Global politics in northern Nigerian sphere

…also published in Daily Trust

With the flood of constantly updated and in many cases conflicting news on current affairs at the fingertips of the average person nowadays, his apparent confusion on many topical issues is indeed a matter of course.

This is primarily due to the different underlying agendas that influence the narratives of media organizations; each according to the agenda of the government or interest group funding it, which explains why while even when their narratives on an incident appear basically similar, a critical comparison among the narratives would always reveal how each organization seeks to influence the emotions, conclusions and judgments of its audience according to its underlying agenda. For instance, as a British-funded media organization, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) may accurately report a confrontation incident between, say, a group of Palestinian freedom fighters and Israeli settlers on the occupied Palestinian territories, however, the organization’s underlying agenda and prejudice on the conflict would always subtly influence the narrative to keep the perception of its audience about the conflict too simplistic to see it in its wider and right context, and instead see it and indeed any incident of that nature as a mere confrontation between some belligerent Palestinian militants and peace-loving Israelis.

Also, as western-influenced perception of global affairs remains dominant on the world stage partly due to the persistent residual effects of the defunct western imperialism, and partly due to the domination of western and western-influenced media organizations in the world, many unsuspecting international affairs enthusiasts hungry for alternative and more credible narratives often fall for other agenda-influenced narratives provided by self-proclaimed non-submissive regimes. For instance, in pursuit of its ideology-based agenda targeting Muslim communities and countries, Iran maintains and/or funds a vast network of international media organizations (e.g. Press TV) that feign sympathy for victimized Muslim communities around the world thereby appealing to and indeed manipulating the emotions of unsuspecting and even many otherwise informed Muslims who fall for its subtle brainwashing tactics and eventually end up as its puppets doing its bidding in their respective countries  even when it involves undermining the stability and interests of their respective countries for that matter.

Also, in-between these two trends, there are other media organizations with various ambiguous hence aimless agendas, which explains their particularly ridiculous inconsistencies. The Qatar-based Aljazeera TV network represents a typical example in this regard having declined, professionalism-wise, turning into a mere attack dog in the hands of a clique among the Qatari ruling elite who manipulate it at will to vilify, demonize and incite against states and individuals with whom they have scores to settle.

In a nutshell, the so-called journalistic neutrality, which all media organizations claim a commitment to, is actually a myth after all.  

Now, a look at a typical social media page with a considerable presence of northern Nigerians, for instance, reveals the sheer influence of media manipulation on discussions and quality of arguments on topical issues especially those related to international politics and particularly the Middle East politics, which is the focal point of global politics.

By the way, my choice of a typical northern Nigerian social media page as an example in this regard was informed by the fact that the average northern Nigerian current affairs enthusiast is more interested in international politics than his counterpart elsewhere in the country. Besides, social media pages reflect the typical hangouts of the people concerned in real life, e.g. a typical neighborhood majalisa in, say, Kano, or a typical beer parlour in, say, Lagos.

Anyway, this notwithstanding, obviously the same average northern Nigerian current affairs enthusiast never realizes the contexts, politics, agendas, prejudices and other underlying dynamics behind the narratives he constantly imbibes from various media organizations, which is however quite understandable for obvious reasons. What isn’t understandable instead is how many, if not most, of the otherwise informed northern Nigerian commentators on global issues never bother to consider those dynamics in their analyses thereby ending up consciously or unconsciously churning out ridiculously simplistic and agenda-influenced analyses that are barely, if at all, better than the analysis of a typical unsuspecting mai shayi joint international affairs enthusiast who merely relies on the BBC Hausa, VOA Hausa, DW Hausa etc. news bulletins. 

  

Worse still, often serious, protracted, tension-provoking yet futile arguments erupt between people in real life and/or on social media on an international issue; the underlying dynamics of which only a few of them actually understand. 

  

Incidentally, at the risk of sounding elitist, which of course I am not, I have always argued that, for a global affairs enthusiast to really understand the complexities of international politics, and in order to be intellectually able enough to always arrive at informed and reasonable conclusions on issues, he simply must be at least reasonably fluent in at least one of the major official world languages today e.g. Arabic, English, French etc. Because the absence of a single 24/7 global media organization in, say, the Hausa language renders Hausa international media audience who can’t understand any of those world major languages at the mercy of the above-mentioned radio stations and their likes. And obviously the amount of news, information and analyses they provide is simply too little to provide reasonable insights into the intricacies of any issue in international politics.  

In fact, reasonable fluency in the Arabic language is practically indispensable when it comes to understanding the intricacies of Middle East politics in particular. Because most of the translated news and information on the region focus on official policies, actions and inactions of the governments in the region, neglecting the socio-cultural, historical and other relevant dynamics that constitute the right context to understand the peculiar circumstances of each country that explain its agenda and strategies in the region’s geopolitics and the world politics at large.