Author: The Nation

Editorial

As is commonly said in security circles, the criminal only needs to be right once. In spite of watertight vigilance, the nation’s security forces must always be on tenterhooks to stay out of the hooks of the terrorist.

That is the level of integrity we expect from our secret services and police in the light of the latest warning from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), to the effect that some unidentified criminals were plotting to launch attacks on major airports in Nigeria.

The airports include Kaduna, Maiduguri, Sokoto, Kano, Abuja and Lagos. That is as much as we know of their intent.  We do not know from the news report whether the hoodlums are  related to Boko Haram, or any other militant group, or whether this is associated with the tribes of bandits looming in Nigerian forests.

Here is the germane part of the internal memo that announces the threat. “I am directed to convey an alert from the Ministry of Aviation regarding security threats by criminal elements against airports in Nigeria and to also request for the immediate enumeration of necessary countermeasures for the protection of all airports/facilities under your review.”

The memo was sent to all the airports and the alert is to all Nigerians who travel through the identified airports, work there, or engage in activities in the vicinities. The memo specifically mentions passengers, drivers and other airport users, particularly those at the General Aviation Terminal, Lagos.

This means travelling through the airports will not be business as usual. It means comings and goings of persons will now attract special attention and undergo thorough checks. The memo also says that all drivers will henceforth park and wait outside. Arriving passengers will not walk to drive-by vehicles. For departing passengers, drivers are only allowed to drop off passengers in front of the terminals.

The memo noted that the security of the airports should not be left in the hands of the security services alone. It is a joint civic responsibility for which the public will be invaluable.

This threat is happening in the context of a country in the peril of random violence. Road travellers have come to see expressways as corridors of fear and trembling. The bush bandit has become part of the travel lore in the country. Everyone has to take into account where is safe, how to navigate what roads, what time of day is better and what vehicle. Kidnappers snatch “prized” travellers while, in too many cases, the encounters have been fatal.

A governor confessed to running for his dear life, while another governor had to open fire to cut through their barricade. An air force jet crashed recently but no one is sure if it was a technical or human error, or even the result of feisty weather or the cynical jest of the Boko Haram terrorist.

In Imo State, mayhem overtook whole communities as citizens could not ascertain if they were in a state of anarchy or whether their governments had given up.

The airport threat is, in a sense, an “upgrade,” for the terrorist. If the dignitaries and government officials now avoid the traps of highways, they will have no other way to travel if the air arteries are in danger. What this means is that terror stalks earth and sky in Nigeria.

It will be naïve for our security forces to limit their purview to the designated airports. Terror thrives on surprises. All the other airports, big and small, should enjoy a high level of alert.

Editorial

Sequel to the visit of Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, to Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa in November 2019 at which he had conversations with industry leaders, the global social media company last week Monday announced Ghana as the company’s headquarters for Africa.

Confirming the choice of Ghana, Twitter addressed the economic and social benefits of its company’s social responsibility for Ghana: “Whenever we enter new markets, we work hard to ensure we are not just investing in the talent that we hire, but also investing in local communities and the social fabric that supports them.”  He added, “As a champion for democracy, Ghana is a supporter of free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet, of which Twitter is also an advocate. Furthermore, Ghana’s recent appointment to host The Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area aligns with our overarching goal to establish a presence in the region that will support our efforts to improve and tailor our service across Africa.”

And President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana said, “The choice of Ghana as HQ for Twitter’s Africa operations is excellent news. Government and Ghanaians welcome very much this announcement and the confidence reposed in our country.”

We congratulate Ghana and Twitter for the siting of Twitter headquarters in West Africa, believing that such location will be of benefit to the region. Locating this modern technology company in Ghana has a great potential for a win-win venture not only between Twitter and Ghana, but also for Ghana’s neighbours on the continent.

We are, however, surprised by the comments of some political observers on Twitter’s choice. In the first place, it does not make for even development for all technology companies to be sited in the same country, especially after Google and Facebook have already been established in Nigeria.

We, therefore, find unwise and untrue the following comments by Nigeria’s information minister, Lai Mohammed, on why Twitter opted for Ghana and not Nigeria: “The media is more to blame for this [Twitter’s choice of Ghana] which most times exaggerate the challenges in the country. At no time was this worse than during the #EndSARS protest when Nigerian journalists, both traditional and new media, were trying to outdo themselves in painting Nigeria as a hell where nobody should live.” The minister went further: “You can imagine the kind of job opportunities that citing that headquarters in Nigeria would have generated, the kind of visibility it would have given Nigeria, but we destroyed it. It is what the insiders say about their country that the outsider will use to judge and condemn the country.”

Such observations miss the significance of why foreign investors should not concentrate all or most of their investments in Nigeria or in any other country. It is not strategic for Nigeria as headquarters of ECOWAS to expect that all foreign investors concentrate on the continent’s largest economy and market. There are other important factors for choosing destinations for foreign investments.

It is obvious that Nigeria has a bigger clientele for Twitter than Ghana, with already 39 million customers in contrast to Ghana’s population of 32 million. But Ghana has many other things that can nourish foreign investment that Nigeria does not or may not have for growing a technology company eager for success.

But to tell the truth, there is nothing that Ghana has that Nigeria with its resources—human and material—cannot have, but the reality in the last two years is that Nigeria is not as safe for people and property as Ghana, and Nigeria is not currently as peaceful for business development as Ghana. For example, ease of doing business and physical movement in Ghana is more visible than in Nigeria. Moreover, the recognition of the right of the investor explains why Nigerian parents send their children to Ghana for education while many wealthy Nigerians acquire real estate in Ghana.

We urge Twitter and the government of Ghana to be mindful of free movement of citizens within the region in planning recruitment of technical staff for Twitter’s headquarters for Africa.