Nigeria @ 55: Google celebrates

In videos, audios, photographs and texts, there was a lot to on Nigeria to consume on the Internet on Thursday, as the Giant of Africa turned 55 years.

And the posts, from residents, Nigerians in the Diaspora and foreigners, ranged from the most optimistic comments to the worst demining verdicts on how it faired in the five and half decades.

Judging from historical facts, contemporary issues to what the future might look like, it may not be entirely wrong to describe the anniversary as a digital affair.   

Anybody wishing to make a commercial means out of the eventful day could write volumes of books from the abundant reviews on economy, politics, culture, sports, entertainment, education and several other fields posted on different sites.

Across social media platforms, corporate entitles and individuals, public figures and ordinary peoples as well as the elderly and the young ones rebranded their profiles to align with the national colour – green and white. This was done to honour the country.

At exactly 12midnight on Friday, Google, the ‘arbiter’ between humanity and the world of Internet unveiled its celebration programme on its search engine home page.

With a goodwill message, the tech company redesigned its logo with the country’s national colour, with a green eagle ‘soaring’ in between a carefully-split Google.

For those who might have forgotten Nigerian 55^th independence celebration, Google’s entry page seemed to be a good reminder.

Afterward, the tech giant had celebrated Mars, in similar fashion, when water was discovered in small planet two days earlier. So, why not a fully-peopled country where its market doubles every other year!

No other corporate organisation might have celebrated Nigeria in Google way or had the capacity to do what the search engine did. But many local brands did.

For the first time, the telecommunications operators suspended hard-sell messages that have become permanent features on their social media pages. They tweeted about Nigeria – its potential, its history and its promising future.

                

With beautifully-designed flags, captivating infographics and poetic phrases, banks, manufacturing companies, media organisations, oil/gas, small and medium enterprises and several other industries keyed into the mood and the unlimited opportunity provided by the cyber space to celebrate the country and its people.

It was also an opportunity for politicians to renew their social contract with the people, even if that would not go beyond their social media pages. The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, as well as their colleagues did use the occasion to promise a fruitful legislative session.

In his address, which was live-tweeted by some Internet savvy individuals, President Muhammadu Buhari, said the most visible reason Nigerians should celebrate was that it had remained a single entity despite other several challenges confronting the country.

He said, “No temporary problems or passing challenges should stop us from honouring this day. Let us remind ourselves of the gifts God has given us. Our creator has bequeathed to us numbers – Nigeria is the ninth most populated country on the planet. We have, in addition, arable land, water, forests, oil and gas, coastline and solid minerals.

“We have all the attributes of a great nation. We are not there yet because the one important commodity we have been unable to exploit to the fullest is unity of purpose. This would have enabled us to achieve not only more orderly political evolution and integration but also continuity and economic progress.

“Countries far less endowed have made greater economic progress by greater coherence and unity of purpose. Nonetheless, that we have remained together is an achievement we should all appreciate and try to consolidate. We have witnessed this year a change in our democratic development.”

Interestingly, gay and lesbian rights activists also too to social media to share their concern. For instance, Bisi Alimi, a United Kingdom-based gay, went on both new and traditional media to criticise the country for what he called “homophobic hatred.” He said this had remained the country’s shame despite its 55-year-old freedom.