WHEN THE WIFI GOES OFF, I STILL WANT THE BOOK

There is a saying: to understand the future, one must look at the past. After all, there is nothing new under the sun. So the answer is yes and no. The truth is this: social media holds the influence. Social media _is_ the future. But books? That’s where the knowledge lives. Social media hit the world like NEPA light after a blackout — sudden, blinding, everywhere. In Nigeria it started with 2go buzzing in cybercafés and Facebook requests from cousins abroad. Then came X, Instagram, and now TikTok, where a 15-second clip can teach, lie, or start a revolution before breakfast. Today, anyone who is anyone uses social media for everything — news, business, outrage, even marriage proposals. But then again, where did we first read about these things? Books. The beauty of social media is its ability to gather a crowd to address a matter. For instance, the power to shame the shameless. In 2019, a senator was caught on CCTV slapping a woman in Abuja at a sex shop. The video went viral in hours — that’s social media’s influence. But the _case file_, the ₦50m court judgment, the appeal that removed him in 2023 — that’s knowledge. Books and court records, not tweets, decide if power faces consequences. Another example is #EndSARS. It was the moment Nigerian youths gathered to fight. Roads were blocked, voices had to be heard. Government was scared. That is social media’s influence, not knowledge. #EndSARS felt like the first time Nigerian youths scared government because we watched it live on Instagram, X, and WhatsApp. It wasn’t. Social media didn’t invent Nigerian protest, but books left proof that it can be done. If Prof. Judith Van Allen hadn’t written _“Sitting on a Man”_, or if _Aba Women’s Riots_ wasn’t in WAEC History textbooks, you’d think #EndSARS was the first time Nigerian women scared government. My phone told me #EndSARS was brave. My history textbook told me it was inherited. Without books, we’d think youth invented resistance in 2020. Without social media, the world wouldn’t have watched us do it. But without books, would we have done it? Those women protested naked and actual changes were made — not repackaged, _made_. Social media would have filmed it for 10 seconds; the algorithm would have blurred it. Books kept the full story. _Ali Must Go, 1978._ Nigerian students led by Segun Okeowo protested school fees hike under Obasanjo’s military regime. Government shut universities, killed students, but later reversed the policy. #EndSARS wasn’t the first time Nigerian youths faced bullets for speaking. Books keep the receipts. It seems social media has made us forget that before our current leaders, we had worse. Remember the Anti-SAP Riots, 1989 under Babangida? The influence of social media is undeniable. #EndSARS will go down in history as the day Nigerian youths compelled government with nothing but phones and data. We crowdfunded legal aid, we made the world watch Lekki Toll Gate in real time. We had a megaphone the 1978 students never dreamed of. But then again — what happened after the livestream ended? That’s where books walk in. #EndSARS gave us influence to dissolve SARS. But 3 years later, police still extort drivers on Third Mainland Bridge. Why? Because influence starts fires. Knowledge reforms the fire service. I learned classism from sitting at a gate in Abuja, watching who got waved in. I only understood _why_ that gate existed after reading — colonial laws, land acts, military decrees. Social media would’ve told me to be angry at the gateman. Books told me who built the gate. So here’s the stronger truth: Social media gives us the courage to speak out and shame the shameless. Books give us the proof that protest works. Influence gets us to the street. Knowledge tells us why we’re there and what to demand when we arrive. So has social media replaced books? No. It replaced the town crier, not the library. Social media is our influence — loud, fast, fragile. Books are our knowledge — slow, quiet, permanent. Nigeria has enough influence to trend a revolution by noon. We don’t have enough knowledge to finish it by dinner. A simple video or a post can pass the message but a book tells more than a message. Social media is bold but social media sends fake news, fake messages. But what do you do when that happens? How do you control an angry crowd when it's all out there for the world to view, read, save and resend? So, when the WiFi dies — and in Nigeria and it will — I still want the book.

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