Congolese authorities ordered internet capacity be slowed down so that it cannot be used to transmit images via social media, a senior telecoms official based in Kinshasa said.
The move comes as opposition is growing to President Joseph Kabila, who refused to step down when his mandate expires in December, with nationwide strikes planned for Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Monday, clashes between Congolese security forces and anti-government sect Bundu dia Kongo killed at least 14 people.
&#8220;In order to prevent the exchange of abusive images via social media by your subscribers, I ask you to &#8230; take technical measures to restrict to a minimum the capacity to transmit images,&#8221; post and telecoms chief regulator Oscar Manikunda Musata said in a signed letter seen by Reuters.
He listed social media he wanted the measure to target, including Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram and Twitter.
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Reporting by Patient Ligodi; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Louise Ireland
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Congo orders internet slowdown to restrict social media: telecoms source

I love baseball. I’ve been watching since 1964, when I was seven years old. It’s in my blood as it is for many of my generation. It’s uniquely American. Just like mom and apple pie. And July 4th and fireworks.
Up until I was around ten years old, I was more of a New York Mets fan because we only lived a few minutes away from Shea Stadium in Queens. But I was equally devoted to the Yankees too, and ultimately, ended up rooting for them as I got older. Man, the dilemmas we faced when we were kids.
Back in those days, my father, who worked in the garment center, would get cheap Mets tickets from his mobster bookie, Joe “The Hat.” Joe was like a character from an era gone by, and wore a large, white fedora, earning him the nickname. He was the real deal. Never without a half-smoked cigar jutting out of the corner of his mouth, he owned a tiny, hole in the wall, barber shop on West 39th Street that had one of those old, striped barber poles out in front. From that storefront, “The Hat” took bets on everything from baseball and football to horseracing and boxing. My Dad said he once heard there was a dice game in the back, although he never actually saw it.
<h4>New York&#8217;s Yankees and Mets attracted all the best ballplayers</h4>
One of the great things about growing up in New York was that, because we had two teams here, all the best ballplayers of my generation either played here, or passed through, at some point during their careers. Everyone from Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays to Pete Rose, Roberto Clemente, Roger Maris, Tom Seaver, and Hank Aaron among others. And if they didn’t play for the Mets or Yankees, then they faced them as competitors. And thanks to Joe “The Hat,” I got to see most of them play live.
There must have been a million summer afternoons too, where I’d sprawl out like a giant, gangly octopus on the couch, and watch a game from start to finish on TV. All nine innings. Days seemed to move ever so slowly back then. And baseball was part of the reason why. Sometimes, if you were watching a game on a Saturday or Sunday, it felt like someone flipped the switch and set life to slow motion. A single inning could take fifteen minutes or more. And the three-plus hours it usually took to watch an entire game, seemed like ten. I loved every minute of it.
Today, fifty-three years later, I still love it. And I watch whenever I can, although it’s hard unless I’m home alone. But I got lucky the other day, and caught the Yankees playing the Texas Rangers on television, right from the first pitch. It was a typical hot, Sunday afternoon in late June. Eighty-five or so degrees outside. The Yankee Stadium crowd was quietly buzzing in the background. And it was all sun and blue skies above. It was baseball in New York. And it felt just like it used to when I was a kid.
