By Fabian Odum and Gbenga Salau ( The Guardian on Sunday)
WHEN it started in 2009 in New York, Social Media Week looked like a child’s play but it was clear the gale of the Internet was unstoppable as the entire globe is now engulfed.
No doubt, the way it made impact in Lagos left people wondering – what event in the metropolis could possibly be so news worthy as to warrant several days of attention from a top host of Cable News Network (CNN). The 2013 Social Media Week (SMW) generated so much buzz that for days the crew of Inside Africa, CNN’s topnotch programme on Africa covered the event.
As the buzz got around, enthusiasts had the opportunity to plug into more than 80 events hosting over 100 speakers and live streaming that could not be limited by boundaries of nations and continents.
During SMW, which also held in other cities across the globe last week, techies as well as other users of social media had a rare opportunity to interact and discuss the power and potential of new media. It was a unique gathering of the young, the net savvy and other potentates of the generation, which no longer relies on the traditional channels of information to stay on top of the great issues of the day.
In Lagos, aptly christened venues like the Co creation Hub in Yaba, and the fully digitalised e-learning centre on Broad Street played host to young Nigerians seeking to use technology for the betterment of their lives. Hundreds of young people that were present at the venues were joined by others online, as new media enthusiasts continued to trumpet the fact that the barriers of distance, time and space, could no longer inhibit conversations among like-minded people.
In one of the sessions, moderated by Thistle Praxis Consulting, with the topic, Open yet unconnected? Social media for sustainable development, the discussion was on using the social media for sustainable development issues. On the panel were Director Sustainable Business Initiative, Edinburg Business School, UK, Dr. Kenneth Amaeshi; CEO/Lead Consultant ThistlePraxis Nigeria, Ini Onuk and Head, Corporate Affairs, British-American Tobacco, West Africa, Mrs. Oluwasoromidayo George. There were also online contributors and participants, who shared their thoughts on the topic.
After the opening comments by the moderator, Amaeshi argued that the social media should be a tool for making stakeholders accountable on issues around sustainable development. On her part, George said that there is not much awareness about using the social media as a tool for advocacy especially on sustainable development subjects. She noted that because many do not really understand the topic, sustainable development, is often why they find it difficult using the social media as a tool for advocacy. She also observed that because there is high poverty in the land those who have access do not use the social media correctly as they do not critically look at the matter but play up sentiments.
Onuk also re-echoed the fact that the citizens have not been able to use the social media to engage the issues in sustainable development. This, to her, is because efforts had not been made to use social media to make good citizenship and demand for action from all concerned.
She observed that though the impact is still low but it is still do able to use the social media to call for action. According to her, using the social media for advocacy should not be restricted to organisations, as individuals who understand and are passionate about the topics could lead it.
George argued that Nigerians have not been using social media for sustainable development advocacy because of access and literacy challenges among the rural people, which is why the penetration is still very low but it is a very important platform to use.
“Sustainable development is something everybody must understand now, it is about how do we take our development going further. The issue of insecurity how does it affect every single person, issues of flooding, climate change, the issues affecting the ordinary Nigerian citizens, these are the issues we must be saying on the social media with respect to sustainable development. It is an important platform.”
On how to use the social media to get people educated and better informed, she said, “The academia and the stakeholders that are abreast about the topics, know its importance and how it affects the future should be involved in enlightening the people using social media.
“Flooding is an issue and a lot of us are affected by it and it is a result of climate change, so these are the people that will begin to shape it in a way that would engage the ordinary Nigerian man in simple terms that they will understand.
“The experts have a part to play in educating the people about the issues and it is something that we have to do now. We have to come together to use this platform in order to begin to educate.
Government was not left out of the gathering. Minister for Information Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson engaged in a robust conversation with the social media luminaries at the e-learning centre. She talked passionately about government policy on ICTs, the potential social media has in terms of jobs for young Nigerians, as well as the challenges in getting government agencies to move with the currents of the time, with respect to the use of ICTs. A senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology, University of Lagos, Dr Bamikole Fagbohungbe, commenting on why the youths tend to use the social media for friendship and relationship when there are uses that are more beneficial to their formation and development as human beings, said that the platform upon which it started was for social interaction.
