Increasing impact of social media on politics

The campaign by some lawyers to stop Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai from using the platform of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to ventilate his views on national issues generated a lot of controversies. The petition to stop the governor from participating at the conference has however, introduced a new dimension to the role social media can play in politics and governance. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI reports

 

THE role of social media in the recent withdrawal of the invitation granted to Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai to speak at the yearly conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), following protests from some of its members, has opened a new vista of political participation. The move was initiated on a social media platform. Then, it was followed up by an offline initiative to realize the objective of the online campaign. A social media platform, Change.Org was used to mobilise opposition against el-Rufai’s participation at the conference. Change.Org is a petition website that helps to campaign for change. The petition to disinvite him was started by Usain Odum. It had garnered over 3,150 signatures before the NBA 2020 Annual General Conference Planning Committee decided to withdraw the invitation. The NBA decision was announced on Twitter in a tweet which added that the decision would be communicated to the governor.

Governor el-Rufai was among the guest speakers scheduled to participate in a session titled ‘Who is a Nigerian? A Debate on National Identity’. El-Rufai was to speak during the session tagged, ‘Am I a Nigerian — A Debate on National Identity, The Indigeneship-Citizenship Conundrum’. Others that were also billed to speak at the session are Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State; Peter Obi, the former governor of Anambra State and vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) at the last general elections; Tunde Bakare, a cleric and chairman, African Advisory Council of the Royal Commonwealth Society; Oby Ezekwesili, an activist and former federal minister; and Salamatu Suleiman, the immediate past ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security. Others scheduled to speak at the conference include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Representatives; and Tanko Muhammad, the Chief Justice of Nigeria; Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president; Ike Ekweremadu, former deputy Senate president; and Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation. The 60th NBA annual general conference is its first-ever virtual event. It took place under the theme ‘Step Forward’.

The aggrieved lawyers faulted the NBA for inviting el-Rufai, citing his alleged poor human rights record and his inability to stop the killings in Southern Kaduna. The lawyers listed serial violations of human rights and reckless utterances such as the threat he made in the run-up to the last general elections that foreign observers would go back in body bags, perhaps if their report goes contrary to his expectation and that of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).  They also noted that he admitted in December 2016 that his government traced some of the aggrieved herders perpetrating violence in Southern Kaduna to their countries and paid them compensation to stop the killings and the destruction in the state.

The NBA’s “#CancelElRufai2020” has given an indication of the increasing impact of social media on politics and governance, particularly given the laid back attitude of Nigerian politicians who have a way of withdrawing into the cocoon provided by their offices once elected. Social media is increasingly giving access to ordinary citizens to connect directly to politicians, to let them know the feelings of the people.

The development has generated a lot of controversies, with many particularly within the human rights community hailing the NBA decision and many others saying the association committed a blunder by disinviting el-Rufai. Former presidential spokesman Reuben Abati, for instance, admitted that though he is not a fan of the Kaduna State governor he sees him as someone who is in a position to do justice to the topic, because has he had to deal with the issue of identity crisis, especially in the southern part of the state that he governs. He added: “By uninviting to the 60th NBA General Conference, the NBA submitted itself to the will of an aggressive and vocal minority in a manner that could affect the future of the NBA negatively. Most of the people who signed the petition against Nasir el-Rufai come across like persons who nurse personal grudges against him and who failed to look at the big picture.”

Be that as it may, observers say the development is a signal to politicians that the public is no longer going to tolerate their excesses in future. Though supporters of Governor el-Rufai have tried to trivialise the matter by portraying it as a religious or ethnic issue, the development is a lesson for public office holders to recognise that they are being watched and that they would be held to account for the misdeeds someday.

Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu said what the NBA has done is to provide a model for denying “these people the oxygen of social capital that they crave across the board”. His words: “Look, we are all citizens of a country that can be great but which is being destroyed by ruinous politicians. No Nigerian has a greater stake in Nigeria than any other Nigerian. My hope is that what NBA has done provides a model for denying these people the oxygen of social capital that they crave across the board. Citizens have to find confidence in our respective ways to say, enough! They can claim constitutional immunity to cover them from consequences of being vile but we will not spare them the mobilisation of public opinion and the judgment of posterity.”

Odinkalu who heads the Africa Programme of the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) said the digital space can be a fruitful space of active citizenship. But, he said Nigerians have to fight to exercise that constitutional right. He added: “What is exciting now is the interaction between the online & offline communities to drive real-life agendas. #CancelElRufai2020 is an excellent example of that.”

He said the younger generation has developed an impressive dexterity with the digital space, adding that the organising possibilities provided by the social media offer them more efficiency without sacrificing impact. He said: “In 2013, Moïse Na’im came out with his book titled, “The End of Power”, which chronicles how power has become attenuated in various realms with the onset of digital communities. Digital presence has become a source of civic influence and you see that demonstrated every day. Politicians are now forced to play in it. No? I don’t accept that the youth are not using social media to influence political power. They are also using it to socialise, follow sports, pursue entrepreneurship, organise relationships, commit crime occasionally, etc. That’s good. COVID-19 has intensified this trend.”