Well, at least for a little while.
<h4>The world is an anxious place these days</h4>
But it’s no longer 1964, and life outside is no longer slow. The world is an anxious place these days. My iPhone reminds me of this continually, beeping dozens of toxic CNN headline alerts at me all day long. Trump, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Iran, ISIS, nukes, terrorism, healthcare, travel bans, race, gender, who can go into what bathroom, Hollywood dimwits, religion, guns, speech, hate, violence&#8230;
Stop it already!!! I can’t take it anymore!!!
Frankly, I don’t care how many missiles Kim Jong-un just tested. Or what Donald Trump just tweeted about Mika Brzezinski. Or who the Russians conspired with. Even what a colossal ignoramus Kathy Griffin is. A few weeks ago, it got so bad, I even turned off my iPhone completely a couple of times. But it really didn’t matter because everybody around me still had theirs, and were locked into them like iPhone robots.
<h4>People are oblivious to most things going on around them</h4>
Sometimes, when I walk down the street in the city, people drift by me in a trance-like, almost catatonic, state plugged into the broader digital collective, and oblivious to most things going on around them. There is now a near-constant stream of information and communications being fed into our brains via our iPhones. Outside of my ninety-year-old mother, the rest of the U.S. is slowly overdosing on the crack-cocaine epidemic of our time: information overload. You just can’t escape it. Because now, it’s a way of life.
But then, just for a moment, I looked back at the TV and the Yankee game. I listened to one of the announcer’s marveling over a ball that was just hit deep into the outfield, and how it bounced off the wall, and ricocheted away from the left fielder. And I looked at the perfectly manicured, cross-hatched, green grass on the field reflecting the sunlight. And the shadows from the stadiums upper façade, slowly overtaking the rest of the diamond from the earlier innings. I watched the Yankee’s pitcher go through his pre-pitch routine, nervously spinning the ball in his hand, and then adjusting the brim on his cap so it sat just off to the left of his head. And the batter up at the plate, as he rapped the bat against his cleats a few times to shake loose the dirt that was stuck in the heel.
<h4>Baseball is antithetical to the never-ending flood of rage and vitriol</h4>
And as I briefly stared at the television, I thought about how much I’ve always loved baseball. What a refuge it is for me. Because it’s completely antithetical to the way life is today. And it&#8217;s antithetical to the never-ending flood of rage and vitriol we’ve come to accept as the new normal.
So, if you feel like you need a place to hide, or if you just don’t want to hear all the screaming and yelling anymore, try to find yourself a baseball game on television. Tune into the Mets or Yankees. Or maybe Red Sox or Cubs. Stop looking at your iPhone alerts. Turn the phone off. Lower the blinds and turn up the air conditioning. Grab a beer and some chips. Kick back and slow down. Breathe. Take in the game. And get away. What could be better?
Because during a baseball game, there is no Donald Trump or Russia. There are no Democrats or Republicans either. And no healthcare debate or immigration reform.
During a baseball game, there’s just baseball and you. Home runs, double plays, batting averages, curveballs and sinkers.
It’s nice and slow, and easy and safe. And that works just fine for me.
Something tells me that, if Joe “The Hat” was still alive today, he would’ve been pretty proud of me.

