On Friday, the 4th of June, the Federal Government ordered a ban on using the Twitter app in Nigeria. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the ban because using Twitter is currently one of the least problems the country faces (if it even is one). Now, many Nigerians are wondering, if it was so easy for the government to act swiftly for something so inconsequential, why have they not been keeping the same energy on critical issues.
Recently, two of the country’s female musicians had a brawl in a salon. The quarrel was that one of them accused the other of not keeping the same energy after she had made derogatory comments about the former in the past. The moral of the analogy is that individuals, organizations, or institutions need to stand by their words or actions, be they positive or negative (although we hope they are often time positive).
There are a plethora of challenges that the country is currently facing that would need the kind of swift attention the Twitter ban got. Some of these challenges are the state of insecurity, poor electricity supply, inflation and the high cost of living, depreciation of the Naira, the lack of investment across sectors, substandard healthcare services, low education standards, and corruption.
The above-listed issues are challenges that, when tackled quickly, would contribute to the growth of the national economy and improve the lives of citizens. For example, the issue of poor electricity supply, when addressed, would reduce production costs for manufacturers. That effect would, in turn, reduce inflation and the cost of living. But, instead, the FG banned Twitter, a platform that, over the years, has helped provide jobs for the country’s youths.
There has been an appeal on social media platforms for the government to do better in keeping the same energy. The call is for the FG to address actual critical issues with the same speed and efficiency used for the Twitter ban.