Google’s home page, google.com has often churned out creative doodles or depictions of widely known events. In the just concluded world cup, different football matches were depicted with such excitement that for every search on google during the period, you were in the mood to see those matches.
Individuals of iconic popularities have also graced the rather usually, largely blank, home page of google. On February 15, 2013, Google celebrated the 540th birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus with an animated doodle of Copernicus's model of the solar system. On July 3, 2013, Google honoured the great Chinese herbalist Li Shizhen on his 495th birthday with a doodle with him standing up and holding a herbal plant. On January 20, Google honoured Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a doodle. On July 18, 2014, Google celebrated South African president and peace activist Nelson Mandela's 96th birthday with an interactive Google Doodle honouring his life.
Today is no exception as Google Nigeria (google.com.ng) took to depicting today’s important event in Nigeria, the 54th independence celebration of Nigeria.
In the google doodle, three vehicular means of transportation are shown. The first depiction is a tricycle locally known as “Keke”. A second feature is yellow with black colour striped bus known locally & popularly as “Danfo.” Thirdly is a motorcycle, known mostly as “Okada.”
Striking among the characters in these vehicles is the man in the Danfo, who is adorned in the same cartoon characterizations of the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan. If they intended to depict the woman beside him, who seems to be the one with hands on the steering of the vehicle, as Patience Jonathan, one can only say ‘chai, there is God o.’
But is Google unfair in the use of this imagery to depict the giant of Africa, Nigeria, on her most important day of the year? Is this an insult from Google?
Let’s take a look at what these images mean to the people in Nigeria and perhaps to the rest of the world.
Keke was introduced into Nigeria as a means of alleviating the very difficult transportation problem of the country in metropolitan states like Lagos, and Port Harcourt. Many see it as a means of transportation for the economically struggling populace of Nigeria. It’s been seen as a means of livelihood for the “common” people who were worst hit by the Okada ban in many parts of Nigeria due to the high level of ghastly and fatal accidents resulting from Okada use.
The yellow and black strip coloured Danfo, which has become synonymous with Lagos, is the basic means of long-distance transportation in Nigeria’s most populated and arguably the richest state of the country, Lagos. In this vehicle, it’s not uncommon to see passengers and mostly the bus conductor hanging out in a standing position on the door of the vehicle while in high-speed motion.
Okada has been in Lagos as means of interstate transportation. It’s fast for the usual gridlock traffic conditions in Lagos. It has however taken many to the morgue and orthopaedic clinics for various bone fractures. It has also been used as an easy getaway means by criminals.
- GOOGLE NIGERIA INDEPENDENCE DOODLE
With the absence of a steady, effective, functional mass train transportation system, Okada, Danfo & Okada are bound to thrive despite the introduction of the BRT buses which have limited routes. These means of transportation are clearly not for the elites of Nigeria, where you can hardly identify the middle class. They are more fitted for the poor who continue to struggle to make ends meet; in fact, many of these live on less than $2 dollars a day!
Reacting to the use of this means of transportation, a Harvard-trained Nigerian lawyer, Emeka Ugwuonye, in an exclusive chat with me for zeeny360.com stated: “I am terribly disappointed that in this day and age, all that Nigerian government could offer the poeple, by way of public transport system, is a cocktail of disaster, which is the only reasonable way to describe the reliance on keke, okadas and danfos. It is quite tragic, but very consistent with the governance failure we see across the nation.”
Of the Keke, Danfo, Okada doodle, it should be noted that this kind of depiction is not what was used for Ukraine's 2014 independence doodle. For Ukrain, it was the rich agricultural side of the country that was featured. India’s 2014 independence doodle featured a prideful New Delhi’s stamp. But for Nigeria, it is the transportation system for the mostly the poor that was featured!
On whether Google has acted unfairly, consider recent national happenings in Nigeria to determine if it’s fair, or less of an insult for Google to do this.
Cases
In January 2012, Lawan chaired the House of Representatives committee that investigated the Nigerian government’s fuel subsidies. The committee was set up in the wake of nationwide strikes in Nigeria after President Goodluck Jonathan removed a fuel subsidy that resulted in a doubling in the price of fuel. The Committee’s report released in April of the same year revealed a huge scam in which Nigerian fuel companies were being paid hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies by the government for fuel that was never delivered. It was estimated the scam cost the country $6.8 million.
