The government just gave me a slap – and more, in today’s news roundup with Cheta Nwanze

by Cheta Nwanze

Big Brother monitor

I am not totally against a government looking at its citizens’ emails… I think it is a collective slap on the faces of my (former) colleagues that something like this would be outsourced…

The writer’s block is a documented problem that affects (once in a while) all those who have decided to write for a living. One of the symptoms of writer’s block is when you as a writer, keeps tearing up your own work because in your view it does not meet up to a standard that you have set for yourself. So my apologies in advance if this morning’s tonic does not taste as nice as the tea that some Israeli company is having this morning on top of our collective heads. Apparently, the ACN has picked up on the fact that the FG failed to deny the report from last week that all of our emails would in short order, be snooped at, and concluded that it must be true.

On my part, I am not totally against a government looking at its citizens’ emails, especially given the kind of world we live in these days. However, my beef with this contract is two-fold: first, as an IT professional (okay, former, I’m a hustler now), I think it is a collective slap on the faces of my (former) colleagues that something like this would be outsourced, especially as I know that there are Nigerians who can do the job. Then the second beef is this: is this “need for surveillance” really borne out of an altruistic desire to protect us? Or is it borne out of a desire to know what the opposition is up to?

That question needs to be answered.

Recommended Reading

Fresh from a visit to Yankari, Wole Olabanji is sure now that solving Nigeria’s problems is actually rocket science, inadvertently lending a hand to the argument that a lot of Nigerians ought to be disenfranchised.

Bits and bobs

82 would be students of our universities are answering hot questions from the original #OgaAtTheTop

Baba has laid down the gauntlet. “Hold me responsible, and not Aunty Oby,” he says. Let’s see if the Prez will show Baba that he really is serious.

Desperate to learn more about Allah, Alex, 21, relocated several copies of the Quran from The Palms, Lekki.

20,000 NEPA workers will be forced to stop making illegal connections.

A teenager who was kidnapped by a gang headed by his driver has been rescued by the men-in-black. It behoves me to say to them, well done!

Right of reply

Chris wrote,

As regards football in naija. Ibos are naturally better, just a blacks represent he USA in basket ball and athletics. Table tennis yoruba make more way . The Brazil 1994 team that win the world cup were from a region. The entire team.

Chxta responds,

I don’t believe that one group of human beings is “naturally better” at anything physical or mental, than any other group. I tend to stick with the view that most things in life are down to nurture, rather than nature. As Grandmaster Flash so eloquently put it, “a child is born with no state of mind, blind to the ways of mankind”.

Regarding the origins of Brazil’s USA ’94 squad, Bebeto is from Bahia, Ronaldo from Rio de Janeiro and Rai from Sao Paolo. All different regions of Brazil.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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