by Usha Anenga
Politicians now hire special assistants to engaged the so called “OPPOSITION ” in the cyberwar, mumbling and mixing up honest opinion of ordinary citizens in those of their political opposition.
The act of praise-singing have been enshrined into our cultural and political heritage in Africa. It is difficult to do otherwise in the presence of a King. Praiseworthy or not, a King (leader) is lavished with words and songs of his meagre achievements by sometimes professional praise singers even to this day.
The world is now a global village and a lot of things have changed. Freedom of speech and information is the clamour nowadays and people are beginning to bears their minds more, in the affairs of leaders. Social media since its inception have been a powerful revolutionary tool in the Middle East and Europe, especially among the younger generation. It presents a perfect (sometimes anonymous) platform for people to participate in shaping and demanding good governance through sharing of ideas in various ways.
In Nigeria, interest in governance has hit record high, there is hardly anything that goes unnoticed, every rumoured fact or fiction is microscopically dissected by social commentators that command huge following on Twitter and Facebook. Thankfully or not, the country is not short of drama to keep things bubbling, there is so much drama especially in the political arena. Allegations, counter allegations and scandals here and there throw crumbs of information at the masses especially those that can afford access to social media, these often lead to further exposure of even more information keeping the conversations, hash tags and trends running all day and night with no respite.
On these media, young and old, rich and poor, leaders and followers, paid and unpaid, Nigerians engage in a never ending war of words, opinions and arguments, sometimes using inappropriate language to pass their frustrations and be heard no matter how little. Also in the mix are government propagandists advancing the ideologies of their puppet masters – the politicians. They engage anyone of contrary opinion to those of those who have so impoverished the nation to say the least. Politicians now hire special assistants to engaged the so called “OPPOSITION ” in the cyberwar, mumbling and mixing up honest opinion of ordinary citizens in those of their political opposition.
The huge privileged of having follower feedback is lost in the murky waters of mundane assumption that whoever is not of the government is of the opposition. Legitimate expression of fears concerning employment, education, agriculture, transportation, industry, housing, health care, security, corruption and the insensitivity/levity in tackling these issues fall on deaf ears in the name of “opposition “.
Political party opposition is well acknowledged, we all watch how they tear themselves apart in their greedy game of power and money. Nonetheless assuming that every criticism of government actions and inactions are those of the opposition or politically motivated is a costly mistake given that a large percentage of the electorate don’t carry party cards and are still demand good leadership and accountability from government officials as it also affects them. I like to call them the non-PDP non-ACN critics of bad governance.
Until our leaders and their foot soldiers begin to take seriously the criticism of the people (especially those of the youth, the leaders of tomorrow) and stop the polarisation of opinions along political, religious and ethnic lines, the dream of a better Nigeria will only be a mirage.
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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.
