Mass media are vehicles for disseminating information to a sizable, diverse, anonymous, and dispersed audience. They essentially consist of print media (newspapers, magazines, books), radio, television, and the internet (electronic media). The fundamental routes of communication in any society are these media.
Since the introduction of Reverend Henry Townsend’s Iwe Irohin in 1859 to the post-independence era, Nigeria’s mass media environment has significantly improved. Nigeria now boasts of high-caliber mass media that are both owned by the government and private, with new media outlets popping up practically every day. With the advent of satellite broadcasting, television networks like the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), African Independent Television (AIT), and Channels Television, among others, are starting to reach a genuinely global audience. Radio stations that offer intriguing news and current affairs programs and have an impact on society in some form include Radio Nigeria, Ray Power FM, and the numerous state and private-owned organisations. In Nigeria, a large number of newspapers, including The Guardian, Punch, Daily Sun, ThisDay, Vanguard, The Nation, and Daily Independent have emerged as the country’s preeminent news sources, delivering a variety of news that keeps the public informed.
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INSECURITY IN NIGERIA
Boko Haram, abduction, Niger Delta problems, and ethno-religious crises are the first things that come to mind when the word “insecurity” is brought up in relation to Nigeria. These terms serve as a trademark for the type of insecurity that is unique to Nigeria among other African countries. Before Boko Haram’s terrorist actions were widely known in 2009, terrorists in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region had been kidnapping a number of people, primarily foreign expats. According to reports, the militants were up in arms because of what they believed to be injustice toward their locality. They started out quietly operating, but once they began to engage in street activity, the level of insecurity in Nigeria’s south-south region became evident.
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Then a spate of kidnappings in the southeast of the country started to emerge, which added to the rising level of insecurity in the south east and south southern geographical regions. These were in addition to the rising levels of ethno-religious violence in Jos, Plateau State, and a few other locations in the North Central area, which were followed by retaliatory attacks in a few southern locations. The Jamaatu Ahlis Sunna Lindda’awati Wal-Jihad Islamic group, also known as Boko Haram, added terrorism at one point to the list of dangers to life in Nigeria. The group went on a killing spree after becoming determined to impose Sharia law in the Northern states of the nation. As a result, states like Borno, Bauchi, Niger, Sokoto, Jigawa, Yobe, Kano Adamawa, Kaduna, Kogi, and the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) experienced varying degrees of insecurity; some were severely terrorized while others had few flashpoints. Although the Federal Government is making efforts to negotiate with them; tension, anxiety, terror, fear, and general insecurity are still pervasive today. This includes churches, schools, markets, motor parks, offices, and office complexes. It also includes special day celebrations, public transportation, villages, public, and even private places. These moments of craziness have claimed thousands of lives.
Violence around the country has been attributed to a number of causes. These include Nigeria’s multifaceted, multicultural personality, corruption, bad governance, unemployment, inadequate management of diversity, and conflict problems in the nation. After analyzing the country’s violent trend, Pate (2011:51) asks the following troubling issues that remain unanswered: “How can one explain the basis for these regular violent explosions that seem to litter the landscape? Why do people from various racial and cultural backgrounds murder one another? Why do followers of various religions perceive a threat from one another? Why do members of various political parties turn to violence against one another? Why do ranchers and farmers clash? When did social ties between persons of different racial and ethnic backgrounds start to deteriorate, especially in the North? Why do governments and institutions struggle to keep track of and resolve these conflicts? Who are we to blame? Could it be certain people or institutions? There are more questions than answers. However, these inquiries provide a concise summary of the seriousness of Nigeria’s insecurity, which is currently deflecting attention and resources that should be used to support the country’s real development. Ignoring these issues will, in all likelihood, result in the abandonment of development objectives because no society can really advance in the face of insecurity. What could the media do to support the collective efforts being made by several people and institutions to address these crises?
SOCIAL MEDIA AND INSECURITY
Every country’s political, social, and economic structures must survive and develop if it is to maintain security. National security refers to the nation’s plan and attempt to defend its citizens from a national catastrophe using power projections such as military, political, and economic might. Boko Haram’s problem cannot be disregarded. The terrorist group Boko Haram was established in 2001 by Yusuf Muhammad. This group has slaughtered thousands, made many people homeless, and robbed them of all hope. The mortality toll has increased during 2010 onward. The Ismalic sect has set up camp in states like Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauch, Niger, Kano, Kaduna, and Jigawa with a strong hostility to western education and a determination to impose Shariah Law in the northern states. This aforementioned sect abducted 276 girls in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014. With people like Michelle Obama and Hilary Clinton pleading for the release of these young kids, it really caught the attention of the world. Therefore, the media started the #BringBackOurGirls campaign to ‘push’ the government to do action over their kidnapping.
