₦airaland Forum

It’s easy to want to over-celebrate Cameroon’s Anglophone regions finally getting their internet back on after a 93-day shutdown by the government. Yes, we should be delighted and acknowledge the relentless #BringBackOurInternet campaign. But, in truth, the work to prevent shutdowns like this happening again should now be our focus.

African governments are not alone in using internet shutdowns as a means of controlling or preventing protests, but they are among the most egregious offenders. There were internet shutdowns in 11 countries last year, and while Cameroon has been the standout offender in 2017 so far, activists can not rest easy.

Many of the 2016 shutdowns were related to elections and in 2017, the major elections are happening in the second half of the year, with elections in Rwanda, Kenya, Angola, Liberia and possibly DR Congo.

There have already been mutterings from Kenyan government officials about election security threats and possible violence and there’s a real possibility Kenya, Africa’s leading technology hub, might consider a shutdown.

Ultimately, more has to be done to make it difficult for governments to even consider shutting down the internet as an option. One pan-African policy suggestion has been that after the end of a shutdown, governments should not be allocated an IP address for one year. Such a ban would also affect any transfer of addresses to government-owned entities in those 12 months, according to the proposals made to Afrinic, an agency that manages and allocates the registration of internet IP addresses.

The proposals also suggest that if an African government performs three or more shutdowns in a period of 10 years, all services provided to them be revoked, with no allocations offered for a period of five years.

We can debate the effectiveness of such proposals when you’re dealing with governments or leaders willing to hold on to political power at the expense of their country’s economic interests and progress. But that’s why we should see these as part of a wider concerted effort to change the attitude that the internet is a luxury or optional for ordinary citizens.

In the long term, telcos and technology companies know these shutdowns are bad for their businesses as well as society and will need to take a more aggressive position and stand up to governments.

Blue3k:
True the Cameroon government is wrong. I wonder why they target the Anglophone population. It's weird they can't just act like Canada and get along. Personally I think the Anglophone Cameroon movement is strong enough to actualize a break away.

EVarn:
If Nigeria were to be a stable active country itself,we'd have been plotting ways to remove Paul Biya and Idris Debby of Chad by now.I normally have no problem with dictators that are visionary and nationalist,but those two men are corrupt dictators and most importantly,they are core france loyalists,hence,a threat to us.
Someone who is friendly toward us and who will foster integration between anglophone and francophone should be installed.
Infact,we could get a agreement signed with a new friendly government that would see the bakassi peninsula conceded back to us.

Blue3k:
I thought about it in hypothetical scenario as well. I would opt for funding of secession group and militancy in Bakassi that's friendly towards Nigeria. The issue is we have same issues they could exploit in proxy war. We have Biafra and Boko haram.
I'm not into militarism because blow back always occurs. Then France being factor that sustains these countries existence. If we don't have good propaganda they will opt for sanctions on us.