The freedom to express one’s opinion is said to be an inalienable right, that is a right that that should not be taken away from anyone. In order to ensure that people are free to express themselves most civilized countries have that right entrenched in their constitution. But like al...Read the full article.
I basically suspended posting here for 2 reasons because people constantly refuse to stick to the topic being discussed, thereby making reasoned discussion difficult. Also there is the unwarranted use of abusive language.
The problem is that there is no moderation of content by the administrators. I understand that moderation is time consuming, and therefore expensive. However, the administrators could cultivate a network of regular posters to become joint moderators. I'm sure we could find a nice balance between freedom of speech and reason.
AT ONE POINT, the NVS looked like a MASSOB forum with a constant stream of articles from the likes of Rudolf Okonkwo. Most of these articles were saying the same things and using the same arguments. Also the authors rarely responded to arguments that countered the thrust of their articles. Effectively, they just put the poison out here, and disappeared untill they return with more poison. I simply got bored with it.
To make this medium more effective, every participant needs to be registered, and it needs to be better moderated. However, this is still easily the best serious Nigerian forum around.
This used to be a decent forum until Govt implemented a policy, then the affected entered here to vent their anger. They should go to the other forums. We don't do tribe hate or personality here. We cannot all sleep facing the same direction but some members do precisely that. they make tribal and racial slurs and pass abusive remarks just because they want everybody to believe what they believe. You do not bring down a "failed" Govt by internet nor do you persuade others whom you have labeled Govt paid agents. The ultimate effect of their activity is detrimental to the forum. I hope the writer of this piece will not encourage what he preaches against.
Please be patient with Nigerians. Do not underestimate the deep-rooted damage caused by about 30 years of visionless military dictatorship on the attitudes and behaviourisms of Nigerians. The irony of it all is that, today, the same Nigerians are being reformatted (sorry, they call it reformed) by the same gang of mercenary political soldiers that actually derailed their values and ethics for over a quarter of a century: I am talking about Yakubu Gowon (GCFR), Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR), Mohammadu Buhari (GCFR), Ibrahim Babangida (GCFR), Ernest Sonekan (GCFR; a military stooge, and a decoy for remotely controlled despotism, via IBB in Minna), and Abdulsalami Abubakar (GCFR)).
Thanks to the advent of the Internet, Nigerians can at least effectively vent their over-bottled up frustrations safely. Please observe that, despite the absurdity of having one of their former military dictators championing the midwifery of their so-called nascent democracy, there still is no freedom of expression of opinions as such yet in Nigeria under OBJ. What Nigerians have now is no better than what they had under Abdulsalami Abubakar, or Sani Abacha, or Ibrahim Babangida, or Mohammadu Buhari, or Olusegun Obasanjo in army uniform, or Murtala Mohammed, or Yakubu Gowon, or even Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi!
Finally, I wish to thank you very much for efficiently isolating the OBJ-sponsored official Aso Rock sycophants, praise-singers, cheerleaders, and moles in the Nigerian Village Square: i.e. Taslim Anibaba (FCA), I love Nigeria, Uche, Ajia, and Palamedes. Fantastic! Well done.
But then, let us face it, even they have a right of opinion, a freedom of choice, indeed, the liberty to express their thoughts freely, in a country where harmless concerned mothers cannot even express their feelings about institutionalised mediocrity, without risking being tear-gassed or/and clobbered by a police force founded on a mentality and doctrine of brute colonial repression.
Thank you very much, and please let us all have a happy New Year, after a Merry Christmas.
As you may have seen in the notices appended in the comment area, the comments will eventually be open to registered members only, so your concerns will be addressed. We just need to sort a few things out first. But you will agree that things aren't as bad as before.
We're working on some changes to the structure of the teams running the board... we'll finalise these shortly. In the meantime, if you're interested in helping out with the moderation effort, send a mail to administrator@nigeriavillagesquare.com
Thank You Once Again Mr. Ewetuga For Your Article And For Your Comments.