“And in behavior, people become conditioned to situations that are presented to them consistently, so both the expectation and activity of the social media itself centre on social activity, even though innovation came in later for other uses.
“Perception is a moderator of our behavior, people sometime say what is in a name but there are a lot. If you go biblical, because there was something in a name was why Jabez changed his name to reflect new changes or expectations. So, you know what social connotes among the youth; that is why they are used for social messages because they have been classically conditioned.
“It is however important to start de-emphasising the use for solely relationship issues but promote actively more beneficial things that are more useful to the society through giving orientation to the youths,” Fagbohungbe said.
Also speaking on the social media, a Cable News Network Correspondent, Vladimir Duthiers, enjoined national leaders across the world to take advantage of the potency of the social media in building strong perceptions for their countries instead of making efforts to stifle it.
Describing the social media as a huge driver of perception, Duthiers stated, “the cat is already out of the bag and no amount of policing can stop people from posting on social media. That is the power of social media. It allows people create and tell their own stories.”
He believed that the Nigerian government could plug into the vast opportunities provided by social media in building a strong perception, and a better image for Nigeria.
‘‘Nigeria is one of the most innovative, advanced countries with the use of the social media as a platform to get messages out, outside of the United States of America and few countries in Asia. I say this because of what I know from statistics that we tally on social media usage.
“I believe the right of the people to be heard should not be hindered. It is a basic, fundamental human right. I firmly believe that the voice of the people should not be subdued.”
At the Co Creation hub for instance, founder and CEO of the West African NGO Network, WANGONeT, Tunji Lardner attempted to provoke the thinking of the audience about the use of new media. Apparently dissatisfied about the fact that the growing number of social media users in Nigeria has not translated into real power to change things, Lardner called on social media enthusiasts to begin reflecting deeply about how to effectively deploy the resource now firmly in their grip. He admonished that social media potentates must now use the technology effectively to bring about change, by putting knowledge in a context. He said it is only when knowledge is placed within a specific socio-economic or political context that it could bring about change.
Lardner gave an example of how analysis of data on corruption helped to provide insight that the N33 billion pilfered by pension thief, Yakubu John Yusuf and his cohorts, was more than the amount required to run the nation’s two anti-corruption watchdogs, the EFCC and the ICPC, for 11 years. He implied that such a contextualised knowledge, provided by social media would go a long way in awakening the consciousness of the people, and could spur them to take action to end the malaise afflicting the nation. Overall, there was unanimous agreement at the gathering that social media should seek to mine data, turn the data into information, further turn the information into knowledge, and then contextualise the knowledge such that it is possible for action to be taken by the critical mass.
While there were several events across different venues, which featured such discussions on thematic areas such as online publishing, education, fashion, as well as entertainment, the discussions on open government, transparency and accountability got the most buzz. In the light of the Occupy Movement, which convulsed Nigeria in January last year, many new media activists and their change seeking allies channeled their attention on how to deploy new media to make the democratic process and the entire machine of governance, more participatory.
In budgeting for example, Seun Onigbinde of Budgit, an online portal that tracks budgets at the federal and state levels, called for greater awareness about the beginnings and final outcomes of appropriations by all tiers of government. He said budgets could be made into games, and cartoons that would simultaneously be fun, and would provide vital information to empower the public on what exactly government does with the public funds it appropriates. Frustrations were however expressed that Local Governments, the tier closest to the people, either have no budgets, or are comfortable with keeping the people in the dark about what they actually appropriate and spend. It was reasoned that while many Nigerians are heaping all the blames for the nation’s woes on the Federal Government, there are many of such problems, which could be solved by government at the local levels. The gathering surmised that many of the actors at the local government seeking to perpetuate the ‘do nothing’ culture at the local government level, would be happy to have the spotlight of the people remain exclusively on the government at the federal level. Discussants therefore urged social media activists to explore ways of using new media to beam the searchlight on the processes and outcomes of governance at the level of government that ordinarily should be the closest to the people. The events also featured exhibition of apps like the ipolice for security, ReVoDa for election monitoring, as well as shineyoureyes.org, a portal to provide information on legislators at federal and state levels. It was not all-serious stuff at SMW; some of the sessions also featured live twitter parties, to get participants to unwind.
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