The advent of the internet and the advancement in information technology has brought about meaningful changes and developments that are beneficial to us as Nigerians and indeed to the global community because of the ease of communication, information sharing, audio and video content creation, editing and distribution, including the application of many of the technological improvements in other fields like medicine, engineering, public administration to mention, but a few.
While we reject in the strongest possible language any attempts by anyone to rationalise violence, robbery and kidnapping for ransom which has risen to astronomical proportions in the last decade or so, to be the result of harsh economic realities in the country, we urge security forces to partner with the general public to arrest this menace and restore order and public confidence as the character of a person has more to do with criminal conduct than their economic conditions.
I tried to disabuse my uncle’s mind that everyone is different and that criminality is not restricted to any one community. The attitude of my uncle towards someone working with me from the northern part of Nigeria who looked Fulani is one of such fallouts from dubious internet video campaigns about Fulani herdsmen and there are many other instances and prejudices that this menace has created in our country that we would have to get over in other to continue to live in peace with one another.
The similarity and pattern of their operations including those involved which cut across all sessions of Nigeria would cause inquiring minds to wonder to what extent these groups of people are willing to go to achieve their objectives.
For example, there are many videos right now after the gubernatorial elections making the rounds alleging ethnically motivated violence and many of these videos cannot be independently verified, but are out there inflaming emotions and causing ethnic tensions across the land.