Op-Ed: Baseball as metaphor for a better, less anxious life

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BBM is back and it&#8217;s launching Stage360. This is a mobile, music and content service that will operate on BBM&#8217;s messenger platform. Matthew Talbot, CEO, BBM Messenger joins CNBC Africa for more.

BBM stages comeback

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Africa loves social media and continue to embrace it both on a personal ad institutional level. CNBC Africa itself is avid on outlets such as twitter, and Instagram. The question however remains on how to leverage on the current platforms.

Monetizing the social media space

Theories about Donald Trump’s colluding with the Russians in the 2016 election are as plentiful as the 128,824,224 people that voted in it. We’ll find out who’s right and wrong soon enough, though.
But guilty or innocent, there’s a big, bad, murderous herd out there that wants to stomp him straight into the ground. The herd is sprawling and on the move, kicking up dust everywhere. And it’s comprised of all kinds of beasts.
Democrats livid at losing the White House and Republicans resentful of losing their party to an outsider. The media. Progressive lawyers and judges. Academia, Hollywood and anyone else who is still raging over a Trump presidency. And they’re all snorting and grunting furiously as they dig their hooves deep into the dirt, readying themselves for an all-out, frenzied impeachment stampede. This will be a spectacle for the ages.
Because trampling Donald Trump is how Chuck Schumer and the rest of the herd plan to retake the White House. You know the old saying; if you can’t beat him, stomp him.
<h3>High stakes Russian roulette</h3>
Incredibly, just five short months into his term, Trump is already facing off in a high-stakes game of Russian roulette with the newly appointed special prosecutor, Robert Mueller. Special prosecutors are wired to find something bad. That’s their job description. And they have few constraints and unlimited resources which make them even deadlier.
Now, as Mueller and Trump sit down at the table, the world anxiously sits on the edge of their seat waiting to see if there’s a bullet in the chamber. But still, Trump needs to have actually broken the law and Mueller needs to prove it. And as Mueller readies his troops, Trump is preparing to do what he’s done for a lifetime in New York. Slug it out. He’s all lawyered up and working the back channels of Washington for whatever support he can muster.
I have to assume, though, that Las Vegas is giving him pretty long odds to win the fight. He has thousands of enemies and few allies. And there are a lot of very angry and powerful bulls in the herd, intent on getting back what they believe is rightfully theirs. And now, they’re outraged as hell and thundering en masse towards the White House.
But whether Trump is impeached or not, just being dragged through an excruciating special investigation in front of the entire world will likely be enough to assure Trump a single-term presidency. Even if he is exonerated, it’s hard to imagine being accused of something as shocking as colluding with the Russians, and then winning reelection in 2020. Today, thanks to social media, if you’re accused of something it’s nearly as good as being guilty of it.
Because the accusation is the headline that people always remember. And unlike the Watergate scandal during Nixon’s presidency, which only appeared on the 6PM evening news and in the morning newspapers, Russia-gate will be in your face, and on your iPhone, around the clock.
<h3>Outrage delivers eyeballs</h3>
So, whether Trump is actually guilty of a crime or not almost doesn’t matter. The herd doesn’t care. They want him gone at any cost and are going to make a lot of noise. Because, here, in the post-truth era, a good outrage story in the news means people are watching and reading. And the media loves that because outrage delivers eyeballs. Watching Chuck Schumer or Tom Perez throw a hissy-fit on CNN or MSNBC over a Trump tweet insulting Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama makes for a great news cycle. Real, fake, or otherwise.
Trump vs. Mueller vs. Russia vs. Comey vs. Flynn vs. the Democrats is the best pure political outrage story since Richard Nixon walked off the cliff in 1974. For the Republicans, if Trump is ultimately impeached, it will be the political equivalent of a nuclear reactor meltdown that makes the surrounding area uninhabitable for decades to come, or even longer. It will render the GOP toxic and unelectable in the 2018 midterms and beyond. And the herd knows it.
<h3>The E.U. is outraged too</h3>
In the middle of all this, and just to keep things interesting, Trump is wreaking havoc on the other side of the Atlantic too. He just flipped the bird to our NATO allies and told them the U.S. is no longer the bank and to pay up what they owe. He’s not actually wrong there, but the delivery could’ve been a little softer. The European Union, in general, is outraged too. After a meeting with Trump the other day, Germany’s Angela Merkel lamented, “The times when we could fully rely on others are finished.” Then she added that the Europeans “needed to take our fate into our own hands.”
Closer to home, Mexico and Canada are watching anxiously as NAFTA hangs in the balance. Right about now, Justin Trudeau and Enrique Peña Nieto probably see Trump like the scary new neighbor who just moved in next door who they suspect might be a serial killer.
So, all is not well for Donald Trump. I don’t see how he can possibly win this fight. Guilty or not, he’s going to be publically gutted in the process and will be damaged goods not only in the U.S., but on the world stage as well. Unfortunately, history will remember him as the proverbial bad guy &#8211; the villain dressed in all black with the handle-bar moustache and the six-shooter. That story is already being written. Right or wrong, true or false.
So, the herd is growing and on the march. And irrespective of the outcome, just by virtue of going through an investigation, or worse, a possible impeachment process, the U.S. is headed down a jagged and slippery slope that, in the end, will only serve to further cleave the country in two.
Author: David S. Levin, Managing Partner, Nexus Capital Markets, LLC
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Op-Ed: Stomping Trump out of the White House

