Power – from youth to the sun – in Nigerian blogs this week · Global Voices
Imnakoya

We'll start with a pressing issue in Nigeria,- politics and governance, Mutiu in a post titled: “Youth as a Tool of Positive Change” wants Nigerian youths to form political pressure groups:
“ Nigerian youth in their different communities can form political pressure groups, which will ensure the proper governance at the local government levels, performance of their representatives at the state houses of assemblies and federal legislature’s arms. These groups can mandate themselves to make it a point of duty to meet with the political office holders to deliver the demands of the masses to them and vice-versa…”
“NTA [Nigerian Television Authority] Maximalism” is one of the social commentary on Naija Blog . In this post, Jeremy states:
“If boredom should strike one while in Nigeria, there is always the option to turn to NTA. The news is a constant source of mirth and hilarity, if one knows how to find it. If it is not for the extravagancies of costume (see the fine example of regal agbadahood to the left [picture on Naijablog site]), then one can readily admire the extravagancies of the language. The English spoken on NTA is a uniquely distinct dialect of the language. Its provenance is 100% organic colonial: a sort of Africanised Etonian twang which results in weirdly contorted somewhat nasal locutions and odd syllabilic emphases.”
The incessant power outage in Nigeria is well debated and it’s one of the characteristics of the nation.  Nweke highlights this problem in “Power supply: Frustrating ICT diffusion” at ITRealms.
“At a launch of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) product recently in the highbrow area of Lagos State, the Victoria Island, a power outage was experienced suddenly there was a black out in the densely populated conference hall. And what took over was unpleasant screams of all sorts from participants casting aspersions on ‘NEPA’ [National Electric Power Authority] despite its change of name recently to Power Holding Company of Nigeria Limited (PHCNL).
Then the voice of the Master of the Ceremony (MC) came up in darkness, “Please remain seated wherever you are. Reports reaching us from Minister of Power and Steal, Senator Liyel Imoke, is that power would soon be restored,” he jokingly assured. But then, the same MC sensing frustration of the participants took on ‘NEPA’ with his joke antics; “We thought that NEPA would improve with its new name – Power Holding, but it seems they are living up their new name to the letter – Holding Power”. In the next five minutes when eventually power was restored obviously by a generating set, participants were already sweating…”
In the power of the Sun, the Ijebu Man muses  about solar energy and power problem in Nigeria.
“The electric power situation in Nigeria is a joke. There are still no signs of improvement despite the “billions” spent by the current administration since 1999. There are so many generators in Nigeria (no thanks to cheap imports from China) that a lot of people have stopped relying on NEPA (or whatever it is called now) even as a back up supply… I'm aware of companies dealing in solar power in Nigeria, but the cost of installation is still very high. I don't understand why it's still very expensive, the prices of the major components – solar panels, deep cycle batteries and inverters, have been falling for the last few years…”
“Its just crazy, if its so easy and cheap to install here in England, where you'll be lucky to get 4 hours of sun (and that's in summer), then why not in Naija where no one bothers with the weather forecast as you know its always sunny and we're talking 8 and half hours of sunshine every single day, especially in the north where the rainy season is very short.”
The Nigerian Politics blogs about the Nigerian ethnic diversity and sociopolitical advocacy groups (Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Odua People Congress (OPC) and Movement of the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) refering to them as secessionist groups. “Supporting such groups or sympathizing with their cause is tantamount to treasonable felony as described by the law of the land”, the blog states in a post titled: Nigerian Nazi Groups:
If only these tribalists could see beyond their avarice and quest for personal aggrandizement, wealth and power, they would see that there is so much to be gained from peaceful co-existence and diversity. The most advanced and richest nation the world has ever known, the USA, is what it is today because of the degree of diversity of its citizenry and the fact that people are given opportunities to express themselves so long as they exhibit some value-adding talent regardless of race, creed or social class. Most importantly, the rule of law prevails in the USA, and it is applied equitably regardless of status and social position.
The problem with Nigeria today has nothing to do with the various causes for which these rabidly tribalist groups purport to be fighting. It is multi-factored and includes lack of truth and justice, wholesale corruption, gross unenlightenment of the leadership and followership alike, and the abject poverty that has been inflicted on the populace by the devious leadership. By keeping the populace impoverished and uneducated, the ruling class has been able to easily manipulate them for their selfish ends…”
Finally, in Freedom to Abuse, the Black Looks writes about the wild growth of the African blogosphere, “the African blogosphere is one sphere that has seen a huge growth of new blogs in the past 6 months”:
“For example in Nigeria the number of blogs has trebled in the last 9 months and each month new blogs are being created.  The majority of African bloggers are still men although the number of women is slowly increasing…”
The blog also discusses the newly emerged characteristics between the bloggers and their readers- intolerance.
“Recently a number of Nigerian and Kenyan bloggers have been speaking out against homophobia and the abuse of women. These blogospheres have become the sight of much intolerance expressed through homophobia and misogyny.  The abuse of women has been particularly disturbing.  Comments have been left on women’s’ blogs and posts, written using misogynist language against women and lesbians.  What is interesting is that posts by gay men on their sexual fantasies are viewed as being entertaining and therefore OK.    Whereas writings by female bloggers on homophobia or the rights of homosexuals results in threats of harassment against the bloggers…”