Playing politics with the mobile phone in Nigeria: civil society, big business & the state

Abstract

On 19 September 2003, mobile phone subscribers in Nigeria took the unprecedented step of switching off their handsets en masse. The subscribers took this symbolic step in protest against perceived exploitation by the existing mobile phone companies. Among other things, they were angered by allegedly exorbitant tariffs, poor reception, frequent and unfavourable changes in contract terms, and arbitrary reduction of credits. Among other critical questions, the protest helped bring into focus the following: How is (mobile) technology shaping the democratic momentum in Nigeria? How useful is technology as a mechanism for socio-economic empowerment? Using the boycott as backdrop, this paper provides some tentative answers. It is argued that the boycott ought to be appraised, first, in the context of existing mistrust between citizens and transnational big business in Nigeria; and second, against the background of difficult state-society intercourse which has mostly been characterised by the latter’s suspicion of the state’s connivance with the corporate establishment. Furthermore, because it gives ‘civil society’ a combined cause and instrument of protest, mobile phones in the Nigerian context appear to presage the emergence of a new social space of politics and agitation. The paper underscores an ordinarily subsumed ‘class’ dimension to the protest, illustrating how a struggle about the interests of a section of ‘civil society’ may have a potential for enlarging the larger ‘political space’.

Infrastructure turned suprastructure: Unpredictable materialities and visions of a Nigerian nation

“…But as the communication speed increased, Nigeria's infrastructure also revealed 'the gap between actual and potential acceleration' (Larkin, 2004: 305). The initial euphoria connected to the introduction of the GSM system, just like the electricity situation, was soon replaced by disenchantment with the poor reception and general inadequacy of the services.There was a general suspicion that the omnipresent 'Nigerian factor' (Obadare, 2006: 101) -an elusive negative force, often connected to notions of corruption, fraudulent behaviour and a general lack of interest in the well-being of the nation and its inhabitants -was making itself known; the very force that, as an actor in its own right, has for several decades been felt to be shaping the destiny of the nation.…”

Communicating war in Mali, 2012: On-offline networked political agency in times of conflict

“…For instance, the possibilities to use the SMS group services of mobile phones did make a difference in the recruitment of people in Nigeria. SMS messages turned the people into a connected online-offline space (see Ekine 2010;Obadare 2006). In the Hayre, both mechanisms are at work.…”

Democracy and Prebendalism in Nigeria

“…In the 1990s, reconfigurations of global finance, security, and media communications, centralized and dispersed power, in the heavily mediated postmilitary transition to "democracy" and postcolonial, communal, and neoliberal struggles over the codification of rights, privileges, and access to Nigerian oil revenues. These changes resulted in new forms and magnitudes of predatory prebendalism and responding political movements (Argenti 1998;Baker 2002 ;Gore and Pratten 2003 ;Obadare 2004Obadare , 2006 for affective justice (Casey 2008(Casey , 2009(Casey , 2010.…”

“…Inflation in the 1990s, and unprecedented levels of poverty and insecurity that accompanied these efforts, mediated and refracted in political allegations of blame, galvanized Christian and Muslim reformist networks, as well as groups of armed youths who use violence to control the means of coercion. These armed groups gain advantage in conflicts over state and national sovereignty, the control of public space, and the appropriation and distribution of resources, their views and actions defining imaginings of Nigeria in national, transnational, and social media (Abbink and Kessel 2005 ;Baker 2002 ;Casey 2007Casey , 2008Casey , 2009Comaroff and Comaroff 2006 ;Obadare 2006 ;Smith 2004. As the implementation of Shari'ah criminal codes in northern Nigeria, and regime change in the context of the Arab Spring confirm, young people have the capacity to reform and enact diasporic, micronational, national, and transnational forms of "justice," exerting extraordinary public pressure for governmental change.…”