The mining of social media and the use of big data (vast amounts of available internet data that can be analysed and exploited) by insurers to analyse consumer behaviour will change the face of insurance. The basic principles of insurance include the good faith sharing of information between insurer and insured, a pooling of good risks with bad risks, and assessing a fair premium for policyholders. Paradoxically regulations, that require insurers to price more competitively and estimate their reserves more precisely to see that they are sufficiently capitalised, are leading insurers to find ways to price insured risks more accurately.
It is possible using computer algorithms to tap data from social media posts and other internet sources to evaluate the risks of insuring a particular person. The information that is posted and an individual’s “likes” can help assess personality traits. It is claimed that people who use superlatives like “always” or “never” imply overconfidence and are bad driving risks. What you like and don’t like, how you write and how many exclamation marks you use could be used against you in assessing your motor premium. It is possible by mining big data to find out all sorts of information about what people eat, what they do, how they drive and what they buy from the pharmacy. Devices such as sensors in vehicles and health-monitoring watches and step-counters will reveal data relevant to motor, life and disability risks. What you post about yourself on social media could in future determine what premiums you pay for insurance or whether you can get insurance at all. If you have a genetic test to predict possible future illness, that information should be disclosed to your insurers when you take out a new policy and could be used to discriminate against individuals whether you disclose the information or not. If you don’t disclose the information, your policy could be cancelled from inception because of the failure to make the disclosure. If you do, you may pay higher premiums or struggle to find insurance.
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The Equality Act does not label discrimination as unfair if it is based on objectively determinable criteria “intrinsic to the activity concerned”. The question is going to be asked whether discrimination between policyholders on prohibited grounds, such as disability or health status based on the analysis of social media and big data to find out intimate details about each individual, is based on evidence intrinsic to the activity of insurance. Insurers, in terms of their duty of good faith, will have to reveal to a potential insured the basis of any discrimination which could lead to challenges against the use of internet sources under equality legislation. In 2014 insurers in the UK agreed not to take account of predictive genetic tests when deciding on insurance cover unless it is to the insured’s advantage and undertook to be transparent when they do use that data. Some compact is going to be necessary between insurers and regulators.
A balance will have to be found in order to keep the principles of insurance alive without any unfair discrimination. If a balance is not found, compulsory pooling of risks may be the result in relation to certain kinds of insurance which will undermine the social value of insurance and its role in the economy.
Likes and dislikes is the stuff of discrimination, so we need to find ways of balancing the ways that we deal with other people, not the least in the world of insurance.
*Patrick Bracher is from Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa

How insurers are using your social media profile to spy on you

A big chunk of those &#8220;likes,&#8221; &#8220;retweets,&#8221; and &#8220;followers&#8221; lighting up your <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/TWTR">Twitter </a>account may not be coming from human hands. According to <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.03107.pdf">new research from the University of Southern California and Indiana University</a>, up to 15 percent of Twitter accounts are in fact bots rather than people.
The research could be troubling news for Twitter, which has struggled to grow its user base in the face of growing competition from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and others.
Researchers at USC used more than one thousand features to identify bot accounts on Twitter, in categories including friends, tweet content and sentiment, and time between tweets. Using that framework, researchers wrote that &#8220;our estimates suggest that between 9% and 15% of active Twitter accounts are bots.&#8221;
Since Twitter currently has 319 million monthly active users, that translates to nearly 48 million bot accounts, using USC&#8217;s high-end estimate.
The report goes on to say that complex bots could have shown up as humans in their model, &#8220;making even the 15% figure a conservative estimate.&#8221;
At 15 percent, the evaluation is far greater than Twitter&#8217;s own estimates. In a filing with the SEC last month, Twitter said that up to 8.5 percent of all active accounts contacted Twitter&#8217;s servers &#8220;…without any discernible additional user-initiated action.&#8221;
Since that equates to roughly 20 million more bot accounts than Twitter&#8217;s own assessment, that could be an issue in light of analyst concerns about user growth. In a recent research report, Nomura Instinet analysts wrote that &#8220;Twitter&#8217;s revenue growth has slowed to the mid-single digits, as the platform has struggled to attract new users over the past year…&#8221;
A Twitter spokesperson said that while bots often have negative connotations, &#8220;many bot accounts are extremely beneficial, like those that automatically alert people of natural disasters…or from customer service points of view.&#8221;
USC&#8217;s researchers also highlight the benefits of some bots, writing, &#8220;many social bots perform useful functions, such as dissemination of news and publications…&#8221;
But the USC report also points to the downside of bots, saying, &#8220;there is a growing record of malicious applications of social bots. Some emulate human behaviour to manufacture fake grassroots political support… [and] promote terrorist propaganda and recruitment.&#8221;
Twitter currently has a number of ways to report violations, including impersonation accounts and spam. A number of services also exist which claim to be able to audit followers and identify fake accounts.