In February 2013, Lawan was charged with corruption after he allegedly accepted $500,000 from Femi Otedola, a Nigerian billionaire oil tycoon, as part of a $3 million bribe Lawan had solicited from Otedola. Otedola claimed that Lawan demanded the bribe in order to have his company, Zenon, removed from the list of companies that the committee had implicated in the scandal. The initial fuel subsidy report said that Zenon owed more than $1 million to the government, but legislators later voted to remove the firm from the final report. Lawan said that he accepted the money in order to expose blackmail and informed the committee and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) about it.
Two years later, this case is not concluded.
Princess Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi was relieved of her duties as Minister of Aviation on 12 February 2014. But that wasn’t all the people clamoring for. They wanted more probes and prosecution. She has been involved in numerous controversies ranging from the highly inflated purchase of BMW bullet-proof cars “without following due process” as well to allegations that Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi purportedly lied about her obtaining an MBA degree from St Paul's College. However, the News website, SaharaReporters, on Jan 6th 2014 quoted authorities at St. Paul’s College, where Mrs Oduah claimed she studied for Bachelor's and Master's degrees, as saying they did not award her an MBA at any time as the university does not even have a graduate school or graduate programme.
No foreclosure on this too.
Weeks back, $9.3m was flown to South Africa via the jet of the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, in what was attributed to a known arms acquisition by the federal government. But because the move was ‘illegal,’ the South African Revenue Service seized the funds at Lanseria Airport, northwest of Johannesburg, on September 5. The funds are being held at the central bank as police investigate, SARS spokeswoman Marika Muller said.
To date, the money is seized and the spiritual head of the Christian Association of Nigeria, an expected sponsor of Nigeria’s Christian morality, has been embroiled in scandalous controversies, including how he acquired the jet and a possible violation of company laws.
A building collapse of the Synagogue Church of all Nations owned by Pastor T. B. Joshua left about 115 lives lost, 84 of them being internationals from South Africa.
Mr Toyin Ayinde, the Lagos State Commissioner for Town Planning and Urban Development, stated: “that particular structure does not have approval. Because if it came for approval, we will have a name of the designers, structural engineers, architects and so on. But on our records, we don’t have that and somebody has to explain what was done and what was not done.”
In fact, the Lagos State governor had to step in and appeal to T.B. Joshua to allow experts to do their work after journalists and other rescue officials were barred entry to the scene of the incident by members of the church in ‘forcible’ ways. A journalist even alleged a bribe act to water down the reports from journalists.
As of now, no one has been prosecuted for a matter that took so many lives, more than the combined casualties of Ebola death in Nigeria.
THE CHIBOK STORY
While some still doubt that some 273 Nigerian school girls were kidnapped about 170 days ago, the government has stated that indeed these girls were kidnapped.
Despite recent reports of scores of the terrorists being killed, not even one of the girls has been reportedly freed in any operation. The only recently freed girl, one named Susan Ishaya. According to the chairman of the Chibok community in Abuja, Tsamdo Hosea Abana, “Susan is actually one of our daughters abducted from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok. She was found in Mubi where her abductors dumped her and she was later taken to Yola. It has been proved that the girl is four months pregnant, and she is psychologically and physically traumatized.” This has left a dilemma of whether the pregnancy should be retained or not in the mind of many Nigerians. See expressions.
More positively among others, Nigeria scored a major point in the world, in her handling of the Ebola case that threatened much of West Africa and indeed beyond, as today, no known case is on hand.
The moods of many Nigerians are quite different from what they used to be on a day when Nigeria is celebrating her independence. In the past, students, workers, the armed forces and the like would assemble at stadiums to demonstrate various exhibitions of interest. But today, even the federal government is staying indoors (within Aso Rock) to mark the event. This has been the case ever since the security problems of Nigeria degenerated into terrorism.
Nigeria has other symbols besides Keke, Danfo, and Okada. Was it fair to have chosen this depiction? I'm not taking sides.
But if you feel downcast, remember that being able to read this article is an indication of being alive. This is worth celebrating.
So has Google insulted Nigeria and Nigerians by this doodle?
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