Linda Ikeji: and the Burden of "New Media"

I woke up some days ago, to the muted whispers in the Nigerian cyberspace, that our own answer to the Huffington Post, Linda Ikeji, was in a pickle.

Many prayed, as we are wont to do, that the Lord would deliver her from all her enemies.

The source was said to be one Mr Aydee, who was also known as Mr Dan 'Iyan, also known as Mr Effremov. (Take your pick). 

The allegations were that she had used the intellectual property of others, without permission. What people of intellectual pursuits refer to as plagiarism.

Linda Ikeji is our answer to Ariana Hufffinton, and Oprah Winfrey! She is the reason many bother to read anything longer than two lines online. She has a cult following, that many would find hard to fathom, since nothing serious is ever discussed on her platform. 

Linda Ikeji's Blog is the go to place for all things salacious,and licentious. Her ability to gauge what gossip would sell is uncanny, and the volume of traffic, and advertising revenue, brought her wealth aplenty.

Did Linda Ikeji use materials produced by others, without their permission? Yes! She pretty much admitted it! She felt the need to publish quickly, outweighed what was required by the law: written permission to publish what was generated by others.

To justify her actions, she also accused the instigator of her blog's demise of doing the same. 

Linda Ikeji, is a victim of a wide systemic malady that ails our land: the belief that the rules that the rest of the world play by, do not apply to us.

Some of her ardent supporters claimed that it was envy, as a result of her posting a photograph of her brand new  twenty four million naira Range Rover. This, however, is a simplistic, myopic, and uninformed view of what is a very serious, ethical, and legal, issue.

The advent of the internet, and the concomitant offshoots like self-publishing, blogging, and social media, has resulted in many people playing roles they ordinarily would not be allowed to play in the real world. 

Many people have died from following dodgy medical advice, and remedies offered online. In addition, some strange people believe that once something has been published on the internet, it must be true!
The sad reality, is that in the real world, Linda Ikeji was playing the role of an information gatekeeper, people we normally refer to as journalists!

Some of us sat down in press law class to learn about libel, slander, plagiarism , and all the other land mines that litter the journalism terrain! 

Others, through working in a proper newsroom, were tutored in these same time honoured codes.

Linda Ikeji has just detonated one! She is not the victim of a witch hunt, but a violator of a time honoured code: the ethics that govern information use, and dissemination.

In the academia, the whiff of an allegation of plagiarism , not even the proof, is sometimes all that is required to ruin a person's reputation, amongst his peers!

I have no doubt that Linda will definitely "bounce back"! Hopefully, she would have picked up a very vital lesson: that, because a material is juicy, and is on the internet, "unguarded",  does not mean that it does not belong to anyone, or that it belongs to all of us to use as we please.

Someone made an effort to generate that material! He, or she, made a phone call, took a cab, or flew to conduct an interview, or take a photograph. To use  another's material, without permission, is theft! 

And, as she has found out to her hurt,  there are sanctions for theft, even in cyberspace.

Nigeria is a part of the world, we may be behind physical geographical boundaries, but the rest of the world, do not view those boundaries as a license for us to kick the rules in the teeth.

NIGERIA IS BROKE

I am sure I have your attention now! As inconceivable as it might sound, all the signs point to a nation on the verge of a financial meltdown!


When an entity's liabilities outweigh her assets, and ability to generate enough income to meet future liabilities, such an entity is usually said to be insolvent, bankrupt, or broke!


In movies, when a person is shot, or stabbed, the victim usually dies instantly, except where a slow death has been written into the plot!


In real life however, we know that death from shooting, or stabbing, can be agonizingly slow! It is a process of hemorrhaging the precious life sustaining fluid, blood: that eventually kills!


Nations do not die like people in films, they die in slow motion! The death blow could have been delivered through a failed policy resulting from a fundamental failure of leadership!


In our own case, that failure has been the policy of successive governments budgeting more on recurrent expenditure (mostly the salaries of political office holders, and other emoluments) instead of capital projects!


We spent more money on areas that did not produce wealth, while neglecting the wealth-generating ones!


Successive leaders have operated with the mentality that oil will never run out, and that their profligate lifestyles would never undermine the nation as a whole: they were all wrong!


Our nation is broke! 


It is the only explanation for the madness of January 1st 2012: the complete removal of subsidy on petroleum! The government could no longer sustain an expenditure that was sure to doom it's very survival!


Nigeria is a modern day example of the infamous General Santa Anna! A man who was reputed for having the ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory! In a nutshell, he often managed to turn a winning situation, to one of desperation!


The question of removal of subsidy, or otherwise, would not have arisen, if Nigeria had properly utilized her God-given asset: crude oil!


Through criminal neglect, collusion with fuel importing cartels, and abdication of responsibility, we allowed our refineries to die without as much as a whimper!


If we had been refining our own crude for local consumption, the argument that we ought to be paying international rates would be a non-starter!


For years we mollified the people by living a lie! Money that could have been used to develop our infrastructure, was paid to government cronies, and carpetbaggers, as the difference in the cost of importing petroleum products, in order to keep prices at an artificial level!


It was the only way peace could be sustained in a nation of such institutionalized corruption, and poverty!


Some of the individuals who benefited from the payment of this subsidy, are actually ministers in this present government!


As we are all aware, many nations in the Euro zone have been seeking external funding to keep them out of insolvency!


Nigeria is aware, that if she goes cap in hand, looking for a bail-out, no one would listen to her!


We are a major oil producing nation! Our president has eight presidential jets in his fleet! He, and his vice president will feed themselves with one billion naira this year alone!


So the only option left to the government, was to go to the people for "a loan"! It is not one they intend to pay back!


It is actually more a case of a drowning man clutching at floating leaves!


If the truth must be told, Nigeria can actually save so much more money, if all political office holders, elected, and appointed, were to take a seventy five percent pay cut!


In that single move, we would see the pendulum swing from red, to black!


Nigeria is broke, and fixing her will not be easy!


MAY GOD BLESS NIGERIA FOREVER!