As many as 48 million Twitter accounts aren’t people, says study

Germany&#8217;s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a new bill that punishes social networking sites if they fail to swiftly remove illegal content such as hate speech or defamatory fake news.
Chancellor Angela Merkel&#8217;s Cabinet agreed on rules that would impose fines of up to 50 million euros ($53.4 million) on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said that the companies offering such online platforms are responsible for removing hateful content. He said the new bill would not restrict the freedom of expression, but intervene only when criminal hatred or intentionally false news are posted.
Germany poses a particular problem for U.S.-owned social networking sites accustomed to American standards of free speech. Due to its Nazi past, Germany bans public Holocaust denial and any overt promotion of racism. The issue has come to the fore amid the recent influx of migrants to Germany, which has sparked a backlash among some Germans including a rise in online vitriol.
Social networks need to ensure that obviously criminal content — as defined by German law — will be deleted within 24 hours and other illegal content after seven days.
&#8220;Just like on the streets, there is also no room for criminal incitement on social networks,&#8221; Maas said.
&#8220;The internet affects the culture of debate and the atmosphere in our society. Verbal radicalization is often a preliminary stage to physical violence,&#8221; he added.
The minister pointed out that social networks don&#8217;t delete enough punishable content, citing research that he said showed Twitter deletes just 1 percent of illegal content flagged by users, while Facebook deletes 39 percent.
Maas also said that measures to combat hate speech and so-called fake news will ultimately have to be taken at the European level to be effective.
The bill still needs parliamentary approval.

Germany approves bill curbing online hate crime, fake news

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<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/geoff-cutmore/" rel="author">Geoff Cutmore</a><a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_self" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB"> | </a><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/saheli-roy-choudhury/" rel="author">Saheli Roy Choudhury</a>
<a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_self" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB">Facebook</a> and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL" target="_self" data-gdsid="19004" data-inline-quote-symbol="GOOGL">Google</a>&#8216;s runaway success in capturing large stakes in the digital advertising market comes with responsibilities and they need to do more when curating how advertisements are placed on their platforms, according to <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/WPP-GB" target="_self" data-gdsid="36873" data-inline-quote-symbol="WPP-GB">WPP Group</a> CEO Martin Sorrell.
Sorrell, whose company owns ad agencies such as the Grey Group and Ogilvy &amp; Mather, was speaking to CNBC at the sidelines of the China Development Forum, where he said the two tech giants have to exert more control over ad placements on behalf of brands, and take more responsibility for it.
&#8220;They&#8217;ve always maintained they were sort of digital engineers standing there with their digital spanners, trying to tighten the nuts on their digital pipes and not being responsible for the content that was going through the pipes,&#8221; said Sorrell.
A key criticism leveled against both Facebook and Google is that the companies are not doing enough to arrest fake news on their platforms.
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&#8220;They can&#8217;t just say look we&#8217;re a technology company, we have nothing to do with the content that is appearing on our digital pages,&#8221; Sorrell said. He added that, as far as placing advertisements was concerned, they have to be held to the same standards as traditional media organizations.
Another concern is that sometimes advertisements are automatically placed alongside objectionable and inappropriate content within those platforms that brands do not have control over.
&#8220;The big issue for Google and Facebook is whether they are going to have human editing at this point &#8230; of course they have the profitability. They have the margins to enable them to do it. And this is going to be the big issue — how far are they prepared to go?&#8221; Sorrell said, adding they needed to go &#8220;significantly far&#8221; to arrest these concerns.
A failure to address such issues could see Facebook and Google potentially take hits on ad revenue if brands stop advertising on their platforms. For example, French advertising firm <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/HAV-FR" target="_self" data-gdsid="16865" data-inline-quote-symbol="HAV-FR">Havas</a> recently pulled all its ad spend from Google and its video platform, YouTube.
The Guardian <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/17/google-pledges-more-control-for-brands-over-ad-placement" href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/17/google-pledges-more-control-for-brands-over-ad-placement" target="_self">reported</a> that Havas took the step after talks with Google broke down because the tech giant couldn&#8217;t provide specific reassurances, policy and guarantees over the filtering and classification of video or display content.
Havas&#8217; decision came after the UK government joined organizations including the Guardian, BBC and Transport for London in pulling advertising from Google and YouTube, the Guardian report said.
Sorrell said blanket withdrawals from advertisers across these digital platforms will not solve the problem. Instead, he urged for greater cooperation with the tech giants.
&#8220;I think the most constructive way of doing it is getting Google and Facebook to understand the problem, which I think they do, and to get them to step up to control it just like any other media right now would in a traditional sense,&#8221; he said.