I Agree With All That You Have Said. However, I Am Indeed Very Sorry If Anyone Felt Insulted By What I Wrote In Dr. Balogun's Column .
It Was Like Saying We Are Winning Dont Mind Them.
I want to know why you have decided to tinker with my name. If you read Mr Ewetuga's submission very well, you will realize that he stated the fact that he and I shared similar convictions. If you have read any of my submissions also, you will realize that I try to be fair in my analysis, though I have criticized President Obasanjo heavily, I did not make it a choice, I did so based on principle and the facts on the ground. I have chronicled what I see as the gradual decline of the state of Nigeria. If tomorrow, Mr Obasanjo change his ways, I will be glad to support his efforts, as at right now, he has not earned my confidence.
Before you start lumping people together, you have to understand their positions. Apparently where Mr Ewetuga has made a brilliant submission, you have made an uninformed one.
I'm sorry if the article appears disjointed, I was very angry when I wrote the article and I noticed that some sentences were not even completed. A situation that shows that my fingers couldn't keep up with my brain.
I hope those who would be in the board would not stifle validly expressed opinion. I don't see why anyone should resort to insult though. When I was taught the art of argumentation in school, Dr. Dipo Fashina opined that when someone attacks the person it shows he doesn't have better argument to counter the other person's submission. Don't attack the person because that's cheap and don't put everything down to ethnicity. Let us also try to respect valid laws even though we are not in that country. The rule of law is the basic foundation of civilized society. If our politicians don't let's show we are better than them.
Those who support the president and those of us who opposed him do so because of our love for the country.
I also want to point out that it is to the shame of our nation that its professionals are in some other countries doing odd jobs. We would love to stay back in Nigeria and practice what we spent years learning plus that's our country but do these people care about us? Just yesterday I read in the papers that the Southern leaders are meeting so they can retain "power". They are not talking about serving the country, they are talking about power and that's all they care about. Power over us. We should stop using the words leaders with regard to these people because they are not, they are just professional politicians who are there to steal and the rest of us can go take a dive.
We are all stakeholders. We may not agree but we are all concern about our country, at least some of us who want just one country and if we have the right people it could be better.
Note what the enemies of development are saying here: sticking to the topic means you must agree with their viewpoint; straying from the topic means you must not refute ALL their invalid arguments; admin of NVS needs to censor those who refuted their own fallacious reasoning and warped thinking pattern.
What of accuracy? What of objectivity? What of skepticism brought about by your past and present history of failures and wickedness and deceptions? What of open-mindedness when your arguments have been proven to be baseless? Who will enforce and moderate these things?
Yeah, build your own temple according to your ways; define and construct your own constitutional superstructure with your own blood-su'cking elites. But you must allow us to be without your ways.
Over a quarter of a century of the sustained militarization of the Nigeria psyche has resulted in the institutionalisation of such autocratic reflexes as intolerance, intimidation, impunity, and chauvinism in the Nigerian paradigm.
It is amazing to see how most Nigerians that one encounters in cyberspace, frequently make rather sweeping assumptions about reality, most of the time. Typically,they make sweeping assumptions about almost everything around them: for example, the identity (i.e. nationality; race; ethnicity; gender; age bracket; religious persuasion), or the general worldview or situational frames of reference of their fellow travellers in the information super-highway. This is a pity, even though it is understandable.
It is a pity because Nigerians often claim that they yearn to jettison their sad dictatorial military past, indeed, to warmly embrace democracy. And yet, time after time, one observes the unrestrained exhibition of brazen autocratic tendencies by most Nigerians, even in an environment like the Nigerian Village Square that is supposedly a market place of ideas!
The ideal of democracy is that there are certain minimum and non-negotiable rights that any human being is entitled to exercise, and to defend, if need be: the liberty to express their thoughts, beliefs, or opinions, and the right of consensual association, no matter how objectionable such may be. In a democratic culture space, you just have to learn to accommodate human beings, even if you seriously believe that you are a god!
