President Muhammad Buhari has asked Nigerians to use smoke signals instead of Twitter, saying that Nigerians had used smoke signals during the civil war and it worked well.
In a Tweet that was used to threaten Twitter, Buhari said that Nigeria is too big to be held ransom using 280 characters, and before Twitter was, Nigeria was. He further added that Nigerians were smart enough to use other technologies such as smoke signals.
“I am aware that some people want to control our great nation using only 280 characters. This is totally unacceptable and I want Nigerians to show them who we are. Let us all do smoke signals and see what will become of their useless platforms.”
Banning Twitter on Twitter
Following suspension of Buhari’s account, the Federal Nigeria decided to ban Twitter although it needed to use Twitter to announce the ban. While it needs Twitter shut down, it is not sure of how to act because it needs Twitter to reach Nigerians.
The ban is also meant to serve as a retribution for the support that the company offered the #EndSars protests, although no one in the government has the courage to say so – even those who fought in the civil wars.
Decoding Smoke Signals
How will they send and receive tweets using smoke signals?
The system works by combining digital communication technology with traditional communication methods. Government apologists said that digital communication is binary in nature, using zeros and ones, and thus can be replaced easily with smoke signal which can be sent in two states of present and absent, or zeros and ones. Nigerians will thus employ specially designed decoders to interpret the signal once received.
Smoke signals were also noted to be more efficient because they are not limited to 280 characters, hence suitable in Nigeria where there are many things to be said.
