The future war over Nigeria may not begin at the border. It may begin in the feed, argues
K BOLANLE ATI-JOHN
For too long, social media has been treated as entertainment, expression, youth culture, political noise or private choice. That view is now dangerously inadequate. The digital public square has become something far more consequential. It is a behavioural environment, a psychological marketplace, a political amplifier, a social battlefield and, increasingly, a national security domain.
Nigeria and Africa must therefore ask a question that goes beyond technology: who is shaping the mind of the nation?
The issue is not simply whether children spend too much time online. That is only the visible surface. Beneath it lies a deeper struggle over attention, identity, aspiration, social cohesion, public trust, truth and national destiny. A country may protect its borders, oilfields, banks, ports and military bases, yet still lose control of the forces shaping the imagination of its next generation.
