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In this secret room into which no one is let in, on any given day, their numbers could range from three to five; googling, browsing and typing sharp responses. What are they searching and replying to? They are looking for any negative internet story on their boss, Mr Dimeji Bankole. Their job is to read, digest and marshal appropriate responses.
Bankole is not the only Nigerian politician with his ear tuned towards what Nigerian ‘internet warriors’ are up to. From the Anambra State Governor Peter Obi to the Ogun State helmsman Otumba Gbenga Daniel even down to the members of the House of Representatives, paid assistants are constantly online, in the Nigerian forums on the internet, using tools that range from intimidation and propaganda to counter what they perceive as snide attacks on their benefactor.
Why have our self anointed ‘looters of the commonwealth’ left the natural use of Press officers and media assistants to release information to the Nigeria media or court the home press?
The simple reason is that they have perfected the art of killing news stories locally. The poverty of the local journalists and the harsh publishing environment of the Nigerian Press have made the Nigerian publishers devise a method to survive and still declare profits.
A Nigerian journalist that could only speak anonymously in the course of my researching this story said that their editors have discovered that they could in fact make more money from the stories they are paid to kill than from advertising and the news they publish.
In this business, he went on to say, there are no retainerships; each new story is a fresh business with a different price - the bigger the impact of the story, the higher the amount.
Another journalist confided in me that during the period of the Elumelu REA electrification scandal, most newspaper houses even including the Guardian and Champion Newspapers made brisk business. According to him, the biggest payers were Liyel Imoke and Dimeji Bankole.
In fact, in the National Assembly for example, there is a clique of journalist whose remit is to organise such hatchet job, he said.
“now imagine you are correspondent, you have painstakingly researched your stories, and dutifully filed them to the headquarters of your publishing house in Lagos and wakes up the next of morning expecting to bask in the glory of your exclusive scoop, but your hard hitting scoop is nowhere in the news! You call your editor to find out what is wrong - perhaps, DHL failed to deliver, only to have your editor say to forget that story.
What? You exclaim, “What about all my efforts”? Then your editor barks over the phone, “is that the only news in town that you could find”?
“Imagine the insult my brother”, he concluded.
Unlike the local pressmen however, the internet news reporter is faceless, how then could the Nigerian politician use the almighty naira to control him? They therefore use propaganda, intimidation and planted stories to misinform and obfuscate issues – the only tool at their disposal.
I have been a victim of these efforts, so I should know. When I started Elombah.com, my modest blog site, I merely intended to indulge my love of the freedom to express myself that internet blogging brings. Little did I know that I would gradually be drawn into the Lion Infested den of the Nigerian Cyber wars.
You can only gaze at the speed with which Bankole threatened fire and brimstone against Saharareporters when they published the article- ‘Speaker Dimeji Bankole, His Father, and Two Brothers Involved in Electrification Scandal’. Before you could spell Jack-Robinson they have released a press statement online and threatened legal action within hours of the article. Before Nigerians could read the article the next morning, Bankole and his goons were already at work.
Another aspect of the scenario played out when the news of N250 million cash seized from Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi hit the airwaves. By 2pm of the 2nd of June 2009, the ‘miss’-Governor was very busy at Planet One in Ikeja sharing money personally to the Guild of Editors, so as to kill the publication of his money laundering activities. But while he was busy dolling out money, an internet thug-of-war had reached advanced stages on various Nigerian Yahoo groups, between Valentine Obienyem, Peter Obi’s press assistant and Phill Chinwuba and others until the bought-over Nigerian Press was forced to start reporting the event.
We are currently witnessing another internet war between the supporters of Gbenga Daniel and Festus Keyamo on the one hand and their antagonists- I am yet to confirm whether they have Dimeji Bankole’s blessing - on the other. The issue this time is the Press conference by Mr Tunji Eggetokun, Speaker of Ogun House of Assembly, who addressed a press conference along with Barrister Festus Keyamo claiming that his election was withdrawn without his consent.
It was Dele Momodu that wrote on his ‘The Search for own Obama’ Series that:
“The mood of the Nigerian nation today will be the waterloo of our ruling elites. The search for our own Obama has already started as a battle on cyberspace. It is amazing how Nigerians worldwide are warming up for the battle ahead. They are determined to cause a bloodless revolution in their own country, and demonstrate that we are no donkeys. They are networking like never before, and discussing issues that can move us forward. The economic meltdown has been a blessing in disguise. Many Nigerians abroad now want to return home. But there is no good home waiting to embrace them. Our leaders think Nigeria will never change. I laugh. Since they are incapable of gauging this mood, their cataclysmic fall will reverberate across the world. It would remain one of the greatest miracles of this century. But it shall come to pass”.
One Anambra Legislator simply simply told me: 2010 is around the corner, so what do you expect? Evidently, Like the hardened careerists politicians they are, the Nigerian Politician does not want to be caught napping.
PS: I will be starting a new series on my blog site; ‘The Internet Wars’, to update my readers on this battle on cyber space as it unfolds, starting with the ongoing battle regarding “Rt. Dis-Hon” Tunji Eggetokun, Speaker of Ogun House of Assembly’s press conference.