Moreover, social media are an essential and important aspect of contemporary life and technology that enable information sharing, corporation, and social connections. Social media are being used in the fight against human trafficking. For instance, Facebook’s practical use as a blogging platform serves as a mirror to reflect the reality of human trafficking in Nigeria. The largest social media platform is one that kidnappers frequently use to market or post enticing deals in an effort to lure victims. This quagmire traps frustrated Nigerians looking for greener pastures. This demonstrates how Facebook user content has a significant impact on Nigeria’s fight against security.
In addition, social media posts include real-time data that has previously been used to forecast social trends. Social media use has fundamentally changed how information is shared and consumed, and it is now an important component of government organizations. Therefore, if social media is related to crime, it could be an effective tool for identifying trends and patterns in crime. In the event that there are sufficient tweets or postings that are meaningfully connected to the neighborhood’s security issues, they might also be used on a balanced level in terms of crime and fear of crime.
In April 2021, a kidnapping trend was reported on Twitter. Iniobong Umoren, the victim and a fresh graduate, tweeted that she was looking for work. She was still using the same site when a user by the name of Uduak Akpan sent her a private message inviting her to a job interview in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom. The search for Iniobong started on Twitter on April 29 when her friend cried for help about an odd WhatsApp call she had received. Through local media reporting, the Nigeria Security Tracker, a product of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFP) in Washington, keeps track of kidnappings. In the nation’s oil-rich Niger Delta area, kidnappings have frequently been reported. The menace has now spread across the country under President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term of office.
Furthermore, there has never been any question regarding social media’s power to promote, reform, and progress society. It is a type of resurrection that reminds the general public of events that they had long since forgotten or were completely unaware of. There is also another significance in addressing insecurity. A Nigeisian writer named David Hundeyin wrote an article for the People Gazette in April 2021 accusing the Minister of Communication, Dr. Isah Pantami, of holding the same views as well-known extremists like Osama Bin Ladin and others. The minister fiercely refuted and vowed to sue the journalist and the media organization. A week later, the persistent author who had discovered the 2020 COVID-19 fund theft published and provided irrefutable evidence to support his claims. After a viral video from years ago revealed the minister speaking with the late Boko Haram leader, Yusuf Muhammed, worried Nigerians took to social media to demand the minister’s urgent resignation.
Last but not least, the SARS protests in Nigeria show how social media can be mobilized as a tool to question social conventions and demand societal change. The campaign’s cadence was altered by the introduction of modern technology, which transformed it from an annual online banter to the most effective and compelling youth-led movement Nigeria has seen in a long time. The movement’s decentralized structure lacked any observable leadership. Twitter was utilized every day to identify key gathering points for young people, such as the Lekki Toll Gate. Before the demonstration moved to other regions of the south, social media was also utilized to disseminate pictures and updates on its development. The Nigerian government was embarrassed into responding and paying attention to the demonstrators and their demands thanks to the usage of social media to draw the attention of worldwide celebrities, lawmakers, diplomats, media firms, and others. As Nigeria’s conventional media refrained from covering the protests, social media at one point became one of the few sources of information about the movement.
In conclusion, using electronic media to tackle Nigeria’s escalating insecurity is not without its difficulties. Lack of study and inquiry, people’s reluctance to provide information about terrorists, and fear of being attacked by terrorists are some of the obstacles to mass media reporting of acts that promote insecurity, particularly terrorism. By adopting communication-based strategies that would effectively stigmatize such acts in society, the media and the general public must rise to the challenge of battling the nation’s mounting insecurity. While the public should increase the use of citizen journalism through the mass media to supplement media workers’ role in exposing and combating insecurity in the country, journalists and other media professionals should practice responsible journalism committed to discouraging acts of insecurity in the country.
Yusuf Olalekan Olabamiji can be reached via lekanbamiji@gmail.com
+234 811 959 9644