It is therefore not surprising that those bad habits, entrenched by about 30 years of brute militarization of the Nigerian value system, often distort the dynamics of basic inter-personal transactions between most Nigerians and the different publics with which they may have to interface.
We just have to be patient with the reprogramming process, which unfortunately is further inhibited by the continuous active participation of the very wrong role models that degraded the values and ethics of Nigerians over the past quarter of a century with their militaristic worldview and leadership: i.e. Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Ibrahim Babangida, Mohammadu Buhari.
Over a quarter of a century of the sustained militarization of the Nigeria psyche has resulted in the institutionalisation of such autocratic reflexes as intolerance, intimidation, impunity, and chauvinism in the Nigerian paradigm.
It is amazing to see how most Nigerians that one encounters in cyberspace, frequently make rather sweeping assumptions about reality, most of the time. Typically,they make sweeping assumptions about almost everything around them: for example, the identity (i.e. nationality; race; ethnicity; gender; age bracket; religious persuasion), or the general worldview or situational frames of reference of their fellow travellers in the information super-highway. This is a pity, even though it is understandable.
It is a pity because Nigerians often claim that they yearn to jettison their sad dictatorial military past, indeed, to warmly embrace democracy. And yet, time after time, one observes the unrestrained exhibition of brazen autocratic tendencies by most Nigerians, even in an environment like the Nigerian Village Square that is supposedly a market place of ideas!
The ideal of democracy is that there are certain minimum and non-negotiable rights that any human being is entitled to exercise, and to defend, if need be: the liberty to express their thoughts, beliefs, or opinions, and the right of consensual association, no matter how objectionable such may be. In a democratic culture space, you just have to learn to accommodate human beings, even if you seriously believe that you are a god!
It is therefore not surprising that those bad habits, entrenched by about 30 years of brute militarization of the Nigerian value system, often distort the dynamics of basic inter-personal transactions between most Nigerians and the different publics with which they may have to interface.
We just have to be patient with the reprogramming process, which unfortunately is further inhibited by the continuous active participation of the very wrong role models that degraded the values and ethics of Nigerians over the past quarter of a century with their militaristic worldview and leadership: i.e. Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Ibrahim Babangida, Mohammadu Buhari.
Mr. Ewetuga,
You are a good writer and for this particular view you espoused, my respect for you soared. As much as I disagree with almost all of Mr. Anibaba's views in all his previous write-ups, I was humbled by his admission of over-reaction. In all, I think everyone wants to make Nigeria a better place in spite of our divergent views.
I however disagree with those who want to censor other people's opinions. It is better to continue to appeal to all writers to moderate their language rather than allowing some overlords to play Censors Board. They are likely to be heavily biased.
I have followed the debate about abusive language on this blog with interest and hereby offer my five naira's worth.
I hear what you say about shortly banning unregistered commentators (or is it a PDP style deregisteration?). That is your prerogative as Administrator and you may wish to play big brother and act censoriously as you are being encouraged to do. You may however take note that an unintended consequence could be helping to further muzzle the voiceless. I however dare to say that we will be heard at other fora if you shut us out of this one and it will be yours that will lose its vibrancy because in the end you will no longer accomodate a shade of opinion from Nigeria.
You may have noticed that not every unregistered commentator is abusive or lacks a sense of decency. Some of the so called registered commentators have been quite abusive and racist without much admonition perhaps because the sensitive majority on this blog share some of the racist sentiments expressed since those ones are not directed at the President. The only people who appear overly sensitive seem to be the government's supporters and one cannot understand why they are so jittery. Their principal is in power with all our money, our police, our guns, our INEC and our ballot boxes which they have hijacked and now they want to turn off the megaphone too like they did to AIT and Radio Bayelsa?? E no possible ko she she. We are the disenfranchised and they expect that some people will not yap them? Even the American President, the most powerful man in the world is the subject of some of the most appalling abuse and ridicule in his country but censorship on the internet has not been broached to my mind. Yes there are issues of incitement especially since 911 but that is a seperate issue from abusive language. We must learn to accomodate and tolerate every shade of opinion and some of the bs just comes with the territory of public service. If the truth must be told, even an agbero with his limited exposure and language skills has one vote theoretically just like our Mr President should have if not for rigging where man pass man and where Chris Uba has more votes than the whole of Anambra. A lot of the rudeness we have seen here only reflects what we call in Nigeria as "lack of home training!" It tells us more about the abuser than the "abusee" but the agbero must be allowed to have his say. If you feel that you will be "sanitising" the village square by banning a type, then it no longer becomes a village square but a private members club for the priviledged few.