Facebook, Google need to ‘step up’ control of their platforms, says WPP’s Martin Sorrell

The romantic lyrics of the Alicia Keys song ‘Tender Love’ may draw lonely hearts to the dating app Tinder or similar online sites this Valentine’s Month. Unfortunately Keys’ song ‘Try sleeping with a broken heart’ could be more appropriate for those who end up parting with money in the name of love.
Online financial scams are on the rise and tricksters are becoming more sophisticated and innovative, according to John Manyike, Head of Financial Education at Old Mutual.
“During this month of love remember to protect not only your heart, but your pocket as well. More and more innocent people are being scammed by clever con artists who prey on unsuspecting people. Be very aware of the potential risks of letting your guard down and sending your money to someone you have not yet met, despite feeling close to them online,” he says.
“Unfortunately criminals use these online dating sites too and we want to warn individuals to remain vigilant when the topic of money comes up with a potential companion or a seeming soulmate. The ugly truth is that some people are looking to make fast money off lonely and vulnerable people through a variety of scams.”
History and research has shown that such fraudsters usually troll social media sites and chat rooms in search of their victims. In March 2016, a sophisticated internet fraud syndicate was exposed which ran a romance scam that stole over R70 million from vulnerable women who are over 40, divorced, widowed or disabled. But Manyike warns that both men and women in every age category and demographic group are at risk.
He offers the following tips on how to avoid being an online victim of crooked love:
<ol>
<li>Remember how hard you have worked and continue to work for your money. Ask yourself what you would do if you lost all your savings? Imagine being in that terrifying situation and then promise yourself you won’t be generous with online partners, no matter how compelling or logical their plea is for funds to visit you, or pay a medical bill, or book a holiday for the two of you. </li>
<li>Always share what is happening with someone you trust. Chances are this person will be more objective and able to pick up danger signs and bring them to your attention. Do not ignore them. </li>
<li>Make sure your vision of your goals is strong and clear, so that it can withstand any temptation that might come your way. Being emotionally attached to your goals will help you be disciplined and committed.  Another option is to put your money in formal savings instruments that will make it harder for you to make a transfer or withdrawal on impulse. </li>
<li>Don’t share financial details with your online partner. Avoid becoming a target to a potential scammer by keeping your money matters private. </li>
</ol>
Manyike stresses that it is important to be cautious, aware and wide-awake online. “It reduces the risk of falling for scams and keeps your money safe from the hands of the fraudsters,” he says. “And always keep your goals top of mind.” 
 To contact a trusted financial adviser for &#8211; great advice see <a href="http://www.oldmutual.co.za">www.oldmutual.co.za</a> and for more information on Old Mutual’s popular financial education programme, join the digital community on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OnTheMoneyFinancialEducation/">(On the money financial education)</a> or follow us on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/OM_OnTheMoney">@OM_ONTHEMONEY.﻿</a>

Online dating and trusting strangers may cost you dearly

The Nigerian government said on Wednesday that President Muhammadu Buhari is in good health, urging people to disregard what it said were false and subversive messages on social media after he travelled to Britain last week for medical checks.
News of the president&#8217;s medical leave sparked a flurry of talk in Nigeria that Buhari, 74, was unwell, and potentially very sick. Those claims have been fuelled by a previous illness, when he spent nearly two weeks in London last June treating an ear infection.
Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohamed said the government urged Nigerians &#8220;to disregard the subversive messages being circulated via text messaging and the Social Media, saying the fabricated messages are being orchestrated by those who feel threatened by the emerging order.&#8221;
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&#8220;There is no iota of truth in the messages being circulated on the health of the President, who is hale and hearty, and the purported emergency meetings of the State Governors in Abuja or anywhere,&#8221; he said in a statement.
Sources of the allegations about Buhari&#8217;s wellbeing are being investigated, the minister said.
Buhari&#8217;s predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, was sworn in after the death in 2010 of President Umaru Yar&#8217;Adua. His illness created a power vacuum that was only filled by Jonathan, his vice president, after three months of political infighting.
Buhari is expected to resume work on Feb. 6, his spokesman said when the president departed last week.
When Buhari had been in London for medical treatment last June, the People&#8217;s Democratic Party, Nigeria&#8217;s main opposition, had said that he was &#8220;critically ill&#8221; and he had returned to Abuja to continue treatment, without giving a source for the information.﻿

