Tony Ademiluyi
SIR: The industrial revolution which made the United Kingdom the most powerful nation on earth in the 19th century experienced a very stiff opposition from the factory workers and their union leaders. The Luddites as the aforementioned were called fiercely resisted the industrialization as their fear was that the new machines would render them jobless. They fought with all their might the factory owners who they saw as evil as they wanted to hurriedly replace their labour with those of machines in a jiffy while they smile to the banks.
Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come goes the old age aphorism by Victor Hugo and the Luddites were roundly crushed by the tide of the age.
Not long after, some residents of London opposed the bid by the government to put street lights in the city. That also was roundly defeated.
There have been rumours in the new media linking the 5G telecommunications with the dreaded coronavirus. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has come out repeatedly to debunk the rumour. They have told the public that there are no cables of the genre in the country and that there is no nexus between 5G and coronavirus.
There is nothing permanent in life and change is the only thing which is constant and predictable. Once upon a time there was the 1G, then 2G, 3G and now 4G. Why didn’t these inventions cause a worldwide ailment or come with the insertion of a bodily chip?
The old sayings that ‘If you think education is expensive then try ignorance’ comes to play tragically here. Why should the 5G which will make the internet usage super-fast be the source of hatred and nauseating misunderstanding? Why the link between one of the best inventions of man and the dreaded virus from Wuhan? Why do mortals especially lesser minds resist change when it is one of the few things in the life of man that is as constant as the northern star, apologies to William Shakespeare?
Technology is not a bad thing even though it has some side effects. However, the gains far outweigh the pains and so it is imperative that there must be a mass education of the masses that the 5G is indeed a blessing to the globe and it will be for their ultimate interest in liberating themselves from the stranglehold of poverty and destitution. The National Orientation Agency should see this as an opportunity to embark on a gargantuan education of the have nots and even some of the haves who have bought into the ridiculous school of thought. This is the 21st century and we cannot still be behaving like cave men or else we will be left behind and be forced to spend the rest of our lives in playing catch up.
Let’s work assiduously together to ridding the nation of ignorance which is the forerunner of many societal ills.
- Tony Ademiluyi, Lagos.
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