Greetings!
It's so funny how most of the boldly declared human rights are still boldly declared today, but deep down, there's a significant degree of infringement, and it's growing worse. Nothing can be done about it.
Two weeks ago, I was listening to a radio program where they were discussing the difference in freedom of speech regarding how people express the pain they feel in the country now versus how it was done in the past. From the start, freedom of speech was never truly allowed, as people often expressed themselves through music. Once those songs aired, they would be banned from being played on radio and TV stations, or even in public. For Nigerians reading this, you should be familiar with the song by Idris titled Nigeria Jagajaga.
Even today, freedom of speech is still being infringed, but social media has become our saving platform. Yet, despite the freedom that comes with the use of social media to voice concerns, the government of my country has imposed laws that restrict certain kinds of "call-outs," which clearly shows that freedom of speech in this country is only about 10%.
In reality, you can call out anyone, even the president, on the internet, but you must be well-prepared and have good lawyers on standby in case they come for you.
So, in truth, we do not have freedom of speech. It's there in human rights, but in practice, it means nothing. You're allowed to say whatever you want and call out whoever you want to drag, but the fear of the counterattack looms large because these people control the system, including the courts you'd take them to.
As things stand, there's only one man who is truly exercising this freedom of speech, and he's fearless, even though he has been imprisoned twice. Yet, he continues doing what he does, backed by more sophisticated lawyers.[VDM]
The voice on social media in this era is no different from the physical voices of the people, which is why the government is taking it very seriously. There was a time when X (formerly Twitter) was banned in Nigeria because the government saw that Nigerians were doing a lot of "dragging" and calling out through social media. Can you imagine that? Isn't that the highest level of suppression of freedom of speech? The government knew that whatever trends were happening in Nigeria would not remain within the country but would spread for the world to see.
Well, the country (let me focus on my country) has always been like this, and being honest, I don't think true freedom of speech will ever be allowed as it should be. The same people in power now will continue to be in power even 100 years from now, and things will continue as they are. What do I mean by that? This current leadership will hand over power to the next generation, with them watching as "godfathers." The new leaders won't be allowed to deviate from the system already in place.
So bad!
Life is all about struggles.