Nigerian government denies President Buhari is unwell

If political parties and media houses are going to be responsive in the new era of South African coalition politics, they should pay attention to social media.
Social media’s strength is that it measures emotion and sentiment when it comes to voters’ attachment to the brand of political parties. A poll conducted by survey cannot quite capture this freely offered informational landscape of social media. This is according to social analytics firm BrandsEye.
Coalitions must be true to the political brand
Sentiment, with regards to the brand of a party, is even more vital when parties begin to work together.
Note how the Liberal Democrats suffered terribly in their coalition with Conservatives in Britain in the country’s previous parliament. The brand of the Liberal Democrats could simply not survive its alliance with an austerity-driven Tory government, whilst there was an increasingly left wing Labour party vocal in its opposition. Their brand lost relevance.
A South African parallel would be the EFF forming a coalition with the ANC – which they could have done to form governments in both Johannesburg and Tshwane.
If you look at the social media analytics, one of the data points which required interpretation ahead of the election was the high, positive sentiment being directed towards the EFF. This represents more of a protest voice against the ANC than a swelling of voters heading towards the arms of the Fighters.
The corollary to this pre-election analysis is the post-election prediction that if the EFF should decide to ally with the ANC, at any stage in the future, it would completely undermine its own brand.
All the parliamentary rhetoric and theatre related to Nkandla and Marikana would suddenly be emptied of all prior meaning. Their brand would relinquish its core narrative of a corrupt and even murderous ANC that must be ousted were they suddenly to share power with the erstwhile ‘oppressors’.
There are also risks for them, however, in forming coalitions with the DA: their rhetoric of ‘white arrogance’ and ‘white imperialism’ would seem to undermine joining together with the party that has its historical roots in white liberalism.
While a DA coalition is surely not as much of an existential threat for the EFF as Julius Malema joining forces with the party that actually expelled him, the EFF cannot ignore the pitfalls along this path either. At the same time, they cannot simply ignore the opportunity to wield power, and thereby deny power to the ANC.
It would seem that their way forward is to look for specific opportunities to govern, perhaps in smaller municipalities, while playing a more minor, yet niched, role in metro coalitions. Such a scenario would the see the larger DA govern in Johannesburg and Tshwane, but perhaps the EFF influencing land allocation where applicable and some other budget priorities.
For the DA, the way forward is much clearer
The DA brand is predicated on technocratic excellence. They can join arms with any party besides Zuma’s ANC and still maintain this brand. The EFF has not yet been tarnished with corruption, and should they govern with the EFF, it would be very difficult for a smaller alliance partner to allow so much corruption in their specific portfolios they are granted that metro-wide service delivery is threatened.
A coalition with the EFF does pose some ideological problems. At a municipal level, however, questions of nationalisation are largely null and void. DA supporters want the ANC out. They will tolerate an EFF coalition at a local level as long as such a coalition respects the democratic mandate given by the voters – that is, a much larger share of power granted to the policy positions and technical efficiencies of the DA. (Already social media data is pointing this way.)
The DA brand is tied to tangible, deliverable results. This is why the local elections were so important for them. Their brand depends on them governing – and for them to challenge nationally, they need to begin governing locally beyond their Western Cape stronghold. Any coalition headed by the DA has to ensure they can show good governance. If not, they should walk away.
While coalition politics comes with its challenges for the DA and the EFF, for the ANC the equation is simple: Hold on to power with any partner who will have you, at virtually any cost.
The Cape Town narrative is the spectre haunting the ruling party currently. They narrowly lost power there a few election cycles ago to a DA-led coalition, and now they hardly exist there as opposition, with no real plan to regain power ever.
Voter sentiment can reach breaking point
But the real lesson the ANC needs to face goes deeper than the art of building coalitions. The data simply shows a party facing a severe backlash for having ignored its urban electorate for so long.
In this sense, perhaps ironically, the ANC exemplifies the potential of using social media data: if they had gauged voter sentiment far earlier, they would have realised that the Mandela/liberator brand they still tenuously hold is in peril.
Without real, visible reform in how they deliver for voters, the brand of being the people’s party can, and will, be tarnished forever. This is a lesson for political parties worldwide. Voter sentiment can tolerate only so much, and therefore should never be ignored.﻿

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