The former Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo,
said on Thursday that protests must be accompanied by other political actions
to achieve measurable reforms.
Mr Osinbajo spoke at the 6th edition of the Technology, New Media,
Citizens and Governance Conference (TNCG).
He spoke on the topic: Technology as a Catalyst for
Political Action in Africa
“Political action today must go beyond protests. We
must see activities that directly catalyse development as important features of
political action.
“And I want to emphasise that protests, of course, are
crucial. They are important, but we must use our resources also for direct
action that have development objectives.
“We can instigate official action in various ways, for
example, intervening in important areas of human capital development, such as
education or healthcare.”
Social media for mobilisation
Speaking further, Mr Osinbajo highlighted how
technology has influenced political action in Africa, citing the use of social
media for #EndSARS protests in Nigeria and the Gen Z uprising in Kenya.
He said social media platforms like X, Instagram and
TikTok have been used to organise protests, raise funds, and disseminate
information in real-time.
He also cited how the use of the Zeno app in Kenya
allowed protesters to avoid police by receiving real-time updates on police
movements, and the role of WhatsApp and Facebook in Zambia’s youth movement.
However, he reiterated the potential threats of social
media platforms to democracy and individual and collective security, citing the
potential to use deepfakes to spread disinformation.
Protest without leadership
Mr Osinbajo also explained that protest without
leadership can be a sign of weakness.
“Advantage of technology and particularly social media
in mobilising protesters is that the coordination of action can take place
without any apparent leadership,” he said.
“And we’ve seen that on social media, it’s possible to
organise without identifying any leadership at all (which) might itself be a
weakness.
“When there is no clarity of leadership and
objectives, political action, no matter how dramatic and far reaching may be
futile, may lead in the future to protest fatigue.”
He, however, noted that in situations where the
objective of political action is to make substantive or structural changes, it
can only be possible within the context of partisan politics.
Lagos efforts
Also speaking at the conference, the Lagos State
Commissioner, Innovation Science and Technology, Olatubosun Alake, noted that
there are various programmes in Lagos aimed at empowering entrepreneurs, such as
the Lagos Innovates initiative and digital skills training for over 4,000
individuals.
Mr Alake emphasised the importance of providing the
right technology tools and training people to use them effectively for economic
value creation.
He added that to achieve transformative technological
drive Africa, there is need for a collaborative approach involving government,
civic societies, and citizens to use technology responsibly.
TNCG Conference
The event was organised by BudgIT and Enough is Enough
(EiE) Nigeria and sponsored by the Centre for International Private Enterprise
(CIPE) and Paradigm Initiative.
PREMIUM TIMES, Business Day, The Cable, News Central,
Tech Cabal, and Women Radio are the event’s media partners.
In his opening remarks, the Country Director of
Budgit, Gabriel Okeowo, emphasised the importance of leveraging technology to
drive political transformation across Africa.
“This platform is dedicated to harnessing the power of
technology to drive political transformation across Africa,” he said. “Today,
we gather to explore how we can collectively leverage our strengths to engage
positively with governments and play our roles as active citizens or
institutions.”
Comments:
Leave a Reply