mek una #lightupnigeria before I bump my head for darkness again.

At the center of this campaign are the keystrokes, #lightupnigeria, which is part of an effort to draw international attention to this campaign and hopefully ruffle some feathers up there at Aso Rock. #Hashtags were originally designed as a means to track particular topics or discussion streams on Twitter. Reaching a certain threshold of hashtags converts such streams to a Twitter “trend.” Trending has evolved into a means by which to track large-scale phenomenon such as national disasters or political movements similar to the recent Iranian election protests. Nigerian twitterers, naijapulsers, and the like are encouraged to add the the words #lightupnigeria to each of their outgoing messages. From the serious to the not-so-serious,

onimartin: RT @SL419: This guy driving in front o m is such a retard!!! #lightupnigeria and light the bulb inside his brain

…we have responded.

Personally, I am excited, hopeful about Lightupnigeria – though old age threatens to increase my skepticism. As of yet, I am not aware of a centralized website, outside of facebook, for the campaign. This was an amateur mistake that was also initially made by Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili in her “Good People, Great Nation” Nigeria Re-branding campaign. From what I have seen so far, information remains scattered through random blogs, tweets, and facebook pages. But then again, my thinking may be out-of-touch and ignorant of the trend to engage in nebulous, decentralized movements.

Beyond a centralized meeting point, Lightupnigeria could do a bit more in its aesthetics and branding. Harnesss the creativity of our youth. I could easily see the motto of “Enough is Enough,” to something like: “#lightupnigeria so candles can go back to being romantic!“. Even while growing up with NEPA, our youth have been proven their ability to make use of information technology for a variety of purposes…good and bad (…and very bad). Making use of our home-grown creative capital to package the campaign would propel the movement forward. And yes, as shallow as it may seem, a t-shirt or plastic wristband wouldn’t hurt too.

I would personally encourage Lightupnigeria to do more in “taking it to the streets,” as we say in colloquial parlance. Considering how our chronic energy shortages have denied millions of Nigeria access to the internet, it would only be appropriate that other traditional media outlets are also equally employed for the dissemination of information about Lightupnigeria. Refusing complacency and engaging in awareness campaigns are a great first step. Shouting “up up NEPA,” with one breath and then decrying “Never Expect Power Always,” with the next, wasn’t getting us anywhere. So in that regard, I applaud those who are spearheading Lightupnigeria. However, I have not been able to find much on the long-term goals of the campaign beyond Twitter “trending,” and maybe getting a few minutes of shine time on the CNN. Ideally, such a campaign should liaise with other like-minded organizations. It would be amazing if Lightupnigeria could ally itself with organizations that are interested in the responsible use of our natural resources or groups that promote greener technologies.

ugodre: Imagine life without generators, imagine hospitals without power outages, if I ruled d world I’d #lightupNigeria

The prospect of an energy sufficient Nigerian is exciting. For far too long we have accepted perpetual habitation in the Dark Ages as our plight. Stories about the devastating effects of frequent power outages abound like pyoo wata (…I know, shameless plug). Lightupnigeria is a huge step in the right direction and goes further to demonstrate that for this generation of Nigerians, the future is indeed bright.

kenniy: RT @SL419 Im proud that I am part of the generation that CHOSE to #lightupnigeria

ELECTORAL PROBLEMS & ISSUES
Prior to the April 25th Ekiti elections, Sokari of Blacklooks focused on the rising political violence and electoral fraud issues across the nation in states where polling occurred. This was obviously a precursor and bad omen for the eventual Ekiti elections which were marred by violence, attacks on journalists and ordinary civilians.  Once the elections took place, Solomonsydelle of Nigerian Curiosity presented a brief history of the events that led to the confusion during the elections and analyzed the various issues related to not just for Nigeria’s upcoming 2011 elections, but democracy, national image and even the possibility of exporting dysfunctional Nigerian election practices to other African countries. Nzesylva discussed the resignation confusion surrounding Ayoka Adebayo, calling it “The Re-branding of Conscience”. Jeremy Weate of Naijablog, kept readers updated with numerous pictures from Ekiti such as this one illustrating that local women resorted to traditional naked protest, all be it semi-naked, to challenge many of the obvious shenanigans that took place during the election and afterward.

Additionally, Akin’s post “When women rage with the pudenda and the paps“, reviewed the Ekiti situation, women’s role in protest and other related issues.

RESULTING OPINIONS
The overwhelming attitude towards the Ekiti election reflected much sadness, disappointment and anger against many of the main actors. As to the violence that occurred, Chinedu Vincent Akuta, of Briefs From Akuta, pointed out that there were an estimated 10,000 police officers in Ekiti to prevent violence. He then wondered if those officers couldn’t prevent violence what would happen in 2011? Imnakoya, of Grandiose Parlor, focused on the role of the Police in the electoral confusion and called for the firing of Mike Okiro, the head of the Nigerian Police Force. ‘Omoluwabi Okebadan‘ put the blame on the federal government which he said continued to to whittle away any goodwill it had left.

Obie Precious, an Abuja resident blogging at Diary of a Naija Youth, discussed his dislike of everyone involved from the PDP, the AC, INEC (Nigeria’s electoral body), and the Police. Furious Frank Talk admitted to laughing when he learned that neighboring governor of Ogun state planned to send in hoodlums to Ekiti but quickly sobered up because he realized that he was witnessing the “demise of democracy in Nigeria”. Ifejem’s Blog focused on the unfair manipulation of the democratic process and political blogger, Adeola Aderounmu of Thy Glory O Nigeria! called the Ekiti election “Another Useless Election” that reflects the abuse of the word”democracy“.

TWEETS ABOUND
On the micro-blogging service, Twitter, interested users learned from Ekitirr that the anti-corruption body, EFCC, was interrogating INEC officers over an alleged N250 million bribe, less than 24 hours after the final poll closed. Ekitirr, a supporter of the AC challenger, had updated others using his phone through out the election. In response to the bribe discussion, Plastiqq noted that he was awaiting the “outcome” of the investigation and others questioned whether or not there would be any concrete results. And Elcij proclaimed “On a more serious note, this nonsense in ekiti is becoming quite dangerous.” This view was shared by many not just on Twitter but also, the many Nigerian bloggers that focused on the elections.

Overall, Nigerian observers of the Ekiti election expressed genuine concern for the future of democracy and elections in the country. Time will tell exactly how these elections will impact others.

SolomonSydelle
www.nigeriancuriosity.com