Some of us dislike this government with sufficient passion that we would be forgiven for finding the praise singing of its supporters pretty nauseous but we learn to live with them. They are Nigerians like us and are entitled to their views. At least it is still not a crime to support AGIP but God help any one brave enough to step into the square to eulogise an Abacha or Alamco today if he will not be torn to shreds. Would that be right? Would those complaining and wishing to muzzle contrary views restrain themselves in such a stampede?
It is because some of us know the type of country that we live in and passionately hold contrary views from the powers that are, that we choose to remain anonymous and not register our details. You can already see that we are on the brink of a security clampdown with the government's bogey about "security threats" without substantiation like previous regimes before this to use it to muzzle dissent. Some of us know why we do not wish to register anywhere not because we are afraid for ourselves but for others we care about and the struggle that must go on. Did you not hear about Haruna Dariye's baby who was taken away by EFCC? These are dangerous times in Nigeria and this government is clearly getting desperate. We verbalize strong views that the government does not like because that is our view, a God given right except we do not yet live in a tolerant society and the government is the biggest culprit.
So thank you for your blog which has been good value but if we must part ways, so be it.
On its own, the measure of requiring participants to register is not a censor. Right now, all you need to register is an email address. That email address could easily be a front. Also there is no evidence that the same person would not be posting under multiple registered aliases.
However, registering gives a post an 'identity'. Hopefully, it will make posters think twice, and take a deep breath, before posting. Hopefully, arguments will be more considered. It is difficult to have a discussion with a bunch of 'unregistereds'.
Moderation, on the other hand, is a sort of censorship, although the purpose of moderation SHOULD not be to censor. Most sites are moderated. Even a football fan forum, such as cfcnet.co.uk is moderated. So why not a serious political forum?
The purpose of moderation is to:
1. ensure that the site upholds what a reasonable person will consider to be common decency;
2. ensure that articles giving different view points about the same topic are published in equal measure, so that the site does not appear to lean towards a particular view point;
3. ensure that articles are well constructed and written so that they are actually readable. The standard here is generally high, although I have found it hard to read a few of the articles where the writer is more concerned with creating an impression than actually communicating.
At the end of the day, you have to trust the site's editorial team to use their power fairly. It is in the interest of the editorial team to be fair, otherwise people will take their comments elsewhere.
Shoko - Yes, I can make some time to help with moderating. I live in the UK and we often get the news earlier than the U.S.
As Mango has pointed out, requiring someone to register isn't the same thing as 'banning' the person. All you need is an email address (which can be obtained very easily these days). Also, if a person is registered, it makes it easier to discuss with that person because you know more about the person's views, etc. If someone was to masquerade as you by signing his posts off as Gwobezentashi, I might be deceived into thinking I was talking to you. By all means, if you are concerned about your identity being leaked, choose a completely new address and use that to register.
Also, we tend to use moderation on this board very sparingly, usually when there are unwarranted off-topic posts, gratuituous attacks or (accidental) duplicate posts. We prefer to rely more on posters to exercise their good judgment. I personally doubt that any of your posts would have fallen into either category, so I don't think you have anything to be worried about. So I personally would be sorry to see you go, but I believe that you shouldn't have to post in on a board whose policies you feel uncomfortable with.
.FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND OPINION
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
.FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND OPINION 
Quote
Bookmarks