Dividends of Terrorism

In their usual benevolence, the terrible terrorists (Boko Haram) that have been terrorizing Nigeria and Nigerians in the last decade, decided to return the over 100 kidnapped students back to Dapchi from where they were first abducted. From the pictures of the girls and their luggage on arrival, it was obvious that the terrerorist took them shopping before bringing them back. Either that, or the girls were allowed to pack before they were kidnapped and the luggages with them are their belongings and personal effects.

Completely at loss over the sudden appearance of the girls, the world was treated to a spectacle of information (mis)management by the man who has so personified the art of a certain vice that he was named after it. Alhaji Lai (pronounced Lie) Mohammed the minister of information said no ransom was paid to free the Dapchi schoolgirls and said their release "came with no conditions."

"The only thing they asked for was that they should be the ones to drop them off. They didn't want to hand them over to any third party. Nothing was given in exchange for them," Mohammed said.

Absolutely sir, having seen the way the government has been treating both the people and her natural resources, even the terrorists have trust issues with the government, and will rather not entrust the girls to them.After all, were the girls not first kidnapped under the nose of the government with all it's military presence? So, the terrorists without any compulsion and under no duress brought the girls back with their luggages! This government must really think Nigerians are as dumb as our representatives are derelict in the House.

While this government was pulling the wool over their eyes in the third world, here in the first world, Facebook and Cambridge Analytica were blindfolding the people with electronic brainwashing. Cambridge Analytical is a data analytic company that has just one mission: How to manipulate you at no cost.

So in 2014, many Facebook users were paid to take a research quiz and give up some certain personal information in the process. Cambridge Analytica funded this project with over 270,000 Facebook users signing up for it. What they however didn't know was that this seemingly research project allowed Cambridge Analytica to gain access into personal details of friends of those that signed for this quiz. By the end of the project, Cambridge Analytica had unfettered access into over 50 million profiles of Facebook users.

You can snort your nose, shrug your shoulder and murmur “whatever” in defiance, but here is the thing: Our data,especially the ones that borders on our demographics, in the wrong hand can be used for very horrible things. When such information are fed into the system, Cambridge Analytica can use it profile you and tell to a reasonable degree what you're likely to do in peculiar situations. So, armed with such data they were able to prey on people's mental weakness and wrap your perceptions around in a way that they can predict and influence your decision process. It was widely used at the USA 2016 elections, and Mark Zuckerback has tendered an apology on behalf of Facebook but he will still face the Congress to explain why such data theft was allowed on his platform.

The bad news however was that Cambridge Analytica was in Nigeria at our last elections at the invitation of the incumbent government. But, the good news was that that they couldn't interfere with our elections because of the unreliability and misinformation we peddle about ourselves online. In other words, our immunity to sophisticated election interference was predicated on our natural vice.

This is where however the story becomes interesting, in trying to unravel the plot of having another foreign government interfere with USA elections, Facebook was found to have been a willing platform and going forward, the founder has promised to use same platform to protect the integrity of future elections. The congress has similarly agreed to be asking intending visitors to USA to submit all online media accounts for scrutiny as part of visa application process.

Until we hear directly from the spokesperson of the alternative government in Nigeria called Boko Haram, you may want to take Lai Mohammed unseriously. And you can also be rest assured that we will never suffer the same inglorious shame of a foreign government interfering in our elections, we have always been doing that by ourselves and we call it electoral malpractices. Nothing serious.