On the NBA’s justification to withdraw the invitation, Odinkalu said: “Are you not outraged that a governor who offers explanations for the massacres and alibis to those who perpetrate them will persistently order or preside over the arrest of people protesting these massacres and those criticising inaction on ending them? Are you not outraged that he will go on national television to say he knows the leaders of Southern Kaduna seek money with the killings? If he knows this, what has he done to bring them to account?

“Are you not outraged that the person who crowed over the Zaria Massacre in 2015 and has not found it himself to be forceful over these massacres is rather worrying over being de-platformed by the NBA? What we are saying as lawyers is that we will no longer dignify people like him with our professional and social capital. If you want to invite him, please do so and enjoy his company. We will not quarrel with that. Freedom of association under the constitution is free.”

Odinkalu said el-Rufai has many other platforms to ventilate his views. As a state governor, the human rights activist said el-Rufai controls state radio, state TV and equally has access to the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in Kaduna. He added: “They reach over six million people in Kaduna State. He has security agents who harass his critics at his say so, very happily. He has nearly two million followers on Twitter alone. He is cross invested in digital platforms, including a popular news site. His social media followers are very energetic to the point of fanatical. By contrast, the NBA has fewer than 135,000 people who have been registered as lawyers in Nigeria since 1888. So, if the man’s millions of followers are not enough to hear him, how can the NBA help him?

“It is rich to suggest this governor has not been given a fair hearing. What fair hearing did he give to his many victims? Did he give fair hearing the victims of Zaria Massacre? Or to Senator Hunkuyi or Inuwa Abdulkadir when he demolished their houses contrary to court process? Or did he accord fair hearing to court users when he went to Chief Judge Gummi of the FCT High Court to use the Chief Judge, who was his senior at Barewa College, to block judicial process against him when he was FCT Minister? He gloats about this on page 202 of ‘Accidental Public Servant’ Do you want me to go on?”

Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and human rights activist, Femi Falana said lawyers frowning at the decision to withdraw the platform given to el-Rufai as a resource person at the NBA conference are suffering from institutional memory. He recalled that in 2006 lawyers had a two-day boycott of courts to protest disobedience to court orders. He said: “We identified eight court orders that were disobeyed at the material time; three of them were by el-Rufai who was then the Minister of Federal Capital Territory. The Olusegun Obasanjo administration was embarrassed by the action of the lawyers and subsequently instructed the Attorney General, Bayo Ojo (SAN) to ensure that the orders being complained about by the lawyers were complied with.

“All the other government officials involved, aside from Mr. el-Rufai complied. Till date, he has continued in the same manner. To answer your question, one of the complaints of the lawyers in the present protest against him by the lawyers, apart from the disobedience of court orders is that el-Rufai has a penchant for disregarding the rule of law. He has made a lot of inciting statements, such as threatening foreign election observers that they would go back home in body bags and that he had to give money to certain people killing residents of Southern Kaduna to stop doing that.”

Falana said there is need to bring government officials to book when they make inciting statements that cause problems, with respect to the breach of peace in the country. He said Governor el-Rufai should not be allowed to address lawyers because he had been associated with disobedience of court orders, abuse of the rule of law, making inciting statements that lawyers believe have contributed to the crisis in Kaduna State.

He added: “For all public officers in Nigeria, this is a great lesson; they have to learn that people are watching them. Even if you believe you have immunity from being prosecuted, people can also prosecute you morally.”

It is perhaps in a bid to checkmate the abuse of the digital media that Senator Mohammed Sani Musa who represents Niger East Senatorial District at the upper legislative chamber initiated the Anti-social Media Bill on November 5, 2019, to criminalise the use of social media in peddling false or malicious information. However, experts believe the bill is an unnecessary duplication of laws because the laws on libel, defamation and the 2015 Cybercrime Act signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan have already taken care of the issue of peddling false or malicious information that Senator Musa’s bill seeks to criminalise. They say the proposed legislation is aimed at gagging freedom of speech, which is a fundamental right in Nigeria. Those rooting for the proposed act argue that it would help curtail hate speech.

But, Odinkalu said it is self-serving politicians who want to shut down dissenting voices that are vigorously promoting the anti-social media and the hate speech bills and that the bills are dead on arrival. His words: “Their efforts to control social media has failed before, it will fail again.”

The legal practitioner said as long as it remains a marketplace of ideas, the competition will help to regulate the media space somewhat. He added: “It doesn’t mean that boundaries are not crossed sometimes. But, even at that, there are still possibilities to remedy the situation. You can, for instance, get the platform owners to grant redress against users who willfully abuse the platforms.”